Top 30 Albums of the first half of 2017

We've just passed the halfway mark of 2017 and, as usual, we'll take a moment to look back on the last six months and come up with a list that includes most of our favorite albums of the year so far.

This year our half-way list is ten albums shorter than last year's, which is an indication that 2017 did not have the best of starts. Actually, after a slow couple of months at the beginning of the year with just a few great releases worth writing home about (Run The Jewels, Ty Segal, Mark Eitzel, The Feelies among them), the roster of new albums certainly grew much stronger during the spring, with a number of strong come-backs, some of them really long overdue, by some of our all-time favorite artists and bands, including The Jesus And Mary Chain, Thurston Moore, Mark Lanegan, The Afghan Whigs and Spoon, to name but a few. And on the very last week of June came perhaps the strongest candidate for Album of the Year based on what we have listened to so far, "The Underside of Power" by Algiers, a record that perfectly captures the turmoil of 2017 (more on this subject coming soon).

Here is the list of the 30 albums that sum up the first half of 2017 for Cool Music Central, without a ranking order (and yet not totally random!), and a playlist with some of our favorite tracks off them:

Top 30 Albums of 2017 so far

• The underside of power - ALGIERS
•  Run The Jewels 3 - RUN THE JEWELS
•  Hot thoughts - SPOON
•  Rock n roll consciousness - THURSTON MOORE
•  Damage and joy - THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN
•  Gargoyle - MARK LANEGAN
•  In spades - THE AFGHAN WHIGS
•  Whiteout conditions - THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS
•  Death song - THE BLACK ANGELS 
• Hey Mr Ferryman - MARK EITZEL
•  Slowdive - SLOWDIVE
•  Damn. - KENDRICK LAMAR
•  Brood X - BOSS HOG
•  Flying microtonal banana - KING GIZZARD AND THE LIZARD WIZARD
•  Ty Segall - TY SEGALL
•  Semper femina - LAURA MARLING
•  Apocalipstick - CHERRY GLAZERR
•  Nothing feels natural - PRIESTS
•  Near to the wild heart of life - JAPANDROIDS
•  In between - THE FEELIES
•  Last place - GRANDADDY
•  Occult architecture Vol. 1 - MOON DUO
•  Silver / Lead - WIRE
•  Life without sound - CLOUD NOTHINGS
•  In mind - REAL ESTATE
•  Heartworms - THE SHINS
•  Powerplant - GIRLPOOL
•  The French press - ROLLING BLACKOUTS COASTAL FEVER
•  English tapas - SLEAFORD MODS
• Volcano - TEMPLES