Eclectic Grooves

The first time that this opportunity presented itself, I had only been running a blog for a couple years. Considering this, I decided that I wouldn't partake in the decade lists for the years between 2000-2010.  Eclectic Grooves has been around through the entire decade of 2010's, albeit, some years have been less productive. When I first started compiling this list, I combed through each of my year-end posts from the last ten years to get me pointed in the right direction. Then I read some of the "Decade Best of" lists that have been released so far from Aquarium Drunkard, Post Trash, Stereogum and Paste for further inspiration and motivation. My initial hope was to make this a definitive list with links to the original reviews posted on Eclectic Grooves, as well new takes on records that hadn't made my previous lists. Unfortunately, a head-cold with a severe cough over the past week has prevented me from moving forward on this list sooner, so it's going to...

Well, dear readers, it's safe to assume that the final two months of 2017 were not very kind to me. I caught the flu twice within the same month, both in the middle of a holiday weekend. Last week was a complete blur to me as the combination, of fever, chills, headache, stomach ache and overall weakness hit me like a ton of bricks. My hope was to get my list of favorite albums of 2017 completed sometime last week, but clearly that was a pipe dream constructed with leaky pipes. 2017 has been an interesting year for music. While there weren't many records that really resonated with me, there were a few outliers that stood head and shoulders above the rest of the pack. I'm going to share the list of my favorites for the year, but please keep in mind that this is far from a definitive list. Considering that I didn't come across much blues, jazz, soul and country music throughout the year, this list will mostly feature rock, acoustic, hip-hop, international and experimental ...