2007 Best of
Top Ten
Others
Notable Mediocrity
- Celebration - The Modern Tribe
The most apt criticism and compliment of TV on the Radio is that their ambition well exceeds their talent. I think that’s why they’re so attracted to Celebration, a group of virtuoso multi instrumentalists. This is Celebration’s second release, once again produced by TVotR’s Dave Steik. Where the first album was almost scuttled by its insistence to stick to a single tempo and tone on every track ‘The Modern Tribe’ embraces variation. The majority of the songs here roll by with slower tempos, which allows the bass lines and rhythmic thumps more breathing room, and accentuates the pace of the faster numbers. You probably won’t hear anything funkier than ‘Hands off my Gold’ from a 2007 release or as moody as ‘In this Land’ the dual centerpieces of the album, but pretty much every song is a highlight.
The Modern Tribe got a somewhat mixed reception in the press, no doubt from the misconception that they are a TVotR side project (and the ugly cover didn’t help matters). While the music stalwarts like AMG gave praise, the tastemaker sites merely approved in tepid write ups. A bit of a shame to see similar but more limited offerings from Deerhunter and M.I.A. get ecstatic approval from both sides and be rewarded with sell out club dates across the country.
- Dinosaur Jr - Beyond
What can you say? It’s good.
- Iron & Wine - Sheppard’s Dog
For all of the affection Sam Beam gets from the press who label him a revivalist, his Iron and Wine project is deceptively modern. What other era could produce such clean and polished music, with delicate multi tracked harmonies? It’s no surprise then that when he inevitably made use of a backing band the resulting music sounded more like Califone then anything in the Rock ‘n Roll Circus. There are effects on the vocals, treatments for the guitar, post reggae rhythms and contemporary lyrics tying it all together. In my opinion, this actually makes for the best Iron & Wine record to date.
When Beam first emerged he possessed a real mystique, probably not seen since Jandek, but unlike the Band and Zeppelin who shunned press as a means to cultivate their identity, Beam would pose for any cover he could get and talk to whoever would listen. This all made sense if it ended up robbing a charm from the music. The folk rock revival has about forty years worth of dust caked on it, and Beam never set out to reestablish that scene, he flourished among the hipsters the early 00’s, who were excising the sonic terrorists and neo-grungers into the mainstream and out of sight. This fan base would be genuinely elated to watch anyone pull a Bobby Dylan on them.
- Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga
It’s hard to say why a little slice of “nothing much at all” can be a rewarding listen. Britt Daniel’s lyrics keep listeners at arms length for most of the running time, but it feels like the album’s virtue. In the end all of the songs speak about going through the motions, from escaping into drugs (Japanese Cigarette Case), feeling the presence of the missing/dead (The Ghost of You Lingers) or selling out (Finer Feelings). The unspoken and unsung portion of the narrative is what tragedies or hardships would drive the narrator to these routines…
- Donnie - Daily News
When I say I don’t like gospel, I generally mean that I don’t care for either overly slick productions or a sequence of songs all about a good Christian God. The Daily News removes the latter sticking point, instead turning out a set of genuine protest songs. Even when the focus of the songs moves out of the social realm the subjects are fairly taboo for the intended audience, for instance a track entirely devoted to Donnie contemplating suicide. And to the album’s eternal credit-underground and alternative rappers please take heed-the ills addressed by the songs run deeper than whining about ‘bling’ culture. Donnie’s ‘Daily News’ addresses the Atlanta child murders of the early eighties, prescription pill abuse, and of course Michael Jackson.
Donnie emerged as a neo-soul artist earlier in the decade and released a praised/ignored album on the Motown label. Even if you’re not a gospel fan-and trust me, this is a gospel record-certainly you can appreciate such a bold act of commercial seppuku (read: really gory suicide).
- Gravenhurst - The Western Lands
Ahh, post shoegaze shoegaze…It’s all about the dynamics of ambiance, building up sonic textures and then letting them drift off. Gravenhurst works best as an instrumental act. Even though most of the songs here have lyrics and melodies, in the true My Bloody Valentine tradition they amount to little more than another guitar in the mix. When the vocals have to fend for themselves, as on ‘The Collector’, the results are awkward. That aside the album as a whole is strong enough to warrant attention. Check out the Fairport Convention “cover” ‘Farewell, Farewell’ for proof of this outfit’s versatility.
- Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Is Is [EP]
The best standalone disc released by YYY’s to date? If the story of their catalog to date has been the oil vs water confrontation of hipster torch songs pitted against hipster art-noise-pop, on Is Is they finally find a way to combine both.
- Public Enemy - How Do You Sell Soul to a Soulless People who Sold Their Soul?
’It Takes a Nation of Millions’ rewrote the rules for, if not invented entirely, two of the most prevalent strains of hip hop/rap some twenty odd years ago, hardcore and alternative. The influence was fleeting as Chuck D notes himself, saying ‘We went from Fight the Power to Gin and Juice’, the entire transition occurred in a short five year span. By 1993 Public Enemy found themselves locked out from the hip hop mainstream just as it was truly becoming ‘mainstream’. Subsequent releases failed to find significant traction on the sales charts and found Chuck D making a principled stand for internet distribution (suck it Radiohead). In the period between ‘Apocalypse 91’ and onward Chuck D tried on many hats, writer, radio commentator, lecturer playing to a demographic that shrunk more and more everyday. Meanwhile Flavor Flav graduated from jester to national joke collecting a decent paycheck in the process.
”How Do You Sell…” marks the twentieth anniversary of Public Enemy and has no pretensions about reclaiming the fame the group enjoyed at their peak. Instead Chuck D invests most of the running time coming to terms with the cultural shifts that brought black culture to today’s state. Snippets of radio interviews from Public Enemy’s late eighties ascendancy pop up frequently, they underscore how important this unit was in its day and invests irony when Chuck reveals he’s been called a ‘Unc Tom’ by the children of the generation he spoke for. Lyrically the album could be called more of critique than protest, finding the most fault with the shallowness of black culture. Technically many of the songs are finger wagging, but Chuck D’s always had a more interesting point of view than the other rappers who’d engage in similar diatribes. Flavor Flav plays his old role like a day hasn’t passed since 1989, my ears might deceive me but there’s no overt ‘Flavor of Love’ reference to be found. He resurrects ‘Cold Lampin With Flavor’ for the new millennium, and gets two other tracks to himself. The second of which, ‘Bridge of Pain’ deserves a slot on upcoming “Best Of” compilations. Otherwise the album is all Chuck D, and he brings his A game to the proceedings. Check out ‘Long and Whining Road’ for Chuck’s take on all of this, and take a shot of gin after every Bob Dylan reference.
- Radiohead - In Rainbows
Speaking of ‘little slices of nothing’, Radiohead’s album is almost just that, especially compared with the fierce statements from the band’s 90’s output. For sidelined fans, you’ll be happy to know that although the only instrument featured prominently in every track is Thom Yorke’s frail oooing this feels like a product of the full band. And at this point it’s welcome to hear a scaled back version of Radiohead, stingily dipping into the trappings of their past to make refined rock. But still there’s nothing here that would trump any of their earlier glories and repeat listens tend to thin the songs out to skeletons. I’d suspect that the main reason the album has soaked up so much praise had more to do with the pay-what-you-want distribution gimmick than any of the music within, and to be fair that story is the probably more interesting than the music herein.
- Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero
If you know Ziggy Stardust then you know the drill. Dystopian future on the verge of collapse, and a Starman waiting in the sky or something. But unlike the somewhat safe Stardust, constructed to make David Bowie a bona fide superstar, Year Zero is design to blow a hole through the conventions of a Nine Inch Nails album. The sonic template here owes more to Merzbow than Ministry and the concept frees Reznor from the cut-me-depresso lyrics
Others
- MIA - Kala
Apparently people over the globe are unfamiliar with Baltimore club music, that’s the only real reason I can see why this got so much attention. Seeing as I haven’t had a Friday on the town in the past five years without hearing this stuff booming out of house speakers (hey-ho-Tax-Lo) I’m kinda unimpressed. However, Paper Panes is impressive, and Jonathan Richman gets a royalty check for every copy of the album sold, so why not?
- I’m Not There - Soundtrack
Seeing that this album serves a defiantly arty film the music contained herein is especially tame. This is partly due to the two central purposes of the soundtrack. Firstly to represent the sheer scale of Bob Dylan’s influence via the sprawl of the packaging-33 covers by a range of important musicians past and present. This is important since for all of the ambitions of film it ended up glorifying the personas and myths over the music itself. Secondly, many of the tracks here would need to double for performances in the film, limiting the palette of sonic tricks available to the performers. So Karen O couldn’t employ any of the noise freakouts her daytime band’s known for, and Steve Malkmus and Eddie Vedder just ride the rails set by the originals. In the end many musicians resorted to mimic rather than interpretation.
Calexico provide the backing tracks for five songs here, and work best within the constraints set upon them. They don’t veer away from the sounds of mid sixties Americana, but every cover breaks away from its source in rich ways. By way of contrast ‘The Million Dollar Bashers’ provide for another five tracks and their work recalls a competent bar band. Who would have ever guessed that putting Steve Shelly, Lee Renaldo, Tom Verlaine, Nels Cline and John Medeski together would result in such a distinction? Their moody take on ‘Cold Irons Bound’ is a highlight however.
Nothing here will make you throw out any of your Dylan albums, but Mason Jenning’s warm rendition of ‘The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll’, Jim James & Calexico ‘Goin to Acapulco’, Ramblin Jack Elliot’s ‘Just Like Tom Thumbs Blues’, Mira Billotte’s ‘As I Went Out One Morning’ and the four other Calexico tracks come close.
- Blonde Redhead - 23
There’s always ‘that’ album for long standing acts. The one that will get promoted on the radio and fill up clubs across America and Europe. But for every ‘Born in the USA’ there are ten ‘23’s. It’s easy to see Blonde Redhead outgrowing Guy Piccioto’s production, but their vision for their music is unfortunately similar to Garbage (the band) circa 1995. However, underneath the gloss and sheen lies some very good songs.
- Boris with Michio Kurihara - Rainbow
Two of the most prolific entities in the silver of Japanese music embraced by western audiences finally put out an album together. The music as a whole is fairly strong, if too hermetic for its own good. It sounds here as though Boris laid out some songs and Kurihara was recruited at a later date to lay down solos. The best place to hear these tracks was on their subsequent tour (with Damon and Naomi opening) where unit had genuine interplay.
- Wu Tang Clan - 8 Diagrams
RZA cooked up some great tracks, but damn if the Clan doesn’t let him down. The only real complaint you could make here is the quality of the lyrics. Where the GZA/Genius backs up his moniker with the following couplet: “Ten minutes of slurpin/followed by the jerkin.” Ugh. But on the whole the album is solid. The RZA must have taken stock of modern hip hop and realized that the mainstream isn’t that much bigger than Wu Tang’s existing cult. Safe in this knowledge all of his productions recall the 36 Chambers era. There’s no club bangers here or Southern/Crunk/Trill/Timbaland/Neptunes/Just Blaze/whatever. This is straight mid nineties New York. The clan does give some great group performances, most notably their treatment of the Beatles ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’. No they didn’t get sample clearance, just a pass to reinterpret the track with John Fruciante and the younger Harrison filling in the guitar blanks. Given that this is in itself is a great honor the Clan respond in kind, treating the newly christened ‘The Heart Gently Weeps’ with all the respect of a nose tissue. “That Bitch is craze-eee/She brought her babe-eee” goes the bridge. Beautiful.
Notable Mediocrity
- Bloc Party/Arcade Fire/Deerhunter
The first half of the year was dominated by the eagerly awaited follow up album. The initial full lengths from Bloc Party, Arcade Fire and Deerhunter all aged very well, and while acclaim and sales only found the first two acts, all had built up good will in their scenes. This led to anticipation from the various corners of the music industry to which they corresponded. All of the albums were released at the same time leading to the biggest mass disappointment since 2005’s trio of lower expectations, White Stripes/Coldplay/Black Eyed Peas. The established rock press praised the Arcade Fire. The indie press touted Deerhunter, and the music video channels promoted Bloc Party.
Now this isn’t a slight against any of the bands, but these albums pale next to their immediate predecessors. Bloc Party had the furthest to fall, ‘Silent Alarm’ is a bonafide classic that only improves with each listen-even the remix album was pretty good, but “A Weekend in the City” is terrible. A mope fest that not even Christopher Cabbarra could stomach. The only real highlight is ‘Hunting For Witches’ where Kele’s whining gets drowned out by the rush of the music.
By contrast, Arcade Fire’s “Neon Bible” isn’t bad, just mediocre. Only a handful of songs can boast a hook, and the others aren’t worth the effort. The set isn’t helped by Win Butler’s obsession with topics other performers have done better. His critiques of organized religion don’t even approach ‘Jesus He Knows Me’ let alone ‘Imagine’. But ‘Antichrist Television Blues’ builds to a brief but impressive climax, and ‘No Cars Go’ almost captures the whimsy at the heart of “Funeral”.
Bradford Cox of Deerhunter found the notion he could sing, and with the aid of modern recording technology he can at least hit the notes. The ruse falls apart in live settings but it didn’t stop the tastemaker sites for giving their stamp of approval. ‘Cryptograms’ throws away the charging noise rock of the earlier releases, inverting the same tools to create introspective soundscapes and modest pop songs. Not really that bad, just mediocre.
- Saul Williams
Saul Williams is a poet, which is a bit of a boon. It’s a situation where you can spit lyrics out that rhyme, ‘rap’ if you will, but not be trapped in rapper conventions. Here it means that Williams can embrace the heavy, noise-metal production provided by Trent Reznor comfortably. Reznor in turn, gives the music a touch of vintage Public Enemy, even building album highlight, ‘Tr(n)igger’, around a Chuck D soundbyte. But the music only carries the album so far, and tracks start to sound like Nine Inch Nails throwaways too soon in the running order. But really the crucial failing of the album comes from Williams lyrics. While proudly presenting himself as a poet, the central point of contention of nearly every track is the materialism of young black culture (read: bling, and yes it is now 2008). There’s an entire sub genre of hip hop devoted to this, and some rappers (i.e. Common) who’ve built their whole body of work around this theme. All of this leads to my central problem with all of these releases: If I don’t want to spend money or time on a CD full of rap-bling, why would I want to spend money or time on a CD that does nothing but complain about rap-bling?
- Battles
Post-rock, or in this case the Math-Rock sliver of it, tends to come in two flavors. Either bone dry funk-prog (90 Day Men), or mechanical experiments in dynamics (Slint). Battles works to hollow out what little human elements existed in the latter, and fills in the gaps with a group of noises that would make Dan Deacon or Tom Waits blush. There was no shortage of reviewers who lined up to praise this demented Disney music, so I could be wrong when I say it’s not even worth the time you just spent reading this review. Seriously, go buy a 90 Day Men, Slint, or even a Polvo record instead.
- Shellac
Shellac cares not if you do not like their album, Shellac made this album for the enjoyment of Shellac and allowed you the privilege to purchase it. Remember that, and remember that Steve Albini and Bob Weston are two of the best producers in the world of indie rock, so let em eat their cake.
- Liars
Another critic’s pick, but honestly, why? The Liars try strait ahead rockers but their clean production style prevents any of the songs from picking up the wild garage-band energy they aspire for.
- Cass McCombs
Someone explained to me the concept of a rogue. He’d be the kind of character who’d almost willingly sabotage his own well earned chance at larger fame and fortune. So here, the man who wrote ‘I Went to the Hospital’ shares a song title and chorus with walking joke Cowboy Troy, ‘Crick in my Neck’. Why? ‘That’s That’ and ‘Windfall’ are vintage and welcome additions to the catalog, but nothing else here really merits the attention. McCombs is the kind of guy who might very well look like the best songwriter of his generation once the dust has settled, but here he only scuttles the chance his earlier work bought him.