At the start of the year, I decided to devote more of my energy to music, and stay current in the music scene. I started keeping a list in April of albums up for consideration for this list, and I updated it frequently.
Unfortunately, my social life took a massive change, and that list stopped getting updated. I looked at the list a week ago and laughed at it.
About two weeks ago, I took note of the time, and realised it was time to do what I set out to prevent from doing again, after lat year's Year End fiasco: I have listened to, at very least, 30 albums from 2007, all of which I had never heard before. These two weeks have been hellish to say the very least, and they have shown me how obnoxious it is to neglect music. I'll discuss this over the list.
Without further ado, I present you with...
20) The Dear Hunter – Act II: The Meaning Of, And All Things Regarding Ms. Leading
Video: The Dear Hunter - "Red Hands" (Live)
19) The Shins – Wincing The Night Away
Though Wincing The Night Away is certainly not The Shins' strongest release (that would be Chutes Too Narrow), Wincing The Night Away is a wonderful album, showcasing the band's newfound love of strange noises, and their ever-present love of modest production and humbly brilliant lyrics, at the hands of frontman James Mercer. Though it isn't their best, it serves as a perfect stepping-off point for the group's next album, which is certain to be an instant classic.
18) The
Though the label debut of The Besnard Lakes was well-received upon its release, it has since been completely forgotten by every year-end list I have come across, strangely including Paste's 100 Best Of 2007 list. A Floydian record if there ever was one, I regret forgetting to listen to The Besnard Lakes until recently, due to how fantastic and well-done this album is. I like albums with "holy shit" moments, and this is an album packed with them. Albums like this deserve more respect and praise for as good as they are, and I think it's criminal that this has been left out of the maelstrom of the year's end.
Video: The Besnard Lakes - "For Agent 13"
Ryan Adams is another consistently brilliant musician, and this confirms that
Video: Ryan Adams - "Oh My God, Whatever, Etc." (Live)
16) Blitzen Trapper – 
Chances are, unless you follow the Indie press carefully, you haven't heard of Blitzen Trapper. I had the immense pleasure of hearing them open for The Hold Steady (the first place I heard them), and I also saw them again a month later when they performed in-store at Music Millennium (a Portland record store), and discovered that not only are they fantastic musicians, but amazingly humble guys as well. Wild Mountain Nation is Wilco if they were a garage band from the Northwest, and that works out for the best. Hailing from
Video: Blitzen Trapper - :Wild Mountain Nation"
15) The White Stripes – Icky Thump
The White Stripes are another band that really doesn't put out bad albums, for what it's worth. Ex-husband and wife Jack and Meg White have been proving that all a band needs is a guitar and a drum kit for nearly 10 years, and they have never been what one would call "polished". There are no bones about the fact that White Stripes are a ROCK band, and Icky Thump, a volume-at-11 album if there ever was one, is certainly no exception. With everything from a song written for Michel Gondry ("I'm Slowly Turning Into You") to a Patti Page cover ("Conquest"), these two have proven once again that The White Stripes will never be anything but The White Stripes, and quite frankly, that's not a bad thing.
Video: The White Stripes - "Conquest"
14) Amy Winehouse – Back To Black
Bloc Party are part of the handful of somewhat similar rock bands to come out in late-2004/early-2005, who were all okay but sounded something alike. This list included The Bravery, Kasabian, and Kaiser Chiefs, all of which have released sophomore records this year, though none have shown as much growth and promise as that of Kele Okereke's band of rockers, Bloc Party. Sounding a great deal like Morrissey in voice and lyrics, Okereke shows here that Bloc Party is better than their name suggests. Make no mistake: this is an album worth hearing, an album without a truly terrible song, and with lyrics tinged with weariness and boredom with society ("I've got nothing to add or contest/Can still kick a ball a hundred yards/And cling to bottles, and memories of the past/So give me moments/Not hours or days/Just give me moments" ["Waiting For The 7:18"]), these boys are to be ignored at your own risk.
12) Spoon – 
Spoon is a band that has never put out a bad album. Don't take my word for it; go listen to their full discography for yourself. With Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, however, Spoon have decided to step out of their more polished box and put out something to the effect of a jam record, basically doing something for fun. The result is the band's finest work to date, a wonderful Indie-pop record the likes of which the community shouldn't be seeing from a group that's on their 6th album to date. Highlights include "The Underdog", "Don't You Evah", and "I Got Yr. Cherry Bomb". For added fun, give the b-side disc, Get Nice!, a listen. It's just as good as the album.
11) TIE: Les Savy Fav – Let's Stay Friends / Liars – Liars
It's almost tradition for me to have 11 be a tie for me. Thus, here's another tie, between two angular noise rock greats, Les Savy Fav and Liars. I wrote on Les Savy Fav a couple months ago, when Let's Stay Friends, arguably the band's finest work to date, and I immediately fell in love with the group. Because I had then found a strange perchance for catchy noise, I decided to look into Liars, who were getting a considerable amount of buzz for their self-titled album. Both of these albums are raw and wonderful, and don't let the descriptor of "noise" turn you off: this music will hook you like nothing else. It's loud, but it's catchy and fantastic, and you won't be disappointed.
Video: Les Savy Fav - "Patty Lee"
10) Modest Mouse – We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank
Modest Mouse has always held, and always will hold, a place in my heart. Being from a town 5 miles from where I grew up, Isaac Brock's merry band of miscreants have always been making their fat fleshy fingers to moving and bending all their silly strings, even if they did it in a commercially-friendly way with their 2004 release, Good News For People Who Love Bad News. And even then, in an album so strangely optimistic and thus out-of-character for frontman Brock, he still found room for yelping and itchy guitars (see: "Bury Me With It" and "Bukowski"). But, before that, the Issaquah four-piece was making wailing Indie for the flannel-wearing and rock-magazine-reading masses.
With their fifth release, We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank, Brock's boys (which now included a man by the name of Johnny Marr, from this little band called THE SMITHS) have taken their sound and fame that made Good News popular, poured beer on it, and kicked it in the stomach, and let's face it: it was asking for it for being such a little bitch. From the start of this album, Modest Mouse shows that, even if they may have aged and possibly softened, they still know what the heck they're (evident in the opener, "March To The Sea"), but they know how to make a truly fun Indie-pop song, too ("Dashboard" ahoy!). The album slowly changes and evolves, with songs about sailors being buried alive ("Fly Trapped In A Jar") to robotic messiahs ("Steam Engenius"), and with everything from heartfelt ("Little Motel") to flat out epic ("Spitting Venom"), these boys have proven, once again, why they are the now and future kings of angular Indie rock, and why if it's too weird, you're too old.
Video - Modest Mouse - "Dashboard"
9) Of
Are you kidding me? Of
But with Hissing Fauna, he's doing the same, but in a different way. Instead of a real true pop record, this is a danceable lament, contemplating how to deal with one's flaws ("I spent the winter with my nose buried in a book/While trying to restructure my character/Because it had become vile to its creator" ["A Sentence of Sorts in Kongsvinger"]), and all centered around a bizarre, angst-ridden epic entitled "The Past Is A Grotesque Animal", a nearly completely spoken track clocking in at barely under 12 minutes. After this part, though the album feels more like an acidic disco record, Barnes' lyrics get stranger and more creative ("My, my, you busted me like a Robocop/Strike me with your riding crop/I'm forever going celibate tomorrow/But tonight, like success, knows no shame" ["She's a Rejecter"]), and yet the album is not only incredible upon its first listen, but actually gets much better over time. You find yourself on your 20th listen, thinking, "A crisp endorsement from the C.C.A.A. Booty Patrol? Are they out of their minds?" The truth of the matter is: yes, these boys are out of their minds, and it couldn't have worked better.
Ever since I first heard "Your Ex Lover Is Dead" from Stars' 2004 album Set Yourself On Fire, I was love. For a long while, I had neglected the album, until I re-listened to it in early June after the death of Dearly Devoted Dexter, my iPod. After that, when I found out about the impending release of their newest album, In Our Bedroom After The War, I was more excited than one could imagine.
My excitement was not wasted, most thankfully. After The War confirms what we already knew about Stars: they were meant for the stage. The ballet duet vocals of Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan have never sounded as much like monologues as they have here, and it's not exactly a bad thing. Opening with a goosebump-inducing opener entitled "The Night Starts Here", Campbell and Millan bounce back and forth with their artistic and brilliant lyrics. Their stagecraft is demonstrated best in three songs: "Personal", a minimalist piece which is almost barely sung, about two people conversing through Personals ads; "Barricade", a track about love and rebellion performed with nothing but Campbell and a piano; and the slow-boiling finale, "In Our Bedroom After The War", which verifies how brilliant this band is ("Wake up!/Say good morning to that sleepy person lying next to you/And if there's no one there, then there's no one there/But at least the war is over"), and how wonderful build-up can be in music. All-in-all, if you haven't given Stars a listen yet, you've been slighting yourself for quite some time, and you had better remedy this quickly, before you've missed out on one of the most promising bands of the current scene.
Video: Stars - "The Night Starts Here"
7)
Arcade Fire is a big band, and they know how to use their sound. Arguably one of the few "epic" Indie acts around, Arcade Fire have been Indie darlings since they first hit the scene in 2004 with their Pitchfork-fellated album Funeral. The question after that was, could they top the album with something better?
The answer is yes, though they haven't done it with Neon Bible. It is on the same level as Funeral, but in a different way: while Funeral was on the grief process and dealing with death, Neon Bible is about losing your way in the world ("Oh, Lord, won't you send me a sign/'Cause I just gotta know if I'm wasting my time" ["(Antichrist Television Blues)"]) and dealing with an overwhelming feeling of hopelessness ("Not much chance for survival/If the Neon Bible is right" ["Neon Bible"]). The sound of the album isn't as epic as its predecessor, though it shouldn't be for the album. The themes dealt with here are much less epic than they were on Funeral (the subject being apt for the title: death and mourning); on Neon Bible, the name of the game is seeing life around you start to break down, and trying to cope with it.
Video: Arcade Fire - "My Body Is A Cage" (Fan made, using footage from Sergio Leone's Once Upon A Time In The West)
Video: Arcade Fire - "Neon Bible" (Live, in a sodding elevator)
6) Iron & Wine – The Shepherd's Dog
June 10th was a glorious day. I spent the entire day with a wonderful girl who I've been dating since then, I had just finished a Psychology final that brought up my grade two letters, and when I came home and logged on, my friend Brian had let me know that The Shepherd's Dog, the Iron & Wine album which he knew full well that I'd been looking forward to for months, had leaked three months early. It was the perfect end to a perfect day.
Even better, the album was absolutely stellar. Sam Beam (AKA Iron & Wine), who is known for his wondrous lyrics and lo-fi production, did something different with The Shepherd's Dog: he added a bit more sound to it. The Shepherd's Dog finds Iron & Wine in full form, and with a full band it seemed. A lot of purists would condemn Beam for so heinously rejecting his lo-fi roots, but it seems to work to his advantage on such an amazing sounding album. After the sound of his Woman King EP, this is his final progression (or is it?) to what, one thinks, Iron & Wine will be remembered for.
Video: Iron & Wine - "No Surprises" (Radiohead cover. live at Pitchfork Festival)
Kala was the first stop on my tour of albums that I missed this year. It was released in August to rave reviews which I promptly and totally ignored. When the praise kept rolling in, I kept ignoring it, until it started making lists. This, coupled with hearing "Paper Planes" on the radio, inspired me to finally take interest in the album.
No album released this year, not even Strawberry Jam, has been as colourful and danceable than Kala, the second opus of world hip-hop artist M.I.A. Now, when most people hear "hip-hop", they immediately think they know what they'll hear, so I'll state now that M.I.A. is hip-hop in name only. With everything from aboriginal hip-hop to
Video: M.I.A. - "Paper Planes"
4) Menomena – Friend And Foe
Friend And Foe is a strange bloody album, if one ever did exist. Hailing from
I let the reader know this because of how expansive this album is. With enough instrumentals to make Sufjan Stevens smile, Menomena does a lot for three guys. Each member plays several instruments, and all three contribute vocally, creating one of the most unique sounds around. The effect is something like that of Strawberry Jam: simply great pop music, but amped up a great deal. From the first drumbeat of "Muscle n' Flo" to the ever-so-catchy whistle of "Boyscout'n", to the hazy saxophone that winds throughout the album, Menomena are most certainly an Indie band with a lot going for them. In fact, if you give them five years, one could imagine seeing them as the new Apples In Stereo, though not as happy, but just as fantastic.
Video: Menomena - "Rotten Hell"
Video - "Wet And Rusting" (Live in an alley in Paris)
3) The National – Boxer
2) Radiohead – In Rainbows
Most people would be apt to call a foul on me for putting this album at 2 on my year end list. "Favouritism is what that is!" people will shout, because I'm a massive Radiohead fan. For the record, I'm going to say right now that I hate that this is so high up, because people expect it. However, I simply can't help that this makes my list, and so high up.
Radiohead started making music back in 1993, and since then, they have never truly kept their sound the same. From the garage rock of Pablo Honey to their adult sound on The Bends, to their defining record OK Computer, and then to sprawling electronic weirdness on Kid A, Radiohead is a band that sounds like themselves and nobody else. For In Rainbows, their sound is most like OK Computer lyrics meets Amnesiac sound: Diverse and yet minimalist, but still very much lush. From the strange R&B sound of "15 Step", to the Beatles callback of "Faust Arp", to the sparse piano closer "Videotape", In Rainbows is an album that changes as it progresses, and somehow changes with each listen. You can be on your 25th listen and then realize, "Hey, there are kids screaming 'yeah!' on this track!" or notice that "Faust Arp" sounds a lot like "Julia", but more tragic.
And yet, one of the best parts about In Rainbows is how much it sounds like what people expect of Radiohead. It's cryptic and strange, but still completely accessible, which is something that Radiohead have spent their post-Bends career trying to blend. If you want my honest opinion, this is a career-defining record, and I would be honoured to put it on my shelf a few paces from OK Computer, on the best albums of the last 20 years, from one of the most dynamic rock bands in the modern era.
Video: Radiohead - "Videotape"
Video: Radiohead - "Down Is The New Up"
1) TIE: The Animal Collective – Strawberry Jam / Panda Bear – Person Pitch
I regret ignoring no album more than I regret Person Pitch. When it was released much earlier this year, it received so many stunning reviews that I couldn't fathom it, and yet I completely ignored it. A few months later I broke down and downloaded it, but never listened. I finally got around to it in my final sweep of albums I'd ignored over the course of the year, and… I have sinned
PANDA BEAR - PERSON PITCH
Noah Lennox (AKA Panda Bear) has had a good year, one must think. First, he released a new solo album, Person Pitch, which immediately received rave reviews and was hailed as one of the best albums of the year, topping Pitchfork's year end list. Then, in September, he released Strawberry Jam, with his main band, Animal Collective, which received equally outstanding marks.
My friend and colleague, Brian Earls, described the album as "Smile if Brian Wilson would've made it while he was crazy", and this comparison is entirely apt. Person Pitch is a far cry from the insanity of Animal Collective. While Animal Collective is glitchy and loud, Person Pitch is a mellow but spacey album, full of amazing sonic moments, such as the entire album.
Video: Panda Bear - "Comfy In Nautica"
Video: Panda Bear - "Comfy In Nautica" (Fan made, using footage from George Lucas' Indiana Jones And The Raiders Of The Lost Ark)
ANIMAL COLLECTIVE - STRAWBERRY JAM
Video: Animal Collective - Peacebone
WARNING: DO NOT WATCH WHILE UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF ANY SUBSTANCE
Not every album I wanted to be on here was on here. The following are worth your consideration, without a doubt:
-Bright Eyes - Cassadaga
-Band Of Horses - Cease To Begin
-Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha (Originally made 6, but was removed due to lack of words)
-The Maccabees - Colour It In
-The Sea And Cake - Everybody
-Efterklang - Parades
-Art Brut - It's A Bit Complicated
-Wu-Tang Clan - 8 Diagrams
-Dustin Kensrue - Please Come Home
-LCD Soundsystem - Sound Of Silver
-Justice - Cross
-Battles - Mirrored
-El-P - I'll Sleep When You're Dead
-Aesop Rock - None Shall Pass
-Lily Allen - Alright, Still
-Field Music - Tones Of Town
-Mason Proper - There Is A Moth In Your Chest
-THE MOST ENTERTAINING ALBUMS OF 2007-
Across the year, I've come across a lot of amazing music, and a lot of terrible music. Somewhere in the ether between the two, you'll find albums that aren't amazing, groundbreaking albums, but are absolutely fantastic and, most importantly, FUN. I've decided to piece together a list: The Five Most Entertaining Albums Of 2007. These are albums that aren't up to snuff for the big list, but are great just the same. Enjoy.
1) Gogol Bordello - Super Taranta!
Gogol Bordello is a band that refer to themselves as "gypsy punk". With crazy accordians, and a vocalist who has been described as "somewhere between Borat and Triumph The Insult Comic Dog", Gogol Bordello's Super Taranta! is an album that, if you sit down whilst listening to it, you have no soul. This is stuff that you almost feel compelled to get up and dance to.
2) Dan Deacon - Spiderman Of The Rings
Dan Deacon is someone I reported on earlier this year, when I first gave in and listened to this album. This is not a serious record. Described as "The Postal Service, on speed", Dan Deacon comes forth with some of the craziest music you will ever hear, full of lyrics about "big sharks/Sharp swords/Beast bees/Bead lords/Sweet cakes/Maste lakes", this is an album that you cannot feel mature listening to. It just isn't happening. If you want to have fun, give this a listen. You need it.
3) Deerhoof - Friend Opportunity
Deerhoof honestly deserves to be in the Top 20, but a lot of people are apt to disagree with me. Simply put, I don't understand how people take Deerhoof seriously, but they're still worth their salt, for the fun, colourful music they've put out over the years. As a friend of mine said, "This sounds like the inside of my head". That's basically it. And with Friend Opportunity, this is completely true.
4) Big A Little A (Aa) - gAame
Big A Little A.... what's there to say? They're tribal. They're visceral. They're LOUD.
All I can say is.... Geez, watch the video.
5) M.I.A. - Kala
This is an album that IS making my big list, and is most likely making the Top Ten. This IS an innovative album, it IS an amazing album, but most of all, it's just a fun album. Kala, like Super Taranta!, is an album that you just HAVE to move to. It feels worldly, and it feels, quite simply, good. It would be unfair for it to top this list, and be included in the big list, so I put it here at #5 to clarify: this is a fun album.
Acknowledgements:
I'd like to thank:
-Sadie Michelle Dixon, for everything. Just... everything. That's all I can say. I thanked you last year, but this year, I can't put my words into words. You know it all, anyway.
Though, in addition to that, thank you for giving me someone to show The Beatles to. It's something I've always wanted to do, but for obvious reasons could not.
-Kayla Frates, for essentially being one of the best friends a girl could hope to have.
-Cara Hohmann, for listening to me complain so frequently.
-Kira Taylor, for not bitch-slapping me every time we come in contact with each other, and having some of the best music taste around.
-Brian Earls, for having essentially the same taste in music as me, for saying that going to The Hold Steady would be a good idea, and for dealing with my indie rock bullshit for at least three years.
-Shane McBroom, for putting up with my bullshit in general, and making me laugh so fucking much.
-My parents, for the love and support, and oh yeah, the laptop I used to finally get this fucker done.
-Insomnia Coffee Co., for the Wi-Fi, the coffee, the great music, and a place to get this done at 7 in the morning.
-Everyone who reccomended music to me over the past year
-And, finally, though she won't read it, thanks to Marissa, for mentioning M.I.A., which made me remember that I'd not listened to so many albums. Thanks a lot, bitch. You punctured my brain.
Musicians:
-Ben Gibbard, who didn't do anything new this year, but made me cry so many times I can't explain it.
-James Murphy, for releasing the best song of the year, and maybe of the decade, with "All Your Friends". It hurts that such beauty exists.
-Menomena, for existing.
-The same goes to Radiohead.
-And every other band mentioned here.
-The Sound Of Animals Fighting, for putting out music for me to have seizures to and entertain my friends, and for "The Heretic".
-Neutral Milk Hotel, for In An Aeroplane Over The Sea.
-The Shins, for putting out the only song I really know how to play on guitar.
-The Decemberists, for the same reason.
-The National, for the fond memories of lying in bed cuddling with Sadie to Boxer, and debating the lyrics of "Racing Like A Pro".
-My band. My band.
