The Magic Conch

Time to talk about pain. Okay that's a little dramatic, but honestly, so are my feelings for my number two favorite album of 2017. World Eater is a compilation of bangers... if electronic music is your steeze of course. This album gives off euphoric feelings. It puts you in a trance right from the get-go. The opening track is a personal favorite of mine, but it quickly leads into the next track Rhesus Negative which is a nine minute song that flies by. The album is 48 minutes of electronic music and when I first heard that I legit thought, "Oh hell no." But after opening my mind to it, I fell in love and here I am with an electronic album at my number two on a year end list. Totes cray. Don't let the semi-gross/semi-intimidating album cover scare you away. Benjamin John Power, the man behind the music, will take you on a journey with World Eater. You probably need it.

Alright. Time to get back to business. My number three favorite album from 2017... The Search for Everything by John Mayer. Okay, hear me out. I know it's not usually like me or anyone who tries to critique music to say that a John Mayer album even deserves extra praise. And for the most part, I stick with that. And to be completely honest, I'm still mad at John Mayer for breaking Taylor Swift's heart when I was in middle school... But this album shows who John Mayer is. We all know him as the guy who sings Gravity and Your Body is a Wonderland, but those songs don't tell us anything about him. The Search for Everything is filled with songs that let the listener in on how Mayer feels and what he's actually all about. I never thought I'd be someone who cared about the inner mechanisms of John Mayer's mind, but a couple of listens made me change mine. It's classic Mayer sound, of course. Acoustic ballads and jams that make you want to slow dance in a...

Whoa whoa whoa. Here's my first blog post of the year. I've been hardcore slacking on keeping the conch updated, but I have some good excuses as to why. The first is that I graduated college in May of 2018. Let me tell ya, that was a stressful week. I had to say goodbye to some wonderful people that I got close to in college. Many of us made our separate ways and started working. Which leads me into my second excuse for not keeping up with the conch.... my first ever job in journalism! I was offered a job at KYOU Fox/NBC News. I signed a two year contract and then started two weeks after I walked across the stage with my diploma in my hand. I'm living in Southeast Iowa — away from mom and dad's place for the first time, and that has been a cool and stressful experience. But yeah, life is busy here. As for 2019, I plan to work to be the best journalist I can be. I want to soak up as much information as I can while I'm here. There's also some personal goals ...

Time for some more hip hop. My number four album on my top albums of 2017 is “Damn.” by Kendrick Lamar. Everyone knows this album. There’s some bangers on it including “DNA,” ELEMENT” and of course the hit “HUMBLE.” The album is poetic, ironic and catchy all at the same time. It gives Kendrick fans just what they wanted out of him – an album that speaks to him and gives a middle finger to the critics. It’s hard to find things wrong with this album. It’s executed well, the lyrics are written methodically and the production quality is steak sauce – A1. My only problem with this album is that it was blown up. There was so much hype for this album to drop and when it finally did, it was played everywhere. Don’t get me wrong; I don’t have a problem with visibility, but I find it hard to really enjoy an album when it is constantly being played on radio stations, blasted at parties and can be heard through the ear buds of every passerby on campus. The album was great...

The next album I need to talk about is the saddest album album I’ve ever heard. It’s “A Crow Looked at Me” by Mount Eerie. Phil Elverum wrote the album as a tribute to his wife who died of cancer. She left him with his daughter, and the album does a wonderful job of expressing the emotion he feels without her. That’s why “A Crow Looked at Me” landed the number five spot on my albums of 2017 list. We as listeners get a look into Elverum’s life without his wife, but we also get to feel his pain. It’s a beautiful thing that breaks your heart and you don’t even mind because you know the pain you are feeling will never compare to the suffocation he feels every time he tries to take a breath without his life partner around. Some of my favorite lyrics on the album is, “ The year moves on without you in it. Now it is fall without you. I had to close the windows and doors without you coming through. I kept them open for as long as I could.” These lyrics are from “Forest...

We’re almost halfway through my list of the best 2017 albums, so it’s time to talk about Tyler, the Creator and his newest album, “Flower Boy.” “Flower Boy’ was released July 21 of the year and is Tyler’s fourth studio album and second under a major record label. The album is largely produced by Tyler, but also features artists such as Frank Ocean, A$AP Rocky, Lil Wayne and other big names in the hip hop industry. I didn’t expect to enjoy “Flower Boy” as much as I did. Don’t get me wrong, I like Tyler just as much as the next person, but I hadn’t listened to his music in a while. I gave it a chance because I had read about the speculation of him using the album as a way to come out as bisexual, and I ended up being way into it for a couple of weeks. The album shows his growth without remaking him or his sound. It’s the same old Tyler, but better. It was calming, colorful and contained a lot of reflection. The album cover itself shows this. As far as keeping his ...