My favorite music of 2017

I didn't like much of what happened this year on a global, national, state, and personal level. I won't bore you with a recap. You're all living the nightmare, too, and are probably beating yourself up about what you could have done to stop the Fall of the Roman Empire 2: Mar-a-Lago Boogaloo. It was a bad-news-every-morning kind of year, and not just politically. (Contracting an extremely painful case of shingles in March was just one of the many lowlights.)  
The oppressive shittiness of the present moment has its positive side effects, however, one of which is a heightened gratefulness for the things in my life that are not awful. In that spirit of gratefulness, I present my favorite albums of 2017. 

My favorite records of the year

The Afghan Whigs - In Spades
Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile - Lotta Sea Lice
Bed Wettin' Bad Boys - Rot
Björk - Utopia
Circuit des yeux - Reaching for Indigo
Andrew Cohen & Light Coma - Unreality
Crystal Fairy - Crystal Fairy
Tim Darcy - Saturday Night
Destroyer - ken
The Feelies - In Between
Chris Forsyth & The Solar Motel Band - Dreaming in the Non-Dream
Noah Georgeson - Osian
Guadalupe Plata - Guadalupe Plata 2017
Guided By Voices - How Do You Spell Heaven
Yasmine Hamdan - Al Jamilat
Mark Lanegan Band - Gargoyle
The Magnetic Fields - 50 Song Memoir
Man Forever - Play What They Want
John Maus - Screen Memories
METZ - Strange Peace
Obnox - Niggative Approach
OCS - Memory of a Cut Off Head
Oh Sees - Orc
Peacers - Introducing the Crimsmen
Priests - Nothing Feels Natural
Protomartyr - Relatives in Descent
Lee Ranaldo - Electric Trim
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - The French Press
Ty Segall - Ty Segall
Spotlights - Seismic
Tobin Sprout - The Universe and Me
Sweet Apple - Sing the Night in Sorrow
Moses Sumney - Aromanticism
Träd, Gräs och Stenar - Tack för Kaffet (So Long)
USA/Mexico - Laredo
Wand - Plum

Honorable mentions

Beck - Colors
Big Boi - Boomiverse
Circus Devils - Laughs Last
Dälek - Endangered Philosophies
Damaged Bug - Bunker Funk
Dead Cross - Dead Cross
Downtown Boys - Cost of Living
The Fall - New Facts Emerge
Feral Ohms - Feral Ohms
The Flaming Lips - Oczy Mlody
Guided By Voices - August By Cake
LCD Soundsystem - American Dream
Ted Leo - The Hanged Man (Kicked down to honorable mention solely because the drum sound is the worst I've ever heard on a commercially released recording. Why would you do that to your drummer, Ted Leo?)
Melvins - A Walk with Love and Death
Thurston Moore - Rock N Roll Consciousness
The New Pornographers - Whiteout Conditions
Queens of the Stone Age - Villains 
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - solo album series (Roman Lips, Zen Thrills, Chocolate Tumor Hormone Parade, Ensayo de un desaparecido, Azul mis dientes, Gorilla Preacher Cartel, Killing Tingled Lifting Retreats, Solid State Mercenaries, Birth of a Ghost, Doom Patrol)
Ty Segall - Fried Shallots
Spiral Stairs - Doris & The Daggers
Teen Judge - Teen Judge
Neil Young + Promise of the Real - The Visitor

Favorite reissues, archival releases, soundtracks

Pastor T.L. Barrett & The Youth for Christ Choir - Like a Ship (Without a Sail) and Do Not Pass Me By
CAN - The Singles
The Creation - Action Painting
Crimpshrine - Free Box
Guided By Voices - Live from Austin, TX
Hüsker Dü - Savage Young Dü
Isis - Live VII
Alex Johnson - Operation Oasis
Laraaji - Vision Songs Vol. 1
Look Blue Go Purple - Still Bewitched
The Necessaries - Event Horizon
Noise Addict - 10,000 Kids with Guitars
Oneida - Live at Secret Project Robot
The Replacements - For Sale: Live at Maxwell's 1986
Jackie Shane - Any Other Way
Sheer Mag - Compilation
Super Static Fever - Silent Dynamic Torture
Valve Studio Orchestra - Dota 2 and Fight Songs: The Music of Team Fortress 2
Various Artists - Eccentric Soul: The Cash Label
Various Artists - Seafaring Strangers: Private Yacht 
Various Artists - Southwest Side Story
Various Artists - Warfaring Strangers: Acid Nightmares
Neil Young - Hitchhiker

Favorite album of 2016 I didn't get until 2017

75 Dollar Bill - Wood/Metal/Plastic/Pattern/Rhythm/Rock