22.Sheer Mag, 'Need to Feel Your Love'
Having mastered the short form on three airtight EPs in as many years, scrappy Philly punks Sheer Mag finally scaled the album summit withNeed to Feel Your Love. Thankfully, they didn't tweak the recipe.Need to Feel Your Lovefeatures the same boombox fidelity, garage-metal shred quotient and heavy-duty soul-powered hooks (courtesy of mighty-voiced singer Tina Halladay) that made their prior releases so much fun. What's different here is that the band lets its tender side show, to stunning effect, on tracks like sultry disco strut "Pure Desire" and wistful power-pop nostalgia trip "Milk and Honey." Plus, they're still writing some of the most badass love songs ("Just Can't Get Enough") and stylish protest anthems ("Expect the Bayonet") in contemporary rock.H.S.

21.Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, 'The Nashville Sound'
"I ain't fighting with you down in the ditch, I'll meet you up here on the road," sings Jason Isbell on "Hope the High Road," the declaration of unyielding perseverance that ties together his sixth studio album, a 10-track Americana jewel. Indeed, Isbell elevates relationships ("If We Were Vampires"), discussions about privilege ("White Man's World") and the art of songwriting itself to a higher plane onThe Nashville Sound. But the LP addresses nationwide blue-collar hardships, from the trap of addiction ("Cumberland Gap") to crushed dreams ("Tupelo"), proving Isbell is a voice for all people, not just the ones in the South.J.H.

20.SZA, 'Ctrl'
After a trio of promising EPs and a prominent feature on Rihanna'sAnti, the budding alt-R&B star showed what she could do on a full-length LP. SZA unravels through largely improvised meditations on love and sex and all the promise and abandonment that can result from both. From a side-chick manifesto ("The Weekend") to the appreciation of a rom-com icon that mulls the singer's own self-worth ("Drew Barrymore"), SZA flourishes in her own hazy spotlight.B.S.

楼主鸡爪子划拉快点

19.Father John Misty, 'Pure Comedy'
In which Josh Tillman updates the Seventies singer-songwriter tradition for our dystopian, post-ironic era, using its melodicism and "sincerity" as both comfort food and grim punchline. "Bedding Taylor Swift/Every night inside the Oculus Rift" was the most quoted couplet, from the culture-indicting "Total Entertainment Forever," a send up of virtual reality and Kanye West-style audience bait. But the most impressive writing is "Leaving L.A.," a 13-minute Dylan-esque anti-hero epic that locates Tilman himself in its crosshairs ("Oh, great, that's just what they all need/Another white guy in 2017/Who takes himself so goddamn seriously"). Predicting his own backlash was just another way he seemed to be one step ahead of nearly everyone this year.W.H.

18.St. Vincent, 'Masseduction'
Annie Clark manages a double gainer with her fourth LP, making both her most hook-filled, pop-savvy set and what feels like her most personal. Memoir-pop cheerleader Jack Antonoff assists on production, ditto Mars Volta head-puncher Lars Stalfors. But it's Clark's wit and the new warmth in her songcraft that make this record so impossible to shake. See the heartbreaking "Happy Birthday, Johnny," the wry show tune "New York," and the chilling-hilarious "Pills" – the latter graced with a seizure-inducing Clark guitar outburst and a Kamasi Washington sax coda.W.H.

後排提示：排名第25的是神專麻煩支持一下

17.Harry Styles, 'Harry Styles
After a stellar run with One Direction, Harry Styles could have gone anywhere he wanted. What would he try for his big solo move: Glitzy radio pop? Celebrity guests? The usual slate of big-name producers? Instead, Styles stakes his claim as a rock star, getting personal with a sublime album of Seventies-style guitar grooves. "Sweet Creature" and "Ever Since New York" are intimate acoustic ballads; while "Kiwi" lets him strut his Oasis-style self at top volume. "Two Ghosts" is a break-up lament worthy of his muse and cosmic mentor Stevie Nicks. Unlike most boy-band dudes going solo, he never sounds like he's sweating to get taken seriously – he never loses touch with the exuberance and swagger he brought to One Direction in the first place. So get used to this man – you'll be hearing a lot more from him.R.S.

16.Margo Price, 'All American Made'
Margo Price's 2016 debut,Midwest Farmer's Daughter, established her as one of the sharpest songwriters in Nashville, but her second LP upped the ante in remarkable fashion.All American Madeis a fierce protest album about the ways that the American dream has failed so many – see the feminist ballad "Pay Gap," where she channels Loretta Lynn and Donna Summer for a frank discussion of capitalism's double standards. It's also a reverent tribute to music's past, featuring a tender duet with Willie Nelson and a slew of other songs that recall his Seventies heyday. No other country act, and precious few from any genre, went nearly as deep as Price did this year.S.V.L.

15.Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile, 'Lotta Sea Lice'
A match made in indie-rock heaven. Vile is a sly lyricist with a stoner's demeanor who's always made his most articulate statements with his guitar. Barnett is a sly melodist, and so adept a wordsmith you can imagine any randomly-ripped-out page from her diary would make an engaging song. Together they craft a sublimely chilled-out set that shines with tossed-off bedhead dazzle, whether rambling about fabric softener, their daily routines, or – on the standout "Continental Breakfast" – the flickering disconnect of maintaining relationships while schlepping around the world playing music. It's also sweetly romantic, never more so than on the giddy "Blue Cheese" when the duo harmonize the line "so kiss me with your mouth, girl of my dreams!"W.H.

14.Waxahatchee, 'Out in the Storm'
No songwriter handles the curves and swerves of modern romance quite like Waxahatchee's Katie Crutchfield. Her band's fourth albumOut in the Stormis the kind of breakthrough that heralds a major artist truly finding her voice, as she digs herself out of what sounds like some gnarly emotional wreckage. It's like a punk rock answer to Carole King'sTapestry. "8 Ball" and "Silver" are full of wise-ass guitar twang, as the Alabama-born Crutchfield talks shit about the menfolk but mostly dishes the dirt about her heart-on-fire self. In "Sparks Fly" she gets a spiritual boost from twin sister Alison, who dropped her own excellent album this year withTourist in This Town. This is the best kind of break-up journal – the kind you want to blast out loud.R.S.

joan crawford

13.Randy Newman, 'Dark Matter'
Newman opens his first album of new material in eight years with three songs that play the end of Western civilization for laughs – starting with a Marx Brothers version of the Scopes Trial and culminating with a Vladimir Putin variety show – and then hits one that plays the end of life for tears: "Lost Without You," in which a husband listens in the shadows as his dying wife tells her kids to take care of him after she's gone. It's a stunning miniature, with swells of American prairie strings and horns giving way to Newman alone at the piano delivering a simple message: The darkness is coming to us all, one way or the other.J.L.