Using a highly scientific formula (read: a spreadsheet) brewed up back in 2010, the Scene has once again tabulated ballots from a braintrust of ace music writers to compile our annual list of the 10 best local albums of the year. With this year’s bumper crop of contenders, many worthy albums landed just outside the Top 10, including Angaleena Presley’s Wrangled, Blank Range’s Marooned With the Treasure, Ron Gallo’s Heavy Meta and Coupler’s Gifts From the Ebb Tide. Without further ado, the Top 10:
10. Little Bandit, Breakfast Alone (YK Records)
Little Bandit’s Breakfast Alone gives you all the feelings. Seriously — all of them. There’s self-pity in the pedal-steel-laden opening track “Bed of Bad Luck.” There’s starry-eyed hope in “Nashville,” a midtempo love letter to a city that’s changing every day. There’s bitterness in “Scattered and Smothered,” wherein singer Alex Caress (read our interview with him) croons about killing a cheatin’ lover. And there’s happiness amid the sloppy partying of “Drinkin’ at the Bar,” a rollicking song about drinking … everywhere. But as fun and funny as the record may be, there’s also the final track “Sinking,” a harrowing ballad about the crushing weight of surviving lost love. MEGAN SELING
9. Idle Bloom, Little Deaths (Fraternity as Vanity)
As we’ve watched local rock ’n’ rollers Idle Bloom top themselves on show after show (earning the Scene’s Best Band pick in 2016’s Best of Nashville issue), it was inevitable that the group would triumph on its debut full-length. Little Deaths isn’t just a top-shelf entry in the pantheon of great Nashville guitar rock — it’s essential listening for anyone who’s got even a clue about local rock’s vitality in 2017. With hooks betraying an always-welcome Breeders influence, tidal waves of squalling Kevin Shields- and J Mascis-indebted guitar interplay, and drums rumbling at Ramones tempos beneath frontwoman Olivia Scibelli’s lulling vocals, it’s a blistering mash-up of grunge pop, dream pop and punk psychedelia. Over the album’s 10 tightly packed, tightly played mini anthems, the Bloom delivers Little Deaths with more heart-racing focus than a high-dose Adderall tablet. ADAM GOLD
8. Paramore, After Laughter (Fueled by Ramen)
After establishing themselves as emo-indie-pop stars with their platinum-selling 2007 full-length Riot! and their Grammy-winning 2014 single “Ain’t It Fun,” Paramore takes a dive into the murk of celebrity worship on After Laughter. Singer Hayley Williams sounds slightly uncomfortable riding on top of the jumpy Scritti Politti-style ’80s funk-pop that her expert band provides, which is totally appropriate for a record that explores issues of self-definition and self-loathing. Williams yelps and swallows her words on the record’s great “Idle Worship,” a song that suggests ordinary people like you and I might be better off treating stars like the fallible human beings they are, and expresses Trump-era angst in a form suitable for pop musicians and fans alike: “If I was you I’d run from me / Or rip me open,” she sings, and if that doesn’t make you squirm just a little, it should. EDD HURT
7. Mike Floss, Tennessee Daydreams (The Iconic Group)
While Mike Floss knows Nashville is far from the easiest place to make great hip-hop (read our interview with him), he makes it look effortless nonetheless. Tennessee Daydreams, billed as his debut album following three outstanding mixtapes, features subtle and ingenious production and some of the best songwriting you’ll hear anywhere. Tracks like “Serving All Night” and “Peach Soda” have very personal narratives that are easy for anyone to relate to — which becomes all the more important with their nuanced examination of the impact of institutionalized racism and other complex and painful social issues. STEPHEN TRAGESER
6. Daddy Issues, Deep Dream (Infinity Cat Records)
On their debut full-length, Daddy Issues build a towering monument to the gaping emotional wounds inflicted by bad relationships, monstrous men and, crucially, sexual assault. Deep Dream never breaks eye contact with you as it chugs through Breeders-esque distortion. That’s what makes it outstanding, as singer Jenna Moynihan spits brilliant lyrics like, “We’re not gonna be friends / In dog years, you’re dead.” Deep Dream has the fingerprints of longtime local punk label Infinity Cat all over it, but there’s no confusing the perspective here. Deep Dream is a triumph of nuanced songwriting, and a perfect representation of the boiling pot of emotions that is 2017. LANCE CONZETT
5. Tristen, Sneaker Waves (Modern Outsider)
“Partyin’ is such sweet sorrow” is one of many clever lines on Tristen’s excellent third album, Sneaker Waves. It’s also the album’s thesis statement. Speaking with the Scene in July, Tristen explained that much of the album is about what she calls “cultural sicknesses” (obsession with social media, overdependence on technology), a perspective that can throw a pretty gnarly Instagram filter on trying to have fun in the 21st century. Luckily for us, the brilliant pop gems all over Sneaker Waves — sparkling, Jenny Lewis-featuring lead single “Glass Jar” and ode to narcissism “Psychic Vampire” among them — make this decades-long party we call life less of a drag. BRITTNEY McKENNA
4. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, The Nashville Sound (Southeastern/Thirty Tigers)
Jason Isbell is on a tear. He reached new artistic and commercial heights on 2013’s Southeastern, and two albums later, he’s shown no signs of coming down. On The Nashville Sound, he and his badass band The 400 Unit showcase the range that makes their live shows such a thrill, from snarling rockers like “Cumberland Gap” to country-or-something-like-it tunes like “Tupelo.” Isbell’s lyrics are sharp as ever, finding new corners of age-old subjects like love and mortality. If your Best of 2017 list doesn’t include “If We Were Vampires,” then you probably haven’t listened to “If We Were Vampires.” Songs like “White Man’s World” and “Hope the High Road” speak directly to our troubled societal moment without coming off as contrived. Is this the New Nashville Sound? Lord willing. STEVEN HALE
3. Bully, Losing (Sub Pop)
And the award for Best New Couple of 2017 goes to: Bully and Sub Pop! Seldom will you find a more perfect pairing. The group returned home from a year on the road promoting their full-length debut, 2015’s Feels Like, only to lose both their drummer and their label. Despite being put through the wringer, frontwoman Alicia Bognanno & Co. whipped up a batch of songs packed with shreddy distortion and angst. Instead of following their past inclination to release everything as quickly as possible, Bully gave Losing a little more room to breathe — and to land a harder punch. Bognanno screams about everything from frustration with the current political climate to the restlessness that comes after the end of a relationship. Losing’s closing track “Hate and Control” includes my new life motto: “You don’t like it when I’m angry / Tough shit / Learn to deal.” A-fuckin’-men. MEGAN SELING
2. Kesha, Rainbow (Kemosabe/RCA)
We’ve said it for years: Once Kesha is calling all the shots, she will be unstoppable. And guess what. We were right. Free from the influence of the odious Dr. Luke, the truly unruly Kesha came out swinging in 2017 with Rainbow. It’s a post-genre melange of glitter-dusted glam rock, law-skirtin’ country and pop of assorted varieties (orchestral, synth, dance), often all within the same song. It’s an album of rich, nuanced humanity that lets the hooks, rather than the suits, call the shots. It’s weird, goofy and deeply cathartic, an antidote to most of this year’s Xanax-gobbling sad pop. It has features from many of our favorite celebrities — Dolly! Steelism! Godzilla! — and “Woman” is the biggest, gnarliest feminist-funk kiss-off of the year. SEAN L. MALONEY
1. Margo Price, All American Made (Third Man Records)
Here’s something we haven’t seen in the decade-or-so since we first started compiling our annual Top Local Albums Critics’ Poll: an artist claiming the No. 1 spot in back-to-back years. It’s poetic that the honors should go to longtime local Margo Price, who — after years paying dues with her hard-touring country-rock outfit Buffalo Clover — gained national attention with her debut solo effort Midwest Farmer’s Daughter in 2016. While Midwest was an introduction to Price, her ideals and her talent, this year’s All American Made plays like a cross-country drive through the heartland, full of admirable and despicable characters, and hope as well as dismay. From tender, melancholy Willie Nelson duet “Learning to Lose” to Tejano-flavored protest anthem “Pay Gap” and the intoxicating country-funk of “Cocaine Cowboys,” All American Made is a country record that does something country records haven’t done for a long time: It makes a serious statement. “I wonder if the president gets much sleep at night,” sings Price on the title cut, a snapshot of a crestfallen and weary nation, “And if the folks on welfare are making it all right.” While Price could have taken the attention she garnered thanks to late-night TV appearances and her affiliation with Jack White and parlayed it into a safe, comfortable sophomore record fit for mainstream radio play, she instead used her platform to address serious issues that affect us all. And that, whether or not you’re comfortable with it, is what true artists do. D. PATRICK RODGERS
