Sam's TOP 10 of 2017 #10

10. LOVE.-Kendrick Lamar fet. Zacari

So I just need to get some bit of information before I rant about this thought that's on my mind and that's that I actually do enjoy rap and hip hop as genre's and feel they're just as much real music as every other genre unlike a good portion of other rock music fans who feel the desire to hate on any rapper that's not Eminem I feel it's a genre with a wealth of talented people making some interestingly great stuff but it's not a genre I specifically have enough of a connection with to treat it like other millennial as some anti status quo race based anti traditionally punk tinged music that an older more conservative minded generation would find as nothing more than disposable noise.

I personally never will see it as an equaling punk music as a fuck you to baby boomers simply because it's a genre that's for the most part THE MAINSTREAM it's modern American pop music through and through and if you're not Rap you're in the dust because I remember watching this interesting round table discussion were these critics talked about how Rap music is the standard of our modern day culture and it's continued urbanization and it was a very interesting view and it got me really thinking about why this genre is a thing and why I was so fucking pissed that my local alternative rock station is starting to play more rap and hip hop in it's rotation going so far as to have Snoop Dogg headline it's biggest festival and it got so far that I do recall drunkenly having a mild argument with one of that stations Dj's and now I'm here at the end of the year a lot less angry and with one simple statement in regards to Hip Hop and it's place in alternative music which simply put it doesn't belong there simply because mainstream culture is Rap music it's not punk rock to play that genre it's simply required to keep the young demographic of disenfranchised liberal teenagers looking to piss off older folks by listening to music that goes against their standards of what makes good music and in turn they're alienating people like me that went to this station wanting to hear rock music that wasn't cock rock post grunge I hate my parents jams that I'd heard fifty different flavors of a million times over and under I want to hear Punk, New Wave, and the various way's you can make a guitar interesting not Chance the fucking Rapper, Donald Golver, OR FUCKING HEY YA!(which no shit STOP PLAYING THAT FUCKING SONG IT'S NOT 2003-2004 LET IT FUCKING DIE!) if I wanted to hear those acts I'd just turn on the top 40 stations they play them a plenty trust me.

That was a very stream of conscious thought that I'm not gonna edit because fuck it it's the truth and what's funny is that even with ALL of that in mind the song to kick off this years list is a rap tune by the only artist in the game that I personally feel makes a quality of music that's at points above it's genre Kendrick Lamar.

“DAMN! LOVE AND LUST! DAMN! ALL OF US!” I can't say how many times I got fucked up and listened to that line over and over again but I did and while DAMN. As an album was not that great this odd little Drake inspired tune just seemed to stick with me in a way that's kind of odd to be honest it's a 3 minute love song about how much adoration he has for his fiance and nothing more and the backing vocalist Zacari sounds like The Weekend and Justin Beiber had a baby which is to say a lot better than he has any right to sound.

The strength of this track is very simple to me it's just a modern day R&B track that has just enough traditional elements to give it a familiar feeling while still sounding like something you'd expect to hear today and it's simple and easy to digest nature gives me this odd feeling of satisfaction and adoration that make me think it's one of the best things I've heard in a long time also it's a great tune to get FUCKED UP TO! So yeah Kendrick is the best and this song contrary to what I've heard some critics say is great and my pick for the 10th best song of the year.

 

Honorable Mention

Had it All-Hembree

SO the last honorable mention to be had and boy was it a tune that grew on me just a tad too late in the year but considering the growth that this group has made since first being mentioned in the early part of my 2015 list I figured it'd of been a crime to not at the very least squeeze in this wonderfully larger than life tune.

"Had it All," is a bit of a change of pace from the kind of frantic rocker that was last year's, "Holy Water," to instead give us a very atmosphere heavy rocker that's carried by a chorus that just booms in such a way to make you feel like you're drifting to another world. 

The EP this song is from is WELL WORTH investing a few bucks to get a hold of because this is just one of many excellent tunes have helped shaped a group that's finally starting to break into the mainstream more deservedly so than even I could of ever been able to explain to you why.

Well folks that's all the honorable mentions for next week is the official start of the list where I'll be posting them throughout the weekday's around 6 or 7 central standard time so be prepared to have your face melted and mind blown at the sheer awesome to come.

Honorable Mentions

Wall of Glass-Liam Gallagher

My friend would fucking kill me if I didn't mention this song among the best tracks of the year and while it's an excellent return to form from the former Oasis front man there's other songs I felt to be a bit better but even if that's the case this song isn't to be taken lightly people.

This song is a blues inspired bit of old school rock and roll awesome that sounds like it'd be very much at home along side any of Oasis' finer tracks with it's excellent guitar work and Gallagher sounding just as snobbish and in your face as he did back in the day this track kind of came out of nowhere for me, smacked me in the face, and road off into the sunset leaving me to have to play catch up.

Honorable Mentions

Miracle Maze-Jaenki

I've seen a lot of local acts do their thing and put out some great music and this list will be filled with a lot of it but if there's one band that I can honestly say sounds WAYYYY bigger than the sum of their parts I'd say it's definitely this little New Wave act.

This song is one slick ass mother fucking jam that has these kind of larger than life feel to it that feels like going on an adventure through space and time with it's very trippy beat and kind of frantic tone  that's offset with occasional slowdowns in pace here and there that end up giving you a track that just fucking kills and was a good launch pad to a year that included opening Buzz Beachball, doing a couple of select tour dates with Atlus Genius, and slowly plotting to take over the world because believe me these guy's have a sound that can easily fill a stadium it's just a matter of time before you can't get in there to witness it.

Best of 2017 Honorable Mention

She's a gun-The Greeting Committee

Kansas City's next big thing are most certainly on track to be truly that after releasing a record so good that it was the first perfect score I've given any project in about 4 years and proving that they aren't just a bunch of kids making cute love songs that peaked after their first big hit instead we got some actual aggression and heft from their follow up EP that actually showcases some real musical growth and the fact that they've been closing every single set of theirs with this song it's eventual release has given us an immensely satisfying rocker of a tune that's the exact evolution of sound that I was hoping to get from this band ever since they started to break huge and Hands Down became damn near unlistenable with the radio blasting it relentlessly every 5 minutes.

Also on a lesser note the music video for this track is fucking tight as hell.

I'm telling you people these guy's are going to be selling out the Midland before next year is up I'm absolutely sure of it they have everything required to be big it's just a matter of everyone else catching up now.

Best of 2017 Honorable Mentions...

WHAT IS UP FOLKS!!!!!

It's the most wonderful time of the year time for me to post the best songs of 2017 in the ONLY LIST THAT MATTERS! And this year I'm a do things a bit differently because rather than posting a top 20 that conveniently ends on the last day of the year I'm instead going to use this week to highlight 5 songs that were exceptional but not quite the most awesome things to happen and then spend the next 2 weeks doing a top 10 proper because while I could have filled a whole list limiting things down to just 10 tracks gave more room to really think my choices over so without further a do here's my first honorable mention of 2017:

Wooded Kingdom(Steam Gardens) Mario Odyssey Soundtrack-Naoto Kubo, Koji Kondo, Shiho Fujii

I'd like to take the time to note I do not entirely know who composed this tune in particular and after doing some research I figured I'd just credit the 3 people credited with the game soundtrack as a whole.

SO I don't recall ever actually doing this at any point in the history of this blog or even mentioning the fact that I am a gamer as well as a very opinionated music critic and while Nintendo as a company isn't my bread and butter they know damn well how to present their games and this year for one reason or another after seeing a lot of my friends playing their products I finally have to say this may be one of if not their best years yet and the game that's almost making me consider giving their new system a chance is the new Mario game Super Mario Odyssey which is a fucking spectral to see people with a host of little things here and there just to let every bodies inner fan boy just fucking go nuts but with all those throwbacks there has to be some new and oh god damn did it bring some great new things.

Although I'm not a gaming journalist if you want that you should check out Kansas City's true best blogger in the form of one TenEightEP THE premiere retro gaming journalist this place has to offer and actually it's because of him that I learned about this EXCEPTIONAL composition in Super Mario Odyssey's Steam Gardens Level.

This insturmental is fucking brilliant people a simple guitar line and stead fast drum beat that's Dick Dale inspired surf rock with a small jazzy tone that creates a track that'll get stuck in your head and make you want to dance and listen to it on an endless repeat as you think to yourself, “GOD DAMN IT NINTENDO YOU DONE IT AGAIN!”

On this hallows eve

It's a cold dark night as I sit alone pondering to myself what it is that goes creeping in the night and as I take a second to check my surroundings in the silence of the night I'm reminded of the various tunes I listen to yearly and the post of Halloween past I've made and my excitement at the thought of the delightfully festive and haunting tunes I've posted in years past the punk fueled goth tinged tunes that I've worn down and still enjoy and I wonder if I've covered it all?

What a scary thought to think of the idea that it's all been done that there's no reason to exist because anything and everything you could ever want is gone and will never come back? Your life is nothing more than chilling in a cold dark room with the glow of a computer monitor keeping you company and a blank screen ever present like the ever present state of being just a small glowing bit of nothing in an ever expansive and blank world that has no use for your very existence?

It's a cold dark world full of nothing and your very existence is nothing more than fuel for that psychopathic serial killer creeping up right behind you right now.

Don't worry that was all a joke everyone knows this former pagan celebration of the harvest is nothing more than a day to overload on sweets, get drunk dressed as your favorite bit of pop culture, and have an excuse to enjoy all things creepy without the fear of being judged by the world around you and while I'm still taking some time for a future article I figured I'd take the time to post a tune to add to your yearly playlist of ghoulish grooves and since I covered a local act last year around this time I figured I'd share another delightfully festive tune in the form of my good friends Vigil and Thieves and this 2016 cut, "Haunting," which gives off these eerie vibes with some wonderfully echoing guitar tones and lyrics that are as bleak as the title.

Happy Halloween folks stay tuned for sometime around Thanksgiving when I finally announce what's going on but until then BOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!