This year has been my best year for listening to new music since 2010, and so I thought I would make some lists. When I want to get into an album I listen to it ten or more time and I've done so with 20 albums this year (21st coming in the next few days).

My favourite album of the year is Striker's self-titled album. It's something I didn't see coming, considering I don't listen to much regular heavy metal.

Runners-up:

• Billy Woods - Known Unknowns [possibly my favourite Billy Woods album yet]
• Leprous - Malina [catchy non-standard riffs]
• Orden Ogan - Gunmen [I found them in when looking for something similar to Blind Guardian and this album is quite enjoyable]
• Taylor Swift - Reputation [I expected a potential disappointment, but this might now be my favourite Taylor Swift album -- hard choice though]

Stand-out songs:

• Big Boi - In the South [in part due to that absurd (though re-used) Gucci Mane verse]
• Billy Woods - Robespierre [something of an ominous rap song]
• Fazerdaze - Friends [a very '90s sound to this one]
• Kendrick Lamar - DNA. [a close one between it and XXX.]
• Mastodon - Steambreather [I'm familiar with five Mastodon albums and nothing has come close to Blood Mountain for me, but this song on its own approaches that level, even if it doesn't quite reach it]
• Paramore - Idle Worship [my favourite song from my first Paramore album]
• Orden Ogan - Vampire in Ghost Town [this is the kind of epic power metal I like]
• Striker - Over the Top [very hard choice for favourite from Striker, but I'll give it to this one]
• Taylor Swift - New Year's Day [an outstanding piano ballad and doesn't get old quickly like Lorde's Writer in the Dark]
• Tiny Vipers - Crossing the River of Yourself [a dark and atmospheric instrumental]

Biggest disappointment was Morbid Angel's Kingdoms Disdained.

Here's the full list of albums I've listened to this year:

• At the Drive-In – Interalia
• Big Boi – Boomiverse
• Billy Woods – Known Unknowns
• Fazerdaze – Morningside
• HAIM – Something to Tell You
• Kendrick Lamar – DAMN.
• Kreator – Gods of Violence
• Lara Di Lara - Hazineler İçindesin
• Leprous – Malina
• Lorde – Melodrama
• Mastodon – Emperor of Sand
• Morbid Angel – Kingdoms Disdained
• Nicole Atkins – Goodnight Rhonda Lee
• Orden Ogan – Gunmen
• Paramore – After Laughter
• Portugal. The Man – Woodstock
• Striker – self-titled
• Taylor Swift – Reputation
• Tiny Vipers – Laughter
• Ulver – The Assassination of Julius Caesar
• Wintersun – The Forest Seasons

Now, what are your favourites (Foolz)? I suppose they don't have to be released in 2017, just whatever you've listened to.

Right now, I’m just listening to Pandora’s traditional Christmas.  I need to get back to listening to Star Wars: The Last Jedi after Christmas.   My most listened to album is Arcade Fire’s Everything Now.

Great topic, not my area of expertise. I listne almost exclusively to spoken word. Podcast and other perforance art.

Not sure if I really found some good new music this year since I don't listen too much in the world of current music, but I did discover a funk/soul band called Black Joe Lewis & the Honey Bears. And they're a good bit of all right.

Foolz said:

Run the Jewels: Run the Jewels 3

If you want to count it as 2017. That would be a contender for me if I hadn't started listening to it in 2016.

Foolz said:

I'll count it as both, so it can win both.

Album of the years.

I was asked by a DJ friend in Dublin to record a set for him to play on his radio show.  So on Friday I started recording myself practicing and trying records for my Saturday gig.  Recorded about an hour and three quarters (which was when the recorder ran out of batteries).  It's a very rough and ready mix, there was no setlist or set of records chosen beforehand.  There are no edits or aftertouches and it's all vinyl and I don't use filters or effects.  I primarily played very recent records, mostly 2017 with some 2018 ones that is why I suppose I thought it fitting to post here.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/40kucaz0ulkzzj0/it%27s_not_jazzfunk_it%27s_house.mp3