been listening to the fall a lot the last several days, following the recent death of principal player mark e smith. his passing is notable for several reasons, but i specifically wanted to acknowledge it was he, after all, who invented the line "unsuitable for romantics", which i've borrowed for my collection of autobiographical comics. it barely registers in the world of searchable everything, just a line of graffiti he scrawled for a 1982 advertisement promoting the album hex education hour......but, twas enough to resonate with me when i saw it years ago.

 breaking with tradition a little bit here......
with the notable exception of NO contribution whatsoever for 2016, in the past i've listed my take on the best albums of the year.  i do prefer that format so perhaps i'm afforded the time for its return next december.  still, in the mish-mash of the daily grind i found a lot of good songs the past 12 months and dumped them all into a 2017 spotify playlist.
157 songs in some semblance of order from meh to best. sure, i probably missed a couple....that happens every year, but even my past lists get additions throughout the year.  so check them all out. i'm here. however, if you just want the red meat, the top 25 reads like so: