So it has been another exceptional year in music. Last year was very very good, as has been most of the last few years. If I had one possible critique of the year that was, I might say that this year lacks that massive, undisputed song-for-the-ages that some years have. Even so, if the year lacks for a song I can give an A+ to, there are loads and loads of cuts that rank A or A-, and loads of albums with more than their fare share of them.
I can't point to any one thing that has made these last few years so good. There isn't anything all that new going on. If anything, there is really just the standard sort-of look-back/phony retro tinge to a good chunk of what's out. There isn't any big movement afoot (at least that I can tell), nor would I say that great years for music seem to also be a part of good years for culture overall. Just ain't so.
My bias here is likely my age. The music out now is giving a second look to the music that came around the first time just as music became really important to me. The late punk stuff, post-punk, and some of the synth stuff of the 80s seems to be the touchstone for much of it, and this - as I have said a trillion times - is really the prime of my musical youth, so I guess there is a chance I just like hearing a re-tread of stuff I liked the first time. I don't think this is the case though. I think much of what is out now is better than what influenced it. I think the re-tread is so steeped in a synthesis of other stuff - things I didn't like until the the last 10 years or so, like freaky jazz or "post-rock" - that I can't point to a whole lot of acts that really hone in on any one vibe and ride it home. Moreover, familiarity in-and-of-itself doesn't rank all that high with me. I am not universally enthralled with everything being given a second airing (Prog should never have been and any revival of it should be buried alive), and sadly, there is loads of stuff that was great that has been allowed to fall through the cracks. So yeah, age is a part of it, but not everything.
I'd like to think that the rise of the internet, and the freedom it gives musicians to believe they don't really need the old sluts in "the biz" for their money, approval, marketing, or distribution, is behind the bumper crop. The new construct taking shape around music could well be a source of quality, and without question, the overwhelming amount of music worth a squirt right now is "indie". That would be very good news since things will be moving this direction for as far out as I think anyone can see, and this means we could be in for lots of good years. Let's hope y'all.
Okee doke. These entries end up taking way longer than they should, so I am going to try not to get bogged down in the ponderous stuff. I likely will have a lil' somethin' to blab about for each, but I promise not to belabor the point just for giggles. I think this is gonna take at least a few days to get through the lists I wanna do, so feel free to scan rather than read. It ain't like this stuff is gonna be hard to find if you don't get to it for awhile.
On with the show...
Favorite Songs Of The Year: I am gonna kinda cheat here. For one, I am gonna not include the songs that are on albums that make my favorite album lists, with a few exceptions. Also, I am going to not put the top 5 in any particular order since they are all kinda close, and to be honest, they seem to rotate in rank week to week. And for the most part, I am not including remixes and covers. There are some exceptions, but the cover has to be white hot to make my hit parade here. But hey, enough of my yakkin', on with the show:
10. Beck - Time Bomb: I have no idea when this was recorded or what for, but it is easily as good as anything on his last few albums. Yeah, it is kinda one of his dumb pop/dance/party songs, but I happen to like that stuff. This was an iTunes only thing, it wasn't a real single or soundtrack thingie or even bonus cut from somewhere. I would guess it is just a leftover that didn't fit and was too good to bury. I dig.
9. Bishop Allen - Central Booking: This band put out a ton of music this year. They did an EP of original music each month for most the year, plus they put out their second album. Their first album Charm School is one of my fave alt. discs of the 2000s, and I had such high hopes for the EPs and the new album Broken String. Sadly, the bulk of the stuff from the year was nowhere near as good as what the first one was. That this cut made one of the EPs and not the album was a (bad) surprise other than to say the EPs tended to be the best performances, being almost always preferable to the re-do's on the new album. Of all the output from the year, I would have to say this ranks as my favorite and would be a good one to get if you dig Charm School (which any Modest Mouse fan of recent years likely would.)
8. Pink Mountaintops - Single Life: I am a sucker for the whole Spacemen 3/Spiritualized/Sonic Boom hyper-simple blues with little organ part and quasi-Tussle-With-Good-n-Evil storyline. That it is all derivative when done by the Spacemen means it is painfully so when done this many years down the road by Canadians. This is not earth-shattering songwriting or playing. It is wholly unoriginal, and without even an album to hang it on, it is likely doomed to obscurity within the catalog of a relatively obscure band. Even so, I like it a lot and expect it will be on mix playlists of mine for many moons.
7. Blonde Redhead - 23: Of all the older music getting an update, I am really happy that the old shoegazer stuff is getting a second look. I am not as crazy about the fact that most second wave shoegazer-ish stuff so heavily references My Bloody Valentine's Loveless. Loveless is really good and is important and all that, but it wasn't the only thing going on. Ride, Loop, Swervedriver, Lush and a bunch of others made tons of great stuff (including MBV on other discs), but to hear newer songs with that sound is to most-often hear wholesale lifts of MBV stuff from the Loveless era. This cut is not at all an exception. That big wall of sour chord MBV added to alt.rock jumps out of this cut like a fart in church. It is welcome, it fits the song, and with the super sweeter-than-sweet Japanese girly vocal, it is tough not to feel this exactly where one should. And I do. (On a somewhat related note, look up Japancakes' cover of Only Shallow - it is well worth it.)
6. Shout Out Louds - Man On The Moon: I like the new Shout-Out Louds disc from 2007, but it isn't mind-blowing. This cut actually is better than just about anything on Our Ill Wills, and while an REM cover, I don't think they took the easy route in covering that cut. It is a pretty ballsy pick to cover that cut since it is so easy to mess up, especially if you are a synth-heavy band of Swedes who seem as if they might not be able to place the cultural references. They really do bring out a maudlin undercurrent to the song that was always there, but they do it in a way that doesn't lose the upbeat & single-worthy elements of the original (keep in mind, Automatic For The People is the last great REM album, and this cut is really one of the last really upbeat singles they have done since.) Doing REM down or synth heavy would be the easiest thing on earth to do. To do that while holding on to the juxtaposition of the upbeat and wistful from the original, without AT ALL borrowing the means by which REM did it, is pretty exceptional.
#5-#1 (in alphabetical order)
- Art Brut - Direct Hit: The British make so many good party records that aren't dumb - especially very white-sounding ones, which is no small feat. This is about as good as that sorta thing gets, and it is British as the Big Book Of Bad Smiles. Kinda like a thinking lout from London's B-52s.
- Black Lips - Cold Hands: Lenny Kravitz should be brutalized by history because he does such a heartless & soul-less retread of sixties & seventies AM radio stuff. It is more sixties & seventies AM radio than sixties & seventies AM radio was. The same also is true for tons of sixties garage-rock revivalists. They are meticulous in recreating something sloppy, and they's horrible for it. This is certainly an homage to the garage rock ethos and all, but it isn't a slave to it, and seems like they have lots of other music they dig and would be just as happy to throw in if they felt like it. Even so, if Little Steven isn't playing this on his radio show, then he needs to hang it up. This song is killer without having to rock-harder-than-thou; of course that could be because they know the little gangsta edge to it is tough to take seriously. A real high point for me this year.
- Devo - Watch Us Work It: Wow. This literally is just as good as just about anything in their catalog save for a handful of songs. I don't think it is intentionally retro or anything either. In fact, this is one of the first POSITIVE (by which I mean totally unironically so) songs I have really loved from them. They might be having a tough time dealing with what actual De-volution looks like given recent US political history - I don't know - but this is the right time for them to come back with something like this. If you like Devo, this is essential, and even if you kinda like Devo, you might groove on it since things really still ain't fully caught up with them.
- Field Music - In Context: The album isn't great, and too often they seem to be trying too hard to play the boogie strange. That said, this really has revealed itself to be incredibly complex but effortlessly hooky and sing-along worthy. There are at least 2 or 3 totally hummable lines intertwined here, even while it really comes at things non-intuitively. So well put together and so much going on, I have had it in high-rotation for a good six months and still haven't totally wrapped my brain around it. Not only that, but the video is cool.
- The Go! Team - Doing It Right: Maybe I will regret ranking this one as high as top-5 because it might be a novelty record and I just don't know it. Even so, I totally love it and haven't been able to get it and its many components out of my head for the damn-longest time. Yeah, the cheerleading thing feels a little gimmicky, but it really isn't. This is like a great Motown production that merges rapped verses in with totally lo-fi wall-of-sound production. Really an awesome amalgamation of things, and that they decided to take it lo-fi when that is probably what will keep them off mainstream radio was actually the right choice. It wouldn't have been anywhere near as good if it didn't sound like it wasn't blaring out of a transistor AM radio circa 1966 suburbia. They might never make another note I care about, but this has been a really good time.
Honorable Mention - Top Songs of 2007(s):
- Dr. Dog - The Girl (Beck Remix): Way better than the original even if it is boilerplate Beck imitating the Dust Brothers. One could do a hell of a lot worse than that milky.
- Petra Haden - Don't Stop Believin': After the a capella cover of The Who Sell Out, I am sure Petra could do this kind of cover (she sings all the parts of the song along to a playback of the original - it is very cool) for years and years. I doubt she will since she had a career before that. If, however, she uses this formula sparing enough to not burn it out, but often enough to make sure she always owns it, she can't miss. I hate the original of this, and Journey in general, but the attention to detail here isn't lost on me. That guitar flare "WOO-WOO!!!" alone justifies its inclusion.
- Honeydrips - Fall From A Height: A little precious for my tastes, but I like precious to a point. Synth and pop with lots of string/bells flourish + a simple 4/4 beat with 8th-note & rubbery bass line I am largely helpless against this sort of thing. Not gonna be something I put on a mix disc for a dood friend, but the little girls understand.
- Blitzen Trapper - Crazy On You: I am pretty sure this isn't the whole band, but just one or two and a cheesemaster synthesizer. There is no way to recreate what Heart did in their early prime, especially on this so it is a testament to Blitzen's genius that they didn't try (Ann Wilson likely couldn't keep her breath long enough these days to go crazy on anything other than a Bundt Cake - Nancy on the other hand...sigh...) That they elected to focus on making a the bass part hot because they couldn't top the guitar demonstrates a wisdom long beyond their years. This may seem to borderline on novelty, but I assures ya, it ain't.
- Black Kids - I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance: Another great lo-fi, garagey record that is as pop as they get. This really is the only way the too-cool-for-school crowd can get away with admitting they love a good pop song anymore, but I don't think this suffers for it. Not power, not clean, not super-hooky, but indeed very catchy, fun, and like all good pop songs, short enough to make you need to listen to it over and over but never really fills you up. I know nothing about the group but they will be on my "to-investigate" list in months to come.
- Calvin Johnson & The Sons Of The Soil - Booty Run: Calvin Johnson is a freak, and I don't think totally in that funny/cool way. There is something going on underneath his shtick that makes me uncomfortable. It would be unfair to say that baritones or bass-voices can't be twee, but he goes into a level of detail that I can't find a healthy root for. Again, he is just self-effacing enough to keep me from being scary-uncomfortable, but it is close. This is one where he allows the listener a wink of sorts, and in doing so, leaves hope that he is kinda kidding on the creepier stuff. If you don't know Calvin Johnson, try to find a sample of this. It could prove most eye-opening (you could also look up his cover of Woody Guthrie's Hard Travelin' of recent vintage.)
- Frank Black - History Song: I was starting to worry that no one but me liked The Good, The Bad, & The Queen's album (it really hasn't been on many 2007 best-of lists, which is sad; but more on this to come), but in seeing that Frank Black covered one of the better songs on the album on it made me feel better. Yes, Mister Francis is capable of irony-covers, but this doesn't strike me as one. Yes, he yells a little bit too much for it to be completely sincere, but that said, he clearly digs the song (and I am guessing, the album.) Mister Black is almost too prolific to keep up with and sort out, and I would not describe myself as a HUGE fan. In fact, if I hadn't read he was floating this on iTunes, I likely wouldn't have ever looked him up. Interestingly enough, after bonding with this cover, I have begun the long and difficult task of finally untangling his solo career. Too many of my chums with a good ear like him for me to sit it out any longer. So far - sad to say - I like this cover better than 90% of what I have heard so far. Dig.
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Top 5 Concerts of 2007:
1. (tie) White Stripes - MSG, NYC
1. (tie) M Ward, Bimbo's 365, San Fran
3. Rashied Ali & Henry Grimes, Vision Festival, NYC
4. El Perro Del Mar, Great American Music Hall, SF
5. Eek-A-Mouse, Santa Cruz