2017 Review

Dennis Lyxzén is the lead singer of post-hardcore heroes Refused, mod-rock revolutionaries The (International) Noise Conspiracy, punk thrashers AC4, and currently, the shadowy post-punk outfit INVSN (who are currently touring North America in support of their latest album, The Beautiful Stories). Dennis created this playing specially for The Dowsers—here, he explains the concept behind it.Growing up in the north of Sweden as a working-class kid there are certain elements of American culture that fascinate and enthrall. Lana Del Rey sings about the real underclass of the USA—not the hard-working people that Bruce sings about, but the real freaks and misfits and about a darkness inherited in the culture. A world filled with sex and drugs and violence with a language of alienation and despair. Under the glamour and glitz, there’s a darkness and depth that give way to a more nuanced picture of America.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StlsK9chYQ0"Love" is, granted, one of her more hopeful and optimistic songs even though it is still filled with longing and a sense of disconnect. To celebrate the release of our cover version—and to try and position Lana Del Rey as a part of a fine musical tradition—INVSN gives you 19 songs from the American Underbelly.1. Townes Van Zandt, "Waiting Around to Die" (1968)The true outsider and part of the outlaw western tradition. Townes claims this is the first song he ever wrote. A song about gamblers and thieves and liars. One of the most haunting songs about human despair ever written.2. The Velvet Underground, "Candy Says" (1969)In a time of peace and love and bubblegum pop, The Velvet Underground wrote songs about sex and drugs and violence. But not speculative or cynical. It always just seemed like stories about their lives. Lou Reed kept singing about the outcasts and the junkies until he died.3. Tom Waits, "Christmas Card From A Hooker in Minneapolis" (1978)Tom Waits needs little introduction. Balancing on the edge of the absurd and the dark, but still a mainstay in American music. His songs and stories always touch on the tragic, on the fates of people that never get songs written about them. Beautiful and sad and scary.4. Nico, "Vegas" (1981)Once a part of The Velvet Underground, Nico was the embodiment of everything they sang about. She was a tragic but fascinating figure. She wrote music and songs like no one else, and lived life like her songs.5. T.S.O.L., "Code Blue" (1981)Even by punk standards, TSOL were an anomaly. Weird surfers that exploded with violence and cross-dressing. They were grave robbers and, by any standards, frightening and real. Sure. a song about necrophilia might be goofy, and it would definitely not fly in 2017, but it’s something different and it’s a representation of a fixation with everything extreme and forbidden.6. The Gun Club, "The House On Highland Ave." (1983)The Gun Club took punk and added blues and gospel and country music. They wrote songs about death and murder and drugs and Jeffrey Lee Pierce was tortured soul in the true sense of the term. This song about hope and murder is one of the greatest songs ever written about said subjects.7. Christian Death, "Awake At the Wall" (1984)Goth and all of its glorious darkness never made as big an impact in America as it did in Europe. The biggest goth bands were always imports. Christian Death was, of course, a golden exception to this. Filled with death and darkness and anguish and despair, they made some true American classics.8. Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, "Tupelo" (1985)Nick Cave might be Australian, but few people have delved deeper into American culture. His early recordings are filled with so much violence, and are steeped in a language stolen from the blues and the gospel.9. Sonic Youth, "Death Valley 69" (1985)Sonic Youth came armed with equal parts punk and art-school sensibility. Inspired by Manson and Madonna, they set about to become a staple of American alternative culture. Even with their most successful albums, the darkness was never far away. (The Raymond Pettibon artwork for Goo was inspired by the Moors Murders of the 1960s.)10. Dead Moon, "Dead Moon Night" (1989)Few bands have symbolized the American underground as well as Dead Moon. Always the outsiders, always freaks, and always autonomous to a default. Dark brooding songs that channel outlaw country and Delta blues but with a punk edge. Dead Moon are truly an institution of the American Underbelly.11. Pain Teens, "Bondage" (1991)Pain Teens were on the fringes of the punk scene in Texas. Using tape manipulation and sampling, they become more of an experimental noise unit, singing about sex and murder and trying to push the envelope both musically and thematically.12. Lustmord, "Ixaxaar" (1992)Lustmord came to prominence in the early 80s with heavy ambient industrial music rooted in the tradition of everything extreme: mass-murder, death, religion, and the usual subjects. Over the years, his music has become more contemplative, but it’s still very much a part of something different from the ordinary. With an album called The Monstrous Soul, how can you really expect anything else?13. Diamanda Galas, "The Thrill is Gone" (1998)With a voice that has been called the most unnerving, vocal terror Diamanda has haunted us with music about death and religion and darkness like few others.14. PJ Harvey, "The Whores Hustle and The Hustler Whores" (2000)PJ has always had a knack for telling stories about human suffering and alienation. From the streets of NYC to Palestinian refugee camps, the stories are real and bleak. This song from Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea is a portrait of the underclass and the conditions of life that they have to endure.15. Morrissey, "First Of the Gang To Die" (2004)Morrissey is, of course, a Brit in exile. And as much and American has embraced his Britishness, he has also embraced his new home. This song about gang-culture in Los Angeles is both beautiful and sad, and talks about an undercurrent of American violence that dictates the life of the underclass. A true masterpiece.16. Chelsea Wolfe, "Wasteland" (2011)Chelsea Wolfe has worked hard the past 10 years and carved out a nice niche as the new queen of darkness. With heavy gothic themes and album titles like Pain Is Beauty, she is carrying the tradition of American darkness onwards with her own sound.17. Crime And The City Solution, "American Twilight" (2013)From Australia to Berlin to London to, finally, Detroit, Simon Bonney has immersed himself in American culture so much that he made some fantastic Americana records as a solo artist in the 90s. With lyrics about the homeless and junkies and about despair and darkness, "American Twilight" is a fantastic testimony of the American Underbelly.18. Lana Del Rey, "Ultraviolence" (2014)The reason we are here and the reason we are making this list in the first place. No real explanation needed. A beautiful and haunting song about love and violence. Stealing lines from The Crystals and singing about cult leaders, Lana continues the tradition of American darkness with fine form.19. Marilyn Manson, "Third Day of a Seven Day Binge" (2015)Marilyn Manson is one of the most American artists of all time. The bastard child of Marilyn Monroe and Charles Manson, and a true representation of the opposite poles of a culture of glamour and violence. Drugs and sex and death have filled his songs and life for the past 25 years, making him a true institution of American culture. Here’s a song from his latest record that shows there’s no sign of him slowing down.

Listen to Partners delightful debut album, In Search of Lost Time, and you will quickly learn that Canadas foremost queer-positive fuzz-pop duo are also massive potheads. For this Dowsers playlist, they reveal the songs they like to crank up when they spark up. "Stoner," Young Thug: This song is cool because, while there are a lot of odes to weed, this song is a little different: Its an ode to stoners. Young Thug thinks stoners are cool and is proud to be one. Plus, this track just buuumps."Cotton Eye Joe," Rednex: This song is good to get stoned to just cause its really hilarious and a total throwback to middle-school dances. No matter how lazy you are feeling, you might be able to muster a jig. Bonus points for the weird/scary video."Sweet Leaf," Black Sabbath: The original ode to weed. "You introduced me/ to my mind." SAME. Possibly the only song written in the second person, directed at weed, that doesnt use the term "Mary Jane.""Really Doe," Danny Brown: This song is great to get stoned to cause its a sick posse cut featuring a really cool stylistic array of rappers. Earls verse shouts out dirty spliffs and blunts. Everyones flow is completely different and they are all very impressive, especially when youre stoned."James Joint," Rihanna: "Id rather be/ smoking weed." Lots of people love to smoke weed, but Rihanna somehow also manages to make blazing seem glamorous and sexy. (Impressive.)"Solo," Frank Ocean: Like Rihanna, when Frank talks about smoking weed, it seems sophisticated and deep. This is a great track to listen to when youre blazing alone, at night, wondering what it all means..."Broccoli," DRAM (feat Lil Yachty): DRAM is all "good vibes" if thats what youre into, and this is a feel-good party-jam ode to rolling one up at a party. Infectious piano hook."HennyNHoes," Young M.A.: This is a good song to listen to at any time, and we will never not shout it out cause its our favourite and Young M.A. is cool as fuck."You Dont Know How It Feels," Tom Petty: This song is great to get stoned to cause when it gets to the part where he says, "lets rollll another joiiint," you can use it as an excuse to do just that."Dust on the Bottle," David Lee Murphy: This song is about homemade wine, not weed, but its great to get stoned to, cause it tells a great story and, lets be real, all music is good when youre stoned.

Sweet Apple is the power-pop supergroup featuring vocalist John Petkovic and guitarist Tim Parnin of Cobra Verde, and bassist Dave Sweetapple and drummer J. Mascis of Witch. (You may also know the latter from another band.) To mark the release of their second album, Sing the Night in Sorrow, Petkovic created this special Dowsers playlist featuring songs from the record, and the classic tracks that directly inspired them. Here, he breaks down the albums key influences on a song-by-song basis.SONG: "(My Head is Stuck in the) Traffic"INSPIRATION: “Girl U Want” by Devo“(My Head is Stuck in the) Traffic”—the opening track on our album, Sing the Night in Sorrow—features this driving, jagged riff on the verse. The obvious thing would have been to pair it with straight-ahead drums, but it wouldn’t have provided the kind of tension we were shooting for. Devo are one of the pioneers of the “herky-jerky” rhythm with songs like “Girl U Want,” “Mongoloid” or even “Whip It.” Devo popped into my head right away because they embraced the tension between guitar and drums. As a whole, none of those Devo songs sound all that much “Traffic,” but if you listen to the hi-hat and where it fits, and the loopiness of the rhythm, they owe a debt to Devo.SONG: “World I’m Gonna Leave You”INSPIRATION: The theme song from Get SmartI was flipping through the TV late at night and was stopped by the theme song to the 1960s secret-agent spoof Get Smart. The riff just sounded so bad-ass—these boisterous horns blaring out this punchy melody with this incessant rhythm underneath it. Right away, I hit pause and picked up a guitar and started playing along until that riff turned into something very different—which became the basis for “World I’m Gonna Leave You.”SONG: “You Dont Belong to Me”INSPIRATION: “Tubular Bells - Pt. 1” by Mike OldfieldOn the surface or in any other way, “Tubular Bells” sounds nothing like the Sweet Apple song. But the opening to Oldfield’s song, made popular by The Exorcist, always resonated with me because it features a circular note pattern played with layers of instruments. The strategy matched what we were trying to do with a note pattern played by Tim on acoustic and electric guitars on the intro and outro of what is otherwise a power-pop song.SONG: “A Girl and a Gun”INSPIRATIONS: The soundtrack to Duck You Sucker, and “Man With Harmonica” from the soundtrack to Once Upon a Time in the WestBoth of these Ennio Morricone soundtracks roll out sprawling themes. They also boast so many stellar details: A plucked banjo that acts more as an uneasy marker of time than an instrument; a detuned note played in unison with another to create a warbled melody; an incidental sound; those warped harmonicas; those haunting, weird vocals. “A Girl and a Gun” features all sorts of sounds that might not specifically sound like Morricone’s soundtracks, but there’s a similar strategy at work with the strummed autoharp, the layered vocals, the out-of-tune synth lead, and the warped toy piano. Meanwhile, the plucked banjo is straight out of these soundtracks.SONG: “She Wants to Run”INSPIRATION: The soundtrack to The Royal TenenbaumsI like some Wes Anderson films, but the sheer amount of whimsy in the scores borders on empty signifiers. I wanted to capture that kind of whimsy in the acoustic opening to “She Wants to Run," only to follow it by having a rock n roll band bust down the door and smash their acoustics and turn up the amps. So we recorded the sound of a cord being plugged into an electric guitar jack and then having a loud rock band blowing the acoustic troupe away.SONG: “Candles in the Sun”INSPIRATIONS: "Cocaine and Camcorders," by UNKLE and South from the Sexy Beast soundtrack + "Hey Bulldog" by The BeatlesThe UNKLE contributions to the Sexy Beast soundtrack boast these pulsating drones that make the songs mesmerizing, because they keep throbbing along even as other parts come in and out and change. The notes and instruments are different, but the guitar riff provides a similar function, pushing along even as chords modulate. As for the guitar tone, check out George Harrison on later-period Beatles songs, like “Hey Bulldog” or “I Want You (Shes So Heavy).”SONG: “Summers Gone”INSPIRATION: “The Great Dominions” by The Teardrop ExplodesThe idea of doing some sunny ode to the end of summer in a place where the sun doesn’t shine often was the basis for the song. It features sunny back-up vocals, but there is also a drone throughout the song. A song that incorporated the drone to moody effect so well is “The Great Dominions,” by Julian Cope’s early band The Teardrop Explodes. The drones continue throughout and in many ways glue the song together with this deep, hypnotic underpinning that gives it a sense of foreboding menace.SONG: “Thank You”INSPIRATION: "Saturday Night Special" by Lynyrd SkynyrdThe perception of Lynyrd Skynyd as some "southern-rock" band overshadows just how great and timeless the production is on the band’s records—from the guitar and bass sounds to the deep snap of the snare. When we went into this one, I was imagining that snare run recorded really hot—ditto for the guitars.SONG: “Crying in the Clouds”INSPIRATION: “Morning Sun Rays,” by Popol VuhThe German group created a number of stellar soundtracks for Werner Herzog and so few groups managed to make the acoustic guitar so evocative and otherworldly—especially when combined with other string and wind instruments. The Sweet Apple song features six- and 12-string acoustics paired with a droning harmonica and a toy accordion, as well as a collage of various instruments in the middle part. While it doesn’t sound like anything Popol Vuh, it embraced the group’s expansive view of acoustic music.SONG: “Everybodys Leaving”INSPIRATION: “By the TIme I Get to Phoenix,” Glen CampbellSongs about leaving are bound to be moody and full of longing and loss, but how do you convey that without being melodramatic? Glen Campbell hit it with the string arrangements on the Jimmy Webb-penned classic “By the Time I Get to Phoenix.” It’s accentuated with the breezy pacing of his vocals and the space to breathe in the music—which makes it all the more evocative. “Everybody’s Leaving” might be a very different-sounding song, but there was a general strategy at work—and we hoped these little layers, like the echo-y electric piano on the bridge, accentuated a similar atmosphere.

All my conversations with electronic-music heads have had a common theme recently: Everyone agrees that there was little consensus in dance music this year. It’s been that way for a while, really. Every year, there are more scenes running in parallel, fewer standout anthems that everybody can agree on. But this year, even dance music’s broad, diffuse overground felt scattered. Plenty of reliable figures kept doing what they do best—Four Tet and the Caribou side project Daphni turned out well-regarded albums, for instance—but aside, perhaps, from Bicep, there were few emergent artists with wide crossover appeal.The good news, though, is that there were plenty of pockets of brilliance across the underground, both in terms of micro-scenes and individual artists boldly blazing their own paths. In terms of the former, the most exciting was a nameless corner of the UK bass spectrum, largely headquartered in Bristol, encompassing labels like Hemlock, Hessle Audio, Timedance, Livity Sound, and Whities. Even here, there’s no single rhythmic signature or sonic feature that unites them all, the way there is with dubstep or techno. Instead, it’s a shared predilection for highly abstracted sound design, deliriously drawn-out patterns, and twisted arrangements that turn on a dime. Minor Science’s shuddering, jewel-toned “Volumes,” Mosca’s wild, whip-cracking Latin-dub raver “Peyote Stitch,” and Batu’s feverishly repetitive “Murmur” were all standouts here, alongside stellar tracks from Lanark Artefax, Airhead, Ploy, Hodge, Parris, and the artist known simply as Joe.If that’s the “scenius” end of things, the genius end was just as fruitful. Confidently sailing far beyond the known limits of Chicago footwork, Jlin continued to melt minds with her own brand of dazzlingly polyrhythmic, ultra-vivid, triplet-riddled club tracks. Laurel Halo, never one to repeat herself two records in a row, hit upon the strangest, squishiest sounds she’s conjured yet—an enveloping amalgam of funk, affectless electro-pop, and musique concrete. Errorsmith, designer of Native Instruments’ popular software synth Razor, put his creation through its paces on a head-spinningly intricate album of synthesized percussion and needling sound design that, despite its wanton experimentalism, is also one of the most giddily enjoyable records of the year. And as far as singularity of vision goes, few could touch Fever Ray, who returned from a eight-year absence with the brilliant, challenging, sometimes sexy and sometimes confounding Plunge. “IDK About You,” highlighted here, was one of its wiliest curveballs: a 160-BPM co-production with the young Portuguese batida producer Nídia Minaj (also included here with her own “Underground”) that put an unprecedentedly breathless spin on Karin Dreijer’s creepy, out-of-body pop.The link between electronic music and pop is practically as old as electronic music itself, but this year there were still artists who made the relationship feel fresh. The Korean-American singer/producer yaeji turned out a heady, low-lit fusion of house, ambient, and trap music. Sophia Kennedy, an American living in Hamburg, brought her experience writing music for the theater to an odd and deeply infectious album for DJ Koze’s Pampa label. And even TORRES, best known as an indie rocker, broke new ground on “To Be Given a Body,” the absorbing final track from her album Three Futures: It’s a captivating fusion of storytelling and wispy-yet-weighty ambient production, and I couldn’t stop listening to it this year, often cueing it up multiple times in a row. It’s an outlier on this list, but it also feels like a jumping-off point. Hopefully, 2018 will bring more songs like it—fresh energy and fresh ideas from artists way out on the margins of a deeply decentered genre.

Vancouver power duo Japandroids kicked off 2017 with a big bang by releasing their biggest and boldest album yet, Near to the Wild Heart of Life, back in January. And if you caught the band on their subsequent never-ending world tour this year, then these songs may sound familiar… “For me, 2017 was a wild ride. I spent almost the entire year on tour—100 shows in 20 countries—so I was always on the move. There were highs, lows, and everything in-between, which is very typical of touring. If there was any one constant among all the craziness, it might be my pre-show playlist, which I listen to every night before we go on stage—you know, to get pumped up. I initially made this playlist in January, ahead of our first shows, and had every intention of keeping it the same throughout the year… but every so often, 2017 sent a undeniable jam my way, and thus some swapping inevitably occurred. And so while not all of these songs are from 2017, when I think back on the year in music, or at least my year in music, this is what I hear.”—Brian King of Japandroids

In August 2017, indie rocker Jen Cloher released her self-titled record, which cracked the Top 5 on the album charts in her native Australia; she also received a great deal of exposure in North America when her song “Fear Is Like a Forest” was covered on Lotta Sea Lice, the collaborative album from Kurt Vile and Cloher’s better half, Courtney Barnett. Before she heads out on her U.S. and European tours in early 2018, Jen shares the songs that defined 2017 for her. “2017 was a year where we heard more diverse voices break through, in Australia particularly. While global politics became more regressive, divisive, and fear-mongering, music did the opposite.”—Jen Cloher

In September 2017, Colombian-Canadian experimental pop artist Lido Pimienta shot straight out of the Toronto avant-indie underground to the international spotlight when her most recent album, La Papessa, became the first self-released album (not to mention the first sung entirely in Spanish) to win Canada’s prestigious Polaris Music Prize. Here, she shares the soundtrack to this transformative year in her life. “This year has been an exciting one for womxn in music and queer artists, like it always is, but the notoriety that womxn are getting as not just singers but producers is really inspiring and motivating. I am drawn to these songs because they carry interesting point of views and production. I enjoy making experimental music, so this list too reflects my personal taste and inspiration.”—Lido PimientaNote: Lido also wanted to include Xenia Rubinos’ “L.O.V.E.” on her playlist, but the song is not available on Spotify. You can listen to it here.

In September 2017, Enter Shikari released their fifth album, The Spark, which saw the British post-hardcore experimentlists foreground the synth-pop sounds that have always been an undercurrent in their work. It’s a move that makes even more sense once you hear what the band were blasting this year. “For us personally, 2017 was a game of two very distinct musical halves. We started the year looking backwards and touring in celebration of 10 years since the release of our debut album, and then halfway through the year we released what we would consider to be our most forward-thinking music so far.“While we were putting our list together, it became apparent that it’s been a good year for great music. It’s probably been a good year for shit music too, but we haven’t been listening to that. It’s always amazing how some people can still release new music from beyond the grave. Still, were glad they did.“This is a list of music released this year that we’ve been enjoying, from the smooth tones of Brian Eno to help with mindfulness, to the big bangers like Astroid Boys.”—Enter Shikari

It was a weird year in American life. It was a weird year in hip-hop, too. Much of mainstream rap descended into a dark pharmacological haze that was alternately illuminating and horrifying; few embodied those twin impulses like the dead-eyed, flat-voiced rapper 21 Savage. Every major chart hit seemed to include Migos, or one of its members. Most rappers spent more time singing and harmonizing than actually rapping, whether it was Future, Lil Uzi Vert, or Kendrick Lamar. Drake entered his Aerosmith/rock-dinosaur phase—likeable enough, still one of the biggest stars, but no longer generating the kind of critical excitement and discourse he once did. And the top newcomer of the year (though technically her debut mixtape dropped last year) was Cardi B, a former Bronx exotic-dancer-turned-reality-TV-star-turned-social-media-darling who may not be a technically proficient rapper, but made up for it with a delightful mix of personality and panache.Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN. was arguably the year’s best album, but it also seemed purposely muted and focused on addressing past triumphs, personal failings, and searching for a path ahead. Its defining quality may have been a surplus of hooky, memorable tunes that didn’t overwhelm intellectually like his past work. By contrast, Vince Staples’ Big Fish Theory delved into fame, disappointment, and UK beat culture in vivid yet perplexing fashion. Migos’ Culture simply offered a cavalcade of hits. Its magnificently scattershot quality was akin to a Stephen Curry highlight reel: Even the best shooters in the NBA merely average over 50 per cent makes. Playboi Carti’s self-titled debut was wonderfully ephemeral. Nothing felt like a genre-shifting achievement on the scale of last year’s Coloring Book, or 2015’s To Pimp a Butterfly and DS2. But in a year when optimism about the world around us was in dangerously dwindling supply, modest artistic breakthroughs felt like small yet important steps forward.

The overall unsteadiness of 2017 stretched to pop, which seemed plagued by an existential crisis that could be chalked up to the still-developing sea legs of streaming-music discovery, the panic of radio programmers looking over their collective shoulders at the looming threats posed by Spotifys Rap Caviar and Apples A-Lists, or just overall exhaustion. (It was a trying year.) The best pure pop pleasures of the year came largely from those artists who decided to cast formula to the wind and instead veer off in their own direction.Carly Rae Jepsens "Cut to the Feeling" (a holdover from the E•MO•TION era that proved how her cast-offs pack more punch than even the most precision-grade Max Martin concoction) led the charge, its call for letting it all out urged along by a squad of synths clapping; Paramore distracted from the heartache at the core of After Laughter by eclipsing it with laserbeam guitars and Hayley Williams height-scaling vocals; Miguel threw himself into his vocals as well on War & Leisure, singing like it was the only thing keeping him from certain doom. Radio wasnt without its pleasures; DJ Khaleds seemingly improbable Santana interpolation got life from Rihannas dead-serious flirtations on "Wild Thoughts," while Camila Cabellos slinky "Havana" felt like a trap-pop update of the "Smooth" formula, only with Young Thugs tongue-twisting rhymes standing in for Carlos licks.Kelly Clarkson and Kesha announced their liberation from pops mathematicians with albums that felt more like their live presences, electric and whipsawing through genres and giggling at the fun of it all. Ne-Yo, trapped in the purgatory of vocal features and top-down label uncertainty over the "marketability" of R&B for so long, put out "Another Love Song," a suited-up return to his Year of the Gentleman era that also stood out for actually expressing romantic pleasure. It aided a resurgent year for the genre on multiple levels: younger artists like Khalid, SZA, and Jordan Bratton used their soul-side-ready voices as a jumping-off point into modern textures; the sibling duo Chloe x Halle twinned and looped their ghostly voices into next-generation gold on The Two of Us; Luke James triple-dipped with his star turn as Johnny Gill in BETs outrageous New Edition biopic, the woozily coital "Drip," and a recurring role (complete with weekly singles releases) on Foxs girl-group musical soap Star; and Michigans Curtis Harding threw it back to the hot-buttered era on the stunning, sumptuous Face Your Fear. Pops best moments provided a metaphor for the year—the noisy mainstream might have its ever-more-fleeting moments, but the really satisfying moments lurked within more hidden corners.