American Songwriter magazine has released its year-end-best lists, and among the artists featured are Rhiannon Giddens, Robert Plant, and Fleet Foxes. Rhiannon Giddens's album Freedom Highway and Robert Plant's Carry Fire have made the Top 25 Albums of 2017, and Giddens, Plant, and Fleet Foxes have songs on the list of the Top 25 Songs of 2017.

"Giddens's striking, instantly recognizable voice is the sound of strength, determination and a fight-the-power attitude that makes this a galvanizing listening experience," writes Hal Horowitz in selecting Freedom Highway for the American Songwriter best albums list. The song "At the Purchaser's Option," written by Giddens and Joey Ryan for the album, is No. 2 on the magazine's list of the year's best songs. Stephen Deusner says: "Giddens makes the song sound utterly modern and, like the rest of her album, sadly relevant to the black experience in the 21st century."

On Carry Fire, Robert Plant "pushes boundaries, creating daring new music that’s as bold, incisive and genre-pushing as anything in his catalog," writes Horowitz on the best-albums list. "Folk, rock, organic electronics and world sounds are stirred into a fertile stew that’s as dangerous and sizzling as the album’s title." On the album track "May Queen," says Deusner in the top-songs list, Plant makes "clear that tending his fire means moving forward, not backwards, and mapping out new continents."

The opening track to Fleet Foxes' new album, Crack-Up, "I Am All That I Need / Arroyo Seco / Thumbprint Scar," has made American Songwriter's list of the Top 25 Songs of 2017. "Fleet Foxes redefined themselves on Crack-Up," writes Deusner, "their frontman in particular, who penned ambitious suites and movements and collage."

You can see the complete American Songwriter Top 25 Albums list here and its Top 25 Songs list here.

Look for more coverage of the year's best lists to come in the Nonesuch Journal.