Good Music Year: Best of 2007

Another year is drawing to a close, friends, and that means it's time once again to review this year's good music. There was a lot of it this year. In fact, there was too much good music to limit to a 'top ten' list, so I'm gonna go with my top 15 this year. I hope you'll join me as I run them down. A few things before we begin:

• Last year's housekeeping items apply to this year as well.
• Paste Magazine published their top 100.
• Metacritic has tabulated the 30 Best Reviewed Albums of 2007.
  
• Pitchfork published their top 50.
• The 89.3 The Current will be counting down their top 89 albums of the year on January 1, playing one song from each of the albums. Last year it was spectacular. I encourage you not to miss it (you can stream it online here).
• The (ever-snobby) NPR podcast has an hour breakdown of their favorites of the year.
  

Now, without further ado...

*****

15. A Weekend In The City by Bloc Party

Bloc Party is a relatively new band to me. Their 2005 debut album, Silent Alarm garnered wide praise from a number of critics. I, however was not one who took notice of the band that year. What can I say, there were just so many other good albums occupying my attention that year. Nevertheless, when I heard 'Waiting for the 7.18' for the first time, I was hooked. Bloc Party is lyrically provocative ('Where is Home'), rhythmically and harmonically creative ('The Prayer') and can rock out with the best of 'em (Song for Clay [Disappear Here]). And, of course, lead singer Kele Okereke is dreamy. You can't go wrong with these guys right now, and I have a feeling that their best days are still ahead of them.

Standout Album Track: 'Song For Clay [Disappear Here]'

14. 'Once' Soundtrack by Glen Hansard et al.

Watch this film. Seriously. I promise that doing so will make you a better musician by osmosis (sort of like what happens if you happen to shake hands with Bono). Both Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova give amazing performances in what might be the best musical of our generation. And, if you think that's an overstatement, watch the film. But, as I found out when I saw it for the first time, you'll be better off if you can watch it with subtitles; some of the accents are impossible to decode without them.

The soundtrack to the film is beautifully minimalistic, preserving the journey of the two fragile main characters in a profoundly authentic way. The songs on this album have a delicacy and honesty to them that dramatically outshines the versions found on The Frames' (Hansard's band) 2007 album The Cost. If you see the film and want to preserve the memory in musical form, I highly recommend getting the soundtrack to the film instead of the full band interpretations found on The Cost.

Standout Track: 'When Your Mind's Made Up'

13. Mice Parade by Mice Parade

Paste Magazine turned me on to this fun little experimental - electronica - post-rock band from New York. And if you're thinking, "Hmmm...Mice Parade is a strange name for a band," you're right. It turns out that the brainchild of this project, Adam Pierce, couldn't come up with a good band name, so he made an anagram out of his own name. Brilliant.

If you like music that's creative but very laid back and pretty user-friendly, Mice Parade is a great band to check out. The tracks on this album--which, though it is self-titled, is actually the band's seventh release--range from the haunting ('Double Dolphins on the Nickel') to the beautiful ('Circle None'). And, speaking of 'the beautiful,' this is definitely one of my favorite album covers of the year.

Standout Track: 'The Tales of Las Negras'

12. The Flying Club Cup by Beirut

For those of you who have never visited before, welcome to Beirut! I am admittedly a bit late to the party on this band. Beirut's 2006 effort Gulag Orkestar didn't cross my radar screen until it was far too late to be included in my 'Best of 2006' list; it certainly would have gotten a nod had my head not been in the sand.

So what does young this band sound like? Imagine you and all of your middle-aged Balkan Gypsy friends went to a bar together, each of you brought an instrument (trumpet, accordion, guitar, etc.), you had about four drinks each and were still able to make beautiful music. That's what Beirut sounds like. The weird part is that Zach Condon is a 21 year old kid from Sante Fe, New Mexico. I should give a disclaimer--this band is not for everyone. My wife, for instance, would second the description I gave minus the 'beautiful music' part. Getting into this band takes work, but I promise it will be worth it. Beirut is making music unlike anything else you'll find.

Standout Track: 'In The Mausoleum'

11. In Our Bedroom After The War By Stars

The band Stars is part of the burgeoning Canadian indie rock scene that has produced such acts as The Arcade Fire, Feist, Metric and Broken Social Scene. Stars' sound is best described as 'Chamber Pop'--a delicate blend of indie and classical music sensibilities. Lead singers Torquil Campbell and Amy Milan seamlessly interact in many of the songs, creating a call and response aesthetic on such tracks as 'Personal' and 'Midnight Coward.' If you're looking for sheer vocal beauty, it doesn't get much better than Stars' unique brand of tunefulness. However, in the interest of full disclosure, if you're going to purchase one Stars album, make it 2005's Set Yourself On Fire. You won't be sorry.

Standout Track: 'Midnight Coward'

10. Cassadaga By Bright Eyes

Conor Oberst got all 'new-age' on me this year. This album is full of references to energy, psychics, palm readings, etc. Dude is crazy. He's also skinny, pretty, misunderstood, angry, and sad...which means that he's still making great indie rock music.

Making great music, of course, is something to which the 27 year old Oberst has grown very accustomed. Cassadaga is his 10th full length album under the Bright Eyes moniker (not to mention a few dozen singles/EP's), and he has recorded a host of other albums under different band names; his creative output is startling. Even more startling is the number of songs/albums that are of the highest quality and integrity. Oberst has become the poster child for the emo/indie rock scene and has drawn comparisons to Bob Dylan for his ability to wax poetically on all the pertinent social issues of the day. For those unfamiliar with his work, I highly recommend picking up this album--it is one of the most accessible he has made and shows a marked increase in the maturity of an already mature singer/ songwriter/ producer/ record label pioneer. Oh, and I couldn't finish this entry without my favorite lyric of the year (from 'Soul Singer in a Session Band')

I had a lengthy discussion about the power of myth
With a postmodern author who didn't exist
In this fictitious world all reality twists
I was a hopeless romantic, now I'm just turning tricks

Standout Track: 'Coat Check Dream Song'

9. Sky Blue Sky By Wilco

Like Conor Oberst, Jeff Tweedy is another seasoned veteran in the music business; Sky Blue Sky is his sixth studio LP under the Wilco banner. Almost everyone I know who is 'really into music' likes Wilco, but until recently I had held out on getting into this band. After all, how many bands can one person really follow?

Apparently one more.

My friend Zach handed me this album earlier this year and said, "You'll be hooked after the first seven seconds." So I put Sky Blue Sky in my car's CD player on the way home and listened as Jeff Tweedy's voice delicately sang the first line of 'Either Way', "Maybe the sun will shine today...." Zach was spot-on. I was hooked, and you will be too--it turns out that there's a lot more to like on Sky Blue Sky than just the first seven seconds.

Standout Track: 'Either Way'

8. Sound of Silver By LCD Soundsystem

This is not the kind of music I usually go for. It's basically a dance album. But this isn't your average Britney Spears (now, if that's not a contradiction in terms, I don't know what is...) dance album. On this nine track disc, James Murphy combines the rhythmical attention to detail of someone like Jimmy Tamborello with the biting lyrical wit of someone like Ben Folds and then dusts the whole thing with indie rock sensibilities of a group like Death Cab for Cutie. If that amalgamation sounds interesting to you, LCD Soundsystem is a band you should check out. Many critics have referred to this record as being "perfectly crafted," and I can't help but agree. It's just one great track after another. If there hadn't been so many good records this year, Sound of Silver definitely would have been in my top five.

Oh, and for as much as my wife hates Beirut, she loves this band. I don't think she's listened to anything else since I bought it last month.

Standout Track: 'New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down'

7. The Reminder By Feist

Time for a bit of honesty, friends. Everyone who bought this album because the iPod commercial featuring '1234' told them to, you can confess under the Comments section at the end of this post.

Just kidding.

There really is no bad reason to buy this album, and there are over a dozen good ones. Leslie Feist is definitely on her way up, thanks in no small part to the aforementioned advertising and some spectacular musical sensibilities. The Reminder was recorded in an old country house just outside of Paris. Feist wanted to get a big, spacious feel to these laid back tunes, so she put microphones all over the place and just let them record the ambient noise as she played. Fortunately for her (and for us), the tactic achieved the exact effect she was hoping for. So, whether you're looking for sweet pop ('1234'), indie folk ('Intuition') or the musical equivalent of sipping your favorite drink at a pub ('Brandy Alexander') you can't go wrong with The Reminder.

Standout Track: Brandy Alexander

6. The Shepherd's Dog By Iron & Wine

Sam Beam, the man responsible for the brilliance of Iron & Wine, has a number of things going for him. First, he is a phenomenal songwriter, producer and performer. Second, he has a beard that can sport up to eight or nine woodland creatures at a time. Seriously--look at that thing. It's amazing. I think they could film an entire Disney movie inside of that guy's beard.

Beam is remarkable in terms of both beard and bard, and the latter has never been more evident than on his new album The Shepherd's Dog. Though it's more eclectic, high-fi and adventurous (in terms of arrangements), Iron & Wine has lost nothing of the musical sensibility that made 2002's The Creek Drank the Cradle or 2004's Our Endless Numbered Days a hit with folk lovers everywhere. The haunting and hypnotic single, 'Boy With a Coin' is easily my favorite track of the year.

Standout Track: 'Boy With a Coin'

5. Armchair Apocrypha By Andrew Bird

If there's one guy who can challenge The Decemberists' front man, Colin Meloy, for the title 'King of Lit. Rock,' it's Andrew Bird. Bird approaches the songwriting task with a mind-boggling aptitude for rhyming couplet novelty. Here are just a few: sycophants/elephants; closeness/mitosis; mezzanine/Dramamine; Sarmacians/Thracians. The best part about this literary fortitude is that it isn't gratuitous--Bird's vocabulary serves him well as he twists tales about the rise and fall of military machines ('Scythian Empires'), existence and location of the soul ('Darkmatter') or fear of dying in a plane crash ('Fiery Crash').

Did I mention he can whistle?

Andrew Bird commented in a recent article that the California whistling champion once contacted him and asked him, "Do you want to jam sometime?" So, whether you're looking for great songwriting, whistling skills or more ten dollar words than you can shake a stick at, Armchair Apocrypha is an album you shouldn't pass up.

Standout Track: 'Scythian Empires'

4. Marry Me By St. Vincent

Many of you probably haven't heard of Annie Clark before; you're also unlikely to have heard of her band, St. Vincent. But that certainly doesn't mean she's a newcomer to the indie rock scene. In fact, she's done time in some very well known groups in the past few years, including The Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens' Illinoisemakers. But it would appear she is through playing second fiddle.

On this, her first full length album, Clark explodes onto the scene as an artist who demands to be known by her contemporaries. Marry Me is an intelligent, tactful and highly creative art-rock album that often defies conceptualization. I don't want to give the impression that Marry Me has a steep learning curve--it is actually surprisingly accessible. On this record, Clark doesn't just write songs, she paints pictures--and each one is the kind of artwork a person could stare at all day long without experiencing the fullness therein.

Standout Track: 'Now , Now'

3. In Rainbows By Radiohead

Much has been said about the ways in which Radiohead have single-handedly changed the music industry with their approach to this album. If you don't know what I'm talking about, here's the short version--rather than signing on with a new record label to record, promote and release In Rainbows, Radiohead decided to do it all themselves...and to allow users to decide how much they wanted to pay for the digital download of In Rainbows' ten tracks. Rumors have flown hot and heavy about how much the band made in the first couple of days this experiment, but the band hasn't yet released any stats, so we'll have to wait and see how it turned out (if they ever decide to tell us).

One thing is for certain, however. Radiohead still makes great music. Really great music, and they are doing it exactly how they want in terms of the creative process, the recording and the marketing. Radiohead are in many ways determining the future of the music industry with their every action--it should be fun to watch what the next few years will bring in that respect. Was this experiment a novelty or the way of the future? Only time will tell. But don't make the mistake of thinking that this was some kind of publicity stunt to cover for a weak album. In Rainbows is a tour de force of things I've always enjoyed about the band (and it manages to avoid many of the things that turned me off about them). And, though the band's website is no longer allowing digital downloads of the album (and iTunes doesn't sell it) I'm quite confident you'll be able to find it somewhere else on the world wide web.

Standout Track: 'Weird Fishes/Arpeggi'

2. New Moon By Elliott Smith

There's just so much that can be said about Elliott Smith. And, since he's been dead for four years now--this being his SECOND posthumous record (and I don't expect another anytime soon)--I hope you'll indulge me while I ramble on about this record and why Elliott Smith is my favorite artist of all time.

New Moon is a 2 disc collection (24 songs) of some of Elliott Smith's songs that didn't make it onto his other LP's or EP'; some are primitive versions of songs that did make it onto those other records (notable are early versions of 'Pretty Mary K' and the Good Will Hunting theme, 'Miss Misery'). If you're anything like me (and you're probably not) you will gawk as you listen to this record thinking, "How in the world did songs this good hit the cutting room floor?!"

Most of these tracks are just Elliott and his guitar--not that they lose anything from the minimalism of the production. He can create higher emotional highs and lower emotional lows with sparser instrumentation than anyone I've ever heard. 'Talking to Mary' is a great example. When the song climaxes at the bridge, "It's no problem, I'll just keep quiet if it's easier for you..." you can't help but feel your heart will break from emotional loneliness along with his. Though melancholy is the primary emotion of the album, it's not all sadness on New Moon--songs like 'Thirteen,' 'Either/Or' and 'First Timer' bring about a pleasant existential nostalgia.

Elliott Smith's shockingly sad suicide in October of 2003 left the musical world with a void it has yet to fill. Rest in peace, Elliott. Thanks for one last album.

Standout Track: 'New Monkey'

1. We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank By Modest Mouse

...and the winner is Modest Mouse! Congrats to Isaac Brock and the rest of the boys. First of all, if you've been a half-hearted fan of this band or flat out disliked them, We Were Dead... provides a great opportunity to jump (back) in--the water has never been more perfect (that's my subtle nod to the ever present nautical/aquatic theme that pervades this album...)! Nor, for that matter, has this band's songwriting, arranging, lyrics or production.

Adding notable Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr plays a big part in helping the ease of access factor for new listeners on this album. Also helpful is the fact that Brock sings more and keeps the grunting and screaming--usually a staple of MM fare--to a minimum. There is an undeniable tunefulness in this album that I'm confident will win over anyone to Modest Mouse fandom.

I think the thing that impresses me most about We Were Dead... is its depth and complexity. There is a new place to get lost every time you listen to it. Particularly impressive in this respect are the band's lyrics. Subtle lyrical changes in the chorus lyrics of 'Dashboard' and 'We've Got Everything' (with great background vocals by James Mercer of The Shins) keep these songs from getting tired after multiple listens. Also contributing to the beauty of this album is Brock's grasp of imagery and irony in his lyric writing. Aspiring songwriters should take note of the way Brock twists a tale.

I think this album will continue to get frequent play on my iPod well into the 2008 and 2009 musical years. I honestly never tire of it, and I trust you won't either.

Standout Track: 'Spitting Venom'

*****

Some of you may have noticed that I always provide links to buy the 'Standout Tracks' on iTunes. It turns out that iTunes also allows you to customize a playlist in their store. So, if you find my music tastes to be worthwhile, you can click here and buy all my 'Standout Tracks' from 2007 (excluding Radiohead, which is unavailable on iTunes and Once, which is only available as a full album).

Happy 2007, Speckled Mind readers. And remember--life is too short to listen to bad music.