Finals are over – and my hand muscles are pissed at me from writing ad naseum about Business Associations – which means that it’s officially time to drop my end of year, best music of 2007 list, which (for everyone who takes music way too seriously) is a sweet relief after obsessively pouring over record after record, and track after track, over a twelve month stretch. In three weeks the process will begin all over again, but for now, we celebrate the best in music over the year. (Speaking of which: quick sidebar, the Grammys nominated Foo Fighters for Album of the Year? Seriously?)
Best albums and songs of the year, after the jumpy jump…
BEST ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
10. Of Montreal – Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
For his finest album yet, Of Montreal mastermind Kevin Barnes got his damn heart broken and secluded himself to the Norweigan wilderness, where he suffered through the winter by writing a mini-rock opera chronicling his despair, self-medication (check the jubilant chants of “C’mon chemicals!”), and the moment when he rubbed the sleep from his eyes and started over again. But, of course, this is Of Montreal, so the agony and despair sound like the greatest party you’ve never been to anyway, with Barnes cooing that he needs “a lover with soul power” in “Bunny Ain’t No Kind of Rider,” and playfully cops on the Beatles on the intro to “Sink the Seine.”
9. Against Me – New Wave
When New Wave dropped this summer, Spin magazine all but called it the greatest rock album since Nevermind (which ignores the fact that – if you really, truly, are honest with yourself – In Utero was better than Nevermind to begin with, but a spade is a spade and all that). Against Me’s breakthrough joint may not have had the social ramifications of Nirvana’s grunge opus, but it does have “Thrash Unreal” and “Up the Cuts,” which pack more melody than ”Smells Like Teen Spirit,” and at least equal the amount of bite. Against Me purists hate this record, considering it their “sell-out” move, and a big, glossed-up waste of time. Its their loss. This is smart, banging punk rock that winks at its own limitations (Tom Gabel giving his tongue-in-cheek call to arms by chanting “Protest songs in response to military aggression”), and lodges itself into your head.
8. Panda Bear – Person Pitch
Animal Collective’s Noah Lennox (a.k.a. “Panda Bear”) is either a pop genuis, or a raving lunatic. In other words, he’s Brian Wilson, which would likely suit Lennox just fine, since Person Pitch is like Pet Sounds shoved into an echo chamber with three bottles of painkillers and a rain machine. This is the music of deconstruction – blown-out sonic jams with the reverb on high, slowly melting down and rebuilding before your eyes. From hypnotic opener “Comfy in Nautica” to the Meat Loaf sized “Bros,” Panda Bear has not only done something that has absolutely never been done before, but he made it work.
7. Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Named after the piano rhythm of the track “The Ghost of You Lingers,” Spoon’s sixth full length manages to sleekly combine Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound with a 21st century willingness to venture from the pop norm. From the sheer bubblegum stomp of “The Underdog” and “You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb” to the closing notes of “Black Like Me,” Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga should finally solidify Britt Daniel as the king of indie rock.
6. Jason Isbell – Sirens of the Ditch
Last year, when Isbell amicably split from the Drive-By Truckers, it seemed like a twelve-story mess of an idea. As one third of the Truckers songwriting tripod, Isbell was a welcome and essential cog to their machine, but what good could come from deciding to jump ship and, instead, charter his own boat? A hell of a lot, apparently. Sirens of the Ditch doesn’t steer too far from the basic Truckers sound, but in jumping directly into the spotlight, Isbell puts on one hell of a show, killing us softly with “Chicago Promenade,” and gleefully begging a woman on the verge to “put the piece away” in “Brand New Kind of Actress.” Yeah, Isbell probably misses Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley from time to time, but with a record like this, its hard to imagine he’s doing too much drunk dialing.
5. Tegan and Sara – The Con
In which the sisters Quinn make their weirdest album to date, throw structure to the wind, and probably confuse all of the people who jumped on board after hearing some of their earlier cuts on “Grey’s Anatomy.” The Con isn’t what you’d call an “easy album” – sure it’s got the power-pop gem “Hop a Plane,” and hyper-magnetic title track for maximum foot-tapping potential – but it’s also a fragmented, imperfect mess of a record, which is also exactly what makes it so terrific. The album packaging is styled like an old book, which is no accident, since the record itself is arranged like one, complete with disjointed chapters relating one (or two, as the case were) narrator’s spiral that, well, isn’t so much downward as it is stuck flailing about “in circles.” This is a victory lap for two artists who struck gold with their previous release, and are now seeing where, exactly, their abilities and drive might take them. Pretty far, as it turns out.
4. Bloc Party – A Weekend in the City
Upon its release in February, Bloc Party’s second proper record was unfairly lambasted as a sophomore slump that failed to capitalize on it’s predecessor’s dance-a-thon beats. Whatever. Weekend is an intricate, often massive concept record about the coldness permeating through the city (“East London is a vampire,” singer Kele Okereke laments near the record’s start), and the rays of sunlight that manage to snap their way through the smog. While the band may have sacrificed some poppier moments over these 11 cuts (plus 2 bonus tracks which, seriously, when you include on every copy of a record, doesn’t technically make them bonus tracks), but what they gained was a singular vision. If a band never evolved, they would be the Offspring. Bloc Party, on the other hand, is too busy taking steps to immortality.
3. Bruce Springsteen – Magic
I am usually one of the first people to scoff at year-end lists that lavish praise on the old, reliable rock stars making comeback records (I’m looking at you, Rolling Stone, who needs to take a cold shower every time someone even mentions Bob Dylan within 100 yards of your offices), because – most of the time – it boils down to little more than awkward hero worship. So what separates Magic from the hordes? Maybe its the pitch-perfect pop melodies that Springsteen has been saving up over the past several years. Maybe it’s the seamless blend of mainstream appeal and hardlined political truth that made him such an icon to begin with (the title, in fact, is a direct reference to the “now you see it, now you don’t” antics of the Bush administration). Maybe it’s just the fact that the Boss has not only returned to form, but has done so with an amazingly focused, undeniable, and brilliant rock record.
2. Kings of Leon – Because of the Times
The Tennessee sons (and one cousin) of a preacher man follow-up their terrific second record with an even better third, masking their southern rock sensibility with larger than life hooks and swing. “Ragoo” is a modern day “D’yer Maker,” “True Love Way” is the prom ballad that’s way too great to actually hear at a prom, and “McFearless” is the loud jam of the year, soaring straight over your head into cathartic overdrive. In fact, in a different year, Because of the Times would – or, at least, should – blow away its competition for album of the year. Unfortunately, for the Kings, they didn’t count on…
1. The National – Boxer
A record so intensely amazing, it’s not that you just want to listen to it over and over again, it’s that you have to. Largely abandoning the rock moments of (the also fantastic) Alligator, the National imbue Boxer with a sense of loss and regrowth, a record about making the decision of whether to lock yourself indoors and “do whatever the TV tells us,” or stay out late and drinking laced lemonade. Boxer is a record just beyond sensible description – all you can do is drawn the blinds, clamp on a pair of headphones, and wait for the opening piano notes of “Fake Empire” to just drop you through the floor.
(Honorable Mentions: Radiohead - In Rainbows, Kevin Drew – Spirit If…, Queens of the Stone Age – Era Vulgaris, Animal Collective – Strawberry Jam, Elvis Perkins - Ash Wednesday)
BEST SONGS OF THE YEAR
20. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – Five Easy Pieces
19. Busdriver – Casting Agents and Call Girls
18. The Honorary Title – Untouched and Intact
17. Baby Teeth – Swim Team
16. Radiohead – 4 Minute Warning
15. Bruce Springsteen – You’ll Be Comin’ Down
14. Elvis Perkins – Ash Wednesday
13. Mika – Grace Kelly
12. Bear Hands – Bad Blood
11. Panda Bear – Bros
10. Bloc Party – Song For Clay (Disappear Here)
9. Rihanna – Umbrella
8. Maximo Park – Our Velocity
7. Against Me – Thrash Unreal
6. Spoon – The Underdog
5. Voxtrot – Firecracker
4. Kings of Leon – McFearless
3. The National – Apartment Story
2. Animal Collective – For Reverend Green
1. New Pornographers – Myriad Harbour
