Music releases seem ignored in November & December. Sort of like how we avoid the sad gaze of a young boy having just freshly received a wedgie from an older bully.
Rather than treating this as an objective look at the best albums that came out in 2017, compiling these lists is more of a meditative exercise for me. When you listen to as much music as I do, the events of your life become intrinsically tied to whatever you were listening to at that time.