Here's how my list shook out:
- Infinity On High - Fallout Boy
- Rites Of Uncovering - Arbouretum
- Strawberry Jam - Animal Collective
- Reggae Hit LA - The Aggrolites
- We All Belong - Dr. Dog
- New Magnetic Wonder - The Apples In Stereo
- Bolts Of Melody - Adam Franklin
- Person Pitch - Panda Bear
- We Live Now - Dora Flood
- Sound Of Silver - LCD Soundsystem
- Atlantis, Hymns For Disco - K-Os
- Boxer - The National
- The Shepherd's Dog - Iron And Wine
- Neon Bible - Arcade Fire
- Living With The Living - Ted Leo & The Pharmacists
- Alright, Still - Lily Allen. The musical surprise of the year for me. This album is full of choice samples from ska greats Duke Reid, Jackie Mittoo, and Earl King among others. The samples provide a great foundation for Allen's vocal and lyrics, which are razor-sharp and cheeky at the same time. Pop music rarely sounds as good as it does here.
9. Traffic And Weather - Fountains Of Wayne.
Power pop kings do what they do best: combine clever storytelling with hooky, hooky goodness. Just a solid, solid disc of ear-catching goodness.
8. Andorra - Caribou. Ear-pleasing dream-pop/electronica that comes across like a warm day in the middle of Winter. It's a poptastic piece of music that pays tribute to Brian Wilson - though in a much different way than Panda Bear did on Person Pitch - with engaging melodies and sumptuous hooks that are consistently engaging. A great disc.
7. None Shall Pass - Aesop Rock. Best rap album of the year. Lotta folks don't like Aesop's rapid-fire delivery, but it's not a problem for me. Cool beats, great lyrics,
and all around fine production leave us with a sonically interesting and hook-filled album. Sounds great on headphones, too.
6. A Poet's Life - Tim Armstrong. Rancid frontman drops a ferociously fun album that utilizes the retro-reggae skills of The Aggrolites with grand results. This is what old school, 2-Tone reggae would sound like if were to have a sudden resurgence in popularity today; urgent, infectious, throw-your-arms-in-the-air skank that wouldn't stop people from moving if threatened with violence... A fun, fun party album and completely up front in its intentions.
5. I Can't Go On, I'll Go On - The Broken West. A fantastic album of power pop steeped in West coast Americana. A jangliscious album full of hooks and harmonies, with just enough of an undercurrent of darkness to provide a nice counterpoint to the prettiness that first shows itself when played. A great album that could've very easily taken the top spot on this list.
4. Icky Thump - The White Stripes. Jack White comes through with a set of Zeppelin-esque rockers that are consistently catchy and inventive. This disc also contains some of the best guitar sounds released this year
3. The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse - The Besnard Lakes. Utterly engaging disc of dreamy space rock that mixes indie sensibilities with ethereal guitar/harmony arrangements. In an alternate reality, Pink Floyd Meets the Beach Boys for dinner in Canada and this is the album that results.
2. The Stage Names - Okkervil River. A tragically clever album that hits all the right notes in all of the right places at all the right times. A concept album of sorts about fame and entertainment, it's not as dark as earlier releases from Will Sheff and co. Gritty yet catchy, clever but not specious, knowledgeable yet innocent sounding, this is the most cinematic album released this year. This disc incorporates more pop history in one disc than most bands manage in their entire careers.
1. Ga Ga Ga GA GA - Spoon. Hands down the best album of the year. An indie rock extravaganza with nary a bad song or misplaced note to be found. Best overall production of any disc that I heard this year. The songs are all meticulously crafted and attach themselves to your lobes with the intensity of a rabid bottle of Super Glue. If you purchase no other album this year, let this be the one.
My blog has more descriptions of the bottom fifteen on my list and has Amazon links to all of the albums listed above for anyone interested in spending their Xmas dough...
Odds and sods and things that could've/should've/would've made my list:
Emotionalism - The Avett Brothers. Really nice disc that mixes bluegrass, folk, and Everly brothers style harmonies to grand effect.
The Cool - Lupe Fiasco. Very good hip-hop album that didn't get released until last week, thus getting short shrift on people's lists simply because there wasn't enough time for folks to get it, digest it, and comment on it. Based on my first few spins, I would've ranked this in my top 10, probably...
Best re-issue of '07: Ape-Ology - Lee Perry and the Upsetters. A giant in the field of Dub, this behemoth of an album is. It collects the Lee Perry albums Super Ape, Roast Fish, Collie Weed & Cornbread, and Return of the Super Ape and packages them with bonus tracks and remastered sound. Essential for Dub/Reggae fans.
The three albums found on Ape-ology cover the spectrum of reggae dub, from "too stoned to move" on Super Ape to "just high enough to let loose and party" on Roast Fish, Collie Weed & Cornbread (I mean, dude--the word "weed" is in the title). Or you can listen straight and let Lee "Scratch" Perry's trippy productions carry you off into another world. He was the master of the recording studio, and his audio lessons have influenced many artists over the past 30 years. More important, this music has remained vital and highly listenable. Ape-ology is dub-ology 101. Begin your studies today.
Somewhere in my soul, there's always Rock -n- Roll... Joe Strummer
This was a slow music year for me...for some reason I just got away from listening to albums or following what's going on in the music world. Ironically, this drift has been spurred by listening to my university's radio station when I'm driving in the car, and to Pandora radio when I'm at home. By going with "push" radio instead of "pulling" in my own music, I've more or less let my listening be dictated by others...for better or worse. I would like to give a big endorsement to Pandora, though. It's really a great service - you can create your own custom "stations" based on your taste in music, and it's quite good at interpreting what you like and delivering a solid stream of similar but new music based on that. There's a $30 annual fee, but it's well worth it (and cheaper than many magazine subscriptions).
I won't claim it's the best album of 2007 (if it even came out this year), but ever since watching 'Everything is Illuminated', I've been listening to a lot of 'Super Taranta' by 'Gogol Bordello'. It's gypsy-punk, and it's loud and fun, and it's great to wake yourself up in the morning.
"Good Bad Not Evil"
This is the album most beloved of my peers. I just started listening to it, and have yet to be convinced. First impressions: A musically astute version of The Fugs, or more organic and low-key/lo-fi Butthole Surfers.
You make the call, TnT!
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I, for one, renounce our insect overlords!
I think all the albums I've become enamored with in 2007 were released in 2006. The Pipettes We Are The Pipettes is an enjoyable romp through Phil Spector-inspired girl group pop, and Trivium's The Crusade is a true masterpiece of metal (and probably the second-best rock album released this decade). Also, Flatfoot 56 send up Celtic-inspired punk in their Knuckles Up release, a must have for every drinking man's bar jukebox.
Of the 2007-released albums I bought, only two stand out as exceptional: Dinosaur Jr.'s Beyond, because it's as though J Mascis picked up exactly where Where You Been left off in '93 (yes, I know he released two albums in the interim); and LCD Soundsystem's Sound of Silver.
Other notable 2007 released were Richard Thompson's Sweet Warrior, Manic Street Preacher's Send Away The Tigers, Foo Fighters' Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, and Lacuna Coil's Karmacode. All are enjoyable, but none are truly groundbreaking.
