After a very front-loaded 2016, what with albums like "Blackstar", "A Moon Shaped Pool", and "The Life Of Pablo" all coming out in the first six months, we now have 2017, which appears to be more backloaded. Icons like Arcade Fire, St. Vincent, and LCD Soundsystem are still yet to have their 2017 scheduled projects released, much to our dismay. (We would certainly prefer everything now.)

In the meantime, we do have a handful of quality of releases, which certainly should not be overlooked. In general, there really aren't any "good" or "bad" years for music because there is always a great album around the corner that you just haven't heard yet. That's what makes articles like this so crucial for a music listener's consuming process. So please, check out these albums. Some of them might take four listens to get. Some might just take one. As long as you get it, that's all that counts.

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8. Lorde, 'Melodrama'

Yah yah yah! I am Lorde! *Clears throat* The 20-year old pop prodigy returns with a breakup album full of bangers. One could call it something similar to Tame Impala's "Currents", but that would be slightly disingenuous. Unlike "Currents, "Jack Antenoff's production on "Melodrama" puts the listener right in the middle of the dance floor, for better ("The Louvre") or for worse ("Green Light"). These bangers feature all the twists and turns of the grieving process, differentiating it from the run-of-the-mill pop album. The highlight of the album is undoubtedly "Hard Feelings/Loveless," an unabashed look into Lorde's relationship that culminates with a cacophony of sonic disruption, only to be revived with an incredibly catchy "Loveless." Here, she comments on the hookup culture of millennials: "L.O.V.E.L.E.S.S/Generation." As a 20-year old with something like "Melodrama" under her belt, Lorde is more than qualified to be one of the first of her time to be that voice.

7. Mount Eerie, 'A Crow Looked At Me'

When writing about the subject of death in art, an artist will always feel tempted to evoke some greater meaning out of it that will actually help that person out in the long run. "Manchester By The Sea"'s optimist, Hollywood counter-point "Collateral Beauty "did that last year--horribly. Even solid works of art like Sufjan Stevens' "Carrie and Lowell "succumb to this; it took until the second track, "Shave Have Known Better," for him to follow a ruminating, isolating solo with upbeat electronic instrumentation and positive thinking. It comes with some weird form of shock that Phil Averum's album about death comes with no tricks. In the first line of the album, on the song "Real Death," he gets that straight: "Death is real/Someone's there and then they're not/And it's not for singing about/it's not for making into art." This segues into a dense narrative and emotional journey through Averum's real-life experiences after the recent death of his wife, Genvieve. There is so much irredeemable sadness that the listener starts to get anxious, wondering when the turn for redemption will be. But it's only when the listener knows that that turn will never come that they start to really understand the infinity of death.

6. Slowdive, 'Slowdive'

As we await the newest Beach House album, Slowdive's comeback was perfect timing for the world of Shoegaze. Their self-titled is sometimes gorgeous and other times inspiring. The opening track, "Slomo," just builds up layers and layers of pillowy sonics, leading to just flowing vocal performances. "Don't Know Why" brings up the tempo, lead by an impressive, falsetto Rachel Goswell (who comes in at the most opportune moments of this album, by the way.) Then, there's "Sugar For The Pill," the breakout song of the album, with guitars that just seem to create a wave with each strum. The closer, "Falling Ashes," features a piano arpeggio similar to Radiohead's "Daydreaming" and a thematic potency that closes out the album solemly. This is one of the best-produced albums of the year, making the most out of these simple, heartfelt songs.

5. Father John Misty, 'Pure Comedy'

With a title, cover art, and subject matter as ambitious as ever, Josh Tillman was clearly trying to make a masterpiece out of his third full-length LP. At the number five slot, we'll just say it was a solid album. Case in point, 'Pure Comedy' is flawed (see the incomplete "Birdie" or the painfully straightforward "From Two Wildly Different Perspectives"), but this 80 minute epic is still a perfect case study at the talent and momentum that the Seattle singer-songwriter has to offer. (Think of it as 2017's "The Life Of Pablo".) "Total Entertainment Forever" is a catchy and dense sci-fi pleasure, while "Leaving LA" is an 11-minute sprawl that turns the tide on Tillman himself. It is through this unexpected introspection that we later see in the second half ("Smoochie," "So I'm Growing Old On Magic Mountain") the third dimension of the album fully come in to form. In order to live with the world, you have to learn with yourself "because each other's all we've got."

4. Feist, 'Pleasure'

At the end of "Any Party," a standout track from "Pleasure", the listener hears someone leaving a party and walk down the road. On this road, a car comes up, blasting "Pleasure," the title track listed at the beginning of the album. It's clear: the listener is immersed in the album, an album that has its own universe, filled with quirks, surprises, and beauty.

Leslie Feist's latest output features a voice filter that is prevalent for the entire album, making her voice sound more distant and more scratched up. This leads way to an impressive show of minimalism and song progression. "A Man Is Not His Song" gets more and more beautiful as it goes along, and it abruptly finishes with a Mastodon sample. Then there's "I Wish I Didn't Miss You," a lonely ballad with a voice reverb that seems to cascade over a pond. This is not to say the album is not without its jams, though. "Pleasure" escalates at the end, turning it into a song you would blast while driving down the road. "Century" is one of those songs you could just tell it was fun to make in the studio. It's this variety while still holding up conceptual continuity that makes "Pleasure "a thorough pleasure.

3. Fleet Foxes, 'Crack-Up'

Fleet Foxes' third full-length is arguable better as a whole than it is separately, save for a few tracks that are made for radio play (whatever that means, at this point.) The downer "Kept Woman" is certainly seen as more memorable if it's seen within the context of the epic "Third Of May / Ōdaigahara." The experimental nature of "I Should See Memphis" is understandable, given the straightforward nature of the previous track, "Fool's Errand." Altogether, "Crack-Up" is possibly the best paced album of the year so far (although the B side is still something to be desired.) And, yes, that is frustrating at times. Sometimes, I just don't have the time (or, admittedly, patience) to sit down for fifty-five minutes at a time to listen to this album. But then I look back at the self-titled, and, despite its energy and character, its relative simplicity would make a similar sounding follow-up would suggest self-parody. And maybe that's what makes "Crack-Up "so dynamic--the ability to evolve while still retaining the essential Fleet Foxes sound.

2. Dirty Projectors, 'Dirty Projectors'

Five years after his previous album, "Bitte Orca", Dave Longstreth had broken up with his bandmate and partner Amber Coffman; this self-titled LP is a full-fledged exploration on one of the most talked-about Indie news stories that were sure to jam Reddit for months. The coverage is vast. The lyrics can get from bitingly sinister (like in "Keep Your Name"), but they can also get painstakingly heartbreaking. The emotional centerpiece, "Little Bubble," does just that; "How did you sleep/What did you dream of?" Throughout this album, we are given an intricate, unsteady electronic arrangement, beckoning Bjork comparisons. One can't omit mentioning the highlight of the album, "Up In Hudson," a seven minute recount of Dave's history with Amber; "Then I knew I could be with you/Do the things that lovers do/Slightly domesticate the truth/And write you 'Stillness Is The Move.'" Then there's the chorus, and anyone recently heartbroken could not help by accompanying the blaring horns and simply belting out the painful lyrics, "And love will burn out/And love will just fade away/And love's gonna rot/And love will just dissipate."

Longstreth completes this concept album with a resounding finish, concluding his narrative with lessons learned and futures planned. After the cathartic, "A Day In The Life"-esque experimentation "Ascent Through Clouds," there comes the effervescent refresher "Cool Your Heart." The DAWN-assisted track is the closest thing to a radio hit, and the lyrics are built with precision and hindsight; "Do you sail alone/'Round the island with/A silhouette of a shark beneath the skiff/And then you say...." This segues perfectly into the conciliatory closer "I See You," in which church organs accompany his baptismal lyrics "The projection is fading away/And in its place, I see you."

1. Kendrick Lamar, 'DAMN.'

Just a year after the prophetic "To Pimp A Butterfly "was released, America voted for the demagogue Donald Trump for President. Also, the album lost to Taylor Swift's" 1989 "for Grammy Album Of The Year, but that's just semantics. They certainly did not learn, despite all that Kendrick tried to teach (to quote from "XXX," "Matter fact, I'm 'bout to speak at this convention/Call you back"), they did not learn, and now the consequences have to be paid. As the protagonist in "BLOOD," Kendrick tried to help the blind lady, and he got shot.

So now, while the internet blames everyone else, Kendrick blames us; "Goddamn us all." Where does our loyalty lie? Do we revert back to our daily problems, stuck in our ways? Have we succumbed to the lust for entertainment and laziness that David Foster Wallace predicted in "Infinite Jest"? "Wake up in the mornin,' thinkin' bout money, kick your feet up/Watch you a comedy, take a shit, then roll some weed up." The good kid from the m.a.a.d. city doesn't want to assimilate the stern father character shown in "FEAR," but if he has to "slap a pussy-ass nigga," he might as well "make it look sexy."

This is met with cacophonous production, what with muffled filters, ambulance siren beats, and reverse speech (that just reminds us of how freaking good "Twin Peaks "is this year.) Sometimes, his rapping is slowed down, sometimes sped up. It really is all over the place, and for a reason. Kendrick is not trying to make a beautiful masterpiece. He sees the disorganized, trashy level the world is at, and he's going down a weight class to speak to us, telling us to sit down and be humble.