Who was checking for this? We've all been to a Washed Out show at some point, in the front row tripping over ourselves to show that no, we were feeling it all around-est. However, I didn't expect the dude to age out of that with us - something about chillwave's unyielding summer iconography always made me think that the artists themselves were more in exile than on vacation. Sure, the timing of Mister Mellow's June release date and subsequent summer tour is far from coincidental, but the album finds Ernest Greene far from stagnant.

I'm not sure that I've ever understood what Laurel Halo is going for. That's quite alright; her three major releases occupy a totally distinct sonic world, and it'd be boring to have fully explored it the first time. Halo's work, for me, has a very specific role: when I'd like to listen to Laurel Halo, she's the obvious choice.

2017 Albums.

I’ve done a lot of stupid shit on the radio. Incessant airhorns, excerpts of Vedic texts, a Microsoft Sam rendition of Wikipedia’s entry for stoner rock backed by sheets of grey noise; it was all useless, but likely never unprecedented. Despite the vast expanse of all music ever recorded plus the range of noises that you can make, radio’s a limiting medium - the output is defined rigidly enough that you end up with a monkeys-and-typewriter sort of situation where the unconventional becomes inevitable given sufficient time spent in the studio.

No malice, only curiosity: why is 2 Chainz still making music? There's no doubt that his moment is in the rearview - with it, those heady days of college when Birthday Song, I'm Different, and No Lie were inescapable day or night - and yet he continues to release better and better albums at a furious pace. Pretty Girls Like Trap Music is no exception, collecting the highlights from his excellent 2016 along with all-new solo and collaborative material. 2 Chainz (re-)made his name with a furious run of instant-classic features, but this is his first release in which other artists' appearances feel as symbiotic - there are three or four guest spots on here that supersede the rest of the artist's entire catalog, in my eyes.

I listened to Mach Hommy out of obligation more than anything else. I’ll forever ride for anyone subverting the tyranny of third-party distribution, and Haitian Body Odor is exactly that – released in October 2016 and sold via Instagram for $300 a copy, the album was a total ghost for months until a broader release via Soundcloud earlier this year. Impossible to find but with just enough evidence to prove its existence (including radio plugs from Earl Sweatshirt and Flying Lotus), HBO is one of the most remarkable marketing achievements of music’s internet era (a few other entries off top: Beyonce’s silent release, the entire Yeezus rollout, and the absolute god Soulja Boy).