I was almost hoping Sandy wouldn't be doing any of this "Top of 2007" stuff because it kind of forces me to, too. And I find it a very daunting task. Where did 2007 even start? I have awful medium-term memory and the years blend together. Not to mention it'll still take at least until this summer, maybe longer, before I get a chance to properly listen to all the things I want to that have been released in this past year. Who can keep up with all this, anyway? I need a little dark room with awesome sound equipment, the only disturbances CD- and occasional food deliveries. And throw in a far better memory for good measure.
Right. Enough of the whining. Count to three hold your breath one two three - BUT 1) I refuse to give useful descriptions for most of these as they're my top 10 and I don't feel like ripping into them critically and I also don't feel like trying to describe them for the sake of assigning pretty words - good music refuses to be written down, so just go listen to it, will you? 2) I refuse point-blank to order mine, thus, in no particular order (except alphabetical) - here goes:
*Note: artist names link to myspace pages because I am efficient like that and like to make life easier for you.
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CHIARA'S TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2007:
What a talent. This girl, her smoky voice, insightful lyrics and haunting pop-folk tunes perfectly combine underlying melancholy with an often (but not always) upbeat glazing. Not to mention the production and layering is flawless.
Standout tracks: Youth of Today, This Is The Life, Poison Prince
This album had me from the first time I ever heard it. A surreal dreamscape constructed of ethereal sounds that flit away before you can really grasp them, leaving a soft aural glow in their wake.
Standout tracks: The Dress, 23, Top Ranking, Spring And By Summer Fall
I didn't like this album when it was first released: I felt that Conor Oberst does tortured introspective better than political protest or anything moving beyond the scope of just him. I've since changed my mind - while it's far from my favourite Bright Eyes album, it certainly delivers. The American folk roots take up an ever greater and more obvious space - hints have always been there, and the full-out expression of them on certain of these tracks is like magical release that has been waiting for years. Conor's voice remains melancholic and heartfelt as ever. If you didn't like Bright Eyes before, you won't like them any more after this album; but if you did, then this is a worthy addition to any record collection. Just pretend the track 'Make A Plan To Love Me' doesn't exist.
Standout tracks: No One Would Riot For Less (this is the track that convinced me to give the rest of the album another try), If The Breakman Turns My Way, I Must Belong Somewhere, Middleman
"Gypsy punk"! - faster, stronger, crazier, more energetic than previous works. The added excitement comes at a price: there are fewer anthemic songs on here than there were on 'Gypsy Punks - Underdog World Strike' or 'Multi Kontra Cult Vs. Irony' , in part due to the lesser Gyspsy influences (there is also less singing in Eugene Hutz's trademark mixture of Ukrainian/Romani/Russian/insert any other language here) - but not to worry, there are plenty of other spices thrown into the mix, from traditional italian music all the way to dub. Leaving racing hearts and sweaty bodies, the entire album barely leaves room for breathing - except the ode to 'Alcohol' that leaves you just enough time to indulge in the song's subject. Party.
Standout tracks: Tribal Connection, Super Taranta!, Forces of Victory, Wonderlust King
This is as polished a masterpiece as has been created this past year. Songwriting as tight as this is difficult, but Interpol have managed to beautifully assemble elaborate aural constructions in which not a single note is out of place. Some of their previous works ultimately failed, trapped in the claustrophobic quagmire of an OCD sufferer's sock drawer. Instead, 'Our Love To Admire' easily soars above all this with the ability to both fill large empty spaces as well as seep into the tiniest cracks in the world's fabric.
Standout tracks: Pioneer To The Falls, Rest My Chemistry, Pace is the Trick, Mammoth, The Lighthouse
Most of the tracks on this album are remakes of previously released songs - remakes that are fuller and more elaborate than the previous stripped down keyboard-guitar-voice arrangement. Combining pop sensibility with a well-crafted repertoire of electronic sounds and singer Eden's stunning voice, this album will tear your heart out. I'm ignoring the technicality that the album is only available as online pre-release for the time being.
Standout tracks: Honey, Morning Sun, Whatever You Want, Love Waits, Could This Be, Stay Awhile, Closer........
This album will never ever bore you, moving smoothly between soft crooning and loud aural attacks without stopping to take breaths inbetween - there is something pure and raw about this album and its energy; this is chaos with purpose that strikes hard. Enough said.
Standout tracks: Florida, Spitting Venom, Fly Trapped in a Jar, March Into The Sea
Trent Reznor did desolation best, now he does apocalyptica and dystopia best. It is difficult to keep up a consistent level of quality throughout a concept album, but NIN have certainly managed (I'll accept criticism that says the album doesn't quite reach the same level of intensity as older works, but what can you do? It's still more than anyone else has given us in the past few years in that area). Chaotic electrical noise, anxiety-inducing beats and entrancingly interweaving guitar is overlayed with the occasional glints of hopeful beauty in a note or melody here or there to form an industrial soundscape made up of sharp corners and edges of glass glittering softly in cold light; Reznor's voice is as loaded full of poison and sex as ever.
Standout tracks: In This Twilight, The Great Destroyer, My Violent Heart, Capital G, The Good Soldier
I said I wouldn't name a number one on this list, but this may well be it. Putting words to this would be a futile exercise.
Standout Tracks: all of them.
Ok, that was the first 9. For the 10th, pick any of the following:
Bedouin Soundclash - Street Gospels (SideOneDummy)
Beirut - The Flying Club Cup (Ba Da Bing!)
Fanfare Ciocarlia - Queens and Kings (Asphalt Tango)
Oi Va Voi - Oi Va Voi (V2)
Patrick Wolf - The Magic Position (Loog)
The Scare - Chivalry (Below Par)
Shellac - Excellent Italian Greyhound (Touch and Go)
Other Mentions:
DeVotchKa - How It Ends (ANTI-) -- for finally getting its European release this year.
Tina Dico - Count To Ten -- this hasn't been released in the UK yet (only her native Denmark), so I'm saving it for next year's list.
Things That Would Probably Make It Onto The List Once I Get A Chance To Properly Listen To Them:
Tegan & Sara - The Con (London)
Jason Webley - The Cost Of Living (11)
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CHIARA'S TOP 10 EPs AND SINGLES OF 2007:
Aqualung - Cinderella (Epic)
Aqualung prove once more that they do 'beauty' like no other. (And for once, a single edit beats an album version.)
Beirut - Lon Gisland EP (Ba Da Bing!)
Zach Condon's drawl and the masterful instrumentation of this is like a post-rain day in the countryside, dancing around in still-soaked grass. Or maybe an evening walk through the dimly lit streets of an old town in a music box.
The Blood Brothers - Set Fire To The Face On Fire (Wichita)
Masterful chaos with no barriers in sight? You know it makes sense.
Channel One - Permissions EP (SFR)
Dark, apprehensive, fervent, manic tension woven into an electronic soundscape with threads of breathy vocals that runs smoothly into aural explosions before stripping down to nothing... and back again. Side-effects may include accelerated breathing or no breathing at all as well as a feeling of anxiety.
The Killers ft. Lou Reed - Tranquilize (Mercury)
Why I would suddenly take a liking to the Killers was a mystery to me until I realized it was far more Lou Reed than Killers even style-wise. This song makes me alternately melt and shake. It's almost disappointing that they didn't collaborate for more tracks. This might be number 1 on this list.
Laura Marling - My Manic and I EP (Virgin)
I kind of want to avoid saying anything about her age - it seems to be the fate of young artists to get "they sound great despite their age" reviews - but, well, despite her age Miss Marling could easily keep up with some of the most accomplished female folk singers, and she does it with a freshness and charm that is inescapable.
Manu Chao - Rainin in Paradize (Because)
Reminiscent of his earlier Mano Negra days, this track is upbeat, bouncy, energetic, driven, fun, smoothly combining various influences into a colourful patchwork soundscape as only Manu Chao can do.
Oi Va Voi - Yuri (V2)
Combine Klezmer and electronica, screw together using plenty of musical talent, spatter some humour on top and fire off into space.
My Passion - BooMan ( - )
Punk, disco, 80's synths, a healthy dose of hairspray and you'll be ready to dance the night away.
Queens of the Stone Age - Make It Wit Chu ( Polydor)
Few people do sexy as well as this. Note that strictly speaking the single version of this would probably go under the honourable mentions, and only the album version (the guitar solo is the key point) would actually make it into this top 10. Details.
Honourable Mentions:
Battles - Atlas (Warp)
Editors - The Racing Rats (Sony BMG)
Evelyn Evelyn - Elephant Elephant EP (11) -- so, it's Amanda Palmer and Jason Webley, in one. Enough said.
Marcus Mumford - Feel the Tide Turning ( - ) -- not technically a single release (yet?) or any release at all, but a massive talent.
Mark Ronson ft. Lily Allen - Oh My God (Columbia) -- for being the track that has probably gotten stuck in my head the most times this year.
The Outside - Something Urgent EP ( - ) -- Ok, so I like 90s alternative rock with an occasionally raw grungy element, and these kids have just brought it to the future. Particularly the intricacy of the drumming deserves pointing out, as does the emotional capacity of singer Tree's voice. Track Gravity Never Buckles, The End Is Always Near is another contender for this year's number 1 spot. [see, this is where I messed up. This was actually a 2006 release, but since I wrote all that I decided it deserved a spot here].
Silversun Pickups - Pikul EP (Dangerbird) -- this was released a while ago in the US but only just got a UK release. Fantastic.
The Smashing Pumpkins - Tarantula (Warner) / Doomsday Clock (Warner/digital release only) -- the former for being elaborate and wonderful and showing the kids of today how it's done; the latter for being as good as anything the Pumpkins have ever released. Neither are in the top 10 because I hold a personal grudge against them for raising my hopes as regards the rest of the album.
Stateless - Bloodstream (K7)
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No, Radiohead is not on this list.
Conclusions:
+ 2007, despite pro-offering a few gems, was overall not a great year for music. The upside to this is of course that I had a lot of time to delve back and seek out older things.
+ Sandy and I, while we can co-exist quite peacefully, really don't have all that much in common when it comes to the fundamentals of our music taste.
So, what am I anticipating most about 2008?
Amanda Palmer's solo album, Who Killed Amanda Palmer? of course.
Chiara over and out
lovelovelove
Monday, 7 January 2008
Daunting horrible subjective lists:1 , Chiara:0 (a.k.a. The Top 10s of 2007)
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