7/10
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Though a few missteps keep Ruins from being First Aid Kit’s best album, it’s still packed with well-written, well-performed, and well-produced folk pop songs.
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Though not stylistically consistent, Gumboot Soup is one of the strongest batches of songs King Gizzard put out in 2017.
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Ephorize is cupcakKe’s most consistent and entertaining album yet.
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Pop 2 is another welcome collaboration between Charli XCX and the PC Music camp.
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N*E*R*D’s latest is a somewhat inconsistent return, but offers some of the freshest production of 2017.
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Chris Stapleton drops a second album of quality contemporary country in 2017.
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Chicago jazz drummer Makaya McCraven reassembles a series of lo-fi live recordings into a batch of exciting, dynamic nu jazz beats.
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With Ash, the Diaz sisters return for a sophomore record of soulful, minimal art pop.
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Utopia is one of Björk’s most majestic and revealing albums yet, but it’s also her most bloated and unkempt.
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King Gizzard has released a proggy new album into the public domain, and it’s perhaps the band’s most holistic and ambitious effort this year.