KCRW's Best Albums of 2017

After his breakthrough *Lost in The Dream*, Adam Granduciel takes things a step further. Marrying the weathered hope of Dylan, Springsteen, and Petty with a studio rat’s sense of detail, *A Deeper Understanding* feels like an album designed to get lost in, where lush textures meet plainspoken questions about life, loss, and hope, and where songs stretch out as though they\'re chasing answers. For as much as Granduciel says in words, it’s his music that speaks loudest, from the synth-strobing heartland rock of “Holding On” and “Nothing to Find” to ballads like “Clean Living” and “Knocked Down,” whose spaces are as expansive as any sound.

In the two years since *To Pimp a Butterfly*, we’ve hung on Kendrick Lamar\'s every word—whether he’s destroying rivals on a cameo, performing the #blacklivesmatter anthem *on top of a police car* at the BET Awards, or hanging out with Obama. So when *DAMN.* opens with a seemingly innocuous line—\"So I was taking a walk the other day…”—we\'re all ears. The gunshot that abruptly ends the track is a signal: *DAMN.* is a grab-you-by-the-throat declaration that’s as blunt, complex, and unflinching as the name suggests. If *Butterfly* was jazz-inflected, soul-funk vibrance, *DAMN.* is visceral, spare, and straight to the point, whether he’s boasting about \"royalty inside my DNA” on the trunk-rattling \"DNA.\" or lamenting an anonymous, violent death on the soul-infused “FEAR.” No topic is too big to tackle, and the songs are as bold as their all-caps names: “PRIDE.” “LOYALTY.” “LOVE.” \"LUST.” “GOD.” When he repeats the opening line to close the album, that simple walk has become a profound journey—further proof that no one commands the conversation like Kendrick Lamar.

A breathy, jazzy, trippy take on indie R&B.

On his debut LP Jardin, Gabriel Garzón-Montano sings of the struggles and uncertainties of living in America today, and the universal challenges of love. A Brooklyn-born and raised child of immigrant parents, Gabriel’s aesthetic is an extension of his French-Colombian heritage. His influence is a pastiche of Bach sonatas, Cumbia records, and the machine gun funk that echoes up and down Nostrand Ave. His mother, a member of the Philip Glass ensemble in the 1990s, instilled within him a painstaking attention to detail that remains a hallmark of his process. “She is the reason that I love music,” he says. Her rigorous classical instruction formed the foundation on which he honed his skills over the years in the lab, copping Stevie’s changes, studying Prince’s lyrics, and absorbing the beat theses of Timbaland, Dilla, and Pete Rock. Jardín comes on the heels of three intense years of touring, writing and recording. Soon after the 2014 release of his debut EP, Bishouné: Alma del Huila, Gabriel was invited out on the road by rock legend Lenny Kravitz, as direct support concerts across Europe. The day after playing Wembley Arena, he received a call notifying him that his song "6 8" would be sampled by Drake on his full-length If You're Reading This, It's Too Late. The months following these cosigns Garzón-Montano was featured on back-to-back tours with English indie-rockers Glass Animals and Stones Throw label mate Mayer Hawthorne. He recorded Jardín with his mentor, analog guru Henry Hirsch, at Waterfront Studios in Hudson, NY in 2016. Gabriel tracked drums, bass, guitar, piano, and synthesizers direct to 2-inch tape, adding percussion, digital programming, and several layers of his own vocals to create a lush sonic environment that recalls a contemporary, streetwise Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants. “I wanted to make music that would remind people how beautiful life is - how delicate their hearts are,” says Garzón-Montano. “A garden is full of life, and growth, and beauty. I named the album Jardín hoping for it to create a space for healing when people put it on. I've always wanted to make music that is healing, comforting, and funky.” Fans of Bishouné will find familiar ground in the organic sounds and impressionist narratives of Jardín: the Moog-heavy “Fruitflies” reads as a lyrical epilogue to “Keep on Running,” while “The Game” brings the folkloric percussion of “Me Alone” home from Cartagena to Crown Heights. The enduring choruses of “Sour Mango,” “Crawl,” and “My Balloon” exhibit a melodic and compositional craftsmanship reminiscent of the fan favorite “Everything is Everything,” confirming Garzón-Montano's innate pop sensibilities, and his knack for fusing a wide range of classic influences and cutting-edge ideas to create a sound all his own.

Prolific producer and Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach is one of those artists whose music always manages to sound fresh yet comfortingly familiar. His second solo album sounds like a lost gem from the ‘70s, mixing California folk-pop (“Waiting on a Song”), soul lite (“Malibu Man,” “King of a One Horse Town”), and a touch of psychedelia (“Cherrybomb”) for a breezy, kaleidoscopic listen that’s perfect for summer.

Boredom. Laziness. Complete apathy. Is it a quarter-life crisis or just an excuse to never grow up? This is the world of Washed Out's (Ernest Greene) new album Mister Mellow. A fully immersive multimedia experience, the album guides the listener through the highs and lows of this often ridiculous struggle. In classic Millennial fashion, most young adults' perception of their own lives are overblown and over-dramatized to the point of absurdity - as are the many ways they distract themselves from the insecurities faced on a daily basis (see social media, fantasy, drugs, music). Mister Mellow shines a light on the humor found in this paradox - how we can be so bored and unhappy in what is often a very privileged, contented life? Further moving away from the synthesizer-driven sounds of his early work and the more band-driven sound of his work on iconic indie label Sub Pop, it is fitting that Greene has partnered with the rebellious beat-driven label Stones Throw as he continues to carve out a unique sonic identity that stands in direct opposition to most current trends. Instead, Mister Mellow was influenced by classic plunderphonics records of the past as well as the experimental collage techniques of musique concrete. Styles as diverse as free jazz, house, hip-hop and psych are combined together with interludial voiceover samples (often pulled from anonymous Youtube vlogs) to create a busy, chaotic, and caricaturish mix; one that quickly starts to feel like a mirror of the claustrophobic, hyper-stimulated psyche of most young adults. Released as an integral companion to Mister Mellow is a full length visual counterpart that utilizes almost every form of animation (collage, claymation, hand-drawn, stop-motion). The aesthetic of each video reflects the handmade, "paint outside the lines" style of Greene's music - and again is a reaction against the sterile, hyper-realistic renderings of most modern digital-based art. The rich, detailed patchwork that makes up Mister Mellow (and its visual accompaniment) is unique in this day of quick-fix, throwaway music-culture. Conceived over the course of 2 years, it is intensely personal (Greene's only collaborator was mix engineer Cole MGN) - but the ideas and observations found within the album speak to a much larger shared experience that is affecting an entire generation of young adults. An experience that we come to see as both funny and sad.

*Little Fictions* is the rather lovely sound of Guy Garvey falling in love. Written around the time of his wedding, it’s an album that swells and soars, bundling Elbow’s sound up with layers of extra warmth. But while songs like “Head for Supplies” and “Kindling” are among the prettiest they’ve written, this isn’t some saccharine record without edge. Opener “Magnificent (She Says)” is stately and bombastic, while the restless “K2” explores Britain’s exit from the European Union.