Hello to you and goodbye (good riddance perhaps) to 2017! It’s been a long an trying year in many ways for many people, but hopefully we can all agree that it brought us some great music in the Alternative / Modern / Indie universe that we inhabit here at The SubModern Report. So it’s without any further ado that I present our SubModern 2017 Year End Charts.

Congratulations to Toronto’s Alvvays who bested all of this year’s singles with “In Undertow” from their fantastic sophomore release Antisocialites (which was amongst my favs of the year as you’ll see below). A well deserved victory also goes to indie veterans Spoon, who continued to age like a fine wine with the #1 album of the year, their ninth record, Hot Thoughts.

Here at the end of each year we also take a look at label performance. With a roster of great releases from mainstays like Father John Misty, Wolf Parade, The Afghan Whigs, and Iron & Wine, returning favorites like Bully and METZ, as well as newcomers Marika Hackman and Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, it’s been a fantastic year for 2017’s #1 label, Sub Pop Records! Congrats to Scott Perlewitz and company for a job well done! Of course we also give a big thumbs up to the rest of the year’s top ten labels: Columbia #2, Warner Bros. at #3, Polyvinyl at #4, Domino #5, Atlantic at #6, Matador at #7, Concord at #8, RCA at #9, and 4AD at #10. And not to sound cheesy, but thank you to all labels and promo folks, big and small, who champion the new and exciting music that we care about here on these charts!

Now comes my favorite part of this end of the year report, where I share my favorites of the year!

Until 2018 my friends, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, I wish you peace and long life!

~ Josh Landow
Twitter: @JoshTLandow