Best Of 2007

2007 was a fine year for living, but a terrible year for albums. Not in all my years of paying attention have I heard so many watered-down, boring and overhyped bands. I thought about making a hate list, but I think that not much good would come of it (though, I might still do this). However, the albums that were good were great. I probably could squeeze out a Top 20 list if I had to, but I'm not sure I have a reason, and a lot of them would not be great. I mean, when's the last time I listened to Supersystem?

I may also have a stronger distaste for new albums because this year more than any year since high school I listened to a lot of old stuff (The Kinks, Bowie, early-Stones, Solomon Burke, et al. - The Alec Factor). I've heard a lot of people use this for an excuse when they don't like current albums and I never got it, but I kinda think I understand that more now. I guess I always thought I had a pretty good grasp of rock history, and didn't really see a need to go digging up older things. Now I can tell that I've only really seen the successful side and missed out on a lot of quiet classics.

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Here's a list of albums that came out this year that I thought were pretty good to really good.

Dinosaur Jr. - Beyond
The Good Life - Help Wanted Nights
Travis Morrison Hellfighters - All Y'All
Black Lips - Good Bad Not Evil
Caribou - Andorra
Blitzen Trapper - Wild Mountain Nation
Band of Bees - Octopus
Lifetime - Self-Titled
Besnard Lakes - Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse
Smashing Pumpkins - Zeitgeist
Bill Callahan - Woke On A Whaleheart
Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank

Here are my favorite songs that were not included on my favorite albums.

Black Lips - "Katrina"
Menomena - "Wet And Rusting"
British Sea Power - "Straight Down The Line"
Band Of Horses - "Lamb On The Lam"
Modest Mouse - "Fire It Up/Florida"
Caribou - "Sandy"

By far and away the greatest song I heard this year is "Futures & Folly" by Blitzen Trapper. I feel very strongly about this. It's probably one of the 10 best songs I've ever heard. If not 10, certainly 20. It is here:

Blitzen Trapper - "Futures & Folly"

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Regarding Fergie:
"Fergalicious," "Glamorous," and "Clumsy" were awesome. "London Bridge" and "Big Girls Don't Cry" were terrible.

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Here are my 7 Favorite Albums of 2007.


7. The Shins - Wincing The Night Away
This is old! I really loved this for the first couple months. But lately I've become so obsessed with Oh, Inverted World, as it has recently entered The Pantheon of All Time Great Albums, that I have given this a rest. Last time I listened to this, I zoned out for the entire second half, thinking about the other album. But this has its share of classics as well.
Favorite Song: "Sleeping Lessons"

6. Panda Bear - Person Pitch
This was definitely my favorite record for the first half of the year. Then I got impatient waiting for all of my favorite parts in the middle of 12 minute songs. It's very distinct, confusing and wonderful. And I know it's the hip thing to do this year, but nobody has come close to reinterpreting 60s melodies the way this guy has.
Favorite Song: "Take Pills"

5. Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala
This was a bit disappointing to me at first because it was definitely not what I was anticipating. Oh, You're So Silent was my favorite because of how modestly and directly the songs were presented. I think all the beats on this album seemed a little bit kitschy to me and I believed any insincerity from Jens would be his undoing. But then it became a fun record. My favorite part of the album is the part where the horn section comes in at the end of "Kanske Ar Jag Kar i Dig." It's one of the more understated soul-inspired moments after 40 minutes of swimming in disco strings. Jens is still the man and all is right with the world.
Favorite Song: "Your Arms Around Me"

4. Radiohead - In Rainbows
I know it's been said before, but I came to this conclusion in the days leading up to this: there are never any great moments anymore for releases. I think the Hold Steady tried to make one last year by not letting their album leak, but I think that turned out to be more of an industry thing, which just made me resent them. The release of In Rainbows was the first time since early college that I can remember where the playing field was leveled, and everyone was talking about this album exclusively for 2 weeks in October. I felt a sense of community from reading blogs. Regardless of this, I was suspicious of how good the songs would be. I had been questioning their relevance following two not-so-good albums. But this turned out to be better than all of their other albums except Kid A. Objectively, this is the best album of 2007.
Favorite Song: "Jigsaw Falling Into Place"

3. The Sea & Cake - Everybody
Not much to say about this. Great songs all the way through. So smooth, so cool. A really good band with a really good catalogue, of which this is my fave. Ow, man!
Favorite Song: "Coconut"

2. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
This is surely a classic. It's probably the one album that was overhyped in the mainstream this year that actually deserved it. Spoon has a way of making music that adds up to way more than the sum of its parts. It's equal parts Motown and British Invasion. There was a point in time that I thought this was one of the best albums I'd ever heard. It still might be, time will tell, I suppose. It could've easily been number 1 this year. I didn't like "The Underdog" for some time, but then I started to love the 5 second quick chord/hand clap section after he says, "That's why you will not survive!" and it made me love the rest of the song. "Finer Feelings" is tuff also.
Favorite Song: "Black Like Me"

1. Field Music - Tones Of Town
I don't think of complexity as much of a virtue these days, or, at least not as much as I used to. But Field Music uses complexity the same way Spoon uses their production to conceal their more obvious pop hooks. If you listen to "The Meeting Place" by XTC you can totally see where they're coming from. I downloaded this after seeing the video for "You're Not Supposed To" (from Write Your Own History) and listened to it every night at work for a month. And none of it registered. It just seemed to be perfect music to read to, to ignore. I'm not sure the exact moment when I started to love this, but it was probably when I started to listen to it loudly. Since then, I've had some pretty excellent times with Field Music, a lot of them coming on summer bike rides through downtown Fenton, but also driving to Kalamazoo with Quillen (who, of course, understood it's greatness immediately) and lots of solo drives. Every moment of listening to this makes me excited, every song is it's own piece of the puzzle and it's all done in under 40 minutes.