As another year slouches toward the glue factory, another year-end list lifts its face to the sun and proclaims, "Behold! Lo, I am created! I and the six or seven million other blog best-of-2007 lists shall trumpet shallow opinions across the Interwebs in the hopes of convincing one of the six or seven people who read me to steal some MP3s from some other blog!" Or something like that.
All in all, 2007 wasn't the best year for music (although it was a fantastic year for band names). A lot of heavy hitters (White Stripes, The Shins, Modest Mouse) and promising newcomers (Arcade Fire, Band of Horses, Art Brut) came out with albums that were (to varying degrees) not quite up to their previous outings. (The less said about my beloved Interpol, the better.)
**"Everyone I know has a big 'But...'. C'mon, Simone, let's talk about your big 'But.'"**
But... it was a great year for new bands and bands that were new to me. In fact, who am I kidding? 2007 was just fine. Enough doom and gloom. Enough talk. It's time for...
Three-way tie from hell
This year's list opens with an acknowledgment of the amazing sludge/stoner metal albums that rocked my world this fall...
25a. Weedeater – God Luck and Good Speed
This Steve Albini-produced dirge-fest is rich with the lifeblood of all ultra-heavy stoner metal: DUH DUH DUH DUH DUH DUH DUUUUUH DUUUUUH!! Recipe for a song like "Wizard Fight" (yes, that is an actual song title): Take the heaviest of Black Sabbath riffs, slow it to half-speed and feed it through 37 bass amps at full volume. Then have one of the Skeksis from The Dark Crystal smoke a carton of unfiltered Camels before handing him the microphone and letting him scream about drinking whiskey, smoking dope, and driving really fast.
25b. Electric Wizard – Witchcult Today
Heavier and slower than Weedeater, Electric Wizard also tend toward more classically Sabbathian themes like witches, the devil, vampires, and other staples of 1960s Hammer horror films. Also, reefer once again plays a major role, as evidenced by songs like "The Satanic Rites of Drugula."
25c. High on Fire – Death Is this Communion
The closest in sound and spirit to what Joe Indie Rocker thinks of as "metal," High on Fire picks up the pace considerably. In fact, they largely eschew the funereal tempo and tone of their more drugged-out contemporaries, favoring instead the all-out assault of Mastodon and their ilk. If Weedeater belongs behind the wheel of an airbrushed van, and Electric Wizard lights black candles in the local graveyard, then High on Fire is most certainly planning to conquer the world with an army of gigantic mythological creatures.
As metal (and, more specifically, stoner/sludge/doom metal) tends to be somewhat polarizing, possible reactions can include:
a) This music is ridiculous.
b) This music is exhilarating.
c) This music is too loud, and it makes me want to wet my pants.
d) This music is ridiculously exhilarating and I just wet my pants with rage/excitement. I shall now smoke angel dust through a ceramic skull bong filled with paint thinner, strip naked, and rob a liquor store with a sword.
I am a solid "d" across the board on these albums (not to mention 2006 gems by Earth, Boris, Sunn0))), Mastodon, etc.) and I welcome the renewed importance of truly evil, profoundly heavy metal in my life. The fact that this explicitly THC-inspired music appeals to me so viscerally even though I am 100% drug free says something about me… and I'm not at all sure that I want to know exactly what that something is.
24. James Murphy & Pat Mahoney – Fabriclive 36
The inclusion of a DJ mix is sure to ruffle purists' feathers. (In fact, in the past I have relegated them to a separate category.) But you know what? The rigors of taxonomy should be the province of those who get paid for writing lists like this (or, at the very least, those who truly give a shit about such things). When one considers the zeitgeist-y center of indie-dance music (or whatever you want to call it), from Simian Mobile Disco to Justice to LCD Soundsystem to the folks at the Italians Do It Better label, it's a rare and enlightening treat to go "behind the music" and dig through the crates of their collective unconscious. Muso fascination aside, Murphy and Mahoney running through a rack of shit-hot disco and space funk records is the ideal start to any Saturday night.
23. !!! – Myth Takes
Wearing their reverence for the Talking Heads, afrobeat, and British postpunk spray-painted across their sleeve, !!! give new meaning to the term "urban jungle." You could probably use terms like "polyrhythmic" to describe their sound, but you'd be dropping five-cent words just to say that they make jerky dance music with lots of drums and sweet-ass bass hooks. So basically exactly what you think a !!! album sounds like.
22. Daft Punk – Alive! 2007
On the one hand, this long-awaited document of Daft Punk's revered 2007 stage shows is downright anemic compared to the brain-melting spectacle of the real thing. But play this for someone who's never had the pleasure, and they'll probably start hugging everyone within reach before running to Wal-Mart for a maxi-carton of Glow Sticks. That's not to say that Daft Punk makes shitty rave music, but, well…you must admit they do make rave music. Call it "French house" until you're blue in the face, but if you played this at a rave (assuming "raves" still take place anymore), no one would stop dancing and look around all confused. But I digress. Great live album. 'Nuff said.
21. Blonde Redhead – 23
Perhaps my perceptions have been unduly colored by their live show, but Blonde Redhead is probably the least cheerful band on this list. That's no small feat when you're up against Bat for Lashes and a trio of sludge metal bands. Yet, despite Kazu Makino's pixieish vocals, there's something self-consciously morose about these guys that transcends mere shoegazery. The lyrics are basically indecipherable (there's that echo again!), but I'm fairly sure all the songs have something to do with a beautiful horse or lover or dream that was somehow lost, never to return. At this point I should probably mention that 1) it's a wonderful album; 2) producer Alan Moulder's involvement is a plus, despite a serious debt to My Bloody Valentine; and 3) despite all the "sadness" stuff above, listeners needn't be placed on suicide watch. It's more "ethereal heartache" than "handful of Seconal."
20. Bat for Lashes – Fur and Gold
In the grand tradition of complex, sexy/weird warblers who make music for future anthropology majors (Kate Bush, Björk, etc.) comes Natasha Khan. She's got a fever… and the only prescription… is more harpsichord! Combining Björk's range with the smoky lower notes of Chan Marshall, Khan sings pagan tales of broken love, forgotten women, and "the beauty of coming together in sorrow." Yet despite her penchant for batik scarves and the likelihood that she counts "naked dancing in forest moonlight" among her hobbies, Bat for Lashes makes tightly controlled and stunningly beautiful music. Too creepy to be a hippie, too absurd for Gap commercials, and too talented to be dismissed, Khan may soon join the ranks of pop music's high priestesses.
19. The Besnard Lakes – The Besnard Lakes Are the Dark Horse
Given the preponderance of subgenres, MySpace bands, blog buzz, and microlabels out there nowadays, it's becoming more and more difficult to talk about "trends" in music. That said, 2007 was a big year for echo. Ironically, thanks in large part to ProTools and the like, more and more albums are being recorded at people's tiny IKEA computer desks… and then processed to sound like they were recorded in the choir of Chartres cathedral. In the case of The Besnard Lakes, the vocal echo, along with big, distorted guitar leads reminiscent of My Morning Jacket, add eerie, otherworldly texture to what could otherwise be dismissed as a fawning attempt at Brian Wilson homage. Think of it as "Good Vibrations" from space.
18. Thurston Moore – Outside the Academy
There's great line in Juno when Ellen Page declares that a Sonic Youth album sucked because "it was just noise!" Good thing she wasn't forced to listen to Thurston Moore's other solo efforts. I'm no philistine, but dragging your guitar through broken glass while a bunch of Japanese "noise artists" bleed onto hotplates and build "feedback sculptures" can be hard to get into. So imagine my surprise when I started hearing words like "pretty," "acoustic," and (most surprising) "songs" associated with a Thurston Moore project. Well this just in: Fresh off the best Sonic Youth album in a decade, Thurston Moore sings a bunch of really nice songs while playing some really nice tunes on an acoustic guitar. And in case anyone had forgotten, the dude can play. Take that, avant-garde!
17. The National – Boxer
Right up front: this album would be waaaaaay higher on the list, but I really have a problem with Matt Berninger's voice. The music is fantastic across the board, but every once in a while the guy starts channeling Crash Test Dummies and it all comes apart for me. I admit this is purely a personal taste thing. (Who are we kidding? The entire critical enterprise is entirely a personal taste thing.) So again, the album's inclusion here is a testament to its superior songwriting and musicianship. Besides, don't listen to me when it comes to voices; I liked the first Clap Your Hands Say Yeah album.
16. Amy Winehouse – Back to Black
"Rehab," irony, blah, blah, blah. In a country whose biggest "soul" artist is John Legend, it's always nice when something a little closer to the source makes it big. Even if it is a crazy white lady with drugs hidden in her beehive. No matter what, the girl's got some serious pipes... and some serious soul.
15. The Shins – Wincing the Night Away
It's hardly fair that an album this good can be considered a disappointment, but Chutes Too Narrow set the bar impossibly high. Still, if you're coming in at 15, this is more of a minor letdown. (Interpol's Our Love to Admire? Now that's a disappointment!) The only real problem here is filler, and James Mercer still writes the stickiest pop hooks going. Tracks like "Sleeping Lessons," "Phantom Limb," and "Turn on Me" will never get old, and those three alone place this outing head and shoulders above their 2001 debut album. So forget that first sentence... unalloyed success!
14. Film School – Hideout
The word "shoegaze" is making the rounds quite a bit again this year, but no recent band is as fully committed to the sound as Film School, who went as far as having My Bloody Valentine drummer Colm O'Ciosoig guest on their latest album (take that, Blonde Redhead!). Rest assured, though, that this is no one-trick pony style-wise: vocals aside, "Sick Hipster Nursed by Suicide Girl" sounds disconcertingly like the Psychedelic Furs' "President Gas," and singer/lead guitarist Greg Bertens writes one hell of a melody.
13. Electrelane – No Shouts No Calls
A last-minute discovery, No Shouts No Calls may have benefited from the initial rush of new love. Blending driving Krautrock beats with the twee harmonies of Stereolab and Heavenly, the Brighton, England, quartet has produced a disarming hybrid of the propulsive and the pretty; it's road-trip music you can cry to. Lead single "To the East" (which I heard too late to include in the Best Songs list) is as beguiling a song as has been recorded all year.
12. Black Lips – Los Valientes Del Mundo Nuevo / Good Bad Not Evil
Although the very concept of "bad boys" in rock has become an exercise in self parody, it's always nice when some young gentlemen seem to be having fun with the whole thing. In the case of the Black Lips, "fun" means, for example, recording a live album in Tijuana (to document "crazy live shows that have included vomiting, urinating, nudity, band members kissing, fireworks, and a chicken," according to Wikipedia). Sublimely sloppy, spirited garage rock of the highest (and lowest) order, the Black Lips are the true children of the Nuggets generation.
11. Black Moth Super Rainbow – Dandelion Gum
Black Moth Super Rainbow: a pseudonymous collective of freaks who spend their time collecting analog synthesizers and frolicking in the woods outside Pittsburgh. You just can't make stuff like this up. Although the album got slapped with the "psychedelic" label by virtue of its sheer oddity, it owes little to 1960s rock and lots to Boards of Canada, Air, and, presumably, drugs. If you can't get a hold of any BMSR music, just eat a pound of 'shrooms, put on Boards of Canada's Music Has the Right to Children, and watch a few hours of H.R. Pufnstuf. That should just about cover it.
CONTINUE TO PART II: ALBUMS 1–10
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