Top Ten Albums Of 2007

A year ago, I figured that 2007 would be a great year for many of my favourite bands. The Shins, Electric Six, Modest Mouse, Interpol, Spoon, against me!—these groups held, without a doubt, my most anticipated releases of the year, and were at just about the peaks of their careers.

And then the year began to actually exist.

I didn’t even realize that the year was lackluster until I reflected back on it. Bands that have literally heralded the indie rock movement some years ago had all released new CDs, but the energy just wasn’t there. Modest Mouse, what happened? The album sounded good for a week, but quickly fell apart when I realized that there’s only about three worthwhile songs. Interpol, decent effort, but this was still your worst album. Shins, a step in the right direction, but I think you guys need further refinement. You all sound more produced, less inspired and like you’re on a downhill slope rather than an uphill one. Maybe it’s the fact that everyone’s copying you these days, only doing it just as well—if not better.

This is not a rant against “The Man”, sellouts or anything of the like. This is a declaration of disappointment with some of this new millennium’s so-called musical heroes, whom I fear won’t stand the test of time much longer. As our century has only two years left in it, it’s becoming increasingly evident that the “indie” movement is just another decade’s cry for distinction, and bands like Modest Mouse and Kaiser Chiefs are so far from timeless that their time is already slipping away, like so many 80s hair metal bands or 90s grunge rockers before them. So when the frontline wave of indie idols falls flat, who’s there to pick up the pieces?

10. Blonde Redhead – 23
Blonde Redhead have always been something of a trick to musically define—they blend post-punk rhythms with shoegazing tempos and indie rock melodies, generally keeping a low tone but still filling the speakers with noise. 23 marks a more atmospheric, Radiohead-esque approach to songwriting for them, focusing less on riffs and more on synthesizers, like we hear on “Publisher” or “Silently”. Listeners are taken on a much more abstract journey than they would have been years ago. Redhead’s influences are clear but never overwhelming: “My Impure Hair” begins like Pixies’ “Where is my Mind?”, but quickly distinguishes itself when leading lady Kazu Makino begins her soft-spoken lamentation on losing her virginity. The lyrics are simple but effective—they are the background music to the overtones of feedback, noise and sweeping, synthesized chords.

9. The Dillinger Escape Plan – Ire Works
I went against my first judgment on this one and concluded that, despite not being a well-versed metalhead or DEP fan, Ire Works is admittedly strongest when listened to carefully. Sure, it sounds like a cacophony of noise to most people for most of the time, but DEP’s heavy-as-hell sound only blasts on about two-thirds of the album, which winds up bringing a much-needed cohesion to what becomes a springboard for true musical experimentation. The opening “Fix Your Face” sets a strong and frantic tone, but it’s not the whole disc. There’s a lot of ambience here, from the scratched-up “When Acting As A Particle” to the drearily moody finale, “Mouth of Ghosts”. Works is balanced out by tamer melodies like the pop-metal “Black Bubblegum”, which sounds exactly like you’d expect it to sound like. If you can stand the volume, then DEP’s diversity and musicianship will immediately shine.

8. Justice – †
Initially, † (commonly referred to as “Cross”) seemed like just another electro-dance album—a tribute to the soul of partying. I heard the hype before I heard the sound, and when I got the CD, it didn’t hit me the same way Daft Punk’s Homework did, despite numerous critics’ comparisons. It wasn’t until the next day, when I realized that I couldn’t get “D.A.N.C.E.” or “Tthhee Ppaarrttyy” out my head, that I realized something actually was special about the French DJ duo. A lot of † sounds like thrown-together mistakes that happen to sound good—it’s sometimes muddy, often choppy and interspersed with blips and scratches that move to the rhythm. But the blips and scratches become more than supplements to the sound—they form the sound itself. By subtly sliding into the background so often, they wind up defining Justice’s unique electronic style. And goddamn, it’s a catchy style.

7. Public Enemy – How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul???
Sure, Flavor Flav may as well be wearing a grandfather clock by now, but twenty years haven’t calmed down the PE boys—a testament to their determination for and belief in the future of downright good music. If anything, the revolutionary hip-hoppers are very forward about their feelings on this How-To guide to hip-hop, putting up a very particular fight against contemporary gangsta rap: “We like those gangsta rhymes,” a young choir sings on “Sex, Drugs & Violence”, “just make sure they don’t corrupt our minds.” A few duds on the latter half keep the album from being a great one, but it’s worth comes from the real gems: the tracks that merge PE’s classic lyrical style with orchestras or heavy metal riffs, like “Back to Black” and “Harder Than You Think”, which features an epic horn section that frees up the song to triumph the way it was written.

6. Radiohead – In Rainbows
Yeah, the way they spell their name “RA D IOHEA_D” on their posters and cover art is arbitrary and pointless. But get past the pretentious cover and you’ll find an ultimately sincere album, held together more than ever by Thom Yorke’s pained and faraway persona. He took time last year perfecting his lyrical and vocal style on his introspective solo debut, The Eraser, and here it sounds, unsurprisingly, often identical but with more instruments. The album’s biggest problem is that it opens with one of its best songs, the thriving “15 Step”, and tends to falter a little bit beyond that for listeners with less patience, especially because of Radiohead’s more natural sound this time around. “Reckoning” and “Jigsaw Falling Into Place” push the album into success, however, proving that you can call them whatever you like—pretentious, arrogant, douchebags—but bad musicians, they are not.

5. !!! – Myth Takes
Myth Takes darkens !!!’s groove, pulling them back down to earth from their previous electro-disco-rock medleys that had them floating so high up in the air. A deep bass and throaty, whispering vocals open the album on its title track, and this style follows throughout. They’ve integrated disco-funk melodies seamlessly into their repertoire of jungle-styled percussion and haunting vocals, and ditched the socio-political commentary from their last effort, this time teetering on the philosophical: “If you woke up this morning found that all the clocks had stopped/ If you woke up this morning then you're halfway to the top/ Keep climbing up, up/ Thank your mother or whomever/ Now put your hands together for a brighter day,” frontman Nic Offer sings on “A New Day”. The whole album smells of successful maturity of the band’s image, sound and substance, and they’re better artists for it.

4. Explosions in the Sky – All of a Sudden, I Miss Everyone
The four-piece Texan group who practically defined and popularized post-rock at the turn of the millennium (well, popularized it to as popular as it is these days) seems unable to do wrong. Their sound is good, their technique is better, and each of their releases is as breathtaking as their last. All of a Sudden opens with the sweeping crescendos of “The Birth and Death of the Day”, and the album builds from there, with each track featuring its own intro, build-up, climax and denouement. “What Do You Come Home To” speaks volumes without speaking at all, as the whimsical, almost otherworldly piano arpeggios sound like the soundtrack to a film playing in your mind. If any of this sounds abstract, that’s only because listening to Explosions in the Sky is, to say the least, a surreal experience.

3. Sunset Rubdown – Random Spirit Lover
If there was one problem with indie rockers Sunset Rubdown’s album last year—and I’m not speaking hypothetically, there actually was one glaring problem—it was a lack of cohesion. Random Spirit Lover has everything that their previous efforts had, but is perfected by a tight and intense flow. At its most successful, it sounds like a circus, as in “Up on Your Leopard, Upon the End of Your Feral Days” or the peculiar guitar riff intro to “The Mending of the Gown”. And while the melodies are most often the real prize here, Spencer Krug’s incomprehensible lyrics are also a treat, rivaling Thom Yorke for strangeness but adding a nice touch of self-awareness: “Was it magic or Midas that touched you?/ And by magic, I mean ‘trickery’/ And by Midas, I mean ‘faith.’” Krug’s humility is appreciated—Lord knows the last thing music needs is another self-important, incomprehensible lyricist.

2. Atmosphere – Strictly Leakage
“You say you write your best lines when you’re high? I say I write my best rhymes ‘cause I’m fly.” Okay, not the cleverest line in the book, but an apt summary of the conscious-rap movement that Atmosphere is so positively driving. The Minnesota hip-hop duo released their latest social critique through their website late last year, which is both a shame for those who’ll never find it and a prize for those who will. Sean “Slug” Daley remains one of the most insightful, intelligent and entertaining rappers around; Atmosphere’s wit shines on tracks like “Get It To Get Her”, a sermon on how intelligence leads to catching women, or “The Things That Hate Us”, where they criticize nearly every American trademark that leads to an unhealthy lifestyle. Atmosphere’s strength is in their emotion, which is what ranks Leakage up there with their past successes and the successes of hip-hop.

1. Gogol Bordello – Super Taranta
Gogol Bordello tops my list this year, if only because their music is intelligent, addictive and actually makes you laugh out loud. “Who's crawlin' up my spine – alcohol/ I've been waiting long long time – alcohol/ Now you teach me how to rhyme – alcohol/ Just don't stab me in the back with cartisol,” frontman Eugene Hütz sings on “Alcohol”, one of the most surprisingly successful tracks on the album. It’s surprising because it’s a slow ballad (albeit to alcohol) that grabs as much attention as any of their manic tracks have on their past releases. This isn’t to say, though, that their usual style of frantic Eastern-European folk-punk is anywhere near forgotten; if anything, they’re at the top of their gypsy-punk game with songs such as “Wonderlust King” and “American Wedding”. It’s like Borat in audio form—hysterically brilliant, subtly clever and topped with an awesome moustache.





Close But No Cigar:
LCD Soundsystem’s Sound of Silver
Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible
Elliott Smith’s New Moon
Of Montreal’s Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?

Biggest Disappointments:
Spoon’s Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Art Brut’s It’s a Bit Complicated
Electric Six’s I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me from Being the Master

Best [Likely] Unheard Albums:
The View’s Hats Off to the Buskers
Ponys’ Turn the Lights Out
Between the Buried and Me’s Colors

Most Overrated:
The White Stripes’ Icky Thump

Most Irritatingly Popular:
MIKA’s Life in Cartoon Motion


RELATED: mika, the white stripes, between the buried and me, ponys, the view, electric six, art brut, spoon, of montreal, elliott smith, arcade fire, lcd soundsystem, gogol bordello, atmosphere, sunset rubdown, explosions in the sky, !!!, radiohead, public enemy, justice, dillinger escape plan, blonde redhed

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