If you're not diligent, music can pass you by. That's true now more than ever. Artists have the tools to create and release new music at any moment with the push of a button. Here we are, not even two months into 2017, and we've heard some truly memorable albums. And every single day, artists are sharing new music from records to come later this year.
Even an industrious music consumer can miss things. That's why, for the casual or obsessive listener, we'll be curating the best songs of the year as they're released. Right now it's still early, and there are only a handful of tracks here, but keep checking back as the list of best songs grows throughout 2017. And get started now to be on top of the best music of the year.
Run The Jewels - "Legend Has It" (Run the Jewels 3)
Technically, Run the Jewels released this album early in December and released "Legend Has It" before that. But since, on paper, this album came out in 2017 and it didn't make it on our 2016 lists, we'll include RTJ here. If half of rap is about bragging, then RTJ are the best at bragging about bragging. Killer Mike and El-P are the only ones with the writing skills to pen their own legendary status. Their militant assault of pop culture references and jokes can swipe between Tinder and Fargo and The Godfather within an instant. In a year where we need humor and politics from these two funny, well read guys, Run the Jewels started it off strong.
Sampha - "(No One Knows Me) Like the Piano" (Process)
A song with a title like this could have been bad. This could have been another sadboy, lonely piano ballad. But Sampha's delivery is sincere, it's raspy like he's spent the night crying, and it's believable. This isn't a metaphor. It's not personification. That piano, the one he's playing, is real, and you can just hear him sitting there writing this melody all alone.
The xx - "Replica" (I See You)
One of the things that's always been so stunning about The xx's music is their patience in finding subtle grooves. And from the first measure, The xx are already locked into the groove of "Replica." And it's this airy, trickling verse which constitutes most of the song. It dives into the wordless chorus with a bass slide, and it's beautiful and so brief.
Migos - "Big on Big" (Culture)
Everyone who heard "Bad and Boujee"—or who dabbed through 2016 (and there were a lot of you)—was likely expecting more viral club bangers on Migos' Culture. Then, midway through the album comes the piano-driven and dramatic "Big on Big." It's like the Migos biopic through the lens of Migos themselves. It's almost beautiful, it's menacing, theatrical, and the serious larger-than-life artist story that Migos must picture themselves living. And no one can say they're wrong.
Priests - "Nothing Feels Natural" (Nothing Feels Natural)
Sadly, it's the perfect time for an art-punk debut as confident and fierce as Priests'. "This is when I'd give a God a name, but to people in sanctuaries all I can say is you will not be saved," sing Katie Alice Greer at the climax of "Nothing Feels Natural." It's doom that feels all too real. You don't even need to give it a name. Ironically, this song in this time is the only thing that does feel natural.
