James Li

Pictured are album covers from A Crow Looked at Me by Mount Eerie, CTRL by SZA, Neo Wax Bloom by Iglooghost, Sacred Horror in Design by Sote, Flower Boy by Tyler, the Creator, Brutalism by Idles, If Blue Could be Happiness by Florist, Piety of Ashes by The Flashbulb, Saturation by Brockhampton, and Where Are We Going? by Octo Octa.

Music

Best Albums of 2017: Top 10

Audrin Baghaie , Colton Newman , James Li , Kyle Land and Eric Ng | January 10

The contributors assigned for this list, fortunately, all have vastly different music tastes. Each writer was assigned to include two albums, as well as listen to the suggestions by other writers, and contribute accordingly. The result is a shared collective view of ten albums in 2017 that provide the most evocative, genuine, and interesting listening experiences. Due to the nature of the collaborative piece, albums are not ranked numerically. Each record is considered a number one, so to speak, and are presented alphabetically with the respective writer credited for their contribution. Here's to a new year that's louder than the last.

Pictured are album covers of DAMN. by Kendrick Lamar, Grafts by Kara, Planetarium by Planetarium, Melodrama by Lorde, Cracked Up by Fleet Foxes and Pure Comedy by Father John Misty.

Music

Best Albums of 2017: Honorable Mentions

Audrin Baghaie , Colton Newman , James Li , Kyle Land and Eric Ng | January 6

2017 was, in almost every way, a calendar year, that occurred. Things happened, which was cool. Some things did not happen, that was also fine. The things worth mentioning though, the important stuff; that stuff resides on your phones, tablets, and desktops. Because 2017, in addition to being another profound year for music streaming, was a great year for music in general. So many artists are stepping out of their comfort zones, hungrier than ever to produce evocative music often influenced by the sociopolitical struggles we've come to be immersed in these days. We here at Daily Lobo Music are big fans of lists, calenders, and innovative music, so we decided to all band together like a tag-team squad of transatlantic Captain Planet music junkies and document what releases made us laugh, cry, jam, mosh, scream, wonder, and go: "oh dang, yeah I like that" this year. Here is part one of our two part Best of 2017 series: the honorable mentions that didn't make it to the top 10.

Music

Review: Mount Eerie's "A Crow Looked At Me"

James Li | March 29

“A Crow Looked At Me” is a masterpiece, but one that I wish didn’t have to exist. On 9 July 2016, Geneviéve Castrée, singer of Ô Paon and author of graphic memoir, "Susceptible," was killed by pancreatic cancer. She left behind her husband of thirteen years and their one-and-a-half-year-old daughter. Her husband, now a young widower and single parent, did the one thing he could to impede the sorrow: write and record the album, “A Crow Looked At Me,” which stands as an incredible monument to their love. Phil Elverum (Mount Eerie, The Microphones) is best known for his 2001 magnum opus, “The Glow, Pt. 2,” a lush, mysterious artifact which once won online magazine Pitchfork’s coveted Album of the Year title. But this latest release strips Elverum of his enormous musical and lyrical vocabulary.

Music

To CARE, in Solitude

James Li | March 19

The Neighborhood House is beautiful, but anonymously so. Built in Grand Rapid’s quiet Eastown neighborhood by early 20th century Dutch immigrants, it stands small and unassuming in white and green. At the time of its construction, handsome streetcars ran just a street across on Wealthy, sending weekenders to ride rollercoasters and ferries on Reed’s Lake. This was long before General Motors paid the city to demolish the streetcars after the war, long before the white flight of the ‘60s, and the gang wars of the ‘90s, and the ongoing white gentrification of the 2010s.

Best Albums of 2017: Top 10

Best Albums of 2017: Honorable Mentions

Review: Mount Eerie's "A Crow Looked At Me"

To CARE, in Solitude

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