Trollheart Listens to Every Album on Wiki's List for 2017
 

Or tries to, anyway!
https://pm1.narvii.com/6635/5bb15c11...f215994_00.jpg

THREAD IS NOW OFFICIALLY ABANDONED. THERE WILL BE NO MORE REVIEWS. HOPE SOME OF YOU ENJOYED AT LEAST SOME OF IT. THANKS.

Being someone who generally tends to be lost when people start compiling AOTY lists at the end of the year, not often listening to albums from the current year, I thought maybe I'd try this. If I listen to every album released (as per Wiki) then I'll get a good flavour of, not what's cool or popular, about which I do not give a curse, but what good albums I might come across that I would otherwise have missed.

Huge undertaking? Of course. Typical Trollheart attempt to kill himself by Review? You know it! However, as I'm sure you expect and understand, these albums won't be reviewed. At best I'll scribble a few lines about each, unless something really impresses me. I've nothing to prove with regard to writing reviews - those who have read my various journals, and some threads, know how good, or bad, I am at that, so this is more an attempt just to listen to the albums and quickly say what I think of each.

I am, however, providing myself with three "get-out clauses": one is the "Oh Hell No!" clause, which will be implemented if I start an album and hate it right away. I'll try not to use that too often though; want to give everything a fair chance if I can. To that end, the "Three Strikes clause" is exactly what you would think it is: if, after three tracks, I'm not feeling it on a particular album, I retain the option to drop it and move on. After all, this is going to be a LOT of albums I have to listen to! Finally, if I get more than three tracks in to an album but it just isn't happening, I'm going to use the "Bailing Out!" clause. This is the most generous of the three, as it gives a higher allowance/tolerance for the album before I decide against it.

If I use one of my clauses on an album you think I should give more of a chance, by all means let me know, but I'll retain the final say as to whether I go back and complete it or not. I'll be doing the albums chronologically and in alphabetical order, as per this list. Comments, advice, Nazi gifs etc all welcome.

Note: I should make it clear I'm not going to bothering with any compilations such as the Now series, Ibiza Party or whatever the ****. No Best Of, Greatest Hits, boxsets or anthologies. No retrospectives, no special editions, no collector's editions. No re-releases of older albums or recordings of old concerts, whether previously released or not. Only proper, new albums. Yo.

Further note: With so much to get through, it's either on Spotify or it's on YouTube in its entireity or it can **** off. I'm not going to be spending my time running around getting individual videos for each track off some album I may hate or not care about. One chance, then I move on. That's it. Tom Waits for no man.

Some more notes: it should be understood that, naturally, every album only gets one chance to impress, so while some may be growers, if they don't speak to me first time they're done. I don't have the time to listen to albums more than once. This has even impacted on my participation in the two album clubs. So please don't tell me "Oh you should listen to it a few more times" or "Don't write it off after one listen." I've a lot to get through, and no time for passengers. This is an express service. :)

Also, in an effort to stop people whining about my not using RYM (though I really don't care) I'll be adding, from now on (and hopefully retrospectively for the albums I've already looked at) the general RYM score, if it exists, for each album. Just for the comparison I guess. It will be interesting to see how many of the ones I feature here will actually turn up on RYM.

One more note: In the genre/subgenre field I will be copying exactly what it says on the Wiki entry for the album, so if it's wrong don't blame me, though if it's obviously and glaringly wrong I will probably refer to it in the review.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_2017_albums

Wish me luck!

Note: from May forwards I'm going to include a reaction image at the start of the review ONLY in cases where I was very surprised by my reaction to an album, positive or negative. Good reactions that weren't expected will get this one
http://www.trollheart.com/Homergs.jpg
and ones where I thought the album would be great and it let me down will be denoted by
https://media.giphy.com/media/xT5LML...Wlji/giphy.gif
Why? Well it will give you a quick idea, if you don't fancy reading the whole thing or skipping to the rating, as to the impression the album made on me. Also, it's fun for me. I like fun. :)

I'm only doing this from now on, as I have no intention of going back and checking all the albums I did for the last four months. But from this point on, if you see either image you'll know what to expect.

Index
As there's no way the entire index for the year would fit here in one post, what I've decided to do is put January's list here (and even at that, I've had to split it up), then as each month begins I'll leave a blank post for the index for that month, and link to it here.

January

(Continues here) Part Two

February
February Index
March
March Index
April
April Index
May
May Index

You should do this but go through the top RYM albums of the year instead of the wiki page.

x2

just a recommendation. but i think using RYM will give you a higher quality of releases vs wiki that will give you a lot of grade A garbage that quite frankly isn't worth reviewing.

I wonder just how many grindcore and harsh noise albums came out this year?

How do I get the official list though? I'm not interested in what one particular person thinks are the best releases; I want an unbiased opinion.

January Index (continued)

Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes – Modern Ruin
J-Ax and Fedez – Comunisti col Rolex
Jacob Sartorius – The Last Text
John Mayer – The Search For Everything: Wave One
Kasey Chambers – Dragonfly
Lights and Motion – Dear Avalanche
Loyle Carner – Yesterday's Gone[/]
Menace Beach – Lemon Memory
Mick Harvey – Intoxicated Women
Mike Oldfield – Return to Ommadawn
Nicky Jam – Fenix
Palisades – Palisades
Starset – Vessels
Steve Ashley – Another Day
William Basinski – A Shadow in Time
Neil Cicierega – Mouth Moods
Suzy – Yes? No?
Matt Martians – Drum Chord Theory
Allison Crutchfield – Tourist in This Town
Aquilo – Silhouettes
No Secrets
Brantley Gilbert – The Devil Don't Sleep
Brian and jenn Johnson – After All These Years
Cloud Nothings – Life Without Sound
Deaf Havana – All These Countless Nights
Ellie Holcomb – Red Sea Road
Infected Mushroom – Back to the Sauce
Japandroids – Near to the Wild Heart of Life
John Craigei – No Rain, No Rose
Kehlani – SweetSexySavage
Kellermensch – Goliath
Kreator – Gods of Violence
Laura Alaina – Road Less Traveled
Lucy Spraggan – I Hope You Don't Mind Me Writing
Migos – Culture
Morten Schantz – Godspeed
P.O.S – Chill, Dummy
Priests – Nothing Feels Natural
Shinee – Five
Stephen Pearcy – Smash
Train – A Girl, a Bottle, a Boat
Twiztid – The Continuous Evilution of Life's ?'s
Ty Segall – Ty Segall
Whitney Rose – South Texas Suite
Xandria – Theater of Dimensions
Riff Raff – Aquaberry Aquarius
Emika – Melanfonie
Life On Planet 9 – Higher

Not on the List
Michael Chapman – 50
Bedwetter – Volume 1: Flick Your Tongue Against Your Teeth and Describe the Present
Led Bib – Umbrella Weatehr
Dumal – The Lesser God
Pig Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - Feed the Rats
Code Orange - Forever

Use their top albums of 2017 list based on user votes. Great resource for new music, since you can narrow it down by genre and stuff.
https://rateyourmusic.com/customchar...one&countries=

Thanks but I'm gonna stick with Wiki. No matter what you think of them, it's an unbiased list, whereas RYM's is, one way or the other, the albums everyone seems to like, and so will be slanted in a certain direction, which as I said, I'm really not interested in. I'd rather wade through a pile of garbage and come across a few gems than be force-fed someone else's opinion. Thanks anyway.

That wiki list is very incomplete though.

See OP. :thumb: I'm surprised this is even a question, after all this time...

i used this first

https://i.imgflip.com/hjv11.jpg

I know a way to curb the bias while still using the quite expansive RYM chart.

Step one: decide whether to use the top, bottom, or esoteric 2017 lists.
Step two: choose a number between 1 and 1000 through a random integer generator or something
Step three: review the corresponding album on the list you chose.

Repeat until you've reviewed 3000 albums. Then maybe you can start searching by subgenre.

Almost nothing I've actually liked from this year is even on the Wiki list. At least the new Depeche Mode is there, if you ever make it that far.

Nah. I'm sticking with my original choice. Thanks and all, but this is how I'm going to do it. I also want to do it chronologically, and with the Wiki list I can.

Translation:

Trollheart: I'm doing a thing and I decided to do it this way.

Everyone else: Bro, it would be way better if you did it this way.

Trollheart: Well I'm already on the mental wavelength of doing it the other way and it would be terrifying to do anything else at this point.

Everyone else: wut

¿Porque no los dos, TH?

Use RYM for the good releases that actually reflect modern music and use wiki for all the releases from the has beens and mainstream radio chart toppers.

Trollheart: Anarchy!

Translation: Batty, **** off. It's my thread, my idea, my work, and I'll do it as I see fit.
We'll see how it goes. Maybe at the end of each month I'll look over the RYM. Maybe it won't work out this way, but I want to try it anyway. Thanks for the suggestions. We'll see how many albums this ends up being, how many I use my get-out clauses on, and if I'm still alive at the end of the thing.

If anything I hope you use the charts as a resource in the future because the subgenres get really granular. The esoteric list type is good for genres that you already like, such as symphonic prog and adult contemporary or whatever you're into these days.

Well good luck with this, but I'll be impressed if you even make it past the first quarter if I'm honest.
Will you accept albums missing from the wikipedia list if you're made aware of them (keeping with the established chronological order ofc)?

Depending on how many are in each month, probably yes. I have to think about restricting this to a max of maybe three albums a day, and I assume some months will be slower than others, so we'll see. As Frownland suggested, I may mix it up with RYM lists as it goes along. Also, don't forget my "Get-out clauses"....

Three a day? Jesus you're a masochist.

What do you do if an album begins with three long and awful tracks clocking in at an hour put together but ends on an okay 4-minute outro? :D

lmao

Proper lol'd out loud.

Three a day is nothing. Surely you listen to more than that every day? That doesn't include other albums I listen to for pleasure, of course, or the Album Club/Random Album Club albums.
In that case it's an "Oh Hell No!" and I'm outta there. :D

Three albums a day is a slow morning. Three reviews a day is bloodletting.

Duh. Not reviewing as I already said. A few sentences, a few lines, mostly that'll be about it unless I come across something worthy of more.

Also: pussy. I used to do up to six reviews a day in my prime. :ar_15s:

Yeah well you're a freak.

This cannot be denied.

(Moved to the OP)

JANUARY

Right then, let's get this thing kicked off, huh? As 2016 turned to 2017 a man for whom we all have the greatest respect released his twenty-sixth solo album, and as Wiki says it's first in line the first one I get to listen to, easing in nicely before all the **** hits my fan, is this:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...reflection.jpg

Album title: Reflection
Artist: Brian Eno
Genre: Ambient, Instrumental
Nationality: English
Release date: January 1
Position in Discography: Twenty-sixth
Familiar with this artist? Not as much as I probably should be
Familiar with the genre or subgenre? Somewhat, but again see above
Check out more from this artist? Definitely.
Check out more from this genre or subgenre? Again, yes, for sure.

Well this is all one long track, but that's ambient for you, so I'll just relax and let it wash over me, as I believe is the best course to take when listening to ambient albums. Okay, I already love this and we're only fifteen minutes into the just over an hour that the album - and track - run to. This is sweet. A really nice way to start off, no doubt preparing me for some of the crap I will have to endure. Relaxing.

http://www.trollheart.com/speed10.jpg

Can't wait for Trollheart's opinion on Wiley's album.

I'm looking forward to hear about Band-Maid and Mike Oldfield.

:laughing:

In-****ing-deed! :banghead: Get-out clause at the ready.... ;)

I've never even listened to an entire Chief Keef album cause the one was just too mindlessly dull.

Please send your thoughts and prayers. You'd think they wouldn't help, but they do. I may be setting up an appeal after this, so stay tuned.

l m a o TH listening to Chief Keef is the funniest thing to happen on MB in quite awhile

he's ****e, but best of luck.

lots of good hip-hop for you to listen to this year, grime too. Wiley, Diz, Milo, Brockhampton, Vince Staples, Bedwetter, Billy Woods, etc etc etc.

doubt you'll like any of them but it will be fun to watch the suffering at the very least.

I aim to please.