The Best Albums of 2017

Kendrick Lamar has the best-reviewed major album of 2017

One of the most notable features of this year's highest-scoring albums list is its absences. New releases from usually high-scoring outfits like Arcade Fire, Beck, Gorillaz, Sufjan Stevens, and HAIM failed to crack our list. Even generally well-reviewed new releases from Björk, Spoon, Jay-Z, Fleet Foxes, Grizzly Bear, and The War on Drugs didn't wind up in this year's top 40.

But damn if Kendrick Lamar didn't have another good year. For the second time in three years, the rapper has claimed the title of Metacritic's highest-scoring album. In fact, he's the first artist in Metacritic's 17-year history to repeat as #1.

Of the 594 new studio albums released in 2017 that have received at least seven reviews from professional critics, 154—or just under 26%—received universal acclaim (with a Metascore of 81 or greater). That's higher than 2016's 23% figure, and marks the third straight year that percentage has increased. Either music is getting a bit better overall, or critics are being more generous in their assessments.

Below is this year's final ranking of the best full-length studio albums (in Metacritic's database) released during 2017, as determined by their Metascores, which represent an average of all reviews by professional critics at the time of each album's original release. Note that live albums, reissues, EPs, compilations, and the like are excluded from this chart, though they are listed separately a bit further down this page.

The 40 best-reviewed albums of 2017 (min. 15 reviews)

... and the rest of the top 40:

Album/Artist			Score	Stream It	Buy It
11		CTRL by SZA	86
12		Process by Sampha	86
13		50 Song Memoir by Magnetic Fields	86
14		A Kind Revolution by Paul Weller	86
15		American Dream by LCD Soundsystem	86
16		The Underside of Power by Algiers	86
17		Relatives in Descent by Protomartyr	85
18		Sleep Well Beast by The National	85
19		I See You by The xx	85
20		Aromanticism by Moses Sumney	85
21		Soul of a Woman by Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings	85
22		Semper Femina by Laura Marling	85
23		Pure Comedy by Father John Misty	85
24		Mental Illness by Aimee Mann	84
25		Flower Boy by Tyler, The Creator	84
26		Dust by Laurel Halo	84
27		No Shape by Perfume Genius	84
28		Carry Fire by Robert Plant	84
29		Take Me Apart by Kelela	84
30		Soft Sounds From Another Planet by Japanese Breakfast	83
31		Need to Feel Your Love by Sheer Mag	83
32		Turn Out the Lights by Julien Baker	83
33		The Navigator by Hurray for the Riff Raff	83
34		Gargoyle by Mark Lanegan Band	83
35		Goths by The Mountain Goats	83
36		Life Will See You Now by Jens Lekman	83
37		Gang Signs & Prayer by Stormzy	82
38		Ty Segall (2017) by Ty Segall	82
39		Dark Matter by Randy Newman	82
40		Stranger in the Alps by Phoebe Bridgers	82

What about albums with fewer reviews?

Here is a look at the albums that received extremely positive reviews, but not enough of them to qualify for our list above. (In other words, consider them the year's best under-the-radar releases.) Albums on this list received 7-14 critic reviews. (Titles with fewer than 7 reviews are excluded from all year-end charts.)

Album/Artist			Score	Stream It	Buy It
1		Eternity, In Your Arms by Creeper	89
2		The Order of Time by Valerie June	89
3		Science Fiction by Brand New	88
4		Laila’s Wisdom by Rapsody	87
5		Thin Black Duke by Oxbow	87
6		Guppy by Charly Bliss	87
7		Reaching for Indigo by Circuit des Yeux	87
8		Nightmare Logic by Power Trip	86
9		New Energy by Four Tet	86
10		Narkopop by Gas	86

Albums released between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2017 with 7 or more reviews (15 or more for the first chart) in Metacritic's database were eligible for inclusion. Reissues and other older material, EPs, live albums, holiday albums, greatest hits albums, multi-artist soundtracks, and other compilations are excluded from the above lists. The Metascore is a weighted average of scores from top professional critics, on a scale from 0 (bad) to 100 (good). Albums are ranked by Metascore prior to rounding. All scores on this page are from December 20, 2017.

More bests and worsts

If you read the fine print under our list of high-scoring albums above, you noticed that reissues, compilations, live sets, and other album types were excluded from our best-reviewed albums charts (which are intended to include only new full-length studio albums). Here are the highest-scoring "disqualified" albums of the year:

Best-Reviewed Reissues, Box Sets, and Compilations of 2017 (Min. 7 Reviews)

Album/Artist			Score	Stream It	Buy It
1		OK Computer: OKNOTOK 1997-2017 by Radiohead	100
2		Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band [50th Anniv. Ed.] by The Beatles	100
3		Purple Rain [Deluxe Expanded Edition] by Prince and the Revolution	100
4		The Queen Is Dead [Deluxe Edition] by The Smiths	99
5		Master of Puppets [Remastered & Expanded Edition] by Metallica	95
6		Automatic for the People [25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition] by R.E.M.	95
7		Lovely Creatures: Best of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, 1984-2014 by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds	95
8		Singles OST [Deluxe Edition] by Various Artists	93
9		Les Liaisons Dangereuses 1960 by Thelonious Monk	92
10		Bright Phoebus [Reissue] by Lal & Mike Waterson	90

Now that we've heard from the critics, what about Metacritic users? Here are the 2017 releases receiving the highest average user scores:

2017 Releases Most Liked by Metacritic Users (Min. 15 User Reviews)

Metascore/Album/Artist		Listen	Buy It	User Score
1	88 Masseduction by St. Vincent			8.6
2	76 SweetSexySavage by Kehlani			8.5
3	100 OK Computer: OKNOTOK 1997-2017 by Radiohead			8.5
4	95 DAMN. by Kendrick Lamar			8.5
5	91 Melodrama by Lorde			8.5
6	84 No Shape by Perfume Genius			8.4
7	84 Flower Boy by Tyler, the Creator			8.4
8	76 Native Invader by Tori Amos			8.3
9	100 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band [50th Anniv. Ed.] by The Beatles			8.3
10	86 CTRL by SZA			8.3

User scores represent an average of scores assigned by Metacritic.com site visitors, from 0 (bad) to 10 (good).

Thousands of albums are released each year, and most of those don't even make their way to reviewers; as a result, the vast majority of the awful albums recorded each year do not show up on Metacritic. However, there are always some major releases this year that fail to impress critics, and we now share with you the 10 disappointing albums receiving the worst reviews in 2017:

The Lowest-Scoring Albums of 2017 (Min. 7 Reviews)

Album/Artist			Score	Stream It
1		Memories: Do Not Open by The Chainsmokers	43
2		8 by Incubus	45
3		One More Light by Linkin Park	46
4		Evolve by Imagine Dragons	47
5		The King & I by Faith Evans and the Notorious B.I.G.	48
6		Revival by Eminem	51
7		Witness by Katy Perry	52
8		Prophets of Rage by Prophets of Rage	54
9		Give More Love by Ringo Starr	55
10		Drogas Light by Lupe Fiasco	56

What do you think?

What were your personal favorite and least favorite albums of 2017? Let us know in the comments section below, and don't forget to vote for your favorite albums of the year in our Best of 2017 User Poll. And for more of 2017's best albums, see which titles critics are including on their year-end top 10 lists.