Top 10 Albums of 2007
Been a while, again! Guess I'm not too good at this LiveJournal-ing stuff. Here's something, though - my Top 10 Albums of 2007! I've roughly worked out my current lineup, and I'll share it here and give others the chance to do so. Remember, though, that we have a few months left and some damn good albums are set to come out, so these are easily changed. Right now, I couldn't come up with a definite order, so they remain in no specific order. That said, here goes...
A Fine Frenzy: "One Cell in the Sea"
Favourite Tracks: Rangers, Last of Days, Almost Lover
This is a newbie band, but damn if it isn't completely beautiful. Driven by piano and Alison Sudol's ethereal voice, these songs are like ghostly blankets that cover you and make you tingly all over. The lyrics intrigue and bounce from uplifting to melancholic. Last of Days is sad, but it has a great underlying beat of piano that keeps it going despite the sadness. The lyrics long for a lost lover, and tell that they'll be lost until the titular last of days. Rangers is a mysterious song about being hunted down by metaphorical rangers, though what it's actually saying is lost on me. I just know I could listen to it forever, eyes closed and drifting.
Andrew Bird: "Armchair Apocrypha"
Favourite Tracks: Heretics, Scythian Empires
Though not my favourite Bird album, this is another amazing group of songs featuring enigmatic lyrics, dark atmosphere, and catchy beats. Heretics might be the catchiest thing Bird has done, and yet its lyrics are far from happy or, really, sad. But how bouncy can a song be when it include the repeated phrase "thank God it's fatal"? Scythian Empires, Fiery Crash, and Plasticities are also great tracks.
Eisley: "Combinations"
Favourite Tracks: Invasion, Many Funerals
Though I loved Eisley's sound when I listened to their previous album, Room Noises, it was often a little too 'weird' in terms of sound. Combinations is a perfect compromise, somehow keeping their unique style unmarred and yet being a thousand times more accessible. My favourite track Invasion is smoother than my favourite off Room Noises, Telescope Eyes. Just as pretty, it dares you to just sit there and enjoy the ride through a warm, sweet spring river through a woodland and not notice that the sun is setting around you and the creatures of the night may be coming.. That's the best way I can find to describe it, really.
White Rabbits: "Fort Nightly"
Favourite Tracks: Navy Wives, While We Go Dancing
The infectious beats of this great debut album from the White Rabbits never fails to make my feet dance and tap no matter where I am, sitting or standing. I'm not quite sure how to describe it. Not the flourescent red and green lights of most such music, this feels to me like the love child of a dance album and an indie rock album, with the beats and style of something dancey, but vocals and lyrics of more of an indie band. Both Navy Wives and While We Go Dancing send me off dancing and mouthing along to it, as embarrassing as it would normally be.
Patrick Park: "Everyone's In Everyone"
Favourite Tracks: Life is a Song, Pawn Song, One Body Breaks, Saint With a Fever
A recent acquisition, this album was grabbed because of the strength of Park's two contributions to The OC's soundtrack. Thank god for that, because I'm so glad it led me here. What I assume is the lead single, Life is a Song, is an inspiring tune reminding us "how strange it is just to be alive at all" and to not waste it worrying about death. Pawn Song is an anti-war tune that reminds us how foolish it is to think there's "peace at the end of a gun" and that soldiers are essentially just pawns in a giant chess game. This music I guess is a bit darker alternative rock, slash singer-songwriter with great lyrics. Though I wouldn't ever qualify it as Christian (that would turn me right off it), the religious references that pepper this album intrigue instead of annoy. It's just a generally great album.
Dragonette: "Galore"
Favourite Tracks: Black Limosine, Take It Like a Man, True Believer
This album just makes me grin relentlessly. Though some snobs might look down on it, this is much different than the Britney or X-tina Aguilera crap it might be compared to. This is pure bouncy pop, what I affectionately call 'slutty wonderpop'. The protagonist of almost every song is unashamed of her sexuality, enjoying the luxuries of entertaining a rich man ("Black Limosine"), dominating a partner completely ("Take It Like a Man), enjoying her status as a mistress ("Competition") or just bemoaning the loss of a particularly pleasureful partner ("You Please Me"). Normally this kind of thing would turn me off, but the clear joy and excitement expressed in the songs, the bouncy dance tones of the music behind the singing, and the shameless lyrics all combine to make this slut loveable, not dirty.
Mika: "Life in Cartoon Motion"
Favourite Tracks: Grace Kelly, Billy Brown, My Interpretation
Like Dragonette, Mika is just damn fun. The title is completely appropriate, because you imagine his entire universe in animated, bright cartoon shapes and colours. Where Dragonette was shameless, Mika is just fun, with poppy beats and soaring vocals over happy lyrics. If you exist in the same world as radios, you've hopefully heard "Grace Kelly", his skewering of agents trying to force him into a 'persona' to sell his music, while also (unintentionally?) working as a song about being true to yourself in general instead of being changed because of someone else's wishes. Billy Brown is a bouncy song detailing the title character's realisation of homosexuality when his tidy little life is disturbed out of nowhere by his falling for another man. He sneaks off to meet his lover every so often, but eventually runs off to a small island where he begins sleeping with some girl who he unloads his problems onto. Oh, Billy Brown.
The Pierces: "Thirteen Tales of Love and Revenge"
Favourite Tracks: Boring, Three Wishes, Secret, Kill! Kill! Kill!
Championed by Claire "Fate" Rooney at MZP, this was a fantastic find for me. The two sisters combine their voices to make a sometimes-chilling, sometimes-beautiful and always awesome dual style that just creeps up and down your spine. Whether speaking from a Hilton-ian POV of the world in "Boring" or letting a few frightful truths about "Secret"s slip, this sister duo may be a contender for this year's top spot. My favourite on the album, "Three Wishes", proclaims that the subject wants to swim and fly, but leaves the third wish frighteningly vague, only telling that his is saving it 'if [his] lover ever takes her love away'. Whether for revenge, re-kindling or to deal with depression, the song doesn't tell, leaving it to you to fill in the blanks of your own preference.
Sophie Ellis-Bextor: "Trip the Light Fantastic"
Favourite Tracks: Catch You, Me and My Imagination, Today the Sun's on Us
Another artist recommended via MZP, this time by this site's very own Matthew Latham, Sophie Ellis-Bextor is the queen of dance. Her beats must be envied across the musical kingdom, because there are few artists that can make me grin and my body move of its own accord. Sophie is one of them, definitely. The stalker-ish "Catch You" would be creepy if it weren't so damn catchy, while "Me and My Imagination" reminds listeners of the need to keep magic and mystery in a relationship, if only to preserve elements of the chase. And finally, "Today the Sun's on Us" is an optimistic tune, reminding us that while trouble may be around every corner, there's no point on dwelling on storm clouds on the horizon when here and now it's sunny and beautiful.
Lily Allen: "Alright, Still"
Favourite Tracks: Smile, Alfie, Knock 'Em Out, LDN
Hilarious, rude and unapologetic, Lily Allen won my heart with this album. She takes on the hidden seediness of the beautiful London ("LDN"), skeevy overconfident dirtbags in bars ("Knock 'Em Out"), her pothead brother ("Alfie"), and even her own Nan ("Nan You're a Window Shopper"), that last in a parody of a rap song, skewering the older Allen and ridiculous rapper egos all in one. She cruelly takes down exes ("Not Big", "Smile"), tells off the so-called wise ("Take What You Take"), and laments the state of things for those less fortunate ("Everything's Just Wonderful"). The thing is, she does this in such a cheery, infectious way that even when she talks about pimps and crackwhores, it's impossible not to just grin and realise that's exactly what she's feeling - intensely amused at London's ability to hide under a facade of respectability. But when she wants to stop teasing and just be sad and vulnerable ("Littlest Things"), she can do it and be genuinely real and sad, as opposed to the drama queens that proclaim a breakup the end of the world and wish for suicide. She just misses the small things that made life that much better. This is definitely one aiming for the #1 spot.
So, those are the main contenders for me. There are some that still have a chance, but haven't gotten the playtime to make me really sure:
Stars: In Our Bedroom After the War
Spoon: Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Tori Amos: American Doll Posse
Rilo Kiley: Under the Blacklight
Travis: The Boy With No Name
KT Tunstall: Drastic Fantastic
Not only that, but some serious contenders that have yet to be released...
Nellie McKay: Obligatory Villagers
James Blunt: All the Lost Souls
Jem: Untitled
The Postal Service: Untitled (Rumored title: Autumn, My Love EP)
Annie: Untitled
So, there's an outline of this year's prospects. What do others think?
A Fine Frenzy: "One Cell in the Sea"
Favourite Tracks: Rangers, Last of Days, Almost Lover
This is a newbie band, but damn if it isn't completely beautiful. Driven by piano and Alison Sudol's ethereal voice, these songs are like ghostly blankets that cover you and make you tingly all over. The lyrics intrigue and bounce from uplifting to melancholic. Last of Days is sad, but it has a great underlying beat of piano that keeps it going despite the sadness. The lyrics long for a lost lover, and tell that they'll be lost until the titular last of days. Rangers is a mysterious song about being hunted down by metaphorical rangers, though what it's actually saying is lost on me. I just know I could listen to it forever, eyes closed and drifting.
Andrew Bird: "Armchair Apocrypha"
Favourite Tracks: Heretics, Scythian Empires
Though not my favourite Bird album, this is another amazing group of songs featuring enigmatic lyrics, dark atmosphere, and catchy beats. Heretics might be the catchiest thing Bird has done, and yet its lyrics are far from happy or, really, sad. But how bouncy can a song be when it include the repeated phrase "thank God it's fatal"? Scythian Empires, Fiery Crash, and Plasticities are also great tracks.
Eisley: "Combinations"
Favourite Tracks: Invasion, Many Funerals
Though I loved Eisley's sound when I listened to their previous album, Room Noises, it was often a little too 'weird' in terms of sound. Combinations is a perfect compromise, somehow keeping their unique style unmarred and yet being a thousand times more accessible. My favourite track Invasion is smoother than my favourite off Room Noises, Telescope Eyes. Just as pretty, it dares you to just sit there and enjoy the ride through a warm, sweet spring river through a woodland and not notice that the sun is setting around you and the creatures of the night may be coming.. That's the best way I can find to describe it, really.
White Rabbits: "Fort Nightly"
Favourite Tracks: Navy Wives, While We Go Dancing
The infectious beats of this great debut album from the White Rabbits never fails to make my feet dance and tap no matter where I am, sitting or standing. I'm not quite sure how to describe it. Not the flourescent red and green lights of most such music, this feels to me like the love child of a dance album and an indie rock album, with the beats and style of something dancey, but vocals and lyrics of more of an indie band. Both Navy Wives and While We Go Dancing send me off dancing and mouthing along to it, as embarrassing as it would normally be.
Patrick Park: "Everyone's In Everyone"
Favourite Tracks: Life is a Song, Pawn Song, One Body Breaks, Saint With a Fever
A recent acquisition, this album was grabbed because of the strength of Park's two contributions to The OC's soundtrack. Thank god for that, because I'm so glad it led me here. What I assume is the lead single, Life is a Song, is an inspiring tune reminding us "how strange it is just to be alive at all" and to not waste it worrying about death. Pawn Song is an anti-war tune that reminds us how foolish it is to think there's "peace at the end of a gun" and that soldiers are essentially just pawns in a giant chess game. This music I guess is a bit darker alternative rock, slash singer-songwriter with great lyrics. Though I wouldn't ever qualify it as Christian (that would turn me right off it), the religious references that pepper this album intrigue instead of annoy. It's just a generally great album.
Dragonette: "Galore"
Favourite Tracks: Black Limosine, Take It Like a Man, True Believer
This album just makes me grin relentlessly. Though some snobs might look down on it, this is much different than the Britney or X-tina Aguilera crap it might be compared to. This is pure bouncy pop, what I affectionately call 'slutty wonderpop'. The protagonist of almost every song is unashamed of her sexuality, enjoying the luxuries of entertaining a rich man ("Black Limosine"), dominating a partner completely ("Take It Like a Man), enjoying her status as a mistress ("Competition") or just bemoaning the loss of a particularly pleasureful partner ("You Please Me"). Normally this kind of thing would turn me off, but the clear joy and excitement expressed in the songs, the bouncy dance tones of the music behind the singing, and the shameless lyrics all combine to make this slut loveable, not dirty.
Mika: "Life in Cartoon Motion"
Favourite Tracks: Grace Kelly, Billy Brown, My Interpretation
Like Dragonette, Mika is just damn fun. The title is completely appropriate, because you imagine his entire universe in animated, bright cartoon shapes and colours. Where Dragonette was shameless, Mika is just fun, with poppy beats and soaring vocals over happy lyrics. If you exist in the same world as radios, you've hopefully heard "Grace Kelly", his skewering of agents trying to force him into a 'persona' to sell his music, while also (unintentionally?) working as a song about being true to yourself in general instead of being changed because of someone else's wishes. Billy Brown is a bouncy song detailing the title character's realisation of homosexuality when his tidy little life is disturbed out of nowhere by his falling for another man. He sneaks off to meet his lover every so often, but eventually runs off to a small island where he begins sleeping with some girl who he unloads his problems onto. Oh, Billy Brown.
The Pierces: "Thirteen Tales of Love and Revenge"
Favourite Tracks: Boring, Three Wishes, Secret, Kill! Kill! Kill!
Championed by Claire "Fate" Rooney at MZP, this was a fantastic find for me. The two sisters combine their voices to make a sometimes-chilling, sometimes-beautiful and always awesome dual style that just creeps up and down your spine. Whether speaking from a Hilton-ian POV of the world in "Boring" or letting a few frightful truths about "Secret"s slip, this sister duo may be a contender for this year's top spot. My favourite on the album, "Three Wishes", proclaims that the subject wants to swim and fly, but leaves the third wish frighteningly vague, only telling that his is saving it 'if [his] lover ever takes her love away'. Whether for revenge, re-kindling or to deal with depression, the song doesn't tell, leaving it to you to fill in the blanks of your own preference.
Sophie Ellis-Bextor: "Trip the Light Fantastic"
Favourite Tracks: Catch You, Me and My Imagination, Today the Sun's on Us
Another artist recommended via MZP, this time by this site's very own Matthew Latham, Sophie Ellis-Bextor is the queen of dance. Her beats must be envied across the musical kingdom, because there are few artists that can make me grin and my body move of its own accord. Sophie is one of them, definitely. The stalker-ish "Catch You" would be creepy if it weren't so damn catchy, while "Me and My Imagination" reminds listeners of the need to keep magic and mystery in a relationship, if only to preserve elements of the chase. And finally, "Today the Sun's on Us" is an optimistic tune, reminding us that while trouble may be around every corner, there's no point on dwelling on storm clouds on the horizon when here and now it's sunny and beautiful.
Lily Allen: "Alright, Still"
Favourite Tracks: Smile, Alfie, Knock 'Em Out, LDN
Hilarious, rude and unapologetic, Lily Allen won my heart with this album. She takes on the hidden seediness of the beautiful London ("LDN"), skeevy overconfident dirtbags in bars ("Knock 'Em Out"), her pothead brother ("Alfie"), and even her own Nan ("Nan You're a Window Shopper"), that last in a parody of a rap song, skewering the older Allen and ridiculous rapper egos all in one. She cruelly takes down exes ("Not Big", "Smile"), tells off the so-called wise ("Take What You Take"), and laments the state of things for those less fortunate ("Everything's Just Wonderful"). The thing is, she does this in such a cheery, infectious way that even when she talks about pimps and crackwhores, it's impossible not to just grin and realise that's exactly what she's feeling - intensely amused at London's ability to hide under a facade of respectability. But when she wants to stop teasing and just be sad and vulnerable ("Littlest Things"), she can do it and be genuinely real and sad, as opposed to the drama queens that proclaim a breakup the end of the world and wish for suicide. She just misses the small things that made life that much better. This is definitely one aiming for the #1 spot.
So, those are the main contenders for me. There are some that still have a chance, but haven't gotten the playtime to make me really sure:
Stars: In Our Bedroom After the War
Spoon: Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Tori Amos: American Doll Posse
Rilo Kiley: Under the Blacklight
Travis: The Boy With No Name
KT Tunstall: Drastic Fantastic
Not only that, but some serious contenders that have yet to be released...
Nellie McKay: Obligatory Villagers
James Blunt: All the Lost Souls
Jem: Untitled
The Postal Service: Untitled (Rumored title: Autumn, My Love EP)
Annie: Untitled
So, there's an outline of this year's prospects. What do others think?