Under the Radar's Top 15 Debut Albums of 2017 | Under the Radar Magazine Under the Radar | Music Blog for the Indie Music Magazine
Thursday, March 28th, 2024  

Under the Radar’s Top 15 Debut Albums of 2017

Dec 31, 2017
Bookmark and Share


The majority of 2017’s best debut albums came from female artists or bands fronted by women, from London-based all-female indie-pop teenaged trio Girl Ray and Syria-born singer/songwriter Bedouine (aka Azniv Korkejian) to Australian indie rocker Alex Lahey and New Zealand bedroom pop artist Fazerdaze (aka Amelia Murray). Midnight Sister, Priests, and Charly Bliss are all female-fronted bands as well, on top of other women solo artists on our Top 15 Debut Albums of 2017 list. That’s just the way it worked out this year.

This list was mainly culled from our Top 100 Albums of 2017 list, where we separated out the debut albums from that list and added two other titles to the end. Twelve of these artists were interviewed in our Pleased to Meet You section this year. There were other exciting new artists we interviewed in 2017 (including Marika Hackman and Jay Som) who actually released their sophomore albums this year and were thus ineligible for this list. Let’s hope the artists that are on here are also able to avoid the dreaded sophomore slump in years to come. By Mark Redfern

1.

Moses Sumney

Aromanticism

Jagjaguwar

Otherworldly Los Angeles singer/songwriter Moses Sumney has been hovering on the edge of our radar for a few years now, so it\‘s no surprise that his long-awaited debut album Aromanticism should end up on this list. What is surprising, though, is how remarkably self-assured and stunning the end result turned out to be. Sumney uses his beautifully tender voice to thoroughly explore the concept its title suggests: is it possible to live fully and not need love? From the aching dismissal of \“Don\‘t Bother Calling\” to the dynamic centerpiece/mission-statement \“Lonely World,\” this is the best debut album of 2017, and a sure sign that Moses Sumney is a true artist to watch. By Scott Dransfield

2.

Kelly Lee Owens

Kelly Lee Owens

Smalltown Supersound

3.

Girl Ray

Earl Grey

Moshi Moshi

4.

Midnight Sister

Saturn Over Sunset

Jagjaguwar

5.

Bedouine

Bedouine

Spacebomb

6.

Alex Lahey

I Love You Like a Brother

Dead Oceans

7.

Phoebe Bridgers

Stranger in the Alps

Dead Oceans

8.

SZA

Ctrl

Top Dawg/RCA

9.

Sampha

Process

Young Turks

10.

Nick Hakim

Green Twins

ATO

11.

Madeline Kenney

Night Night at the First Landing

Company

12.

Priests

Nothing Feels Natural

Sister Polygon

13.

Fazerdaze

Morningside

Flying Nun

14.

Little Cub

Still Life

Domino

15.

Charly Bliss

Guppy

Barsuk

Comments

Submit your comment

Name Required

Email Required, will not be published

URL

Remember my personal information
Notify me of follow-up comments?

Please enter the word you see in the image below:

Celyse
August 8th 2018
12:30am

Very beautiful list of the album, thanks for sharing it. Get in contact with best Martinsburg lawyers for DUI legal assistance.

jasa it
November 1st 2018
4:10am

I think your advice will be beneficial for me. I will let you know if it works for me. Thank you for sharing this wonderful articles.

Pulau tidung

Peter
November 19th 2018
10:30am

Thanks for sharing this list.

Guest House Jogja
February 15th 2019
12:44am

It’s been few years but still the best!

solo
June 9th 2019
9:27am

solo

sidoarjo
June 10th 2019
8:23am

sidoarjo