Iraq snapshot

Tuesday, January 2, 2017.  The Iraq War continues but look who's back after leaving in a dramatic huff and now saying that the Iraq War ended in 2017.



It's difficult to tell who's more of an idiot: Peter Van Buren for writing "2017: The Year the Iraq War Truly Ended" or THE AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE for publishing the piece?



The year 2017 saw America’s serial wars in Iraq ending with a whimper, not a bang. And in the oddest of ironies, it may be that Donald Trump, the fifth president to preside over U.S. military operations in Iraq, has more or less ended it, whether he had much to do with or not. 
With Baghdad declaring victory over ISIS (with U.S. military and Iranian assistance), U.S. officials say the number of troops remaining there could end up being far lower than the 5,500 there today. The lowest since the invasion in 2003.


The Iraq War ended?

So, Peter, the US troops are all coming home -- all?

And ISIS is no more?


And XINHUA didn't just report on Sunday, "At least three people were killed and nine injured in attack by Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq's central province of Salahudin, a provincial security source said. The attack occurred before dawn when gunmen, believed to be IS militants, attacked the village of Farhatiyah in Es'haqi area, some 60 km south of the provincial capital Tikrit, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity."?

Or, last week: "A local leader of Islamic State (IS) group and two of the group's militant were killed Friday in an airstrike in Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, a provincial security source said."

Or, yesterday:

A local leader of Islamic State (IS) group and two of his aides were killed Monday in an airstrike in Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, a provincial security source told Xinhua. 
The Iraqi aircraft bombarded an IS hideout near a village named Sansal, some 45 km northeast of the provincial capital Baquba, destroying the hideout and killing the three militants, the source said on condition of anonymity.


Peter Van Buren also seems to have missed what Richard Sisk (MILITARY TIMES) reported last week, "U.S.-backed forces were in the process of 'crushing the life' out of ISIS but 'the war is not over' in Iraq and Syria, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Friday."



Somehow they all didn't get the same memo Peter Van Buren did.


Last August, Peter Van Buren issued his now infamous I-'ve-blogged-all-I-can-blog-I-can't-blog-anymore post.

Poor little Disney princess, "But after some six years and over 2,000 posts, I’m gonna do something else. Not sure just what yet."

Well apparently "something else" is provide the musings of a mad man.

The Iraq War is not over.

Peter Van Buren might be, but the war is not over.

For someone who whined about how he was being attacked on all sides for trying to provide context to now write this junk?  Rather embarrassing.

But then his whole cross climbing was.

As Stevie Nicks says, "Who in the world do you think that you are fooling?  Well I've already done everything that you are doing."


"Two Kinds Of Love," written by Stevie Nicks, Rupert Hine and Rick Nowels, first appears on Stevie's THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MIRROR.


Peter's had his drama and his stomping off the stage moment.  Now he's back and the big question is: Why?

That's what he wants to offer?

In August, he's whining that no one wants to listen to reality.

So he returns with the lie that the Iraq War is over and it ended in 2017?

Thanks, Peter.

You make it so hard to miss you.





"Well it's hard on my heart"
Said, "Well open your eyes"
 "Yeah, it gets harder every day"
Said, "I need to know now "
Soon you will be gone
Take your violet and blue
Mornings with you
-- "Violet and Blue," written by Stevie Nicks, first appears on the AGAINST ALL ODDS soundtrack


Soon you will be gone, Peter Van Buren, but not soon enough.

Not soon enough.

"Going forward, Trump is unlikely to pull troops out of Iraq entirely, having seen the political price Obama paid for doing so in 2011."

What political price did Barack "pay for doing so in 2011"?

Getting re-elected in 2012?

Shall we drop back to the day after the 2012 election, November 7, 2012:

 Let the fun begin (Ava and C.I.)

Lies about Iraq drove the 2008 election and they drove the 2012 election as well.

The country was transformed to the elephant in the room for 2012 that no one could be honest about.  President Barack Obama  lied that he'd 'ended' the Iraq War, he misled people into believing that all US troops had left Iraq, and he failed to inform Americans that he was negotiating to send even more US troops into Iraq.

While the uninspiring victory speech last night blended The Hollies "He's Not Heavy, He's My Brother" ("The road is long") with Jerry McGuire ("You've made me a better president"), it also made clear that the administration was on fumes even before the second term officially begins in January.

The administration is as empty as the media.  If you doubt that, September 26th, the New York Times' Tim Arango reported:

 
Iraq and the United States are negotiating an agreement that could result in the return of small units of American soldiers to Iraq on training missions. At the request of the Iraqi government, according to General Caslen, a unit of Army Special Operations soldiers was recently deployed to Iraq to advise on counterterrorism and help with intelligence.




September 26th it was in print.


Days later, October 3rd, Barack 'debated' Mitt Romney.  Again October 16th.  Again October 22nd.  Not once did the moderators ever raise the issue.


If Barack's sitting before them and he's flat out lying to the American people, it's their job to ask.  They didn't do their job.  Nor did social menace Candy Crowley who was apparently dreaming of an all-you-can-eat buffet when Barack was babbling away before her about how he wouldn't allow more "troops in Iraq that would tie us down."  But that's exactly what he's currently negotiating.

Maybe Candy Crowley missed the New York Times article?  Maybe she spends all her time pleasuring herself to her version of porn: Cooking With Paula Deen Magazine?

That is possible.

But she was only one of the three moderators.  Bob Schieffer and Jim Lehrer also moderated.  Of course, they didn't foolishly self-present as a fact checker in the midst of the debate  nor did they hit the publicity circuit before the debate to talk about how they were going to show how it was done.

Poor Crowley, a heavy weight strutting into a non-competition will always look woefully misdressed.

Barack lied and Americans will face that or not.

He wasn't the only one.

He certainly wasn't.

And if Cassandras like Ava and myself had been listened to back then, all that followed might have been prevented.

Along comes Peter today with lies -- (a) the Iraq War has ended and (b) Barack paid a political cost for removing some troops (it was a "drawdown" not a "withdrawal" per the Pentagon -- though not a lot of people wanted to grasp that).

A lot of people paid a cost for the US government sticking by Nouri al-Maliki, for the US government overturning the results of the 2010 election to give Nouri a second term.

A lot of people are still paying the costs.

Susannah George (AP) reports:

Local officials say thousands of people, mostly men and teenage boys, remain missing in the wake of Iraqi victories against the Islamic State group.
In Mosul alone, more than six months after Iraq declared victory, more than 3,000 people remain unaccounted for. Some are believed to have been killed by IS, while others were detained by security forces on suspicion of extremist ties.

But war is over, if Peter Van Buren says so, apparently.

At a time when so many of us are begging Americans to pay attention, along comes Peter to declare, "Nothing to see here, folks, move along."

What did Peter do when he worked for the State Dept?

It's fairly clear that he didn't do analysis.

  
It was way too hard...it was way too tough...
On this she had not bargained
But she was like some missionary dancing to the beat of some
man's ancient drum
And she tries hard to tell this story...but it's a hard one to tell
She consults her book of Miracles...
Cry...and the wind says fly on
Well now you're on your own
You're back out on the road again for a million reasons
Well you're back out on the road again
And you try to tie together some connections...
You get some ribbons and some bows and get back out on the road again

So you found a queen without a king
Oh yes, and everyone here loved her...no one was wrong
But you're a little bit like her
You're just a little bit like her
A little bit like her...a little bit like Juliet

Turn to the blue crystal mirror...well as always it is truthful
Oh, well you see it in the reflection of the real blue lamp
Well tie the connection...get some ribbons and some bows...get back
out on the road

-- "Juliet," written by Stevie Nicks, first appears on THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MIRROR


There's more honesty in a chorus of a Stevie Nicks' song than in the "over 2,000" blog posts Peter Van Buren's contributed in the last years.

New content at THIRD:

• Truest statement of the week
• A note to our readers
• Editorial: The same episode played over and over
• TV: The message ABC sent all show runners
• 2017 event that warranted far more media attention...
• Biggest disappointment of 2017: NETFLIX
• Josh Rogin: Human Trash Posing As A Reporter
• From The TESR Test Kitchen
• The best in 2017 TV
• Video

In addition, these were the end of the year pieces in the community:

2017: The Year of Chicken Little

Kat's Korner: 2017 in Music

2016 in Books (Martha & Shirley)

2017 in film (Ann and Stan)

 2017 in film (Ann and Stan)

 10 sexiest men of 2017 

And let's note Jody Watley's "Jody Watley 2017 Favorites" as well.

2017: The Year of Chicken Little

And what a long 12 months it was.


2017 was the year that even Bully Boy Bush saw some spit polishing from some claiming to be on the left.

In less than a year, Donald Trump as President of the United States made some people miss the Supreme Court appointed, War Criminal (Iraq and Afghanistan) who illegally spied on Americans.


Last June, Negassi Tesfamichael (POLITICO) explained, "Bush, who left office in 2009 with a favorability rating of just 35 percent, now sits at 59 percent, just four points shy of Obama’s current favorability rating of 63 percent."

That was three months after Ellen DeGeneres proved that she was a fair weather lesbian and brought Bully Boy Bush on her show and danced with him.

Rake your brain and you'll recall that the talk show lesbian who spoke out against the Iraq War was Rosie O'Donnell while the one hiding in a closet on Iraq was Ellen.

Apparently, she's stepped out to embrace a War Criminal.  What a proud moment for her, right up there with the affair that almost destroyed her marriage to Portia.

So did Donald manage in less than a year to outdue what Bully Boy Bush did in eight?


No, but it was The Year of Chicken Little and the mantra was, repeatedly, “The sky is falling! The sky is falling!”


It must still be in descent then since it’s yet to crash down.

We do realize that, right?

Because we were told over and over that the United States was no more because of the November election or because of the January swearing in.

There was Ashley Judd, for example, snarling that she was one of those "nasty" women.

Was she trying to say those rumors about her and a certain power player at Paramount were true?

Because, though they were left out of her NYT feature about being harassed by Harvey Weinstein, those rumors have always circulated about Ashley.

As one unfamiliar with the casting couch, she was about as believable -- inside the industry -- as Tony O'Dell was pretending to be straight when he starred on ABC's HEAD OF THE CLASS.

So many secrets, so little time to air them all out.

The sky is falling!

Ashley insisted it.

So it must be true.

Because Ashley also insisted that Harvey destroyed her career.  But there were a number of people who argued that Ashley's cosmetic surgeries destroyed her career.

Harvey destroyed her career?

So he ran off TV viewers?  Ava and I liked her 2012 show MISSING but we were in the minority.

The show started with 10.6 million viewers but ended with 6.5 million.

Did Harvey run off the 4.1 viewers?

Did Harvey force Ashley to say the many things she did that struck some as racist remarks?

Have we forgotten all of that?

Ashley was harassed.  Not denying that.

But it's a little easy and pat for her to claim her career would be hugely different than it is today if it weren't for Harvey Weinstein.

Mira Sorvino?

Absolutely her career would be different.  She didn't get the breaks Ashley did.  She didn't star in blockbusters like DOUBLE JEOPARDY, A TIME TO KILL or KISS THE GIRLS.

Ashley did though.  And she played the same damn role in DOUBLE JEOPARDY and KISS THE GIRLS, et al.  In fact, by the time of HIGH CRIMES (2002), she should have realized that her box office was slipping.  By 2004's TWISTED, Ashley's glorified LIFETIME movies were barely breaking even.

She failed at romantic comedies and dramas and now she was failing at her woman-in-jeopardy films.  Until 2010's THE TOOTH FAIRY, she wouldn't have another modest success (and she wouldn't have anything after it either).

Ashley's likes to be seen as "political."

She also likes to be seen as smart.

She's not political and she's not smart.

She's partisan.

Supposedly cares about the world Ashley can't say a damn word against the ongoing Iraq War.

Ongoing, Ashley.


At the end of last week, Richard Sisk (MILITARY TIMES) reported, "U.S.-backed forces were in the process of 'crushing the life' out of ISIS but 'the war is not over' in Iraq and Syria, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Friday."


Not one word from Ashley on it.

Because she's a partisan.

She's not political.


From 1993 to 2014, she got to be a leading lady in films.  This despite one flop after another -- films like EYE OF THE BEHOLDER that didn't even make back half of their shooting budget.

Who was her co-star in that one?

Ewen McGregor.  By 2009, he was reduced to supporting roles in US films.  Was that Harvey Weinstein's revenge too?

Chicken Little with a martyr complex, that was Ashley Judd in 2017.

Interesting though, her first film was KUFFS and her co-star Christian Slater.  Ashely knows all about the Christian Slater co-star who was whored out by her agency.  Used, especially with foreign money coming to town, to keep investors happy.

That woman suffered.

You'll never catch Ashley saying one single kind word about that woman.

Nasty woman?

Yes, Ashley, you are.

Paul is dead.  Cranberry sauce.

Or why spend money reporting when you can just repeat whatever crazy thing pops into your head and pass that off as news?

Who knew that NETWORK, a send up of broadcast news, would become less funny not because the jokes grew stale but because the news industry would go insane and begin aping NETWORK?

Sybil the Soothsayer?

That’s practically any of the so-called “news” channels.

It was the week of Christmas when CNN brought on James Clapper.

Forget that Clapper shouldn’t be on CNN’s payroll.  Public trust?  Clapper lied to Congress.

But there he was.  CNN played a clip of Trump speaking and Clapper was brought on to explain what Trump really meant.

Because, apparently, listening to the words spoken wasn’t enough.

Clapper all but grabbed the bong as he rushed to tell America the hidden meanings in Donald Trump’s remarks.  You kept expecting him to say that if they’d play the feed backwards, he could decipher even more in the remarks. Or, abandoning the topic of backward masking, argue that if you played Trumps remarks and THE WIZARD OF OZ at the same time, Trump’s remarks synched up to the big Yellow Brick Road scene.

What was the news value of the segment?

Zero.

And we should point out that the value of any Clapper segment will always be zero and CNN should never employee people who perjure themselves in front of the US Congress.  It’s a trust issue.

The outrage.

All year long, each month was overflowing with outrage.

Each day.

Each hour.

CNN spent how many days boring the country with their 'reporting' on the van that may have blocked their shot of Donald Trump golfing intentionally?

Who the hell cares.

Iraq girls were under threat of being married off at the age of nine but we couldn't discuss that in the US press.  We couldn't devote time to it.

But we can speculate for hours about whether or not a white van was intentionally parked in a spot so that CNN cameras were denied video of Donald golfing?

Or you got MSNBC's Chris Hayes starting with "it's trivial in the scheme of things, but" before going on to waste all of our time on something minor and inconsequential.

When are they going to report?

And how can they keep deluding themselves that they're doing journalism?

America's not deluded.

Whether you're on the left (like I am) or the right or somewhere in between, if you're honest, you know you saw the press rush to repeat (not report) the worst -- to repeat the worst as fact without checking it out.

Ask yourself which report on Trump was wrong because it gave him the benefit of the doubt?

Which of those reports did ABC or CNN have to retract?

Answer?

None.

Because they didn't exist.

The worst of the false repeating?

Probably Brian Ross on ABC NEWS because that repeating sunk the stock market -- and ABC waited way too long to correct it.

Or you could argue it was the week later when, despite ABC's public humiliation, CNN went running with a repeat that wasn't quite a report.

Surely, they should have already learned their lesson.

But they were too busy making themselves the story to learn anything.



Trump said something about them and then they went into non-stop respond mode.

They are not the story and need to learn to shut the f**k up.

It's a shame that today's executives and editors apparently contain no grown ups among their ranks who can tell them, "Enough."

They are embarrassing and ignorant.

They are not under attack by Donald Trump.

His Tweets are mocking them.

Mocking them is not assaulting the press.

They need to toughen up and they need to grow up.

Donald Trump is a blow hard.  When you stop taking his every insult seriously, you'll find the bully will resort to them less often because they don't get the response he wants.  Or the attention he wants, for that matter.


Instead of remembering the lessons we all learned (or should have) on the playground as children, we whined and whimpered and soiled ourselves publicly -- forever waiting for the sky to fall -- even though it never did.


And we were suddenly interested in poor reporters being insulted.

Now we weren't interested in their safety.

I remember when Ned Parker had to flee Iraq.

We called it -- and Hayder al-Abadi -- out in real time.

But these 'press freaks' -- Meryl Streep, kiddie expert Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks -- they didn't say a word.

They were a lot like then-President Barack Obama in that regard.

A REUTERS journalist has to flee Iraq because he's being threatened by Shi'ite militias and the prime minister -- Hayder al-Abadi -- is stirring things up -- and will laugh about the whole thing on a visit to DC -- and these so-called friends of the press can't say one damn word?

Just like they couldn't say anything in defense of the press during Barack's eight year war on whistle-blowers?

If not having a celebrity spokesperson to comment on Barack's eight year war left you uninformed, be sure to read Mike's "Tom Hanks is full of s**t" which provides a strong overview of Barack's attacks on the press.


You are the only ones -- Meryl, Tom, Steve and all the rest -- who think you are doing anything noble or brave.

Everyone else sees you as the hypocrites you are.


And keep making those (bad) films about events from the early 1970s while we notice how you won't address today's ills.

Again, the Iraq War.

It's not over.  It's not ended.

Where are the voices?

Senator Dianne Feinstein stated:


The Administration offers no apparent road out of Iraq. It offers only an escalation plan that keeps growing, and an open-ended commitment to a civil war.

Those words are so accurate.

And they were also accurate March 27, 2007 -- when she stated them.

There is still no road out of Iraq.

There is still an open-ended commitment to a civil war.

Nothing has changed.

Every 'turned corner' leads back to the same exact spot.

Over a trillion dollars has been wasted on an illegal war that has claimed over a million lives.

And Iraq's no closer to democracy, no closer to power-sharing.

The exiles that the US government keeps installing are motivated by vengeance.

Silly Shi'ites who fled Iraq when Saddam Hussein was alive and only returned fater the 2003 US-led invasion.

It's no surprise that they are not accepted by the Iraqi people as legitimate leaders.

Legitimate leaders don't flee a country like cowards and then wait until foreign forces invade to come back.

But the plan is apparently -- the same plan as it has always been -- to back whatever cowards the US government has put in place and to try to hold back the Iraqi people until they're too exhausted and go along with whatever they're stuck with.

The Iraq War is no longer just illegal, it's now also absurd.

So much of 2017 was.

As the year wound down, VANITY FAIR offered a video with suggestions for what Hillary Clinton could do and, among the suggestions, knitting was offered.  Oh, the backlash online as the Cult of Clinton took to their Twitter feeds.  If you were a thinking person, of course, you could afford to laugh.  Laugh and wonder where the hell these ridiculous people were when actual and harmful sexism was aimed at Hillary in 2008.  These crybabies today.  It was 2008, remember, when so many of us were defending Hillary against genuine sexism.  Like when THE WASHINGTON POST decided to make a video and Dana Milbank offered "Mad Bitch" beer.

Mad.

Bitch.

Beer.

And today’s junior crew -- still in junior wear -- gets offended by a suggestion that Hillary take up knitting?

A la Madam Defarge?  Or did they miss that?  Or are they just not well educated?

Defarge is part of the French Revolution.

Get it?  Hillary’s part of the resistance?

Get it?  No? 

America’s educational system has failed so many.  A sign that we need to stop gutting education and instead increase funding for it.  We should spend at least as much on education as we do on war.

Where are the Ashley Judds championing that?


Because if we could all step away from the Henny Penny model, we might grasp that we are stronger than we realize and that we could actually work together to change the world for the better.

Work.

It's never as exciting as self-created drama.

And some would rather continue running around shrieking, "The sky is falling!  The sky is falling!"


But a year of that hasn't really accomplished anything, has it?

Oh, I can hear the partisan fools now: We defeated Roy Moore!

Did you?

Seems like Roy defeated himself in that race.

More to the point, that race is hard to duplicate.

Unless, of course, you think that the Republican Party plans to nominate only men who have past experiences that could suggest rape -- statutory or otherwise -- and that the media can focus on solely one race for weeks and weeks the way they did on Roy Moore.

If you believe that, maybe you should just keep screaming,"The sky is falling!"





Previous Year-in-Reviews:



2016: The Year of WTF
2015: The Year of the Ass
2014: The Year of Self-Exposure
2013: The Year of Exposure
2012: The Year of Avoidance
2011: The Year of the Slow Reveal

2010: The Year of Enough

2009: The Year of Living Sickly

2008: The Year of Living Hormonally

2007: The Year of Living Useless

2006: The Year of Living Dumbly

The Common Ills Year in Review 2005

The Common Ills Year in Review

Kat's Korner: 2017 in Music

Kat: Not an impressive year in music.

 

Sorry.

 

In fact, it was damn near pathetic. 

 

A lot of fiery Tweets and a lot of trash talk from various artists following the election and then what?

 

Eminem? 

 

That was embarrassing.

 

He talks big at an awards show and then puts out that stale REVIVAL?

 

Push it away and say, “Pa, I want something fresh, not last year’s left overs.”

 

If only it was just last year.

 

2016, where they failed in songwriting, they often succeeded in singing.  This year?

 

One long yawn.

 

They punch in practically every note of a ‘vocal’ for Katy Perry (and multi-track and auto tune her voice) and yet WITNESS still didn’t add up to anything. GEMINI seemed to only prove that Ryan Lewis had been doing all the heavy lifting for Macklemore.

 

Beck underwhelmed with COLORS.

 

And U2?

 

Well I’m going to make them number ten for the year.

 

10) SONGS OF EXPERIENCE by U2.

Forget Bono's "girly" remark, this album contains bits of brilliance, a ton of familiar that rolls along quickly on a tire so bald the band’s praying they don’t hydroplane on a puddle of water.  The best news?  The album’s a mess.  A frantic mess.  Didn’t know they had the life left in them for this.  A mess is always prepared to one  of Bono’s master plans that bleed the life out of everyone.  SONGS OF EXPERIENCE is not another WAR or THE JOSHUA TREE.  But it’s got at least as much life in it as ACHTUNG BABY.  After enduring HOW TO DISMANTLE AN ATOMIC BOMB, NO LINE ON THE HORIZON and SONGS OF INNOCENCE, the fact that U2 seems interested in life and, dare I say it, even fun.  Bono lost me long ago with his hypocrisy but SONGS OF EXPERIENCE reminds the world that U2 is (a) more than just Bono and (b) still able to surprise you.

 

9) Blondie’s POLLINATOR.  

If you saw them in concert (I did, twice) you know this album had some solid songs.  I wish they’d put out a live album of this tour because I honestly thought some of the songs sounded better live than in the studio.  But this was still a strong album hitting all the classic notes (and, yes, poses) that reminded you why you loved Debbie Harry and the gang in the first place.   And any time they want to lay down a track like “Doom or Destiny,” they’re going to be welcomed with open arms.

   

 

 

8) Bjork’s UTOPIA.  Of all the albums I liked in 2017 but never got around to reviewing, this is the one I wished I could have written about.  Bjork either grabs you or she doesn’t.  She grabbed me here.  And if I was a painter, I’d start with a fluorescent background, maybe some acrylic pink paint and splash some pastel blue on top of it in an attempt to reflect ocean waves.  But to actually verbalize UTOPIA?  It was beyond my abilities.  Let’s just note it was one of 2017’s rare gems.

 

7) Conor Oberst's SALUTATIONS.

 

The last of the independents?  The last standing male singer-songwriter?  What is Conor?  

SALUTATIONS says, whatever he is, he's back.  And then some.

For anyone who ever felt Conor was speaking directly to them, prepare to feel that he's been stalking you on social media to get to know you even better.  He's wiser and more tuneful.

6) Taylor Swift's REPUTATION.

With REPUTATION, Taylor's no longer one of the best pop songwriters under 30, she's the best.  And this album's a huge growth spurt for her as an artist.  If "New Year's Day" was the only song on the album, it would still be worth buying.  Fortunately, it's just one of many great songs REPUTATION showcases.

 

5) Aimee Mann’s MENTAL ILLNESS. 

 

 

More and more, it’s looking like THE FORGOTTEN ARM will be Aimee’s masterpiece.  That’s fine.  BLUE remains Joni Mitchell’s masterpiece but her canon still contains such classics as FOR THE ROSES, COURT & SPARK, THE HISSING OF SUMMER LAWNS, HEJIRA, DOG EAT DOG and LADIES OF THE CANYON.  Saying MENTAL ILLNESS is Aimee’s second best album ever may not seem like praise if you haven’t heard THE FORGOTTEN ARM.  On MENTAL ILLNESS, she serves up the songs in a fresh way and, when she grabs you, she really grabs you.  “You Never Loved Me” remains my favorite song and the one I wish radio had gotten behind.

 

4) Miguel’s WAR AND LEISURE.

A big surprise for me and, sadly, I didn’t hear the album until December.  You know I’m lazy.  And if I get anything done in December it’s usually buying presents and making fudge for the family (homemade fudge, from scratch, just to note that I’m not always lazy).  I’d heard “Skywalker” already (and Wally does a great job playing that song on guitar).  I’d liked it.  But “Told You So” was the first thing, when listening to the album, that really blew my mind.  Then came “Pineapple Skies.”  This album shimmers.  It’s one that really grabs your ear and I want to complain, again, that December’s not really the month to release a new album.  Especially if the label’s RCA.  December albums either have to have a big media push behind them or they have to be a greatest hits.  (Or a Christmas album.)  Otherwise, they can get lost in the shuffle.  My big hope for early 2018 is that people continue to discover Miguel’s latest because it’s really something.

 

3) Tyler, The Creator’s FLOWER BOY.  

Where Kendrick lost me (“Humble” is huge with many but I really can’t stand it or the sentiment and I really don’t think Kendrick Lamar would respond so well to someone telling him to be humble), FLOWER BOY hooked me in.  I was new to Tyler, The Creator but didn’t need to catch up on his three previous albums to enjoy FLOWER BOY.  Though I have since snapped up the other three.  You will too if you give FLOWER BOY a listen. 

  

2) Sam Smith's THE THRILL OF IT ALL.

The most soulful album of the year?  Possibly.  For ten solid tracks, Sam Smith grabs your ears and your heart and makes you wonder why England's produced Sam, Amy Winehouse, George Michael and Adele but, in the US, we keep churning out Disney Snaps who require a lot of studio technology just to appear to carry a five note tune?

1) Tori Amos' NATIVE INVADER.

Tori returned in 2017 with the best album of the year -- and also one of her own finest -- really saying something when you consider her discography already includes UNDER THE PINK, LITTLE EARTHQUAKES, SCARLET'S WALK and UNREPENTANT GERALDINES.  Argue over whether "Wildwood," "Broken Arrow," "Bang," "Wings" or "Climb" is the best song -- and do so with friends because this is an album that only gets richer with repeated listens and contemplation.  In the end, it's about healing and renewal. 



Click here for my 2004 music piece, here for 2005, 2006 in music, 2007 in music, here for 2008, here  for my 2009 piece, here for my look at the decade, here for my 2010 piece, here for my 2011 piece,  here for my 2012 piece, here for my 2013 piece, here for my 2014 piece, here for my 2015 piece and here for my 2016 piece.