| Best Music Of 2007 |
| I don't have a whole lot to say about this year... as usual, there's plenty of new stuff coming out that I love, plenty of people I'm friends with making music that I'm excited about, plenty of overhyped crap that I don't care about, plenty of old forgotten records for me to uncover... whatever. Here's the list: #1: The Field: From Here We Go Sublime: Kompakt In a way, I could see this one coming a few years ago, when the Things Keep Falling Down 12" was released. That record just clicked with me for reasons I couldn't begin to explain, and the follow-up Sun & Ice was one of my most-played releases of last year. So it's really no surprise that this full-length was almost immediately my favorite album of the year when it came out back in March. And yet I'm still wondering why I'm so hooked on this guy's stuff. Each song seems like it's about 5 seconds worth of source material, cut up and looped for seven minutes. By all accounts from people who know their music-making software, this is an album anyone can make in preview mode. But like the best works by Oval, it's the exact moments that deserve to be repeated that get diced, stuttered, and distorted ad nauseum. "Sun & Ice" may only be 2 notes repeated over and over for 6 minutes, but it still gets me every time I hear the part two-thirds in where the distortion overloads, the track fizzles out, and then bursts back to life on-beat. Things like that obviously seperate this from just being a dance record (the one time I heard "Over The Ice" mixed in an actual DJ set at a party, it practically killed the mood), and keep me hooked on this incredibly sublime album. #2: Rotator: Choose Your Poison, Mine Is Hardcore!!!: Peace Off Breakcore can has death? Maybe, but as long as Peace Off is still in the game, who cares? This collection of unreleased and vinyl-only tracks from the past 2 years is as genius as I could hope for. #3: His Name Is Alive: Xmmer: Silver Mountain Media Group My favorite band threw me for a loop when I first heard this one... this album sounded too sparse and not catchy enough, especially after releasing what was by far my favorite album of last year. Oddly enough, it was the instrumental version of the album (which they sold on tour) that actually helped me appreciate the album a bit more. Even if this isn't really my favorite set of songs that Warn Defever has written, I really appreciate the way this album sounds... I love the way this album subtly blends acoustic and electric sounds. But seriously, if you haven't become familiar with this band yet, you should really hear Detrola first. #4: M.I.A.: Kala: Interscope In the intro to her first album, Maya Arulpragasam told listeners to "get yourself an education", and with this album, she certainly does more than her share; practically every song on this album sounds like it was recorded in a different country. Song for song, I think I still like Arular a little better, but I have endless respect for M.I.A. for being who she is and making such incredible, unique music. The song with Timbaland still sucks, though. #5: Dan Deacon: Spiderman Of The Rings: Carpark Yet another case of "I saw/met this guy years ago in some tiny room, now he's hyped to death and selling out shows"... reason being because he has such a unique and entertaining live show. So much, in fact, that it's hard to imagine a recorded audio document being of any worth to anyone who hasn't been a part of the spectacle that is the Dan Deacon live show. However, the presence of "Wham City" alone makes this album deserve a Nobel prize or something. Just make sure that when you go see him, and you buy a t-shirt, make sure it's not actually a youth shirt... whoever did merch last time I saw him didn't seem to know what he was doing. #6: OCDJ: Hooray!: Wildfire Wildfire It's a simple equation, folks: Nintendo dance beats + chopped up rap/pop samples + fun live show + being someone I've known for years = a slot on my top 10 albums of the year list. Hooray!!! #7: Panda Bear: Person Pitch: Paw Tracks The new Animal Collective album is good, but it doesn't compare at all to Noah Lennox's third solo album. Sounding more like his Jane side project than Animal Collective, this album combines found sounds, loops, heartfelt vocals and tons of reverb, resulting in something truly unique and addicting. #8: Burial: Untrue: Hyperdub For the second year in a row, the anonymous London producer working under the name Burial has released an astounding work that transcends whatever hype or scene/genre connections it's being associated with. The vocal samples on this album might sound annoying at first, but once you get past them, this is such a completely devastating album. #9: Wolves In The Throne Room: Two Hunters: Southern Lord I still don't pay a whole lot of attention to metal, but once again, this group managed to appear out of the blue and completely astound me. While this album isn't really all that different than their debut, somehow I liked this one twice as much. #10: Justice: Cross: Vice/Ed Banger It seems obligatory to explain this album's inclusion on a "best of 2007" list by saying something along the lines of "I know this album is so overhyped, but it's so great!", but really, as long as you skip the tracks with vocals, this is as great as you could hope today's dance music to be. #11: Dev/Null: Lazer Thrash: Cock Rock Disco This probably would be ranked a lot higher if it had been released a few years ago, but no need to nitpick... this is just an amazingly great breakcore album, by another longtime buddy of mine. #12: San Serac: Professional: Frog Man Jake There's been a lot of people making over-exaggerated '80s dance/funk/pop lately. While Calvin Harris wrongly claims to have invented disco, and while Chromeo assume their fancy footwork will cover up for their crappy music, the only professional in this game is San Serac. Includes the best David Bowie cover ever made. #13: Shitmat: Grooverider: Planet Mu Not quite as "oh no he didn't" as a lot of his earlier stuff, this is still a highly enjoyable, very well done mid-'90s jungle nostalgia trip. #14: Pinch: Underwater Dancehall: Tectonic Usually I don't like "electronic producer + hired vocalists" albums. This one is the exception because even if you don't like the tracks with vocals, the second disc has instrumental versions of everything on the first disc... but more importantly, because the tracks with vocals are actually really good, for the most part. #15: Saturday Looks Good To Me: Fill Up The Room: K Not quite as unabashedly retro as their previous albums, this is still a really solid indie-pop album from one of the only bands that I still like currently making music in this genre. #16: Videohippos: Unbeast The Leash: Monitor As with Dan Deacon and everyone else affiliated with Wham City, this is really a band you need to see live in order to fully appreciate (as if having "video" in their name doesn't give it away)... but like Deacon, they've made a really fun album that stands out on its own. #17: To Kill A Petty Bourgeoisie: The Patron: Kranky I'm really surprised this one didn't get more hype... I mean, it's on Kranky first of all, but besides that, it's such an original, innovative album. I can't think of anyone who integrates noise into their songs the way this band does. Plus, the vocals have sort of a "4AD but more sinister" vibe to them. I guess I'm just a sucker for that sort of thing. #18: Marissa Nadler: Songs III: Bird On The Water: Kemado Another thing I'm also a sucker for... psych-folk with heavily reverbed female vocals. #19: Copy: Hair Guitar: Audio Dregs Another album I'm surprised didn't get much hype. Really seriously fun 8-bit disco synth-pop awesomeness. #20: Scorn: Stealth: Ad Noiseam Basically, Mick Harris heard dubstep and went "bloody hell, I was doing this 15 years ago", and then created something that destroys half the genre. OK, I haven't really heard enough dubstep to really say that. This is some heavy, incredible stuff, regardless. Honorable Mention: Sally Shapiro: Disco Romance: Paper Bag (I almost wanted to include this in my top 20 [or more likely, top 3] just because this re-release has 3 new tracks and an extended mix, but it was on my list last year...) Boom Bip: Sacchrilege EP: Lex Venetian Snares: My Downfall (Original Soundtrack): Planet Mu Grayceon: Grayceon: Vendlus Chromatics: Night Drive: Italians Do It Better People Like Us + Ergo Phizmiz: Perpetuum Mobile: Soleilmoon Octopus Project: Hello, Avalanche: Peek-a-boo Animal Collective: Strawberry Jam: Domino Modeselektor: Happy Birthday!: Bpitch Control Jesu: Conqueror: Hydra Head Stars Of The Lid: And Their Refinement Of The Decline: Kranky Gui Boratto: Chromophobia: Kompakt Soft Circle: Full Bloom: Eastern Developments Last Step: Last Step: Planet Mu Bonde Do Role: With Lazers: Domino BLAERG: Sesquipedalia: From The Gut Vorpal: The End: Cock Rock Disco Junior Boys: Dead Horse EP: Domino v/a: 8 Bit Operators: Astralwerks Daft Punk: Alive 2007: Virgin Tracey Thorn: Out Of The Woods: Astralwerks Caribou: Andorra: Merge v/a: After Dark: Italians Do It Better Most Disappointing: Of Montreal: Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?: Polyvinyl I know this was their most successful album yet, commercially and critically, and I'm not complaining that more people are appreciating what Kevin Barnes is doing... but I still think this album is nothing compared to his older stuff. I understand that the lyrics are supposed to be some sort of psycho-analysis of his breakup, but that doesn't mean I'd rather listen to this than when he sounded happy. Except for the decent first track, the Icons, Abstract Thee EP is impossible to sit through without making me want to cut myself. From what Kevin's been saying about the album he's currently in the process of making, he might be returning to his older style somewhat, and as long as the lyrics aren't this freaking depressing, I should be OK with it, but I just can't deal with this album. |