CARLTON FLETCHER: 2017 leaves behind a lot to like

Today I am your champion, I may have won your hearts. But I know the game, you’ll forget my name and I won’t be here in another year if I don’t stay on the charts.

— Billy Joel

Entertainment in 21st-century America is geared more and more toward the short-attention-span cellphone generations, meaning the deep-thought, real-time-developing, gotta-pay-attention aesthetic of TV shows like “The Wire” and, to a lesser extent, “The Sopranos,” movies like “The Godfather” and “The Graduate,” and music like the “Tommy” album and songs like “Positively Fourth Street” and “Netherlands” are in short supply.

But does that mean there’s nothing good to keep us occupied while our cellphones are recharging?

Heck no. In fact, there was plenty to like in 2017, from Kendrick Lamar’s “HUMBLE.” to Don Winslow’s “The Force” (sorry, it has nothing to do with “Star Wars” … but “The Last Jedi” was pretty cool) to Greta Van Fleet’s “Safari Song.”

Here’s one guy’s look at some of the best of the year:

SONGS: Greta Van Fleet and Sean Rowe came blasting out of nowhere with some of the best music of the year, and Lamar was his typical, greatest-hip-hop-artist-alive self in 2017. Migos, Annie Clark — we all know her as St. Vincent — and Donald Glover’s alter ego Childish Gambino shone for the younger folks, while veterans Robert Plant and Tom Morello and Chuck D’s Prophets of Rage represented for the more mature among us.

10. Redbone — Childish Gambino

9. New York — St. Vincent

8. Bad and Boujee — Migos

7. Thunder — Imagine Dragons

6. The Sound of Silence — Disturbed

5. Promise of You — Sean Rowe

4. The May Queen — Robert Plant

3. Living on the 110 — Prophets of Rage

2. HUMBLE. — Kendrick Lamar

1. Safari Song — Greta Van Fleet

TV: Some of the most creative work on the small screen is now available all over the spectrum, so it’s tough to keep up if you’re not paying close attention. Still, with shows like “This Is Us,” “The Goldbergs” and “Chicago PD” on network TV and Ken Burns’ amazing “The Vietnam War” on PBS, there’s still quality stuff for people with basic cable.

10. Law and Order True Crime: The Menendez Brothers — NBC

9. The Vietnam War — PBS

8. Vice Principals — HBO

7. American Housewife — ABC

6. Billions — Showtime

5. Chicago PD — NBC

4. The Goldbergs — ABC

3. Twin Peaks — Showtime

2. Ray Donovan — Showtime

1. This Is Us — NBC

ALBUMS: The LP is an almost forgotten concept — proof … the No. 1 choice here is billed as a “double EP.” But you’re always going to get great stuff from Lamar and veterans U2, and Foo Fighters have become rock’s reliable standard-bearers.

10. American Dream — LCD Soundsystem

9. Colors — Beck

8. The Nashville Sound — Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit

7. Villains — Queens of the Stone Age

6. Concrete and Gold — Foo Fighters

5. Carry Fire — Robert Plant

4. Prophets of Rage (self-titled)

3. Damn — Kendrick Lamar

2. Songs of Experience — U2

1. From the Fires — Greta Van Fleet

BOOKS: I still get the puzzled looks when I go from meeting to meeting with a book in tow — a real book, with a cover and pages and everything. (I even had someone ask recently — probably only partly tongue-in-cheek: “What’s that?”) But perhaps the greatest form of entertainment of 2017 came via the written word. In late-November, early-December, new releases by John Grisham, Stephen King, Michael Connelly, Lee Child and Dan Brown had me beside myself with glee. Then I got a hold of Harlan Coben’s “Don’t Let Go” and found someone else who could hang with the modern-day masters. So the pending demise of literature, it seems, is vastly overstated.

10. The Fallen — Ace Atkins

9. The Thirst — Jo Nesbo

8. The Midnight Line — Lee Child

7. Don’t Let Go — Harlan Coben

6. Two Kinds of Truth — Michael Connelly

5. Sleeping Beauties — Stephen and Owen King

4. Since We Fell — Dennis LaHane

3. The Late Show — Michael Connelly

2. Black Book — James Patterson and David Ellis

1. The Force — Don Winslow

Email Carlton Fletcher at [email protected]. Follow @ABH_Fletcher on twitter.

Staff Photo