Vikings & Beekeepers

 

I did a little experiment this year. Instead of dishing out a padded, half-informed year end list, I would sit on it, let that baby incubate, and crack several months later fully thought out and ready to fly. I don’t get too many free albums sent my way, so I have to do a late December mad scramble for new albums like the rest of the world (downloads and torrents are only intermittently available to me).

I wish I had done this for 2006. Instead of including great-for-a-month-only albums like I’m From Barcelona’s Let Me Introduce You To My Friends or Earl Greyhound’s Soft Targets on my list, I could have included amazing albums by the likes of Oxford Collapse, Sonic Youth, Brightblack Morning Light, Fujiya & Miyagi or Man Man (among others) – all albums I finally got around to hearing months after I rushed out my list.

So I’m finally unleashing the list now, but I still feel like it’s only half-cocked. While I stand by my selections, I would be remised if I didn’t at least mention bands who put out great albums this year that a) weren’t quite as good or b) I haven’t absorbed nearly enough. So hear goes: Radiohead, Kevin Drew, No Age, Black Lips, Freeway, Caribou, Devendra Banhart, Travis Morrison, Enon, Menomena, Levon Helm, The Tough Alliance, Grizzly Bear, Health, Joel Plaskett, Liars, Justice, John Vanderslice, Okkervil River, Pig Destroyer, UGK and Robert Plant & Alison Krauss.

Whew, now that that’s done, here are my top 25 (okay, 32) albums of 2007.

 

1. Les Savy Fav Let’s Stay Friends

No band was happier about the break-up of the Dismemberment Plan and the permanent hiatus of Fugazi more than Les Savy Fav. With those two titans out of the way, finally LSF could legitimately claim the title of “Most Kickass Band Going Today.” And they wear the title well. But we didn’t really get to see them in full ass-kicking form until now. 2001’s Go Forth is good, often great, but it lacks identity and a sense of adventure. To follow up that album, the Fav released Inches, a compilation of singles that showcased the band’s career trajectory, but didn’t really indicate what the band could accomplish on a single, unified album. Let’s Stay Friends, a so-called “comeback” album, is that unified whole. Committing the first half of the album to perfecting their hard charged absurdist punk roar (“The Equestrian”), party rock (“The Year Before The Year 2000”) and dance punk (“Patty Lee”), LSF move on to broaden their horizons with tinges of dub (“Brace Yourself”), folk (“Comes & Goes”) to plinky, smoothed out post-hardcore in the vain of the Dismemberment Plan’s Change (“Kiss Kiss Is Getting Old” - streaming below), While Let’s Stay Friends doesn’t usurp Inches as the definitive Les Savy Fav document, it is the first album to disprove the myth that they are a band only essential in the live setting.

 

2. Deerhoof Friend Opportunity

I call it “avant-accesibility.” That is, when a band typically relegated to the far out regions of the pop music landscape begin accepting things like strong structure, pop songcraft and hooks to worm their way into the “normal” world while all the while maintaining their basic “weird” DNA. Animal Collective did it on Sung Tongs, Modest Mouse did it to a certain extent on Good News For People Who Love Bad News, but Deerhoof, a band normally known for their fractured, overly cutesy song fragments, absolutely perfect it on Friend Opportunity. Starting off with “The Perfect Me,” a hard charging and explosive mini-prog epic, and running smoothly and nearly perfectly until the band completely falls a part on the 12-minute noodle-fest, “Look Away,” Deerhoof fill out their sound and come up with what may be their best album to date. While some may see a song like “Look Away” as aimless and “Kidz Are So Small” as grating, it must be remembered that those tendencies are in the bands make up, it would be impossible to deny it totally. “Kidz Are So Small” exists so that the pure power pop exuberance of “Matchbook Seeks Maniac” may exist. Friend Opportunity runs shorter than the typical overstuffed Deerhoof album, but its songs are fuller. So yeah, technically it’s an eight out of 10, but these are the best eight songs Deerhoof have ever performed.

3. Jay-Z American Gangster

I’m often perplexed by Hov’s relationship with critics. The media nearly trampled over itself trying to heap praise on the not-that-great Black Album, but for his comeback, they went out of their way to shit on the not-great, but still underrated, Kingdom Come. American Gangster, a so-called concept album inspired by the movie of the same name, received strong initial reviews but has had to endure a flurry of subsequent criticisms, saying that Jay-Z’s rapping isn’t so hot or that it was only loved because it wasn’t Kingdom Come. WTF, people? Pick a side and stick with it!

American Gangster isn’t The Blueprint or Reasonable Doubt, but it’s a frigging amazing feat for a rapper who has long outlived rap’s “best before” age restrictions. The guy released the best party rap anthem of the year with “Roc Boys” and then proceeded to outdo himself with the world-dominating “Ignorant Shit.” On “Success” Hov, along with a totally revitalized Nas, ride out a gnarly organ vamp to the best “less is more production” track since Clipse last acted as a muse for Pharrell. “Blue Magic” has Jay at his most lyrically creative, flipping exciting and impressive rhymes (“Blame Reagan for making me a monster / Blame Oliver North for Iran Contra / I ran contraband that they sponsored”).

On “No Hook” Jay says “I don’t need no hook for this shit.” Well, no duh, Jay! He explains why on “Ignorant Shit”: “Just the sound of his voice is a hit.”

4. Band Of Horses Cease To Begin

The early word on Band Of Horses’ most recent offering was that it was “boring,” “lacking,” or “slight.” In the months following, BOH became shorthand for overwrought, nasal, annoyingly typical indie rock by anti-hipster douchebag hipster douchebags. What’s funny about this for me is that in a year where Ted Leo disappointed and Montreal scenester bands like Arcade Fire and Sunset Rubdown left me totally cold, BOH was the breath of fresh air.

At every interval, BOH improves on their debut. The anthemic “Is There A Ghost?” may have been everywhere this last year, but it’s the worst song on the album, which is definitely a testament to how tremendous this album really is. While the comparisons to My Morning Jacket and the Shins are still apt (“The General Specific” certainly holds true for the latter), the familiarity is only positive. So the backlash (or bloglash?) is in full effect, but the music contained on Cease To Begin is without reproach. Assholes are always looking for big, easy targets, but Cease To Begin dodges every attack with bolder hooks, stronger melodies and sturdy performances.

Is it indie rock comfort food? Most certainly. Is it both delicious and good for you? Indeed. It may not be challenging and different like your Deerhoofs or your Of Montreals, but in my house, Cease To Begin was without a doubt the most listened to album of 2007.

5. Ghostface Killah Big Doe Rehab & Wu-Tang Clan 8 Diagrams

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Critically and artistically, the Wu came back in a big way, but on a commercial and interpersonal level, the group couldn’t be in worse shape. Raekwon and Ghostface are on RZA’s ass for his murky, uncompromising production and have essentially written off 8 Diagrams. Then Ghost got on MySpace and made a video ripping his fans a new one for not buying enough copies of Big Doe Rehab, his most recent solo effort. So things could be better.

But let’s forget all that and focus on these two startlingly strong albums. Big Doe isn’t quite as dynamic as Ghost’s Fishscale or The Pretty Toney Album, essentially going back to the breathless crime-fiction bangers of “Shakey Dog” or “Run.” Still, those songs were undeniable, just like “Toney Sigel AKA The Barrell Brothers” (featuring an totally amped Beanie Sigel) and “Yolanda’s House” (featuring a newly revitalized Method Man) are on Big Doe. It might simply be more high end product from a rapper in his prime, thus making it Ghostface’s Trust, but the inclusion of guest rapper’s like Rae, Cappadonna and the aforementioned Beans and Meth push this album even farther along the path of greatness.

Speaking of Meth, his resurgence is emblematic of 8 Diagrams as a whole, despite an almost immediate disowning of the album by the group. The Clan sound as good, and often times better than they ever had. Every track crackles with hazy, druggy beats, as if Maggot Brain or There’s A Riot Goin’ On were being co-opted to create the grimiest, weirdest rap album known to man. Wu’s big guns (Meth, Rae, RZA, GZA, Ghost) all spit hard, although Ghostface is noticeably absent from the album’s back half. And it’s almost become a cliché by now, but the Wu-underdogs, U-God, Masta Killa and Inspectah Deck, nearly steal the whole show. U-God, especially owns with his killer verse on the George Clinton sampled “Wolves.”

It’s definitely a grower, but while Ghostface aims for immediacy on his solo outing, a deep, perpetually interesting Wu-Tang album might be exactly what the doctor ordered.

6. Wilco Sky Blue Sky

A Ghost Is Streamlined? Can we stop all this “dad rock” talk, please? Yeah, there’s enough Steely Dan and Grateful Dead influences here to perk the ears of any fading boomer, and I could see my own dad talking about the quality of Wilco’s “arrangements” as opposed to their “songs,” but that shouldn’t be an issue. When songs pack an emotional heft like “Either Way,” “Please Be Patient With Me” or “What Light,” any fading hipness or Autumn-of-their-career inspired backlash should become moot. If these songs don’t grab you, then you’re dead. Besides, with “Impossible Germany” and “Side With The Sheets,” it’s abundantly clear that Nels Cline is a guitar god to be reckoned with.

7. Dinosaur Jr Beyond

…Speaking of guitar gods, motherfathering J Mascis is back to slay our asses. Unnecessary reunion aside, the Jr may have released the most surprisingly awesome album of the year. Who would have thought that a) J and Lou Barlow would be able to bury the hatchet, b) they would be able to release an album together that didn’t suck and c) that it would rival even You’re Living All Over Me (blasphemy!)? Not me. Beyond contains nine J tracks and two Lou tracks that we are very lucky to have hit our ears.

8. Big Business Here Come The Waterworks

Summoning the power of God - and failing that, Motorhead – Big Business rumble through eight bowel pummeling tracks like an avalanche devastating a small town of hippies. Big Business play stoner metal the way the good Lord intended it: brawny, unrelenting and really fucking funny. Asses will be kicked.

9. Tinariwen Aman Iman: Water Is Life

I’m not going to pretend to be particularly well-versed, or interested even, in Tinariwen’s history as a group of Tuareg (?), living nomadically along the Western Sahara. I’m sure it’s an amazing background, but the real importance is in the music. The guitar tones seem entirely unique and foreign (and there are roughly six guitarists in Tinariwen), yet strangely familiar, just like the voice of lead singer Abrahim Ag Alhabib and his chanting choir. Find this album, listen to it with headphones and let these foreign blues sweep over you. It’s like hearing music for the first time.

 

10. Future Of The Left Curses!, Pissed Jeans Hope For Men & Shellac Excellent Italian Greyhound

2007 was a tremendous year for assholes. Case in point: these three albums. Philly newbies Pissed Jeans’ (charming) Matt Korvette rumbles and spits like a horny David Yow over a Black Flag thud and hooks copped straight from the Flipper songbook (oxymoron alert!). The granddaddy of all assholes, Steve Albini, soundtracks the apocalypse (literally) with another wry, pissy, totally awesome Shellac album. Andy Falkous’ Future Of The Left, takes the cake with some of the snottiest, catchiest prick rock heard in years. The highest praise to be given to Curses! is that it is equal to many aspects of Falkous’ old band, the incredible McLusky.

11. Lifetime Lifetime

It’s true, I have a glaring soft spot for this kind of juvenile, mega­compressed, staunchly derivative melodic hardcore (or is it pop punk? Or *cough* emo?), but when scene heroes, Lifetime, come out of retirement to show the kids (and label owner Pete “Guyliner” Wentz) a thing or two about what it means to truly rock…well, people simply have to take notice. The formula is simple, really: create an incredibly hook-filled verse, add an even more hook-filled chorus and then bring it all home with transcendently hook-filled bridge (trust me, the bridges on these songs are all amazing). Wrap it up in well-south of three minutes, multiply by 11 and serve at a sitcom’s length of punk rock perfection. Modern rock radio level emo, consider yourselves schooled.

12. Lil’ Wayne Da Drought 3

I’ll admit, I’m still not totally on board with Dedication 2, but Weezy’s ’07 mixtape spectacular made a convert out of me. The guy simply rhymes to rhyme and raps circles around even the best in the game. Friggin’ “Upgrade” owned all other hip hop this year with some of the most mind-bending rhymes known to man, running the gambit from Rocky to the Toronto Maple Leafs to the listening habits of “deaf bitches.” And it’s a mixtape, so he’s jacking all the best beats. Shit, when Weezy releases Tha Carter 3, his much hyped return to legitimate album releases, this year, he’ll be lucky to have anything as dense, hilarious and exciting as Da Drought 3.

13. The Dirty Projectors Rise Above

A song for song re-imagining of Black Flag’s seminal hardcore album Damaged (although where the hell is “TV Party”?) that gets an A for ingenuity and an A+ for execution. These songs (they’re certainly more original songs than they are mere covers) sparkle and glisten, making the source material - untouchable source material that it is - a mere point of trivia. Another winningly created high concept from Dave Longstreth and the gang.

14. Modest Mouse We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank & Spoon Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

By this point, both Modest Mouse and Spoon can be called indie rock’s elder statesmen – that is, if they weren’t still kicking the rest of indie rock’s ass and getting more mainstream popularity for it.

First off is Modest Mouse, simply getting more and more modern rock radio play while being completely inappropriate for radio (or so you would think). Of course it’s undeniable that the band are playing a far more high-gloss version of themselves when compared to their early albums, but Isaac Brock still spits and lisps and the guitars still bend in strange directions like they did when they were just another K Records oddity. Speaking of guitars, the big news this time out was that the Mouse hired on that guy from Johnny Marr and the Healers (and some other band, apparently), but his contributions were negligible when compared to The Shins’ James Mercer, who provided the most glorious vocals on Ship’s glossiest tracks (“Florida,” “Missed The Boat,” “We’ve Got Everything”). May modern indie continue to be this pristine. May modern rock continue to be this weird.

Modest Mouse’s newest Burnside neighbours, Spoon, used 2007 to establish themselves as a musical force to be reckoned with. Gax5 begins by looking back. The post-college rock, neo-blues of 2001’s Girls Can Tell is neatly summarized on opener “Don’t Make Me A Target,” while the hyper-minimalism of 02’s Kill The Moonlight is referenced on “The Ghost Of You Lingers.” Following those two tracks, album highlight “You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb” perfects the propulsive near-R&B of 05’s Gimme Fiction. After that, it’s anybody’s guess. The band goes big band on single “The Underground,” gets funky on “Don’t you Evah” and gets all clever and big-hearted on “Black Like Me.” You would think that these guys would start to wane after so many years of consistently great releases, but Spoon keeps plowing along, improving their game every step of the way.

15. Bill Callahan Woke On A Whaleheart

Who needs the “Smog” branding when all you really need is That Voice? Bill Callahan is always a reliable source of top notch material, so why the hell have I abandoned him over the past few years? This guy never faltered. In fact, Callahan’s songwriting has only improved, his melodies grab you and arrangements are becoming purposeful, not meandering like some of even his best songs in the past. The dreamy, dizzy guitar interplay of album standout “Sycamore,” are a perfect example of this, it’s no longer The Bill Callahan Show anymore (despite the indulgent moniker switch), this is an album for everybody – Bill, the musicians, the background singers and especially the listener.

16. Prodigy Return Of The Mac

A glorified mixtape, but a glorious one. Return Of The Mac was a much-needed do-over for Prodigy after Mobb Deep’s recent embarrassments, and he should be thanking the Alchemist for providing the best possibly beats for Prodigy’s reinvigorated flow. Each track (and especially “The Mac,” which is streaming below) bubbles over with old soul and early rap samples while Prodigy takes every opportunity to prove his worth as an MC. There’s no underestimating chemistry and Prodigy and the Alchemist may have it better than anybody. Plus, nothing beats a group of severely disappointed and confused “Firestarter” fans.

 

17. Blitzen Trapper Wild Mountain Nation

The backlash was in full effect about 30 seconds after the first positive review, with one of my personal favorite bloggers calling WMN a “piece of shit.” But look at everyone else on this list: Did any one of them have a song as good as this album’s title track? Hell no. And the crazy thing is that “Sci-Fi Kid,” “Wild Mtn. Jam,” “Summer Town” and “Country Caravan” were all nearly as good.

18. Battles Mirrored

Mirrored is the hardest album to discuss. It’s become cliché to say this at this point, but it really does defy description: Glam prog? Maybe. Transformer freak folk? Possibly. HAL rock? We’re getting closer. Absolutely mind-blowing headphone listening experience? Bingo.

 

19. Boris Rainbow

Is this the most slept-on release by an incredibly hyped band to come out in the last decade? I think so. Maybe everyone is still rocking Pink to pay any attention. Paired with Ghost guitar god Michio Kurihara, Boris have released an album that radiates different sounds, and gets to the heart of “heavy” with minimal thrashing (“Sweet No 1” notwithstanding). More in line with Pink’s “Farewell” than anything, Rainbow plays in the endlessly fascinating cracks of the psychedelic/post-rock/metal landscape and finds a very welcome home to let there huge sound grow even hugerer. Seek this album out psych fans, this bad boy only gets better with each listen.

20. Of Montreal Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?

I’m not particularly interested in the divorce/depression/meta back story or the sideshow stage antics, what sticks with me is how Of Montreal, a band that has been on the verge of greatness for quite some time now, are able to make pop so sticky, rubbery and delightfully odd, and yet still create the catchiest album of the year. Hell, even the 12-minute nervous breakdown rock of “The Past Is A Grotesque Animal” somehow manages to be a compelling listen. There’s a minor miracle going on here.

21. Kanye West Graduation

With his everyone-approved debut, The College Dropout, and the high-art opus, Late Registration, behind him, Kanye West can finally start focusing on creating pop. And not just good pop, great pop. “Champion” and “The Good Life” are the kind of pop that can unite the nations, while “Stronger” and “Can’t Tell Me Nothing” burn with intensity of a thousand fires. But while the singles all rule hard, the rest of the album proves just as interesting, such as sampling Can on “Drunk And Hot Girls” or Kanye outperforming the infinitely more gifted (in terms of rhyming, anyway) Lil’ Wayne on “Barry Bonds.” That the album begins with a direct Jay-Z sample and closes with a whole song dedicated to Hov, shows that Kanye is master manipulator and is more than deserving of his superstar status.

22. Animal Collective Strawberry Jam & Panda Bear Person Pitch

I think what surprised me most about Strawberry Jam was that I liked it at all. For some truly unexplainable reason, I was totally prepared to just coast on the presumed idea that the new AC would be tuneless, annoying, poop-joke filled drivel and that I was better off without ever listening to it. And the funny thing is, I totally enjoy some (not all) of their earlier stuff. Well, I was wrong. Dead wrong. Strawberry Jam is manic and probably contains some poop-jokes, but it’s actually quite a delightful listen. Much like Panda Bear’s recent foray into solo territory, where he essentially breaks down the essence of Brian Wilson’s harmonies and loops them without context to create a hazy summer night on the beach, with everyone feeling groovy and feeling the good vibes. I expected that one to be good and I was right.

So, in summary: I thought the new AC would suck – I was wrong. I thought the new Panda Bear would be great – I was right. I’m one for two.

23. Joanna Newsom Joanna Newsom & The YS Street Band EP

I didn’t really go for YS, preferring the more populist leanings of The Milk-Eyed Mender to the Rennaisance Fair overlong gawkiness of its more celebrated follow-up. This three-song EP, however, is such a welcome marriage of the two spectrums that it actually causes me to re-evaluate YS again. These songs all dabble in the longer form (“Cosmia” clocks in at a shockingly engaging 13:23), but they contain penetrable structures, including a full band and, gulp, hooks. Music this dense should be this fun.

24. The New Pornographers Challengers

I’m just going to put this out there: the New Pornographers are the only Canadian music collective that matters. Thos Montreal yelp-rockers can take a hike. Same with TO, Broken Social Scene only wish  they could release stuff this good as individuals and as a unified whole. And Black Mountain doesn’t even factor in – there just a normal band with too many side projects.

That leaves the Pornos and their Challengers. Yes, it’s the ballad album and yes, it’s probably the most minor album to date, but I’ll be damned if this album doesn’t contain some of Dan Bejar’s finest work and some of the most stirring slow-burners Carl Newman has ever concocted. To those who deride this album my defense would be that maybe these guys are just getting complacent after dominating the national scene for so long. But complacency shouldn’t even be brought into the equation with emotional scorchers like “My Rights Versus Yours,” “Challengers” and “Adventures In Solitude.”

25. Dolorean You Can’t Win, Iron & Wine The Shepherd’s Dog & Jose Gonzales In Our Nature

So much whispery, gently finger picked, acoustic indie, so little time. Dolorean perfects that worn out, weary Americana that has been touched upon by the likes of Will Oldham and Jason Molina, although those two would be lucky to boast a song as crushing as “Beachcomber Blues.” Gonzales’s newest album works best in tight quarters, played loudly. The intimacy is perhaps bested only by its immediacy.

Then there’s Iron & Wine, whose new album was lauded by lazy critics for having a fuller band sound and being “higher-fi.” Well no shit! Iron & Wine has been dabbling in this kind of fuller sound for four years now. It would be a be more surprising if he went back to the crackly lo-fi of his early years. Shepherd’s Dog is the sound of Iron & Wine right now. It’s not a bold new step, it’s the same step that he’s been working on for nearly half the decade. Still, though, it’s something very special.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 4th, 2008 at 3:00 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.