The Rebrey’s roll on as we knock out 3 more categories. Today it’s Best Modern Rock Album, Best Come Back Album and “Album We Hate To Say We Liked”. Welcome to the hump day! Keep checking back for more Rebreys as 2017 comes to close.
Best Modern Rock Album
–Nominees–
Seether – Poison the Parish
Papa Roach – Crooked Teeth
ONE OK ROCK – Ambitions (Winner)
Seether and Papa Roach are the crowned vets of this category (rightfully so), but oddly enough ONE OK ROCK have nearly as much music as their two more experience elders This year, OOR’s Fueled By Ramen debut was a breath of fresh air for a dying genre.
Best Comeback Album
–Nominees–
Incubus – 8
Kesha – Rainbow
John Mayer – The Search for Everything (Winner)
The reemergence of Incubus and Kesha were welcomed additions to 2017 especially that fantastic Kesha release), but John Mayer’s 4 year break was more like a 9 year stylistic break. His two previous albums were lukewarm folk-inspired releases that were more aimless than they were good, but The Search for Everything is Mayer returning to form with both commercial appeal and song quality. Of the nominees here, it feels best to have the old John Mayer back.
Album We Hate To Say We Liked
–Nominees–
Kid Rock – Sweet Southern Sugar
Harry Styles – Harry Styles
Maroon 5 – Red Pill Blues (Winner)
Why are the first five tracks of that Kid Rock album so good and why does Harry Styles debut work so well as a throwback late-career Beatles soundalike? There were some weird releases this year and at the top of them is Maroon 5’s Red Pill Blues. M5 have been drifting farther and farther away from their funk roots for a long time. Now, 15 years removed from Songs About Jane, Maroon 5’s Red Pill Blues is a modern pop album, with nearly no stylistic connection to their early work (outside of Adam Levine’s trademark falsetto). In principle, this is bad. These guys are too old to be making this type of music. Younger artist like, Shawn Mendes and Charlie Puth are “out-rocking” M5 these days and it feels gross. On the flip-side, RPB is so catchy, it’s hard to deny its appeal.