LISTEN UP!
Our picks for the best music of 2017
This year has been ... well ... hey, why don’t we look on the bright side: Genius music. Local and global, familiar voices and fresh sounds, here are a few of the best things in music from 2017.
A soundtrack to the resistance
Music responded to politics in 2017: Eminem’s viral anti-Trump BET Hip Hop Awards freestyle, Joan Baez’s “Nasty Man” (her first new song in 25 years), Lin-Manuel Miranda raising money for Puerto Rican relief efforts with “Almost Like Praying.” Locally, SLD GLD and Parlour Bells added to the chorus with angry, amazing material. Maybe best of all, a 74-year-old Brit became one of the year’s most brilliant agitators: Roger Waters built a triumphant tour out of facing off against fascism.
Hurray for the Riff Raff’s “The Navigator”
Beat poetry and Woody Guthrie found a home on Hurray for the Riff Raff’s new album, “The Navigator.” But you can also hear a return to songwriter Alynda Segarra’s Puerto Rican heritage on the LP. Along with tremendous, forceful lyrics about youthful naivete and ancient wisdom, gentrification and genocide, “The Navigator” updates Hurray for the Riff Raff’s Americana pallete with Latin American grooves and breakdowns. Politics, passion and smart production added up to the album of the year.
An infusion of youth into our scene
At the Rock ’n’ Roll Rumble and the Boston Music Awards, in the clubs and bars, younger acts added a vitality to our scene. Julie Rhodes brought punk-rock-level energy to a classic blues sound. This year’s Rumble winner, Carissa Johnson, made rock new again just by adding an immense amount of enthusiasm (OK, her songwriting chops made a difference, too). MC Oompa perfectly balanced hip-hop and slam poetry, hope and fury. Ali McGuirk dared to take it slow with her new-schoolmeets-’70s-style soul album, “Slow Burn.”
The return of Midnight Oil
Just when we needed them most, the political band returned for a global tour. While nothing is certain, they boys hinted at new music in 2018. To keep you happy until then, the group released two tremendous boxed sets: comprehensive “The Full Tank” and rarities set “The Overflow Tank”
Tedeschi Trucks Band play on
Derek Trucks had a long, painful year: He said goodbye to three old bandmates who were family and friends. But he jammed on. With wife Susan Tedeschi, Tedeschi Trucks Band kept alive the legacy of the Allman Brothers, and Janis Joplin, Otis Redding, Sun Ra and many more. So many sounds in one band. I guess that happens when you have 12 people in your outfit.
Mondays! Wait, wait, hear me out.
With their weekly Monday residency at the Sinclair Lounge, Matthew Stubbs & the Antiguas have turned that dreaded first day of the week into the new Friday. OK, fine, they have made it tolerable. Laying down a bed of blues, soul, garage rock and psychedelica, Stubbs and his band invite guests from the Silks’ Tyler-James Kelly and Duke Levine to add some special sauce to the brew.