Albums That Will Blow Everyone Away In 2017

It's rare to talk about both the format and the content of a record being potentially game-changing — Chance the Rapper's digital-only masterpiece Coloring Book being the only recent example that comes to mind — but Toronto-based rapper Drake's More Life is prompting that kind of chatter. More Life will not be an album or a mixtape, Drake insists, but will instead be a "playlist project" of new Drake tracks, mixed with new tracks from other artists on Drake's OVO Sound record label. Drake is tight-lipped on the details — including the release date — but if it's a label compilation with a physical release, it might as well be an album or a mixtape. But if it truly is an evolving-playlist-as-album, it has the potential to be something almost entirely new.

In the age of Spotify — and Tidal, kind of? — it makes perfect sense for artists to drop "playlist projects" like this that shatter notions about what an album should be, and Drake might be the first one to take advantage of the format in this way. It's unclear how much he plans to shake things up, but he has said he wants to offer up "a collection of songs that become the soundtrack to your life." Note "become" in that sentence: it suggests the album growing on you, sure, but it also suggests possible additions over time. Why shouldn't artists add to an album as they see fit, shaping it in the public eye into what they want it to be?

This is all just speculation, of course, but what's clear is that the preview tracks released so far continue the momentum Drake built up 2016 with Views. He's once again at his best when he's fully inhabiting either predator or prey: "Two Birds, One Stone," is a slow-burning diss track akin to 2015's "Back to Back," except this time with multiple targets. Then there's "Fake Love," which has has Drake crooning about "fake people showing fake love" over stuttering percussion, evoking last year's smash "Hotline Bling." Even if Drake doesn't help revolutionize how albums are released in 2017, the consistent excellence of his low-key, eclectic, and always moody tracks will likely mean another must-listen album, no matter how it's put together.

The ambition of indie-pop band The Magnetic Fields' 50 Song Memoir is undeniable: a 50-song-album, one for each year of lead singer and songwriter Stephin Merritt's life leading up to the making of the album, all written by Merritt, who also played 100 different instruments on the album (we didn't even know there were that many instruments out there). Like the band's 69 Love Songs from 1999, it's a massive undertaking from the hyperprolific Merritt but, unlike 69 Love Songs' vague thematic glue, 50 Song Memoir is a chronological tour of Merritt's life, from 1966-2015. It's the old maxim "write what you know," taken to the nth degree.

Five advance songs have been released ahead of the March 3 drop of 50 Song Memoir, including two highlights: first, the playfully meta "'02: Be True to Your Bar," a song Merritt calls the "national anthem for alcoholics," which is entirely free of explicit autobiographical details, in case you're worried the 5-disc, two-and-a-half hour album is going to be hopelessly naval-gazing. There's also "'74: No," which is a wonderful little diary entry, capturing the moment the 8-year-old Merritt starts to question the quacks, including his own mother: "My mother believes that this physical universe / Is a big holographic show / And she says someday science'll catch up with her / Has she a shred of evidence? / No."

It's the same arch, droll, masterfully composed Magnetic Fields fans are accustomed to, returned to high-concept trappings. Not the best place to start for newcomers — try 1995's Get Lost — but fans will likely love Merritt back in maximalist mode. For everyone else, there's going to be a track called "'90: Dreaming in Tetris" — who among us, of a certain age, can't relate to that?

Not much is known about Annie Clark's follow-up to her last record as St. Vincent, her self-titled stunner from 2014. But Clark promises it will be a big step forward. "I think it'll be the deepest, boldest work I've ever done," she told Guitar World magazine in December 2016. Considering the project has always been defined by its musical adventurousness, bold guitar work, and a Bjork-like commitment to breaking the mold, it boggles the mind to think of just what that the "sea change" Clark promises entails. For her detractors, that likely suggests an even more pretentious slab of art rock, but her fans — including collaborator and Talking Heads legend David Byrne — are hopeful she'll create the prog-pop masterpiece she's been hinting at since 2009's Actor.

Clark also hints the new album will be boldly political: "I feel the playing field is really open for creative people to do whatever you want, and that risk will be rewarded — especially now that we have such high stakes from a political and geo-political standpoint. The personal is political and therefore the political can't help but influence the art. And only music that has something pretty real to say is gonna cut the mustard." Fusing her post-modern guitar heroics and fearless genre-blending with a strong political message may evoke Bush II-era Radiohead, but St. Vincent has always, above all, sounded only like St. Vincent.

Considering Trump's triumph in the U.S. and the UK getting blindsided by Brexit, there are going to be a lot of political songs released in 2017 and beyond. Author Dave Eggers, in fact, is even curating a "1000 Days, 1000 Songs" playlist of new original songs from a wide variety of artists meant to protest Trump's entire first term on a daily basis. But "5 Flucloxacillin" off of Sick Scenes, the upcoming album from Welsh indie rock outfit Los Campesinos!, will likely be the only political song this year to reference salbutamol, sertraline, tramadol, and the titular antibiotic, all wrapped up in a metaphor about baby boomers/Trump/Leave keeping millennials/Clinton/Stay from winning the cycling race of life. Or ... something like that.

Once you parse the obscure references to OAPs, pelotons, and domestiques, the song becomes not a rallying cry, exactly, but a brutally honest appraisal of how the Left was coldcocked in 2016, especially the chorus: "They say if they had got the victory / They'd act with so much more humility / They say if they had got the victory / Well I guess we'll never know!" It's a simultaneously depressing and exhilarating song about depression, disappointment, and unrest between generations.

Like "I Broke Up in Amarante," the only other track released ahead of the February 24 release of Sick Scenes, lead singer Gareth David also spends a bit more time than usual in "5 Flucloxacillin" in a full-on shout. It's a mode which suits him very well, and adds a touch of fellow exclamation pointers Against Me! to the usual LC! palette, which is typically loaded with '90s indie stalwarts like Built to Spill, Pavement, and Blur. Both tracks are full of LC!'s trademark boundless energy, but there's a sharper edge to the peaks and darker hue to the valleys that suggests Sick Scenes might be their strongest, most cathartic statement yet — just keep the OED handy.

Considering 2017 kicked off with the Women's March, the largest protest in American history, Portland indie-pop mainstays The Shins couldn't have picked a better time to release a women's empowerment anthem, "A Name For You," their first single off Heartworms, out March 10. Inspired by frontman James Mercer's three daughters, the Mercer-produced cut isn't a huge departure from the classic Shins sound from 2001's Oh, Inverted World, which will suit fans just fine. Mercer's voice is one of the most expressive in the history of indie pop, turning every word into a hook — perhaps the only thing Mercer shares with St. Louis rapper Nelly, who had a similar superpower. Remember Nelly? He wore a Band-Aid, if that helps.

The famously life-changing band is now essentially a bandonym for Mercer, the only current member of the original lineup, but it's not like you would notice. The new band shines on "A Name For You" and the other advance cut, "Dead Alive," which sounds like the Beach Boys doing a Halloween song.