The Evil Dictator is dead, let democracy reign supreme... It’s time for our annual staff poll. 42 staff members voted for 92 different records, the majority of which were only a favourite of one writer.

Curious who picked what? You’ll find who voted for what below this list.

The below list differs somewhat to the Editor’s Cut that I published a few days ago. That was an attempt to try something different: a personal take and approximation of what I perceived to be a refraction of the mood of the editorial we've published and the forums. Apologies to anyone who was (and still is) confused or felt that this human-filtering over-stepped the mark. I still like the idea of continuing to revise that list based on people's passion for certain records (I have already decided the SZA album should have been far higher and Julie Byrne not being on the list was a huge oversight! Mount Eerie have a lot of fans on our forum too.)

Still to come, of course, is the annual user poll (which goes live to take part in any day now), which is likely to serve up a very different variation on what the highlights of 2017 were/are. It just goes to show that there is no definitive answer to what “the best” of the year is, there are only personal perspectives.

Whichever list you prefer (probably your own personal one), happy foraging for records to love from the feast that 2017 served up.

Please feel free to join the conversation over on our forum and celebrate your favourites of the year.

Drowned in Sound’s Albums of 2017

Staff Edit

1) Lorde - Melodrama (19)
2) The War On Drugs - A Deeper Understanding (13)
3) Kendrick Lamar - DAMN. (10)
4) LCD Soundsystem - american dream (8)
= IDLES - Brutalism (8)
= Julie Byrne - Not Even Happiness (8)
7) St. Vincent - MASSEDUCTION (7)
8) Laurel Halo - Dust (6)
9) EMA - Exile In The Outer Ring (4)
= Nadine Shah - Holiday Destination (4)
= Gas - Narkopop (4)
12) Wolf Alice - Visions Of A Life (3)
= Juana Molina - Halo (3)
= Protomartyr - Relatives In Descent (3)
= Slowdive - Slowdive (3)
= Colin Stetson - All This I Do For Glory (3)
= Girl Ray - Earl Grey (3)
= William Basinski - A Shadow in Time (3)
= Mount Kimbie - Love What Survives (3)
= Circuit des Yeux - Reaching For Indigo (3)
= Charly Bliss - Guppy (3)
= Sophia Kennedy - Sophia Kennedy (3)
= Chastity Belt - I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone (3)
= Jay Som - Everybody Work (3)
25) Mhysa - fantasii (3)
= Timothy Fife - Black Carbon (3)
= Leif Vollebekk - Twin Solitude (3)
= Fleet Foxes - Crack-Up (3)
= Hajk - Hajk = Weezer - Pacific Daydream (3)
= The Used - The Canyon (3)
= Mount Kimbie - Love What Survives (3)
= Kikagaku Moyo - Stone Garden (3)
= Lucy Rose - Stone Garden (3)
= Oak House - Hot Or Mood (3)
= Jens Lekman - Life Will See You Now (3)
= Helpless - Debt (3)
37 ) Thundercat - Drunk (2)
= Jane Weaver - Modern Kosmology (2)
= Hurray For The Riff Raff - The Navigator (2)
= Princess Nokia - 1992 Deluxe (2)
= The Horrors - V (2)
= SZA - Ctrl (2)
= Japanese Breakfast - Soft Sounds From Another Planet (2)
= Jen Cloher - Jen Cloher (2)
= Destroyer - ken (2)
= Vince Staples - Big Fish Theory (2)
= Lauren Bird - The Inbetween (2)
= Priests - Nothing Feels Natural (2)
= JAY-Z - 4:44 (2)
= Richard Dawson - Peasant (2)
= Moses Sumney - Aromanticism (2)
= Meat Wave - The Incessant (2)
= Charlie Cunningham - Lines = Amber Run - For A Moment I Was Lost (2)
= The Menzingers ​ - After The Party (2)
= Army Of Bones - ​Army Of Bones (2)
= Algiers - The Underside Of Power (2)
= Royal Blood - How Did We Get So Dark? (2)
= Nadia Reid - Preservation (2)
= Mount Eerie - A Crow Looked At Me (2)
= Run The Jewels - Run The Jewels 3 (2)
= Binker and Moses - Journey To The Mountain Of Forever (2)
62) Noveller - A Pink Sunset For No One (1)
= Laura Marling - Semper Femina (1)
= Soulwax - From Deewee (1)
= Perfume Genius - No Shape (1)
= Queens Of The Stone Age - Villains (1)
= Four Tet - New Energy (1)
= Alvvays - Antisocialites (1)
= Father John Misty - Pure Comedy (1)
= Ryan Adams - Prisoner (1)
= Kelela - Take Me Apart (1)
= Afghan Whigs - In Spades (1)
= Public Service Broadcasting - Every Valley (1)
= Blanck Mass - World Eater (1)
= Brix & The Extricated - Part 2 (1)
= King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - Flying Microtonal Banana (1)
= Shamir - Revelations (1)
= The Magnetic Fields - 50 Song Memoir (1)
= Melkbelly - Nothing Valley (1)
= Arca - Arca (1)
= Bing & Ruth - No Home Of The Mind (1)
= Converge - The Dusk In Us (1)
= James Holden & The Animal Spirits - The Animal Spirits (1)
= Amanda Palmer and Edward Ka-Spel - I Can Spin A Rainbow (1)
= Old Wives - Three (1)
= Dirty Projectors - Dirty Projectors (1)
= H.E.R. - H.E.R. (1)
= Bullet Height - ​No Atonement (1)
= Sarah Davachi - All My Circles Run (1)
= Conor Oberst - Saluations (1)
= The Hundredth Anniversary - Sea State Pictures (1)
= Happyness - Write In (1)

STAFF TOP 3s

Sean Adams (Editor-at-Large)

1) Wolf Alice - Visions Of A Life
2) EMA - Exile In the Outer Ring
3) Noveller - Pink Sunset For No One

Andrzej Lukowski (Reviews Editor)

1) William Basinski - A Shadow In Time
2) Destroyer - ken
3) Dirty Projectors - Dirty Projectors

Dom Gourlay

1) Slowdive - Slowdive
2) Idles - Brutalism
3) Eyre Llew - Atelo

Elizabeth Aubrey

1) St Vincent - MASSEDUCTION
2) Jen Cloher - Jen Cloher
3) Nadine Shah - Holiday Destination

Nina Keen

1) Nadine Shah - Holiday Destination
2) SZA - CTRL
3) Amanda Palmer and Edward Ka-Spel - I Can Spin A Rainbow

Matthew Neale

1) Julie Byrne - Not Even Happiness
2) Japanese Breakfast - Soft Sounds From Another Planet
3) Mount Eerie - A Crow Looked At Me

Bekki Bemrose

1) Colin Stetson - All This I Do For Glory
2) Circuit Des Yeux - Reaching For Indigo
3) Melkbelly - Nothing Valley

Marc Burrows

1) Girl Ray - Earl Grey
2) LCD Soundsystem - american dream
3) Brix & The Extricated - Part 2

Rob Wilson

1) Charly Bliss - Guppy
2) LCD Soundsystem - American Dream
3) King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Flying Microtonal Banana

Dave Hanratty

1) The War On Drugs - A Deeper Understanding
2) The Horrors - V
3) Kelela - Take Me Apart

Lee Adcock

1) Juana Molina - Halo
2) EMA - Exile In The Outer Ring
3) Shamir - Revelations

Ellen Peirson-Hagger

1) Sophia Kennedy - Sophia Kennedy
2) Lorde - Melodrama
3) Laura Marling - Semper Femina

Joe Goggins

1) Chastity Belt - I Used To Spend So Much Time Alone
2) Lorde - Melodrama
3) Alvvays - Antisocialites

Christopher McBride

1) The War On Drugs - A Deeper Understanding
2) Lauren Bird - The Inbetween
3) Public Service Broadcasting - Every Valley

Jamie Lawlor

1) Kendrick Lamar - DAMN.
2) JAY-Z - 4:44
3) Queens Of The Stone Age - Villains

Jasper Willems

1) Jay Som - Everybody Works
2) Hurray For The Riff Raff - The Navigator
3) Circuit Des Yeux - Reaching For Indigo

James Skinner

1) The Magnetic Fields - 50 Song Memoir
2) The War On Drugs - A Deeper Understanding
3) Conor Oberst - Salutations

Daniel Cole

1) The War On Drugs - A Deeper Understanding
2) Princess Nokia - 1992 Deluxe
3) Moses Sumney - Aromanticism

Emma Madden

1) Julie Byrne - Not Even Happiness
2) Priests - Nothing Feels Natural
3) Kendrick Lamar - DAMN.

David Thomas

1) Lorde - Melodrama
2) Royal Blood - How Did We Get So Dark?
3) St Vincent - MASSEDUCTION

David Hillier

1) Lorde - Melodrama
2) The War On Drugs - A Deeper Understanding
3) Ryan Adams - Prisoner

Giuseppe Zevolli

1) Mhysa - fantasii
2) Kendrick Lamar - DAMN.
3) Arca - Arca

Gavin Miller

1) Timothy Fife - Black Carbon
2) Kendrick Lamar - DAMN.
3) Soulwax - From Deewee

Max Pilley

1) Idles - Brutalism
2) LCD Soundsystem - american dream
3) Richard Dawson - Peasant

Sam Cleeve

1) Leif Vollebekk - Twin Solitude
2) Nadia Reid - Preservation
3) Bing & Ruth - No Home Of The Mind

Adam Turner-Heffer

1) Protomartyr - Relatives In Descent
2) Thundercat - Drunk
3) Converge - The Dusk in Us

Russell Warfield

1) Fleet Foxes - Crack-Up
2) Julie Byrne - Not Even Happiness
3) Richard Dawson - Peasant

Gabriel Ebulue

1) Idles - Brutalism
2) Sleaford Mods - English Tapas
3) Moses Sumney - Aromanticism

Reiss De Bruin

1) Laurel Halo - Dust
2) Gas - Narkopop
3) James Holden & The Animal Spirits - The Animal Spirits

Jon Falcone

1) Hajk - Hajk
2) Weezer - Pacific Daydream
3) Old Wives - Three

Aidan Reynolds

1) The Used - The Canyon
2) Meat Wave - The Incessant
3) The Afghan Whigs - In Spades

Harriet Linnell

1) Lorde - Melodrama
2) Charlie Cunningham - Lines
3) Amber Run - For A Moment I Was Lost

Mathys Rennela

1) Mount Kimbie - Love What Survives
2) Kendrick Lamar - DAMN.
3) H.E.R. - H.E.R.

Adam Follett

1) Lorde - Melodrama
2) LCD Soundsystem - american dream
3) Perfume Genius - No Shape

Stevie Lennox

1) Kikagaku Moyo - Stone Garden
2) Jane Weaver - Modern Cosmology
3) Mount Eerie - A Crow Looked At Me

Jamie Otsa

1) Lucy Rose - Stone Garden
2) The Menzingers - After The Party
3) Four Tet - New Energy

Haydon Spenceley

1) Oak House - Hot Or Mood
2) Army of Bones - Army Of Bones
3) Bullet Height - No Atonement

Chris Shipman

1) Jens Lekman - Life Will See You Now
2) Vince Staples - Big Fish Theory
3) Father John Misty - Pure Comedy

Benjamin Bland

1) Laurel Halo - Dust
2) Gas - Narkopop
3) Sarah Davachi - All My Circles Run

Christian Cottingham

1) Lorde - Melodrama
2) Algiers - The Underside Of Power
3) Blanck Mass - World Eater

Nick Roseblade

1) Helpless- Debt
2) Binker And Moses - Journey To The Mountain Of Forever
3) The Hundredth Anniversary - Sea State Pictures

Tom Lambert

1) St Vincent - MASSEDUCTION
2) Run The Jewels - Run The Jewels 3
3. Happyness - Write In