25Stars of the Lid - And Their Refinement of the Decline
One of the exceptions to the 'pop' year I experienced. These drone kings continue to make beautiful music that sets moods and carves landscapes into your life.
24Iron and Wine - The Shepherd's DogI'm not a big fan of this band, I've always found them predictable and boring at worst. However, added instrumentation and darker tones made this band more interesting to me in 2007.
23Elliott Smith - New MoonUnlike Tupac or Biggie's post-humous releases, Elliott actually had a lot of really good songs sitting in the vault. This is a good collection of simple songs from the best era of Smith's music.
22Battles - MirroredThese guys did not impress me as much as they impressed everyone else on the planet with Mirrored, I guess I don't do enough near enough drugs. I do, however, think they have set the stage for being one of the more creative bands to come.
21Pinback - Autumn of the Seraphs This is actually one of the most surprising albums of the year for me. That is not surprising in a good way though. Just looking at the album cover, it is such a departure from all of their previous ones. This looks like it should be the cover of a metal or nu-emo record. Pinback, however, makes some of the most delightfully complex and dark indie rock out there. Musically, it seems they are going to way of the title track from 2004's Summer in Abbadon, which is my least favorite part of Pinback's catalog.
20MUM - Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy I think maybe another theme of 2007 is bands I like/love from the past putting out music that doesn't compare to their former, while others are putting out music that brings them to a new level. MUM, unforunately, would fall under the former. Finally We Are No One and Summer Make Good are both brilliant. BRILLIANT. Last year's effort, however, was not as strong, not as interesting, and not as engaging. None the less, MUM is still one of the great northern European music camps.
19Explosions in the Sky - All of a Sudden I Miss EveryoneExplosions used to be one of my favorite bands in the world. Perhaps my favorite. They are a great band who have influenced several other bands to copy their textured instrumental music. Their eagerly anticipated album 'All of a Sudden...' is, how you say... boring. Having taken a huge leap from the underground to the mainstream because of their soundtracking of one of the most popular shows on NBC, Friday Night Lights, we were hoping they would come back with their most powerful album yet. Instead, they left us with an album that is actually not as good as many of the bands who have followed them. The songs aren't as melodic, aren't as delicate, aren't as powerful, and therefore just aren't as good as their previous two masterpieces.
18Jimmy Eat World - Follow This Light Let the guilty pleasures begin! Pop music found its way into my heart this year, in large part due to this album. I'm pretty sure that not even high schoolers listen to Jimmy Eat World any more. They are certainly not the band they were in 1999. Having written the last great record of the original emo era, Clarity, Jimmy has now learned how to write tight, faux-emotional power-pop. Something about their melodies, guitarlines, and vocals just keeps me secretly turning JEW up in my car when I'm alone.
17LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver Probably my favorite video and memories of the year come from this surprising album from producer James Murphy. Dancy, but rocking, fun and serious, all around an interesting and clever album. Even though this is popular as ass, it is still good music. Go figure. VIDEO OF THE YEAR "All My Friends"
16Bjork - Volta It seems that Bjork's music hit its plateau a decade ago, but at least she is not stagnant. Volta brings back some of the elements that made us all fall in love with her years ago. Harsh, inventive tones, mixed with beauty and... well.. Bjork. Volta is far more interesting than her previous effort, Medulla, but light years less enjoyable than Vespertine or Post.
SECOND PLACE VIDEO OF THE YEAR "Declare Independence"
15Liars - LiarsPerhaps my favorite Liars album, which is saying a lot. Experimental, noisy, poppy, spazzy yet controlled, and all around kick ass. Liars are for serious man, for serious.
14The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
It surprised me how much I ended up liking this album, as I have not been an Arcade Fire fan. Again, this is the year that popular and... well... 'pop' music caught my ear more than it ever has in the past. This music is epic, important sounding, and very similar to Meat Loaf in sheer grandioseness. Good songs, great instrumentation, and solid production made this a surprisingly great sophomore release.
13Zookeeper - Becoming All ThingsThose who know me as a person and a musician know how influential Chris Simpson's music has been on me in the past. Mineral and The Gloria Record quite literally changed my musical life. Zookeeer's first LP finds Chris doing something new: making happy sounding music. Lots of friends playing lots of things make this an interesting blend of folk and party-rock. Well done Simpson, glad to see you're having fun again.
12MIA - Kala'Bamboo Banger' might be one of my favorite songs of the year. This album is pretty sick. Not as interesting as her previous 'Arular', but M.I.A. makes important music that says important stuff. Really. Who knew that a Shir Lankan via London could shake up the music world so throughly.
11Holy Fuck - LPWell, nothing new here. I mean that in the best way possible. Holy Fuck stuck with the formula that made their self titled release so holy-fucking awesome. No sound is sacred as every analog synth and live drum is deconstructed, holy-fucked up, and reconstructed to noisy, driving chaos. The drums are always brisk and always at full volume, the keys (and guitars?, and strings?) are perfect in melody and drive. Another great holy-fucking record.
10!!! - Myth TakesTrack of the year goes the the title track of this awesome album. I can't really figure these guys out, are they a jam band? Are they a funk band? Are the cool or toally nerdy? Who cares. This record is sick and every time I'm out dancing I get really excited when one of these tracks come on. Great beats, great guitars, horrible lyrics. Two out of three ain't bad.
9Feist - The ReminderAgain, the pop shows its ugly head in my ugly head this year thorough Feist. Probably the second most popular record on my list (behind Radiohead), this album seduced me long before any Ipod commercial aired. This album is perfect. Feist's voice is incredible, her song writing has improved exponentially, and the production is the nicest faux-lo-fi record to date.
8Les Savy Fav - Let's Stay FriendsOne of my favorite bands finally returns with a great rock album. Some of the songs are slower, but the rock is still fully intact, so is Tim's wittier-than-thou lyrics. This album probably has some of LSV's best songs, which is surprising since they've been making music for over ten years.
7Panda Bear - Person PitchPitchfork's number one is my #7. I love this album and I actually love it a lot. Though reminiscent of Pet Sounds, as well as Panda Bear's Animal Collective, it somehow sounds new and fresh. It is long, and good all the way through. Through repeated listens, however, I have found myself letting it be background music more than cinema these days. This may have something to do with the fact that pop music has ruled my life this year.
6Blonde Redhead - 23More pop music. Almost as good as their masterpiece Misery is a Butterfly, this has BR's most accessible sounds to date. The opening track (video below) is catchy, but still dark and swirling in true BR form. Silently shows their pop skills to be on point, yo. A great record from one of the best bands in the world.
5Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga GaIndie-pop is still pop. This is one of the best in the business doing what they do best. Britt and co. have made perhaps their best record. No, scratch that. This is their best record, and that says A LOT coming from an Austin boy like myself. (Though Girls Can Tell might win on a cold day.)
4Radiohead - In RainbowsOne of the biggest bands on earth returns there with their most accessible album since the Bends. Though, this could not be called 'accessible' if Radiohead hadn't released 'OK Computer', 'Kid A/Amnesiac', and 'Hail to the Thief'. This is the most influential band of our generation taking a step back in favor of great songs making up a great album (unlike the bloated 'Hail to the Thief'). Welcome back oh innovators, we have missed thee.
3Tegan & Sara - The ConI know, I know. Tegan & Sara? Above Radiohead, Spoon, Les Savy Fav, and everyone? Kill me. This is the top of the pop for me. Perfectly written songs, perfectly produced (by Chris Walla from Death Cab for Cutie), and their perfect little voices make this a perfect fucking pop album. There is a lot of emotional attachment to these guys for me which probably accounts for the fact that, according to Last.fm , I listened to more T&S tracks than any other artist this year. The songs are short and oh so sweet. As my best mate the Rupe said, 'There's not a bad note on this album'. Well said.
2Kevin Drew - Spirit If...THIS VIDEO IS FOR THE WORST SONG ON THE ALBUM: though it is a pretty cool video. There are three songs I skip every time I listen to 'Spirit If' simply because they don't seem like they fit. The meat of this record is beautiful, chill, driving songs featuring sick melodies and Kevin Drew's frailest utterances. The bones are the loud Broken Social Scene left-overs that got crammed on here. Commercial success is, of course, ignored as every song includes the 'f' word, sometimes in the title of the song itself. This is indie-rock at its best. Kevin Drew truly is the best part of Broken Social Scene.
1PJ Harvey - White ChalkMost surprising this year was PJ Harvey's new persona. She wears white or black Victorian era dresses and sings gorgeous songs. White Chalk, produced by best-in-the-business Flood, does away with anything electric and sticks to the real organic tones of piano, guitar, auto-harp, and drums. Also gone are the dirty vocals of Uh Huh Her, and for once it seems that Polly Jean is trying to sound like an angel. The record is short, beautiful, and chilling the bone. This album has provided a perfect soundscape for my first winter in the corn-fields of Illinois. If you had told me even six months ago that PJ Harvey would top my best-of list, I would think you were crazy. Below are several stripped down versions of some of the highlights from White Chalk.
