This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at UPRM chapter.

11. “The Navigator” by Hurray For the Riff Raff

2017 is the year Alynda Segarra, the Nuyorican head of folk band Hurray For The Riff Raff, decided to fine-tune her band’s feel to a sound more politically attuned to her Puerto Rican roots. Drawing influences from David Bowie’s character Ziggy Stardust, Segarra crafted her own concept album following the Navigator, a woman named Navita Milagros Negrón, who “would stand at the intersection of all these identities and weave in and out.”

Now, in a triumphant song, Segarra asks, through the Navigator, who was “raised by the streets” where “will all my people live”, calls attention to the marginalized people threatened by gentrification, over the sounds of sometimes Puerto Rican bomba and salsa, other times son cubano, at all times resoundingly Latino music.

10. “3WW” by alt-J

Three years after the release of their album “This Is All Yours,” alt-J returned with news of an album release paired with a single (and opening track) named “3WW”. Starting with a soft guitar instrumental, “3WW” picks up the pace and sings about a wandering “wayward lad” who talks about the 3 worn words (I love you), which are said as frequently as tourists in Verona touch the breasts of a statue for good luck. Featuring the sensual vocals of Wolf Alice’s Ellie Roswell and two of alt-J’s vocalists, they elevate their music to sonic heights, as the wayward lad sings, “I just want to love you in my own language.”

9. “Slide” by Calvin Harris (ft. Frank Ocean)

When Calvin Harris teased fans of a possible collaboration with Frank Ocean, a man the world expected would fade from existence for another for years after his dual release of his sensational albums Blond and Endless, people lost it. However, not only did Frank deliver and sing alongside popular rap group Migos, but under Harris’s production, produced an instantly popular radio track worth listening to.

8. “Cool Your Heart” by Dirty Projectors (ft. D∆WN)

Dirty Projectors’ David Longstreth’s artistic and romantic split from his longtime girlfriend Amber Coffman oozed into a new, self-titled album. “Cool Your Heart,” written in collaboration with Solange, dares to ask how his ex-partner feels and “Is it loneliness? / Is there shining in your heart /But no gloss on your lips?” “Cool Your Heart,” described as a “cubist fantasia”, navigates through Longstreth’s shifting emotions in a duet with the experimental dance-R&B artist D∆WN. With hyper-cool drum beats and a sonic weirdness, Longstreth confesses that “Though I been trying hard not to fall / The feeling is tumbling in” as he realizes, mid-song, “it’s been feeling wrong / To start relying, making decisions based on another person.”

7. “Dangerous” by The xx

Nobody knew how or when, if ever, The xx would ever release another album. The xx, that one special band that would form an integral part of my nighttime playlists back in high school, formerly mellowed me over the soft nature of their melodies. The xx, in 2017, kicked off their newest in five years with a cutting edge and danceable beat in the form of “Dangerous.”

6. “Know” by SYD

In a bold move, most members of the neo-soul band The Internet paused their songwriting for their band to pursue their own solo projects. Lead singer Syd Bennett envisioned her solo album, FIN, as a “a side project, for sure.” SYD released sultry sex jam “Know,” a standout track for her album for its exquisite production, where she chants to her lover that their affair will be their “secret, don’t wanna get caught creeping,” because “Is it really cheating, who says we’re cheating?” While I condone Syd’s lyricism for this track for its topic of cheating on a partner, it is a masterful track that I get submerged in from the second I press play.

5. “Hot Thoughts” by Spoon

“Hot Thoughts” is a beat-heavy song from Spoon’s brand of funk-rock, except with producer Dave Fridmann’s twist of string arrangements and bells. “Hot Thoughts” explores how hot thoughts of whomever the singer is pining for are melting in his mind: “Could be your accent mixing with mine / You got me uptight, twisting inside /Hot thoughts all in my mind and all of the time, babe.”

4. “Green Light” by Lorde

The intergalactic David Bowie, who once called Lorde “the future of music,” certainly called it. Lorde, who at the age of 17, turned the world on its head with Pure Heroine, resurfaced with single “Green Light” and a soon-to-be-released album, Melodrama. “Green Light,” a comeback track slash breakup jam invites listeners into a newly found openness in her lyricism, where she rehashes her anger at a lying ex because what he did makes her “wanna scream the truth”. Slashing at him with verses alternating between hoping those “great whites” bite him and calling him a “damn liar” transitions into a crescendo of uplifting house pianos as she hears “brand new sounds in my mind.” Love it, hate it, or feeling underwhelmed by Lorde’s sound, she savors the moment she’ll get a green light and overcomes this man.

3. “Futuro” by Café Tacvba

Café Tacvba, as they like to think of themselves, are no strangers to experimentation. Vocalist Quique Rangel comments that the song examines “the relationship between life and death and the perception of time” without traces of “solemnity or optimism.” The primarily folk song laced with electronica beats and vocals make for a fascinating song: “Es una cuestión de tiempo / tan breve este momento … / Tu mañana ya te fuiste, pero antes me dijiste, / “Que el futuro es hoy.”

2. “Rican Beach” by Hurray For The Riff Raff

After years of traveling the United States on freight trains, ending up in New Orleans, picking up a banjo for the first time, and releasing three albums, Segarra delved into her Puerto Rican roots and let her activist overflow. “Rican Beach,” sung over Latin rhythms and grooves, in an interview with Rolling Stone, was dedicated to two groups of protesters: “the Standing Rock Sioux and the people of Peñuelas, Puerto Rico, who are fighting the dumping of coal ash in local landfills, which leads to water contamination.”

The concept of Rican Beach entails a fictional beach where displaced people would wash up, after being stripped of their lands and rights: “And they stole our neighborhood / And they stole our streets / And they left us to die /On Rican beach” after firstly stealing “our language…our names…the things that brought us fame”. Segarra’s angle is “one of resistance, people of color claiming their space and their right to exist”; it is a call to fight.

1. “Chanel” by Frank Ocean

I could write sonnets about how much I adore “Chanel,” which Frank Ocean generously dropped out of the thinnest of air on March 11th. “Chanel”, which he played at the end of a Beats 1 Radio show he DJ’ed, explores the dualities he sees and understands. The duality of Ocean seeing “both sides like Chanel” references his bisexuality, tie in to his opening lines, “My guy pretty like a girl/ And he got fight stories to tell.” From the understated piano in the background, to his lyricism, to the supreme command of his voice as the center of this song, “Chanel” is three minutes and thirty seconds of bliss you’ll want to play over endlessly.

If you’re curious for 2017 has sounded like to me, via a playlist:

The Best Songs of 2017 (So Far)