It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Hilary Saunders
Posted On December 1, 2017
Year-in-review season is often cause for reflection. As the days get shorter, the time spent inside memories of the past 12 months often gets longer. And there’s been a lot to process this year. In reading the results from No Depression‘s Year-End Review Poll from 2016, it seems like many of the social and political themes that shaped our perception of last year’s music were, in fact, some of the clearest influences on albums released in 2017. You can see it in the names: The North Mississippi Allstars named their new record Prayer for Peace. Margo Price’s is All American Made. Rhiannon Giddens’ is Freedom Highway. Peace and prayers and freedom are what we seek, speak, and sing for in America in 2017.
Within and outside of these lyrical narratives, great songwriting and instrumentalism continued to thrive in 2017. In particular, singer-songwriters seemed to have a strong year (which we explored deeply in our Winter 2017 print journal). Like Harlan Howard implied many years ago, the power of three chords and the truth rings especially clearly today.
Last year, we tried a new system for our Year-End Readers Poll. Based on its success, as well as your excitement and engagement, we’re launching it again for 2017. Below, you’ll find a link to a Google form that lists nearly 500 albums that came out this year. Kindly follow the rules below, pick your personal top 10 (there’s no need to rank them), and stay tuned for the results in mid-December!
The Rules:
1. Please only select 10 albums from the list.
2. If you don’t see what you’re looking for, email help@nodepression.com with album title you’d like to add. We’ll do our best to honor all requests.
3. Once you’ve chosen your favorite 10 albums, scroll to the bottom of the form and click “Submit.”
Ballots will be accepted until 11:59 p.m. EST on Friday, Dec. 15. Votes will be tallied and the winners announced on Tuesday, Dec. 19.
