Thursday, December 20, 2007
my favorite music of 2007
I truly believe that 2007 was (and still is) one damn fantastic year. Obviously the highlight was the release of Je Suis France's third album, Afrikan Majik, a cultural event of such titanic proportions that the very fabric of existence itself was fundamentally altered. Some other okay records were released, too, though, and it would be unfair to them if we did not give them the recognition they are due. So ignoring the France for just the briefest of moments, here's a list of my favorite music of the year. I believe DJ will be posting his tomorrow.
My 20 Favorite Records of 2007:
(I might add some commentary later on)
1. Times New Viking: Present the Paisley Reich
2. Animal Collective: Strawberry Jam
3. Deerhunter: Cryptograms
4. Trans Am: Sex Change
5. LCD Soundsystem: Sound of Silver
6. Parts and Labor: Mapmaker
7. Life Without Buildings: Live at the Annandale Hotel
8. Psychedelic Horseshit: Magic Flowers Droned
9. Still Flyin': Za Cloud
10. The Bad Trips: s/t
11. Blues Control: s/t
12. Ex-Cocaine: Esta Guerra
13. Reports: Mosquito Nets
14. Panda Bear: Person Pitch
15. Folklore: The Ghost of HW Beaverman
16. Raccoo-oo-oon: Behold Secret Kingdom
17. Spoon: Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
18. Oakley Hall: I'll Follow You
19. Boris and Michio Kurihara: Rainbow
20. Wooden Shjips: Wooden Shjips
My 20 Favorite Songs of the Year:
Two songs stood out far above the rest, regularly getting stuck in my head and
tenaciously refusing to leave. These first two songs pretty much defined the year for me, musically.
1. All My Friends - LCD Soundsystem
I've thought about this song a lot over the last eight months, and I feel utterly confident calling it the best song of the decade thus far. It's not just the music, which is awesome, and sounds like New Order covering something off of John Cale and Terry Riley's Church of Anthrax. The lyrics repeatedly kill me, the way they blatantly stroke nostalgia, but less to glorify or eulogize the past and more to contrast and make sense of the present and the future. Maybe it's turning 30, maybe it's living so far away from my friends that I see them maybe once a year, but this song came around and helped pave over a hole in my life that I was barely even aware of. The fact that it seems to have done the same for thousands of other people speaks either to my own lack of imagination or else to James Murphy's arrival as a genuinely excellent song-writer.
2. Teenage Lust! - Times New Viking
The rock anthem of the year, and the best GBV song Robert Pollard never wrote.
3. I'm A Flirt (Remix) - R. Kelly feat. TI and T-Pain
4. Peacebone - Animal Collective
5. Bros - Panda Bear
Tough call between these last two, but "Peacebone" gets the nod simply because I listened to it more often than "Bros".
6. Someone Great - LCD Soundsystem
7. Fractured Skies - Parts and Labor
8. Friends - Ween
9. Still Alive (Portal song) - Jonathan Coulton and Ellen McLain
I've never even played Portal, but this song is extremely catchy, and even though I probably don't get all the references, still pretty damn funny. Reminds me of They Might Be Giants, back when they were good.
10. Paper Planes - MIA
11. Portals - Pyschedelic Horseshit
12. You Got Yr Cherry Bomb - Spoon
13. North American Scum - LCD Soundsystem
Seriously, dude's great. I'm a total believer, now.
14. The Ghost of You Lingers - Spoon
Infinitely delayed resolution: you keep waiting for that release, and they keep on denying it.
15. International Players Anthem - UGK feat. Outkast
16. White Like Heaven - Gowns
17. Freak-Out - Liars
Sloppy but great rock song in the vein of Jesus and Mary Chain, from a lazy and otherwise disappointing album.
18. Good Life - Kanye West feat. T-Pain
Again, great song from a disappointing album. Graduation was probably my biggest bummer of '07. It has a couple of good songs, but otherwise it's really boring and chockful of Kanye's worst lyrics and rapping yet. "Good Life" is the clear exception, if you can get past the "ever gotten brain on a plane" line.
19. Girls In Their Summer Clothes - Bruce Springsteen
Bruce channelling the Magnetic Fields.
20. Us Placers - CRS (Lupe Fiasco, Kanye West, Pharrell)
The Five Best Shows I Saw This Year
1. Times New Viking / Reports / Psychedelic Horseshit / Black Clouds: PA's Lounge, Somerville, MA, 4-21-07
2. Still Flyin' / the Lucksmiths / Ladybug Transistor: TT the Bear's; Cambridge, MA; 9-27-07
3. Yo La Tengo: MFA; Boston, MA; 11-16-07
4. Oneida / Kinski / Cul de Sac / Neptune: Middle East Downstairs; Cambridge, MA; 12-1-07
5. Acid Mothers Temple / Mammatus: Middle East Downstairs; Cambridge, MA; 4-28-07
I truly believe that 2007 was (and still is) one damn fantastic year. Obviously the highlight was the release of Je Suis France's third album, Afrikan Majik, a cultural event of such titanic proportions that the very fabric of existence itself was fundamentally altered. Some other okay records were released, too, though, and it would be unfair to them if we did not give them the recognition they are due. So ignoring the France for just the briefest of moments, here's a list of my favorite music of the year. I believe DJ will be posting his tomorrow.
My 20 Favorite Records of 2007:
(I might add some commentary later on)
1. Times New Viking: Present the Paisley Reich
2. Animal Collective: Strawberry Jam
3. Deerhunter: Cryptograms
4. Trans Am: Sex Change
5. LCD Soundsystem: Sound of Silver
6. Parts and Labor: Mapmaker
7. Life Without Buildings: Live at the Annandale Hotel
8. Psychedelic Horseshit: Magic Flowers Droned
9. Still Flyin': Za Cloud
10. The Bad Trips: s/t
11. Blues Control: s/t
12. Ex-Cocaine: Esta Guerra
13. Reports: Mosquito Nets
14. Panda Bear: Person Pitch
15. Folklore: The Ghost of HW Beaverman
16. Raccoo-oo-oon: Behold Secret Kingdom
17. Spoon: Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
18. Oakley Hall: I'll Follow You
19. Boris and Michio Kurihara: Rainbow
20. Wooden Shjips: Wooden Shjips
My 20 Favorite Songs of the Year:
Two songs stood out far above the rest, regularly getting stuck in my head and
tenaciously refusing to leave. These first two songs pretty much defined the year for me, musically.
1. All My Friends - LCD Soundsystem
I've thought about this song a lot over the last eight months, and I feel utterly confident calling it the best song of the decade thus far. It's not just the music, which is awesome, and sounds like New Order covering something off of John Cale and Terry Riley's Church of Anthrax. The lyrics repeatedly kill me, the way they blatantly stroke nostalgia, but less to glorify or eulogize the past and more to contrast and make sense of the present and the future. Maybe it's turning 30, maybe it's living so far away from my friends that I see them maybe once a year, but this song came around and helped pave over a hole in my life that I was barely even aware of. The fact that it seems to have done the same for thousands of other people speaks either to my own lack of imagination or else to James Murphy's arrival as a genuinely excellent song-writer.
2. Teenage Lust! - Times New Viking
The rock anthem of the year, and the best GBV song Robert Pollard never wrote.
3. I'm A Flirt (Remix) - R. Kelly feat. TI and T-Pain
4. Peacebone - Animal Collective
5. Bros - Panda Bear
Tough call between these last two, but "Peacebone" gets the nod simply because I listened to it more often than "Bros".
6. Someone Great - LCD Soundsystem
7. Fractured Skies - Parts and Labor
8. Friends - Ween
9. Still Alive (Portal song) - Jonathan Coulton and Ellen McLain
I've never even played Portal, but this song is extremely catchy, and even though I probably don't get all the references, still pretty damn funny. Reminds me of They Might Be Giants, back when they were good.
10. Paper Planes - MIA
11. Portals - Pyschedelic Horseshit
12. You Got Yr Cherry Bomb - Spoon
13. North American Scum - LCD Soundsystem
Seriously, dude's great. I'm a total believer, now.
14. The Ghost of You Lingers - Spoon
Infinitely delayed resolution: you keep waiting for that release, and they keep on denying it.
15. International Players Anthem - UGK feat. Outkast
16. White Like Heaven - Gowns
17. Freak-Out - Liars
Sloppy but great rock song in the vein of Jesus and Mary Chain, from a lazy and otherwise disappointing album.
18. Good Life - Kanye West feat. T-Pain
Again, great song from a disappointing album. Graduation was probably my biggest bummer of '07. It has a couple of good songs, but otherwise it's really boring and chockful of Kanye's worst lyrics and rapping yet. "Good Life" is the clear exception, if you can get past the "ever gotten brain on a plane" line.
19. Girls In Their Summer Clothes - Bruce Springsteen
Bruce channelling the Magnetic Fields.
20. Us Placers - CRS (Lupe Fiasco, Kanye West, Pharrell)
The Five Best Shows I Saw This Year
1. Times New Viking / Reports / Psychedelic Horseshit / Black Clouds: PA's Lounge, Somerville, MA, 4-21-07
2. Still Flyin' / the Lucksmiths / Ladybug Transistor: TT the Bear's; Cambridge, MA; 9-27-07
3. Yo La Tengo: MFA; Boston, MA; 11-16-07
4. Oneida / Kinski / Cul de Sac / Neptune: Middle East Downstairs; Cambridge, MA; 12-1-07
5. Acid Mothers Temple / Mammatus: Middle East Downstairs; Cambridge, MA; 4-28-07
