The Year’s Best Albums (So Far) – According To Me

It’s still early yet – only mid-March for God’s sake – but never too soon to start handicapping the race for best albums of 2017 – according to me. That’s because, when it comes to music, labels and artists for years have employed the once-popular Doritos slogan: “We’ll make more.” Yep, it just keeps on coming, and I for one am very happy about that, being a lover of all musical styles, shapes, and sizes – except for Jazz, which I neither understand, or can follow most of the time. (Where does it start? Where does it finish?) I blame myself.

But Country? Bring it on in large doses. That, I get. In the first 10 weeks of 2017, there are already some great albums getting heavy rotation in the Honda CRZ. See? I’m a music lover, and I’ve gone green. I also adore small animals, the occasional haiku, and long walks on the beach. But, I digress.

Here are the year’s first best albums so far – according to me. Remember, it’s just my opinion, which most people take with a grain of salt, visible shoulder shrugs, sarcastic eye rolls, and an audible “WTF.” But it’s cool. As I do at the end of the year, I have five here, and of course these are subject to change. Like, when May comes around and Chris Stapleton releases his next project. He’s got a reserved spot on my favorite list. Unless it’s a Jazz album, I’m 100% sure I’ll love it, because: Chris Stapleton. These are in no particular pecking order:

Little Big Town – “The Breaker”

Remember that time I picked their previous release, “Pain Killer,” as the best album of 2014? Yeah, me too. That one elevated LBT’s game several notches and made the group more complete, with greater lead vocal involvement from Jimi and Phillip. It was also a heavy, deep-themed album, with cuts like “Tumble And Fall,” Girl Crush,” and “Things You Don’t Think About.” This time around, “The Breaker” feels lighter, breezier, and much more wistful. I said “lighter,” not “lightweight,” by the way, and there’s a huge difference. When you start an album with a song called “Happy People,”(co-penned by Lori McKenna, btw) it’s a dramatically more upbeat and optimistic beginning to a 12-song journey than, say, “Quit Breakin’ Up With Me,” from “Pain Killer.” But the rest of “The Breaker” also feels buoyant and nostalgic.

There’s a four-song sequence that solidifies this mood for me: “Lost In California” conjures images of chillin’ with a friend and sharing a joint, or, updated for 2017, an edible gummy bear. Next, “Free” is a spacy, sentimental stroll down memory lane, reminding us that “We worked so hard to have it all / When all the things we want are free.” Speaking of freedom, the next cut, “Driving Around,” epitomizes that feeling of having no set destination, no obligations, listening to the radio up loud with the right friends: “Everybody asking me where I’m going / As if I could answer that.” And sometimes, when you drive around with no agenda, you end up at near the ocean. “We Went To The Beach” is a great story-song conjuring up innocent, youthful memories. These songs, in this order, is why sequencing an album still matters.

Also, there’s a dark horse cut on this album I’ve found myself drawn to: “When Someone Stops Loving You,” a spot-on description of how painful living amid the ruins of a failed relationship is. No matter how far back that may have been for you, this song makes the heartache feel like an open wound all over again.

I realize after LBT’s #1 debut on the Country albums chart last week this pick makes you want to rename me Captain Obvious, but I’ve been living with “The Breaker” prior to its street date, and felt lucky to see them perform it in track order during the band’s Ryman Auditorium show on Saturday, February 25th.

Steve Moakler – “Steel Town”

I loved his six-song EP last spring, and now that collection is expanded, bringing us “Steel Town,” which is an ode to his hometown of Pittsburgh in many ways. Like, um, the title track? Also, let me say that his current single, “Love Drunk,” could be – should be – a contender for song of the summer. The song screams party central; it’s a fun, catchy, karaoke instant classic. If it’s not on your radar yet, it should be. There’s something very substantial here worth your time and worth a spot on your radio station.

New cuts include “Wheels,” a thoughtful, circle of life tune featuring lyrics like, “You start wishing you were young as soon as you grow up / And the farther you roam, the faster they spin / They drive you away and bring you home again.” This guy is a thinker – remember, he wrote “The Riser” for Dierks Bentley. “Steel Town” epitomizes the kind of music today’s broader base of Country users can easily take in. Still song-driven, but sonically flexible enough to appeal to transplanted rock fans, or thematically traditional fans, too.

Moakler’s songwriting and delivery – and thus, this entire album – has a blue collar, working man feel about it. That’s no more evident than on my favorite cut, “Siddle’s Saloon,” about a real bar founded by his grandfather – in his basement. Moakler told me that – for reasons unknown to him – his Grandpa’s nickname was Siddle, who, at some point had an actual bar, complete with stools, a booth, and kegorator system installed in his basement. It eventually became a family and neighborhood hangout, “where the first beer is poured in the late afternoon.” You are instantly transported into that world, “with a dance floor, and a dart board, and a game on the tube.” And, in “Cheers” like fashion, sings Moakler, “If you’re not here, they’ll be askin’ ’bout you.” It’s a rockin’, rowdy, sing-a-long tune that will be stuck in your head, making you wish you could hang out there, too. “Steel Town” hits the street Friday, March 17th.

Sunny Sweeney – “Trophy”

I’ve been a fan of Sunny Sweeney since her 2006 independent release, “Heartbreakers Hall Of Fame,” then cheered the next two albums, 2011’s “Concrete,” and 2014’s “Provoked.” You don’t have to already be a Sunny aficionado to appreciate her latest, called “Trophy,” but after listening, you will be. Last year, Brandy Clark’s unconventional “Big Day In A Small Town” easily made my top five albums list, and Sweeney has staked an early claim here in 2017 for similar recognition, and for similar reasons.

On “Trophy,” Sweeney has teamed up with the incomparable Lori McKenna for four songs that make me wish they’ll keep working together from now on. Inspired by Sweeney and her husband Jeff’s real-life struggle to have a child, “Bottle By My Bed” is a melancholy tune about a woman’s frustration watching all her friends become parents. She’s envious of their lives, while acknowledging they’re probably jealous, too, wishing for what appears to be her glamorous life on the road in front of the bright lights. “I’d rather be in a carpool line than this big old limousine,” she laments. After delivering the line, “We wait” in devastatingly sad fashion, the knock-out punch comes: “Right now our mortgage is the only thing that’s due.”

Also touching, “Grow Old With Me” (self-explanatory). And, proving that McKenna and Sweeney can pivot from sad and sentimental to snarky as hell, there’s the title cut, which Sweeney explained onstage at her recent Nashville show. Apparently, Jeff’s ex refers to Sweeney as his “trophy wife.” And thus, an album title was born. A haunting intro, followed by defiant lyrics, where Sweeney admits, “I know what you call me, the word fits me to a tee,” then snarls back, “He’s got a trophy now, for puttin’ up with you.”

A lot of what you’ll hear on “Trophy” reflects how content Sweeney is in her marriage to Jeff, but it’s not all lovey-dovey here. On “Pills,” a reformed and rehabilitated Sweeney catches up with an old party pal – who isn’t either of those things – asking “Are you still taking them pills?” The final cut is “Unsaid,” a painful, one-way conversation with a non-specific, and no-longer-with-us loved one: “Cuts to the bone seeing your name written in stone.” Yes. Yes, it does.

Sweeney is still her spicy, sassy self on “Trophy,” but she’s dug deeper here; this is easily the best album she’s ever made.

Lauren Alaina – “Road Less Traveled”

Even before Alaina had what I like to call a “CRS Moment,” at last month’s Country Radio Seminar, I was all in on “Road Less Traveled.” At the Thursday UMG lunch, Alaina belted out “Three,” probably her next single, accompanied by Seth Ennis, one of her co-writers on the tune. Think about all the music people see and hear at CRS – and this was what people talked about all week.

She’s grown up a lot from her run on “American Idol” back in 2011 (personally, I still think she should have won). There’s a big difference in life experiences from 17 to 22, and “Road Less Traveled” demonstrates that. While the emotional and very personal “Three” will be a smash, and could be the song that makes her a legit star, the title cut is on a trajectory right now to be #1.

I also think “Queen Of Hearts,” “Think Outside the Boy,” and “Painting Pillows” are hits, which showcase Alaina’s absolute weapon of a voice. And while these songs are for sure stellar – Alaina wrote or co-wrote all of them – like on a Carrie Underwood album, her voice is the focal point here.

Brett Young – “Brett Young”

His debut single, “Sleep Without You,” already topped the charts; now, “In Case You Didn’t Know” is nearly top 20 after just nine weeks. That’s incredible when you think about how long it’s generally taking new artists to get daytime spins and move a song up the charts. This album is loaded with radio hits, and Young seems to be the one guy right now who can squeeze into a lane created by and – for now – solely occupied by Sam Hunt.

Not sonically, mind you, because Young doesn’t meld elements of R&B and Hip Hop into his music. See, if you strip all that away from Hunt, and rely on lyrics, the guy is telling straight-up Country stories. So is Young, but his music is also Country music. Not twangy or traditional, but right down the pipe, in the strike zone, as-we-know-it-today Country music. Which, by the way, 12 of the 13 cuts here, he wrote. And, Like Hunt, Young is a former athlete, still hunky, with sex appeal 20-something females understand and are drawn to.

What’s next after “In Case You Didn’t Know?” Pick one.

As we’ve discussed, this list is a moving target, with nine more months left in the year and tons of music still coming. But these are my clubhouse leaders – for now. Am I missing something? Probably. So, send me your thoughts here, because I always appreciate feedback, insights, and suggestions.