Let me just get this right out right now. 2007 stunk as a year for albums. There. I said it. I created a spreadsheet of 2007 music so that I could remember all the great things I listened to. Well, it's a sad list. A list that makes me sing the sorrow for the music industry. How could you tell it was a terrible year for music? Well, the top ten lists from various establishments were peopled with such luminaries as Panda Bear. Panda Bear! Seriously!
So, here's the rundown of bands wherein I listened to their album in their entirety or I listened to them enough to know I hate them...
Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Travis - The Boy With No Name
White Stripes - Icky Thump
Shins - Wincing the Night Away
Okkervil River - The Stage Names
The National - Boxer
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Tegan and Sara - The Con
The Weak Men - Weak Man Dog
Menomena - Friend or foe
Manic Street Preachers - Send Away the Tigers
LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
Okay, so my distaste for music in 2007 doesn't mean that there wasn't some great stuff released. I'm an album guy. Always have been, always will be. I swear my fealty to bands. I either like the whole catalog or I reject them completely. It's difficult for me to say, "Oh yeah, I just like one song of that band." Not a singles man. And this was the year where people loved the iTunes because the album wasn't worth buying. As with last year, let's start winnowing out these albums...
Cut #1: BOOOOOOOOOOOORING
Menomena
Weak Men
I'm really not sure what Menomena was trying to do. But they didn't do it for me. I'm not that underground.
As for the Weak Men, I don't know if there's been a sadder transition then to see these once promising youngsters descend from making Interpol/Standardesque epic gloom to repetitive droning drivel. 5 tracks, each nine minutes of the same chord pattern boring into your skull in the name of "Post-rock."
If I actually had managed to get all the way through Feist, I would put her album here. But, if I had really wanted to listen to Feist, I would have just put in Sade (who's cooler anyway because she's Caribbean not Canadian...really, that One Evening song sounds like it could bust into Smooth Operator or the Sweetest Taboo at any moment...I even found an MP3 of the song so I could send it to my Dad because he likes Sade. Who ever thought that 70s lounge singing would be the rage among hipsters?)
Cut #2: It's not you, It's...well...you...over and over again
The National
Sorry guys. There's no reason why your hushed baritone non-dynamics shouldn't thrill me. You sound nice for a couple of songs, but then all the songs bleed into one in a 45 minute slow baritone dirge. I've tried to like people like you. I've tried my darndest to like Tindersticks. But it just doesn't work for me.
Manic Street Preachers
All right Nicky Wire. The sound seems right, but there's nothing incredibly memorable. It just flies by in a wash of typical MSP sound which is cool, but the melodies didn't just destroy me like some of those on Everything Must Go or TIMTTMY. So...sorry
Tegan and Sara
I was actually kinda excited about this...but after one great song "Relief Next to Me", the album descended into shrill sameness. Nothing like If It Was You which was all varied and neat.
Cut #3: I Don't Know Where You Magic Pixies Came From, But That's One Great Song
LCD Soundsystem
Wow! I listened to this on the Metro and felt like retching at numerous places because I thought it was silly. And then "All My Friends" came on and I listened to it for like, forever. And I would keep trying other songs and thinking, "What the devil? This isn't working for me in any way shape or form!" And then Josh Sorensen kept saying, "It's like Depeche Mode, but for now!" and I kept trying, but no use! *sob* no use....But All My Friends could be the song of the year. I've never listened to a 7 minute song so many times on repeat.
Cut #4: Ettu you guys? The Betrayals of 2007
Andy Robinson betrayal: White Stripes
I wasn't expecting as much from this album because I didn't think their previous one was too good. But I really really classic WS. So, I thought Icky Thump was an interesting weird return to form. But everything else on the album kind of wasn't. Not much of a betrayal, but it was enough for me to kind of turn away from caring about them.
Benedict Arnold betrayal: Shins
Chutes too Narrow is the Indie Album by which all other Indie Albums should be measured. It's an absolute classic with ten brilliant songs. Brilliant melodies, brilliant lyrics. I was blown away when I heard it. I thought of myself as quite a Shins fan and I was highly anticipating Wincing. Then I heard Phanton Limb and I was agog with excitement. I got chills. And then I listened to the rest of the album and was dumbfounded. It was nothing. NOTHING! It was terrible. Everything just kinda drifted by...except everytime something classicy Shinsy came on over the headphones, something horrible 80s and cheesy popped in and slaughtered it. I felt like someone had just puked all over my back while singing Scatter Sunshine (Don Jordon, I'm looking at you).
Anakin Skywalker Betrayal: Arcade Fire
I considered myself to be a big Arcade Fire fan. I bought Funeral relatively early, even before my B-i-L recommended it. I fought with Josh Sorensen about the merits of the album (he thought it unbecoming). I put it on mix CDs. I loved everything about it. The lyrics were like parables...unassuming weird little stories on the outside, but so fraught with meaning, such that I finally figured out the genius of the lyrics of Wake Up and Rebellion (Lies) just the other day. Anyway, I recommended Neon Bible to my sister even though she hadn't heard a single Arcade Fire song in her life and she bought it based on that strong recommendation (this was before I heard it).
And then I heard Neon Bible...
Intervention! Keep the Car Running! My Body is a Cage! Equal to, if not superior to Funeral! Magic! Genius! Incredib...uh...wha????
Mirror mirror on the wall/Tell me where the bombs will fall (huh...what the...)
Neon Bible Neon Bible/Not much chance for survival/Neon Bible (you're kidding...)
*terrible "singing" on track 5 (ARGHHHH!!!)
I don't want to live in America no more i.e. Yes, Doug, I am Billy Joe Armstrong NO! THAT'S NOT TRUE!!! THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!!!! search your feelings, you know it to be true NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! NOOOOOOO!!!! And then I let go.
I'm not kidding. Between the vomit personified in writ that is the song Neon Bible and the absolutely insipid shallow craporama that is Windowsill, the Arcade Fire is no more all band. It's more pretty hate machine than band...So when I say "The Arcade Fire is Dead! Long Live the Arcade Fire!" you have to understand, it's true from a certain point of view.
Point of view?
Cut #5: And That's a Pretty Nice Comeback!
Travis
Who would have thought that Travis could have pulled this off? Most hipsters know Travis as the mellow men of The Man Who and The Invisible Band. Most don't know then as the former Britpoppers who wrote such crazy material like All I Wanna Do is Rock, U16 Girls (the dumbest cautionary tale of avoiding girls who are younger than 16), and the happiest, most exuberant song in the world Happy. So, as mellow album after mellow album pass by it surely seems like Travis has been neutered. Nothing exuberant. And then came this little album that no one expected. And within that album came a song with a terrible name with absurd lyrics. And with those absurd lyrics came...liberation! Joy! Expression! Travis is happy! I'm so happy because they're so happy! How else could you sing the line "You keep the chocolate biscuits wired to a car alarm" except with a massive attack grin? That one song made the album worth it. Althought there are some real stinkers, there are some other pretty great tracks (see Closer and Eyes Wide Open). Yeah, it's uneven, but that's how everything is this year. Bonus: They played Selfish Jean at the Las Vegas Bowl about 4 times. I think I was the only one in the stadium that exploded with "OHMYGOSH! IT'S TRAVIS!!!!"
Cut #6: Ah #$^%
Okkervil River
Will Sheff. He who is the greatest songwriter of this generation. Will also decided to be he who shall utter many bad curse words in his latest album. I'm still horribly sensitive to cursing in songs. That's how I am. Thus, I don't listen to three tracks on this 9 track album. This is what sinks the album for me. However, this album has some of the best non-swearing tracks of the year. Savannah Smiles makes me want to cry, it's so tragic. Unless it Kicks revs me up like my old Orko who's just had his ripcord pulled. And then the transition in John Allyn Smith Sails to Sloop John B...Wow! and then when Jonathan Meiburg back-up sings "The way I have plahhhnnneedd" right at the end, we've entered some great sonic territory. But $%^ it, all that cursing.
Cut #8: One more and we get to nine
Radiohead
Song of the year: Bodysnatchers. So perfectly Radiohead. And perfect Radiohead is better than so many things. I hoped the rest of the disc would be this unleashed Radiohead. But it was much more introspective. And I haven't given it the time I should to unlayer it. However, House of Cards is wicked awesome. It sounds like Zooropa-era U2 (the good songs). Anyway, it was difficult to vote against Radiohead as album of the year, and I might have to undo this selection with further listens. But for now, TY and the boys are the in the strange position of not being my favorite album of a given year...
Album of the Year: WILCO - SKY BLUE SKY!
I'm as surprised as you. For me, Wilco hit their peak with Summerteeth. YHF and Ghost is Born didn't register with me as they did with others. Matt A. always extolled the greatness of Wilco and I liked them, but there was never a thought that they would be an album of the year for me...but this record is fantastic. I only dislike one song (shake it off). Every other song is great. And it's not just, "Oh this song is okay", we've got great songs all the way through. It's totally an album of the year when you listen to a song and think "Oh man, that songs over" but then the next song starts and you say "Oh yeah! I love this song!" And no matter what Matt A. says, this totally feels like I'm in 1975 in sun-soaked California and I'm telling people, "No way man! Wilco is so much more real than the Eagles!" And I'd like to offer thanks to Wilco for bringing back the guitar solo to indie music. I secretly love guitar solos.
There you have it. All my music thoughts for the year laid bare for all to see.
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