John Luther Adams    
Canticles of the Holy Wind    
Contemporary Choral Music



Teddy Afro    
Ethiopia    
Illegal Ethiopian Dance Music



Arca    
Arca    
Fragile, Ultra-Slow Latin Electropop



Daymé Arocena    
Cubafonía     
Contemporary Afro-Cuban Music



Sam Baker    
Land of Doubt    
Raw, Self-Produced Singer-Songwriter from the Texas Prairie


Scott H. Biram    
The Bad Testament    
Funkish Punkish Country Music



Björk
Utopia  
Groove-Free Techno with Flutes & Birdsong



Theo Bleckmann    
Elegy    
Elegaic Jazz



Stefano Bollani    
Mediterraneo: Jazz at the Berlin Philharmonic    
Jazz with Classical/Cinematic Ingredients



Brooklyn Youth Chorus    
Black Mountain Songs    
Contemporary Music for Youth Chorus



Betty Buckley    
Story Songs    
Cabaret/Broadway




Sarah Cahill    
Eighty Trips Around the Sun: Music by and for Terry Riley    
Piano Music Composed (or Inspired) by Terry Riley



Celestial Sirens/Musica Secreta   
Lucrezia Borgia's Daughter     
Anonymous 16th Century Polyphony for Nuns



Bill Charlap    
Uptown Downtown    
Jazz Piano Trio



Billy Childs    
Rebirth    
Jazz



Clann An Drumma     
Order of the Stag    
Tribal Drumming with Scottish Bagpipes



Gary Clark, Jr.   
Live in North America 2016    
Electric Blues



Anat Cohen Tentet    
Happy Song    
Semi-Big-Band Jazz




Jessi Colter    
The Psalms    
Gospel/Country/Folk



The Como Mamas    
Move Upstairs    
Gospel



Andrew Cooperstock    
Leonard Bernstein: Complete Solo Works for Piano    
Modern Classical Music



Danish String Quartet    
Last Leaf    
Nordic Folk Music/Chamber Music



DeJohnette/Grenadier/Medeski/Scofield    
Hudson    
Old Rock in New Jazzy Guises



Del Sol Quartet & Gyan Riley    
Terry Riley: Dark Queen Mantra    
Music for String Quartet and Electric Guitar



Ani DiFranco    
Binary    
Singer-Songwriter



Emerson String Quartet    
Chaconnes and Fantasias: Music of Britten and Purcell    
Chamber Music



Emika    
Melanfonie    
Czech Orchestral Art Pop



Brian Eno    
Reflection    
Ambient Music




Heloísa Fernandes    
Faces    
Brazilian Music/Jazz



Fink    
Fink's Sunday Night Blues Club, Vol. 1    
British Blues for Moderns



Champian Fulton    
Speechless    
Jazz Piano



Galley Beggar    
Heathen Hymns    
British Folk-Rock With a Touch of Metal



Molly Gebrian & Danny Holt    
Trios for Two     
New Music for Viola, Piano and Percussion



Rhiannon Giddens    
Freedom Highway
Americana



Stanley Grill    
At the Center of Things    
Contemporary Chamber Music Inspired by Early Music



Erik Griswold    
Ecstatic Descent    
New Music for Prepared Piano



Jo Harman    
People We Become    
Moody British Singer-Songwriter Comes to Nashville



Stephen Hartke     
The Ascent of the Equestrian in a Balloon    
Contemporary Classical Music




Fred Hersch    
Open Book    
Solo Jazz Piano



Jennifer Higdon    
All Things Majestic    
Ecology-Inspired Contemporary Classical Music



Ifriqiyya Électrique    
Rûwâhîne     
Sufi Trance Music from Tunisia with a Post-Punk Twist



The Infamous Stringdusters    
Laws of Gravity    
Bluegrass



Vijay Iyer    
Far From Over    
Jazz



Ahmad Jamal    
Marseille    
Jazz



Jasper String Quartet    
Unbound    
Contemporary Chamber Music




Jlin    
Black Origami    
Percussion-Driven Multicultural Dance Music



John Joubert    
Jane Eyre    
Contemporary Opera



Mari Kimura    
Voyage Apollonian    
Music for Violin & Interactive Computer



The Kraken Quartet    
Separate / Migrate    
Dance & Trance Music for Percussion and Electronics



Julian Lage & Chris Eldridge    
Mount Royal    
Folk/Americana




Nguyên Lê & Ngô Hồng Quang    
Há Nôi Duo    
Vietnamese Music/Jazz



Charles Lloyd    
Passin' Thru    
Jazz



The Magnetic Fields    
50 Song Memoir    
Pop-Rock Art Songs



Rudresh Mahanthappa’s Indo-Pak Coalition     
Agrima    
Jazz/South Asian Music



Laura Marling    
Semper Femina    
Singer-Songwriter



Hayes McMullan    
Everyday Seem Like Murder Here    
Previously Unreleased Country Blues Recorded in 1960s



Björn Meyer    
Provenance    
Ritualistic Music for Solo Bass Guitar (Six-String Electric and Acoustic)




Father John Misty    
Pure Comedy    
Faux Ecclesiastical Singer-Songwriter



Stanton Moore    
With You In Mind: The Songs of Allen Toussaint    
New Orleans Funk



Randy Newman    
Dark Matter    
Mordant Singer-Songwriter



North Mississippi Allstars    
Prayer for Peace    
Roots & Blues



Víkingur Ólafsson    
Philip Glass: Piano Works     
Minimalist Piano Music




Ed Palermo Big Band    
The Great Un-American Songbook, Vol 1& 2    
Irreverent Rock Repertory Big Band Music



Aaron Parks    
Find the Way    
Jazz



Maurizio Pollini    
Chopin: Late Works    
Classical Piano Music



Billy Porter (with Guests)    
The Soul of Richard Rodgers    
Flamboyant Updatings of Broadway Tunes



Chris Potter    
The Dreamer is the Dream    
Jazz



Awa Poulo    
Poulo Warali    
Peulh Music from Mali



Quercus    
Nightfall    
Folk/Jazz



Jason Ricci & The Bad Kind    
Approved by Snakes    
Dirty Harmonica Blues



Pepe Romero/Vicente Coves    
Federico Moreno Torroba: Guitar Concertos 2   
20th Classical Music for Guitar



Ryuichi Sakamoto    
async    
Soundtrack Without a Film



Cécile McLorin Salvant    
Dreams and Daggers    
Jazz Vocals



András Schiff    
Encores After Beethoven    
Classical Piano Music



Adam Schoenberg    
American Symphony/Finding Rothko/Picture Studies    
Neo-Romanticist Contemporary Orchestral Music



Raymond Scott    
Three Willow Park: Electronic Music from Inner Space 1961-1971    
Previously Unreleased Electronic and AI Music from 1960s



SFJAZZ Collective     
Music of Miles Davis & Original Compositions    
Jazz




Peter Silberman    
Impermanence    
Singer-Songwriter



Songhoy Blues    
Résistance    
West African Desert Rock as Political Protest



Tyshawn Sorey    
Verisimilitude    
Pointillistic Anti-Jazz



Wesley Stace    
Wesley Stace's John Wesley Harding    
Singer-Songwriter



Colin Stetson    
All This I Do For Glory    
Experimental Saxophone Trance Music



Sufjan Stevens, Bryce Dessner, Nico Muhly and James McAlister      
Planetarium    
Introverted Pop for Star-Gazing



Quinn Sullivan     
Midnight Highway    
Bluesy Rock-Pop



Systema Solar    
Rumbo A Tierra    
Cumbia/EDM/Hip-Hop



Tale of Us    
Endless    
Tech-Noir Chillout Music from Deutsche Grammophon



The Tangent    
The Slow Rust of Forgotten Machinery    
Neo Prog Rock




Otis Taylor    
Fantasizing About Being Black    
Trance Blues



Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau    
Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau    
Jazz/Folk Hybrid



Thundercat    
Drunk    
R&B/Hip-Hop



Tinariwen    
Elwan    
African Desert Blues




Tohpati Ethnomission     
Mata Hati    
Indonesian Jazz-Rock



Ralph Towner    
My Foolish Heart    
Jazz Guitar



Tribalistas    
Tribalistas    
Contemporary Brazilian Popular Music



The Unthanks    
Diversions, Vol. 4: The Songs and Poems of Molly Drake    
Brooding Songs by Nick Drake's Mother Molly Drake (1915-1993)



Kamasi Washington    
Harmony of Difference    
Jazz with a Tinge of Soul/R&B



Dale Watson and Ray Benson    
Dale & Ray    
Roadhouse Country



Willie Watson       
Folksinger, Vol. 2.    
Folk Music



The xx    
I See You    
Dream Pop



Miguel Zenón    
Típico    
Jazz
Related Links:

The 100 Best Albums of 2016
The 100 Best Albums of 2015
The 100 Best Albums of 2014
The 100 Best Albums of 2013
The 100 Best Albums of 2012
The 100 Best Albums of 2011


BACKGROUND  

I am often asked how I compile my
annual list of the 100 best albums.
Here is some background information.  

What is different about this year's list?

I am listing my top 100 for 2017 in
alphabetical order, rather than ranking
them. This marks a change from
previous years. I am doing this
because each of these albums
deserves recognition and the
sequential ranking tended to focus
too much attention on just a few
recordings.

What styles of music do I include in my
listening?  

I listen to all genres and all styles of
music. I like to listen to music that is
fresh and different, and this spurs me
to search outside the dominant
commercial categories and hit
releases. But I also listen to the
heavily promoted albums from the
major labels.    

How much music do I listen to?   

I like to hear new music every day.   
During 2017 I listened to more
than 1,000 new  album releases.
(The exact number was 1,034.)  

Why do I compile this list?

Like any music lover, I enjoy
sharing my favorite music with others.
But in the last few years, a different
motivation has spurred me. I believe
that the system of music discovery is
broken in the current day. There is
more music recorded than ever before,
but it is almost impossible for listeners
to find the best new recordings.  The
most creative work in music is
increasingly found on self-produced
projects and releases from small
indie labels— to an extent hardly
conceivable only a decade ago.  Very
little of this music ever shows up on
the radio, where formats seem to get
narrower and narrower with each
passing year.  Music fans once heard
good new music at indie record stores,
but most of them have closed. Or
they could read reviews in the
newspaper, but both the newspapers
and the music reviews are shrinking or
disappearing. And the big record
labels are the worst culprits of all,
picking acts for their looks or their
potential appeal to fourteen-year-olds,
or some other egregious reason, and
in general jumping on the most trivial
passing fads. On the other hand,
the Internet presents an almost
infinite amount of music and music
commentary—yet where do fans
even begin to separate the good from
the bad and ugly?  My personal solution
to this dilemma has been to listen to
lots and lots of music, and try to
identify recordings of quality and
distinction. I share my list because
I know, from past experience, that
many other listeners are frustrated
with the broken system of music
discovery, and are also looking for
good new music.  

What criteria do I apply?  

I have no axe to grind.  My list is
filled with music I enjoy, and suspect
others will too—especially if they
have a reasonably good ear, and
an open mind.  I like recordings that
show some flair and creativity, a
sense of style, solid musicianship,
and an emotional commitment to
the moment of performance. I
appreciate it when an artist
possesses a sense of musical
tradition; on the other hand, I don’t
want to see slavish imitation of the
past. When music strikes me as
too formulaic or contrived or cold,
I start to lose interest.  Like any critic,
I want my readers to think that I am
cool and hip and oh-so-up-to-date,
but I learned some time ago that
many of the best recordings are
decidedly uncool and unhip.  So if
you want to laugh at me for honoring
some superannuated rocker or
unfashionable bagpipe album,
go right ahead. But also check
out some of the lesser-known titles on
the list...you might just be pleasantly
surprised by what you hear.

Happy listening!
Ted Gioia
Homepage
The 100 Best Recordings of 2017


Selected by Ted Gioia
Follow Ted Gioia on Twitter at
www.twitter.com/tedgioia
Selected articles by Ted Gioia on the web

The African Origins of the Love Song
The Rise of the Fragmented Novel
Why Are Music Scholars Ignoring Musical Universals?
The Adventurer's Guide to Finnegans Wake
Notes on Conceptual Fiction
Has Music Criticism Turned Into Lifestyle Reporting?
Schopenhauer for Millennials
Vladimir Nabokov, Sci-Fi Writer
How Sartre Cured Existential Angst with Jazz
If John Coltrane Had Lived
The Decline of Satire
My Year of Horrible Reading
The Backlash Against Jazz
The Con Man Who Invented American Popular Music
The Bumbling Shostakovich
The Rise of Artisan Music
The Year American Speech Became Art
What We've Learned About the NSA
The 8 Memes of the Postmodern Mystery
Ted Gioia Interviews Composer Terry Riley
Why the Fuss About Jonathan Franzen?
Slaves for Love: How Bondage Shaped the Love Song
A Conversation About Jazz with Ted Gioia
The 100 Best Recordings of 2016
The 100 Best Recordings of 2015
The 100 Best Recordings of 2014
The 100 Best Recordings of 2013
The 100 Best Recordings of 2012
The 100 Best Recordings of 2011
The Weirdest 1960s Novel of Them All
Franco: The James Brown of Africa
How Alice Got to Wonderland
Does the Music Business Need Musicianship?
The King of Western Swing
Post Cool
The Year of Magical Reading
Why Music Owernship Matters
Frank Sinatra at 100
Ella Fitzgerald at 100
What is the Clumsiest Classic Novel?
The Crisis in Music (podcast)
The Weird Tales of H.P. Lovecraft
How to Fix Online Music
My 10 Favorite Novels on Music
A Conversation with Ted Gioia about Love Songs
The Music of the Tango
The Letter That Changed the Course of Modern Lit
The End of the Angry Guitar
The Most Intriguing Musicians of 2017
Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook
Do Blues Musicians Need to be Really, Really Old?
The Unconventional Sci-Fi of Kurt Vonnegut
Twelve Essential Tango Recordings
Alan Lomax and the FBI
Robert Musil and The Man Without Qualities
Cool Jazz in 100 Tracks (Part 1) (Part 2)
Lecture on the History of Love Songs
Henry James, Horror Writer
Why Only Revolutions Will Not Be Televised
David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest
The Crisis in Music (video lecture)
How Good a Singer Was Dean Martin?
How Music Videos Changed Love Songs
Why Bessie Smith Matters
The Zombification of Popular Music
The New Revolt of the Masses
Was Ambrose Bierce Inspired by Agoraphobia?
Apple's New Paradigm for Music
Fix-Up Artist: The Chaotic SF of A.E. van Vogt
Jazz Vocals in the New Millennium
A History of New Orleans Music in 100 Tracks
The Making of Ulysses
The Great American Novel That Wasn't
In Search of Dupree Bolton
Gulliver's Travels and the Birth of Genre Fiction
Five Essays on Novelist John Fowles
Where Did Our Revolution Go?
How Lester Young Changed the English Language
The Reinvention of the Cowboy Novel
The Many Lives of James Joyce
The Complex Gender History of the Love Song
William Gaddis's The Recognitions
5 Lessons the Music Biz Can Learn from TV
Hipsters: The New Scapegoats
B.B. King's Best Performances
The Most Mysterious Woman in Sci-Fi
12 Memorable Works of Hispanic Fiction
Thomas Pynchon's Inherent Vice
The Alt Reality Nobel Prize
The Decline of a Great Jazz Record Label
Don DeLillo's Underworld
How NY Became Center of the Jazz World
Milton Nascimento: 12 Essential Tracks
When Science Fiction Grew Up
The Most Influential Film of the 20th Century
Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch
Is Sleep Music a Real Genre?
Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections
Curse You, Neil Armstrong!
Bill Evans: 12 Essential Tracks
Early Vintage Wynton Marsalis
Remembering Cordwainer Smith
My Favorite American Novel
Q&A with Ted Gioia
The Jazz Pianist JFK Saved
A Look Back at Martin Gardner
Robert Heinlein at One Hundred
The Fourteen Skies of Michael Chabon
Is Bird Dead?
Philip K. Dick's VALIS
Why Lester Young Matters
Vladimir Nabokov's Pale Fire
Making a Case for Clark Ashton Smtih
Italo Calvino's Winter's NIght
Jonathan Lethem's The Fortress of Solitude
Could Chet Baker Play Jazz?
Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow
The Jazzy Side of Frank Zappa
Fritz Leiber at 100
Günter Grass's The Tin Drum
David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas
Harlem Jazz: 12 Essential Tracks
Mark Z. Danielweski's House of Leaves
The Postmodern Mystery: 50 Essential Works
Art Tatum at 100: 12 Essential Tracks
Fringe Guitar
J.G. Ballard's Crash
Interview with Dana and Ted Gioia
The Puzzling Case of Robert Sheckley
Robert Johnson and the Devil
Fear and Self-Loathing in Scandinavia
Herbie Hancock: 12 Essential Tracks
Remembering Drums of Passion
Three Existential Horror Novels
Keith Jarrett: 12 Essential Tracks
In Defense of The Hobbit
Brad Mehldau: 12 Essential Tracks
David Foster Wallace's The Pale King
The South Asian Tinge in Jazz
Assessing Brad Mehldau at Mid-Career
Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian
Can Clubs Legally Ask Musicians to Play for Free?
Jonathan Littell's The Kindly Ones
Lennie Tristano: 12 Essential Tracks
Virginia Woolf's Orlando
Why Cool is Dead
A Tribute to Richard Matheson
The Pianism of Denny Zeitlin
The Chronicles of Narnia
David Bowie's Jazz-Oriented Valedictory
Tito Puente: The Complete 78s (1949-1955)
Toni Morrison's Beloved
The Tragedy of Richard Twardzik
Michael Chabon's Telegraph Avenue
The Science Fiction of Samuel Delany
Can Tarzan Survive in a Post-Colonial World?
Duke Ellington's Sacred Music
Ian McEwan's Atonement
Can a Dictionary be a Novel?
New Details About the Young William Gaddis
Interview with Ted Gioia (on Delta Blues)
William Gaddis's JR
Roberto Bolaño's 2666
Talking to Myself About the State of Jazz
Harper Lee and Her Great Southern Novel
Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain
Italo Calvino's Neglected Sci-Fi Masterpiece
Philip Roth's American Pastoral
Ken Kesey's Novel-in-a-Box
How I Learned I Was a Jazz Fan
Here's my list of the 100 best albums of 2017 (in alphabetical order this year). They are drawn from all styles and all genres. Happy listening!
HONORABLE MENTION:  Here are another 100 recordings of merit released during 2017.

Daniel Barenboim / West-Eastern Divan Orchestra     Hommage à Boulez    Modern Classical Music

William Basinski     A Shadow in Time    Avant-Garde Ambient Music

Django Bates    The Study of Touch    Jazz

Marco Beasley & Private Musicke    Meraviglia d'Amore: Love Songs from 17th Century Italy   Late Renaissance Music

Mark Bebbington & Rebecca Omordia    The Piano Music of Ralph Vaughan Williams    Classical Music

Chuck Berry    Chuck    Rock 'n' Roll

Anouar Brahem, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette, Django Bates    Blue Maqams    World Music/Jazz

John Browning    The Unreleased Debussy Recital    Classical Music

Laura Cannell    Hunter Huntress Hawker    Experimental Violin Music

Steven Chesne    Sapient    Cross-Cultural Contemporary Music of Prayer and Chant Traditions

Anat Cohen & Marcello Gonçalves      Outra Coisa: The Music of Mocair Santos    Latin Jazz

Concerto Italiano/Rinaldo Alessandrini     Monteverdi: Night. Stories of Lovers and Warriors     Classical Music

Consortium Carissimi    Giacomo Carissimi: 8 Motets    Renaissance Vocal Polyphony

Cornelius    Mellow Waves    Japanese Pop That Isn't J-Pop

Ed Dowie    The Uncle Sold    Odd Pop

Sylvester Draggon, Jr.     The Pillow Variations    Contemporary Classical Music

Justin Townes Earle    Kids In The Street    Country/Roots

Euskal Barrokensemble   El Amor Brujo: Esencias de la Mœsica de Manuel de Falla     Spanish Folk/Spanish Classical Music

JoAnn Falletta/Buffalo Philharmonic    Vítězslav Novák: In the Tatra Mountains    Classical Music

Five Horse Johnson    Jake Leg Boogie    Heavy Metal Blues from Toledo

Renée Fleming    Distant Light    Art Songs

Bill Frisell & Thomas Morgan    Small Town    Guitar/Bass Jazz Duets

Ghost Train Orchestra    Book of Rhapsodies Vol. II     Jazz for a Demented Circus

Mark Guiliana    Jersey    Jazz

Tigran Hamasyan    An Ancient Observer    Armenian-Influenced Jazz Piano

Lou Harrison    Violin Concerto/Grand Duo/Double Music    Modern Classical Music

Beth Hart    Fire on the Floor    Singer-Songwriter

Patrick Hawes    Revelation    Contemporary Choral Music

The Heliocentrics    A World Of Masks    Cosmic Funk

Natalie Hemby      Puxico    Traditional Country

Thomas William Hill     Asylum for Eve    Soundtrack Without a Film

Art Hirahara (with Donny McCaslin)    Central Line    Jazz

Hamilton de Holanda    Casa de Bituca    Mandolin Interpretations of Milton Nascimento Compostions

James Newton Howard    Soundtrack to Roman J. Israel, Esq.    Film Soundtrack

Ray Wylie Hubbard    Tell the Devil I'm Getting' There as Fast as I Can    Outlaw Country with a Large Dose of Traditional Blues

Dan Hunter    Angels and Dust    Hot Rock Guitar

Ibibio Sound Machine    Uyai    Nigerian Dance Music

The Industry    Hopscotch    Mobile Postmodern Opera

Sidney Jacobs    First Man    Soul/R&B

Benedikt Jahnel    The Invariant    Jazz

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra/Wynton Marsalis    The Music of John Lewis    Repertory Jazz

Ryan Keberle & Catharsis    Find the Common, Shine a Light    Jazz

Kondi Band    Salone    Afro-Electronica with Thumb Piano

Alison Krauss    Windy City    Country

Kronos Quartet    Folk Songs    Folk Music/Chamber Music

Nils Landgren/Jeanette Köhn/Capella de la Torre/Knabenchor Hannover    New Eyes on Martin Luther    Lutheran Jazz

Lorde    Melodrama    Pop

Yo-Yo Ma & The Knights    Osvaldo Golijov: Azul    Contemporary Concerto for Cello

James MacMillan    Stabat Mater    Modern Medieval

Georgia Mancio (with Alan Broadbent)    Songbook    Jazzy Songs

John Mauceri /WDR Rundfunkchor    Sigmund Romberg: The Student Prince    Operetta

Christian McBride Big Band    Bringin' It    Big Band Jazz

Bear McCreary     Soundtrack to Rebel in the Rye    Film Soundtrack for Orchestra, Jazz Ensemble and Typewriter

Mark McGuire    Ideas Of Beginnings    Folk-ish Guitar Instrumentals

Mie Miki    Das Wohltemperierte Akkordeon    Bach Played on Accordion

Le Miroir De Musique/Baptiste Romain    Johannes Tinctoris: Secret Consolations    Early Music

Steve Moakler    Steel Town    Pittsburgh-esque Country & Western Music

Johannes Monno    Bach: Works for Lute    Classical Music

Moon Duo    Occult Architecture, Vol. 1    Psychedelic Rock

John Moreland    Big Bad Luv    Singer-Songwriter

Mr. Lif & Brass Menažeri    Resilient    Hip-Hop with Balkan Brass Band

Josh Nelson    The Sky Remains    Jazz

Andris Nelsons/Gewandhausorchester Leipzig     Bruckner: Symphony 3; Wagner: Tannhauser Overture    Classical Music

Vadim Neselovskyi    Get Up and Go    Jazz Piano

Jovino Santos Neto & André Mehmari    Guris: Celebrating the Music of Hermeto Pascoal    Brazilian Jazz

Nomade Orquestra    Entremundos    Genre-Crossing Afro-Brazilian Big Band

Dona Onete    Banzeiro    Amazonian Dance Music

Oracle Hysterical    Passionate Pilgrim     Pop-Oriented Art Song Cycle with Baroque Instruments

Orchestra Baobab     Tribute to Ndiouga Dieng    Senegalese Afro-Cuban Dance Music

Tarik O'Regan    A Celestial Map of the Sky    Contemporary Classical Music

Original Broadway Cast    In Transit: Broadway's First A Cappella Musical    A Cappella Broadway Musical

Eddie Palmieri    Saibduria (Wisdom)    Latin Jazz

Krzysztof Penderecki/Warsaw Philharmonic    Penderecki Conducts Penderecki Vol. 2    Contemporary Choral Music

Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band    Front Porch Sessions    Blues/Old Timey

Noam Pikelny    Universal Favorite    Americana/Bluegrass

Gregory Porter    Nat King Cole & Me    Nat King Cole Tribute Album

Portland State Chamber Choir / Ethan Sperry    Eriks Esenvald: The Doors of Heaven    Contemporary Choral Music

Georges Raillard (composer) David William Ross (guitarist)    Butterflies in the Labyrinth of Silence    Contemporary Guitar Music

Kyle Riabko    Richard Rodgers Reimagined    Reinterpretations of Broadway Standards in Contemporary Genre Styles

LeAnn Rimes    Remnants    Pop

Chris Robinson Brotherhood    Barefoot in the Head    Roots Rock

Elkin Robinson    Sun a Shine    Afro-Caribbean Songs from the Island of Providencia

Christian Sands    Reach    Jazz

La Santa Cecilia    Amar y Vivir    Traditional Mexican Boleros and Rancheras

Luke Sellick    Alchemist    Jazz

Ballaké Sissoko, Driss El Maloumi, and Rajery    Anarouz    Mali/Madagascar/Morocco Mixture

Martial Solal & Dave Liebman    Masters In Bordeaux    Jazz

Ben Sollee    Ben Sollee and Kentucky Native    Cello-Driven Bluegrass

Somi    Petite Afrique    Introspective Soul Music

Son of the Velvet Rat    Dorado    Americana Desert Noir by Austrian Musicans

Omar Souleyman    To Syria, With Love    Syrian Wedding Electronic Dance Music

St. Vincent    Masseduction    Singer-Songwriter

Jayme Stone    Folklife    Folk/Americana

Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives    Way Out West    Traditional Country

Sylvan Esso    What Now    Pop

Dan Tepfer    Eleven Cages    Jazz

Boubacar Traoré    Dounia Tabolo    West African Trance Blues

Various Artists    An American Troubadour: The Songs of Steve Forbert    Folk/Roots/Pop

Whiskey Shivers    Some Part of Something    Rock-ish Hillbilly Dance Music

John Williams    On the Wing    Classical Guitar