Zoran's best of 2017 (#1)

[ArmyOfMe]

#1 Arca - Arca


Arca lands his first #1 album in my year-end countdown, after being in the top 5 with his sophomore album Mutant in 2015. His self-titled is an absolute breakthrough: for the first time, we can hear him sing actual, intelligible lyrics. However, it's necessary to point out how they are sung 1) in Spanish 2) in an operatic style, which causes, for most of the listening public, to rely more on the delivery than the actual lyrical content (which, by the way, is sublime itself). The emotions are in fact conveyed by his malleable voice, an instrument capable of not only expressing a particular thing, but also of being the thing itself, almost as if you knew what Arca sings about before even reading the lyrics. Moreover, the music has also changed: instead of relying on hard, shattering beats like on most of his previous albums, Alejandro Ghersi's instrumentations sound airier, more relaxed, with more room to breathe and reverberate in the listener's ears and mind. In this aspect, Björk has certainly influenced him just as much as he has influenced her. The vast range of genres covered is also impressive: from almost-acapella operatic tracks like Piel, quasi-ballads like Coraje, Fugaces, Miel, techno tunes like Castration and Whip, to Arca's own version of a pop song, Desafío. Thus, the album points at many possible directions for Ghersi's future career, which is sure to take exciting new paths in the future.

Must listen: THE WHOLE DAMN THING

[king_oxymoron]

Melodrama I liked much of, I will give it another spin today as people clearly think of it even higher than I do.

[Tansike]

I'm late, but very happy to see Lorde being #2. "Melodrama" definitely was a big highlight of 2017 for me as well

Also enjoyed the ones by Charli XCX and Björk, even though both already released better stuff IMO.

[LOVE+FEAR]

I need to check this thread out more, but lemme start with listening to Melodrama again. Only listened once.

[Goldmoney]

I need the good sis to come back for just one day and reward Kween’s Caution the only position it deserves