Top 10 Albums of 2007

This is already going to be quite long, so though there's some great videos to go along with each album, you'll have to settle for links. Click on each artist to get a taste!

10. LCD Soundsystem
Sound of Silver
[DFA/Capitol]

Dance music for the indie rock set has been quite the hit these days, what with superb releases by !!!, Out Hud, M.I.A., and many more. But none do it with quite as much intensity and passion as Mr. James Murphy, aka LCD Soundsystem. On this, the Soundsystem's second proper LP, Murphy isn't afraid to use the 80s-style beatbox to keep songs propelling forward, especially in the opener (and my favorite track) "Get Innocuous", which starts with a casio-keyboard-type beat that evolves with real hi-hats, guitar loops, and heavenly multi-tracked vocals. Other highlights, like the epic 7-minute road-trip-style sing-along "All My Friends" build around simple repetition, like the aforementioned song's choppy piano, wrapped around a wall of sound and Murphy's emphatic, passioned vocals. This is futuristic dance music, played through the speakers of the 70s, and it feels all the more alive for it. -Qualler

9. BARR
Summary
[5RC]

Being playful and memorable is a hard thing to do when you're a musician. Most critically acclaimed music is rife with drama, internal turmoil, or sociological depression. Well BARR does this too; he just happens to have a sense of humor about it all. Sure it can be powerful when you have a really deep lyric that encompasses the world we live in or that you live in when your girlfriend dumps you, but sometimes the best lyrics just are intelligent and have fun simultaneously. Put a barely-there drumbeat and guitar riff in the background and let the mile-a-minute BARR spit out more gems than you'll know what to do with on one record (and it's pleasant to listen to at the same time!). Here is just one example that will make you want to listen to his speeches awesomeness: "What is the song / the pop song / is it a conduit? / to give out the feeling in a compact form / a short form / and shorter is better / because it is physically much easier to share / a slogan vs. a book / single versus record / what it's blank white / with really no cover / and that leaves the meaning clear / wait / it's more vague / with no hints to intentions except that maybe the intention was to seem vague." Ha! -Chris

8. The Twilight Sad
Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters
[FatCat]

Noise and beauty have never coexisted on a record so well since My Bloody Valentine's Loveless. Even more surprising, The Twilight Sad don't even sound like MBV. They're pretty simple - one guitar with a million effects, a three-piece drumkit, a plodding bass, and an alternately mumbling and bellowing Scottish voice on top of it all. The post-rock I've fallen in love with since Explosions in the Sky has melded brilliantly with the minimalist brooding lyricism of a disturbed and lonely poet. Each voice and instrument makes the rounds between feeling quietly broken ("Cold Days From the Birdhouse") and dwelling in the chaotic melodrama of ultimate solitude ("Mapped by What Surrounded Them"). The stories of lovers' ghosts and neglected children have all been told before, but never with the fiery anger and passion that the band delivers with each instrument - one minute reflective, the next destructive. -Chris

7. Menomena
Friend and Foe
[Barsuk]

Whoa, this Portland, Oregon rock trio can really bring it. Menomena's skill is in blending the unique and eclectic with the familiar. It's like pop music with creative structures and far-out sounds. Who uses saxophone anymore? Menomena does. That's who. Also, piano, drums, bass, guitar, synth, etc. Word I heard is that these dudes wrote a program for the recording and mixing of their stuff. That's right, their music is so raw they had to invent a program to handle it. Top that off with three, count 'em, three vocalists and you have a packed album. Listen to "Muscle'n Flo" or "Weird" off of Friend and Foe and you'll see their strength. Listen to "Wet and Rusting" on your own and you'll find your own inner strength. The strength to knock down oppression and jerks. Also, I saw them at Pitchfork and they were boss. It's tough to play a set in the sun but they did it. Cheers. -Sean

6. The Field
From Here We Go Sublime
[Kompakt]

When you hear a sound for the first time and you've been listening to music every day since you first got Unplugged in New York for your 11th birthday, you are more than floored by it. I had never heard the kind of organized noise that I heard when I first listened to this album. The fact that it was quiet and nonabrasive only perked my interest more. I kept these songs on repeat, messing with the bass function on my car stereo, wondering how loud I should have it when on headphones, trying to figure out whether I loved it or hated it for weeks. The clear highlight is "A Paw in My Face," which turned Qualler and Brigitte's wedding into a sleepytime rave, complete with glowsticks and sweat dripping in slow motion. Like the very sleep/dance oxymoron that best describes this album, falling in love with it was a mind-baffling process that only made me curl my toes up every time a new nuance spoke to me, wordlessly, leaving me breathless. -Chris

5. Radiohead
In Rainbows
[Self-Released]

I've never really enjoyed Radiohead records. I appreciate the band's constant experimenting and innovation but I simply haven't been able to get into the music, until now. In 2007, Radiohead's innovation came in their distribution methods rather than the music itself, offering In Rainbows as a digital download for any price the consumer desired to pay. The record itself is far more melodic and appealing than their previous stuff - and personally, I love it! -Lady Amy

4. Of Montreal
Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
[Polyvinyl]

Lame band-name aside (they're actually Of Georgia, technically speaking), Of Montreal is an indie favorite of most anybody. They got sweet bass grooves, metered drums and competent vocals. Plus they have a girl in the band!!! Yeah, this album is pretty solid on it's own. Opening strong with Suffer for Fashion and keeping it rad with fat trax like "She's A Rejector" and "Sink the Seine," my personal fav. Sure, it's a minute-long transition-track, it still melts face with awe. The real excellence of these songs come out in their live sets. Of Montreal is hands down one of the most fun bands to see live. They have crazy antics, lights, trippy videos, dudes in skin-tight outfits and masks, and multiple costume changes. Kevin Barnes looks pretty hot for a dude when he's wearing next to nothing and singing about faggy girls and Georges Bataille. I was on the fence with this band till I saw them do "The Past is a Grotesque Animal" live and it was crazy awesome. (Oooh, ooohh) P.S. I like girls. -Sean

3. The Fiery Furnaces
Widow City
[Rough Trade]

On this, their fourth full-length of new material in four years, the Fiery Furnaces again prove themselves to be one of the most consistently inconsistent bands on the planet. Of course, that is the crux of their charm, at least to this listener -- one never knows what next twist or turn the music will take. The Furnaces' new album, Widow City, finds them in their most rocking set to date, taking portions of their Who-like classic rock stylings of their '04 masterpiece Blueberry Boat and adding their own flair. Indeed, this record may be the first truly post-modern classic rock album. The first half of the album rifles through song-cycle after song with wild abandon. Singer Eleanor Friedberger has never been more confident in using her voice as a weapon, and songwriter / brother of singer Matthew Friedberger shows emphatically that he is a Guitar Hero to behold in rock music today. The second half of the album lifts off with the sexy, slinky "Navy Nurse" that rocks harder than anything that other "brother / sister garage rock band" with those Stripes have ever done; beyond, the listener is treated with wild and crazy drums, better lyrics per measure than most bands could muster in a song, and the feeling that the album has completely exploded. All in all, it is the Furnaces' most satisfying album since Blueberry Boat. Marry me, Eleanor Friedberger. (EDIT 01/09/2008: Here's another video, "Duplexes of the Dead" at the Turf Club in St. Paul, attended by Qualler, Brigitte, Lady Amy and Nicole.) --Qualler

2. Animal Collective
Strawberry Jam
[Domino]

Oh man. Oh MAN! Despite a disappointing performance on Conan (they chose to play the one track that does not make any sense outside the context of the album), it's clear that every other Animal Collective album has just been foreplay, because Strawberry Jam is a musical orgasm. I've always been a big fan of this band (which my sister poignantly describes as that band in which people dance around chanting and banging sticks and rocks together) but with each album I felt there were moments when I was let down, when the energy would dip, and I would was left wanting something more. This album gave me exactly what I had wanted and managed to retain its incredible energy from beginning to end, even with the slower tracks. The heavy rhythms get you right at your core while angelic vocals combined with the usual chanting, whooping, and brilliant/pseudo-nonsense lyrics make this album exceed my wildest expectations. If there were a song in my heart, pumping through my veins, this is it. From the first track, "Peacebone," and the first words spoken, "bone face" this album is impossible to listen to without moving. The movement of the album from one track to the next works to create a cohesive whole. However, if this is indeed a 43 minute climax of musicality, where can Animal Collective take us next? Snuggling? I think that would be Panda Bear's job, while Avey Tare puts down his sticks and rocks and falls asleep. -Brigitte

1. Tegan and Sara
The Con
[Sire]

My first full year as a full-fledged grown-up needed a perfect pop album with 14 tracks to sing along to until I lost my voice for all those aching routine commutes to and from work. I can't imagine this year without this record, without the tender coos of "Soil, Soil" or the pulsing cries of the title track. On the surface, it's flawless melodies and pulsing emotions. On headphones, I can hear producer Chris Walla fiddling and twiddling to his heart's content, bringing me to bursting climaxes consistently about every 16 measures. Perhaps the biggest highlight of this record is its unwillingness to let pop songs go on for too long (the terrible thing about most albums with the verse-chorus syndrome) - never leaving time for boredom to set in, and thus never letting go of the feelings we all had when we had time to let music engulf us and embrace us as we procrastinated growing up. -Chris

This entry was posted by The Blogulator, on Tuesday, January 08, 2008. You can leave your response.