The most disappointing albums of 2017

While many will write lists about the best albums of each  year and some will write about the absolute worst. 2017 produced a handful of albums which were neither. Some albums fell to short of the mark to make my best of or my honourable mentions, while not bad albums as such, these are the albums which fell too short of what I hoped they would be.

Arcade Fire - Everything Now.
Few albums have ever had such a huge impact on me and my musical taste as much as Arcade Fire's seminal masterpiece 'The Suburbs'. Where previous Arcade Fire albums had been concept records about death and religion, on 'The Suburbs' Arcade Fire wrote about their teenage years, lamenting the 'wasted years' of their youth and the uncertainty of their adult years. 7 years later all the subtlety that made Arcade Fire's music so engaging has gone. 'Everything Now' is also a concept album of sorts, looking at how technology has affected our world. The problem is that the Arcade Fire of old wrote songs that grabbed me by the heart, yet the songs on Everything Now (other than the incredible title track), simply annoy me with their smugness. I never expected or wanted to hear Win Butler singing bad chat-up lines over obnoxious 'big band' music or the frankly boring 'good god damn'. Arcade Fire's worst album is by no means a terrible listen, yet it falls a long way short of what they had already achieved.

Alt-J - Relaxer
'3WW' is the most gorgeous and beautiful tune Alt-J have ever put to tape. The simplicity  and  sparseness of the folky acoustic guitar opening and the devilish guest vocals of Ellie Rowesll make for something truly special. Which is why it's a shame that the rest of the album feels so unfinished and clumsy. 'Hit me like that snare' is an awkward attempt at Rolling Stones style raunchiness but the demo quality recording, grates next to the lushness of the rest of the album. 'Deadcrush' has a nice vibe but fails to live up to it's opening and the grating refrain of 'how green was my valley' on 'Pleader', nothing on 'Relaxer' lives up to the promise shown on '3WW'.

Stormzy - Gang Signs and Prayer
With Skepta and Wiley both having dropped some of the best Grime albums of their careers, I was looking forward to the crown prince of grime dropping his début. I was hoping for a dark, gritty and hard hitting album of grime bangers, and unfortunately I only heard half of one. While 'Mr Skeng', 'big for your boots' and 'return of the rucksack delivered on this, the other side of the album showed Stormzy shedding his rougher side for a gospel influenced sound, similar to that or Frank Ocean or Chance, the rapper. The ballads grate alongside the bangers, and while lyrically Stormzy bares far more than a grime MC usually would, the mix of styles is far too uneven to make for a satisfying whole album listen. At nearly an hour long 'Gang signs and Prayer' drags, and lacks the punch I was hoping for.

Noel Gallaghers High Flying Birds - Who built the moon? 
For a long time Noel seemed to have won a status as the nations favourite Gallagher. Yet in 2017 the tables turned with Liam finally turning in a decent back to basics rock album and winning back the affection of the Oasis fans who were disappointed by his Beady Eye projects. Meanwhile Noel decided to 'shake off the parka monkeys' with his most experimental album yet. Who built the moon? is an odd mix of epic stadium rock, psychedelia, and spaghetti western soundtracks. The only problem is he forgot to balance any of this experimentation with any decent tunes, and what's a Gallagher album without tunes?

The Big Moon - Love in the 4th Dimension. 
2017 has seen yet another wave of fantastic rock bands rise from obscurity. Creeper, Milk Teeth, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Pumarosa and many more have gained deserved success this year. Yet the band who seemed to get the most attention was 'The Big Moon'. Their début is an enjoyably raucous indie rock album, remiscent of the much missed 'Palma Violets'. While it may be fun this mish-mash of 90's/00's indie rock is hardly original or memorable, and ultimately very mediocre. I feel that 'The Big Moon's success is a product of the UK music industry laziness. If they were boys or weren't from London no one would care. I am all for girl bands, but the industry needs to stop treating girls with guitars as a novelty, and find artists with more originality than this.

Dishonorable mentions 
J Hus - Common Sense
Gorillaz - Humanz
Beck - Colours
Bjork - Utopia
Skepta - Vicious EP