The Best Vinyl Albums of 2017
If you are searching for the best vinyl albums 2017, you are really looking at a strange and rewarding moment for record collectors. Streaming had already become the default way most people heard new music, yet vinyl kept climbing as the physical format with the strongest cultural pull. RIAA's 2017 year-end report shows that paid subscriptions were driving the wider recorded music business, while vinyl remained the physical format people talked about, displayed, gifted, and hunted for in stores [1]. In the UK, BPI was already describing vinyl sales as being back near early 1990s levels, another sign that LPs had moved beyond novelty status [2].
That makes 2017 a terrific year to collect. The best records from the year are not united by one genre. Kendrick Lamar, Lorde, SZA, Tyler, the Creator, The War on Drugs, St. Vincent, Sampha, Fleet Foxes, and LCD Soundsystem were all working in different lanes, but each made albums that reward the slower attention vinyl encourages. Critics noticed the breadth too: Pitchfork's 2017 list placed SZA, Kendrick Lamar, Tyler, and other genre-bending artists near the top [3], while Rolling Stone framed the year around fury, confusion, resistance, and artists searching for identity as genre lines fell away [4].
This guide ranks 15 essential 2017 albums for vinyl collectors, weighted for music, sleeve appeal, pressing interest, sequencing, and how well the album benefits from being heard as a complete LP. If you use What's Spinning to track what you actually play, these are the 2017 records worth logging because they invite repeat listens, not just shelf admiration.
A quick note on scope: this is not a list of the rarest variants or the most expensive Discogs entries. It favors albums that still make sense as records, meaning the cover helps sell the world, the running order has intent, and the sound has enough depth to justify pulling the sleeve from the shelf instead of tapping a playlist. Some picks are famous, some are quieter collector favorites, and a few are included because the LP format clarifies how carefully the album was built.
The best vinyl albums of 2017
DAMN. by Kendrick Lamar (2017)Start with the record that made 2017 feel larger than a normal release calendar. Kendrick Lamar's fourth studio album arrived through Top Dawg Entertainment, Aftermath, and Interscope in April, with production credits that stretch from Sounwave and DJ Dahi to Mike Will Made It, James Blake, Steve Lacy, BadBadNotGood, Greg Kurstin, and the Alchemist [5]. The vinyl appeal is not only that the bass hits cleanly, although it does. The sequencing is built like a moral argument, with short titles, sudden tonal changes, and a final track that rewinds the whole story into a family parable. Collectors should know about the alternate tracklist edition too, because playing the album in reverse order changes the emotional gravity without turning it into a gimmick. On LP, the stark red cover works almost like a warning label, and the format gives the quieter production details enough physical space to register between the headline singles.
Melodrama by Lorde (2017)Few pop albums from the decade feel as consciously shaped for two sides as Lorde's Melodrama. Released in June by Lava and Republic, it was written after her retreat from the immediate fame of Pure Heroine, with the breakup narrative turned into a night out that keeps curving back toward solitude [6]. Jack Antonoff's production is often discussed for its big drums and glassy synths, but the record's best vinyl quality is negative space. Songs like 'Liability' and 'Writer in the Dark' need room around the voice, while 'Green Light' and 'Supercut' reward a system that can keep bright digital textures from becoming brittle. The blue cover painting also matters in the bin. It feels like a bedroom mirror after midnight, which is exactly the world the album builds before the needle even lands.
Flower Boy by Tyler, the Creator (2017)By the time Flower Boy appeared in July, Tyler, the Creator had already proved he could design a whole universe. What changed here was how much air and vulnerability he let into it. The album was produced entirely by Tyler and features Frank Ocean, ASAP Rocky, Anna of the North, Lil Wayne, Kali Uchis, Steve Lacy, Estelle, Jaden Smith, and Rex Orange County [7]. That guest list could have made the LP feel crowded. Instead, the record uses color like arrangement: warm keys, soft choral hooks, clipped drums, and sudden low-end weight. For a collector, this is one of the great modern examples of cover art and sonics talking to each other. The Eric White artwork looks surreal and pastoral, while the music keeps returning to cars, distance, loneliness, and motion. If you are buying one Tyler album on vinyl first, this is usually the most satisfying front-to-back spin.
Ctrl by SZA (2017)SZA's debut studio album did not arrive like a polished pose. It sounded like private thought left in the room with the microphone still on. Released by TDE and RCA in June, Ctrl includes Travis Scott, Kendrick Lamar, James Fauntleroy, and Isaiah Rashad, with production from Frank Dukes, Carter Lang, Scum, ThankGod4Cody, and others [8]. The LP format is generous to its conversational pacing, especially the way interludes and family voice notes frame the songs without turning them into decoration. The record is not an audiophile spectacle in the old rock sense, but that is part of its collector value. The intimacy is the point. A clean pressing lets the drums sit low, the guitars shimmer at the edge, and SZA's phrasing stay close enough to feel improvised even when the writing is sharp.
A Deeper Understanding by The War on Drugs (2017)Adam Granduciel's move from the home-studio mythology of earlier War on Drugs records to a bigger Atlantic budget could have sanded off the obsessive detail. Instead, A Deeper Understanding made the obsession easier to hear. The album was released in August through Atlantic, mixed by Shawn Everett, and won Best Rock Album at the 60th Grammy Awards [9]. Its vinyl strength is scale: long fades, layered guitar treatments, synth pads that seem to hover behind the beat, and drums that push without flattening everything around them. Pitchfork's 2017 list described Granduciel's work as studio wizardry moving beyond the makeshift home setup into Los Angeles and New York rooms [3]. That background matters because the LP plays like a set of landscapes, not just songs. Side length and dynamic patience are part of the drama.
Pure Comedy by Father John Misty (2017)Josh Tillman's third Father John Misty album is the 2017 pick for anyone who wants a record that invites argument while it spins. Released in April on Bella Union in the UK and Europe and Sub Pop elsewhere, Pure Comedy was produced by Tillman with Jonathan Wilson, engineer Trevor Spencer, and composer Gavin Bryars [10]. It is long, ornate, occasionally exasperating, and unusually committed to its own thesis about entertainment, technology, religion, and self-delusion. On vinyl, that length becomes a feature because the side changes give the satire natural pauses. The arrangements lean on piano, strings, and folk-rock patience rather than the more immediate Laurel Canyon pop of I Love You, Honeybear. Buy it if you like records that feel like essays with melodies, and buy it with enough shelf space for the gatefold mood.
MASSEDUCTION by St. Vincent (2017)Annie Clark made the gloss look dangerous on MASSEDUCTION. Released in October through Loma Vista, the album became St. Vincent's first top ten album in the United States, and it later won Grammys for Best Recording Package and Best Rock Song for the title track [11]. That packaging award is relevant for vinyl buyers, not trivia. The record's visual identity, with saturated color, graphic body imagery, and blunt typography, is part of how the album stages desire and performance. Musically, the LP jumps between compressed pop impact and exposed piano pieces such as 'New York' and 'Happy Birthday, Johnny.' A good copy keeps the synthetic edges from swallowing the songs. The tension between high-shine production and Clark's serrated guitar language is exactly why this one still feels collectible rather than merely stylish.
Sleep Well Beast by The National (2017)The National's seventh album is the band's late-career studio record, the one where the familiar gray weather starts flickering with machines. Released by 4AD in September, Sleep Well Beast won the 2018 Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album [12]. The vinyl case rests on texture. Bryan Devendorf's drums still have that anxious forward roll, but the record adds programmed rhythms, frayed electronics, and guitar tones that feel less like hooks than stress fractures. For collectors who already own Boxer or High Violet, this is the record that shows what the band did when it stopped trying to sound like the earlier mythology. The sleeve's architectural minimalism fits the music: private spaces, uneasy rooms, adult arguments heard through walls. It is not the most immediate National LP, which is why repeated plays are the point.
Crack-Up by Fleet Foxes (2017)Fleet Foxes returned from a long gap with a record that almost refuses to behave like a comeback. Crack-Up, released in June by Nonesuch, followed 2011's Helplessness Blues, arrived after the band's 2013 to 2016 hiatus, and took loose inspiration from F. Scott Fitzgerald's essay collection of the same name [13]. The reason to own it on vinyl is architecture. Songs open in one room and finish in another; harmonies appear, vanish, and return as if the arrangement is being folded. The side breaks help tame an album that can feel dense in a digital queue. On LP, you are more likely to notice the acoustic body of the record, the wood, breath, and choral blend underneath the compositional restlessness. It is a patient collector's Fleet Foxes album, and that patience pays.
American Dream by LCD Soundsystem (2017)LCD Soundsystem's reunion album had to answer a practical collector question: did the comeback deserve shelf space beside the original run? American Dream makes the answer easier than expected. Released in September by DFA and Columbia, it was the band's first album in seven years and became LCD Soundsystem's first record to top the US Billboard 200 [14]. James Murphy's long-form dance-rock has always benefited from vinyl because the tracks need physical duration. 'How Do You Sleep?' and 'Black Screen' are not built for skipping around; they accumulate dread, percussion, and synth pressure over time. Pitchfork highlighted the album's heavy emotional center around broken friendship and memory [3]. A clean copy turns the reunion into something moodier than nostalgia.
Drunk by Thundercat (2017)Thundercat's Drunk is a crate-digger's joy because it treats virtuosity like a punchline, a confession, and a fusion language all at once. Released in February by Brainfeeder, the album features Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonald, Kendrick Lamar, Wiz Khalifa, Mac Miller, Pharrell, Kamasi Washington, and Louis Cole [15]. On paper that sounds like too much. On the record, the sprawl becomes personality: miniatures, bass runs, soft-focus yacht-rock harmony, jokes about video games, and sudden flashes of grief. Pitchfork's year-end essay pointed to the album's 23-track shape and its mix of goofy lyrics, anxious reflection, and crisp drum loops [3]. Vinyl gives those short pieces a scrapbook quality. You keep turning sides and finding another strange room.
No Shape by Perfume Genius (2017)Mike Hadreas made No Shape feel weightless without making it vague. Released in May through Matador as the follow-up to Too Bright, the fourth Perfume Genius album expands his songwriting into baroque pop, chamber textures, and moments of huge release [16]. For vinyl listeners, the attraction is contrast. 'Slip Away' can burst open with almost theatrical force, while 'Alan' closes the album with a quiet domestic tenderness that lands harder because of everything before it. The production is detailed but not fussy, filled with strings, treated vocals, and percussion that moves like scenery. It is also one of the year's strongest cover-to-sound matches. The sleeve suggests softness and distortion at once, which is exactly the album's trick: beauty that refuses to become passive.
Process by Sampha (2017)Sampha's debut studio album is spare enough that a poor pressing would expose every flaw, which makes the vinyl experience especially revealing. Process was released in February by Young Turks, co-produced by Sampha and Rodaidh McDonald, and won the 2017 Mercury Prize [17]. The album deals with grief, family, anxiety, and the body, but it rarely announces those subjects with grand gestures. Instead, the piano tone, the clipped electronic percussion, and Sampha's slightly cracked upper register carry the emotional weight. The Mercury Prize connection is a useful buying signal, but the better reason to own it is how quietly physical it sounds. On a resolving setup, the low-end programming and vocal grain give the record a human pulse that can disappear in background listening. This is a night record, but not because it is sleepy. It is alert, intimate, and full of small shocks.
Antisocialites by Alvvays (2017)Alvvays made one of 2017's most replayable guitar-pop LPs by keeping the surfaces bright and the emotional weather complicated. Antisocialites, the Toronto band's second studio album, was released in September through Polyvinyl, Royal Mountain, Transgressive, and Inertia [18]. The collector angle is not rarity first, it is use value. This is the kind of record that survives frequent spins because the hooks are immediate, the running time is disciplined, and the fuzz never erases Molly Rankin's melodic precision. The cover art's cool blue and pink palette fits the album's dreamier side, but the writing is sharper than a simple jangle-pop tag suggests. If your shelf leans toward classic indie singles, Antisocialites is the 2017 album that earns its spot by being concise, durable, and much sadder than it first appears.
Big Fish Theory by Vince Staples (2017)Vince Staples did not make the safe follow-up. Big Fish Theory, released in June through Blacksmith and Def Jam, pushed his second studio album toward electronic club music, with house and Detroit techno influences threaded through production by Christian Rich, Zack Sekoff, Sophie, Ray Brady, Jimmy Edgar, GTA, Justin Vernon, Flume, and others [19]. That matters on vinyl because the record asks your system to handle pressure and negative space at the same time. The drums snap, the synths can feel metallic, and Staples often raps with a controlled distance that makes the production seem even colder. The cover's fishbowl image is a perfect visual thesis: visibility, confinement, distortion. For collectors who want 2017 hip-hop beyond the obvious canon picks, this is the album that still sounds like it came from a more interesting future.
What to buy first
If you want the most representative 2017 vinyl starter stack, begin with DAMN., Melodrama, Ctrl, Flower Boy, and A Deeper Understanding. Those five cover the year's biggest strengths: hip-hop as album-scale storytelling, pop as intimate architecture, R&B as diaristic production, rap as color-saturated self-portrait, and rock as studio craft.
For sound-first collectors, move next to Process, No Shape, and American Dream. For sleeve and packaging appeal, MASSEDUCTION, Flower Boy, and Crack-Up are especially satisfying in hand. If you are crate digging on a budget, do not ignore Antisocialites or Big Fish Theory, both can still feel underrated compared with the most obvious 2017 canon titles.
FAQ
What was the best album of 2017 to own on vinyl?
DAMN. is the strongest single pick because it combines cultural weight, stark visual identity, excellent sequencing, and a vinyl-specific alternate tracklist edition. If your taste leans pop, Melodrama is just as essential.
Are 2017 albums collectible already?
Yes, but collectibility varies. Some 2017 records were pressed in large numbers and remain easy to find, while limited color variants, deluxe packages, and early runs can command higher prices. The safest approach is to buy albums you will actually play, then treat scarcity as a bonus.
Should I buy original 2017 pressings or later reissues?
For most listeners, condition matters more than first-press bragging rights. Original pressings are attractive for collectors, but a clean later reissue from a reputable label can be the better listening copy, especially if the 2017 run was noisy, warped, or overpriced.
Which 2017 vinyl albums show off a good turntable setup?
A Deeper Understanding, Process, No Shape, and American Dream are strong system testers. They reveal detail in different ways: layered rock production, intimate vocal texture, chamber-pop dynamics, and long-form electronic low end.
