George Middlebrooks
Knoxville, TN / Graphic Designer
I will begin by admitting that I started compiling my “Top 10 of 2007” list sometime back around the end of 2006. You probably did too. You know who’s got an album coming out next year, you know you love them, you’re just sure it’s at least gonna graze your list.
But maybe you managed to obtain that new Shins album a couple months before it was released and maybe it turned out that that “life-changing band” released a just-pretty-ok album that held your interest only enough for you to decide it didn’t really hold your interest all that long.
Maybe that new Arcade Fire album was great, but all it made you want to do was go back and listen to “Funeral” two or three times in a sitting, just like you’ve been doing every couple weeks for the last year and a half.
And that Kevin Drew solo album. Maybe you think Kevin needs an editor. Maybe if you smoked pot like you did when you were 18, you might be able to stomach such an over-long and meandering (albeit very creatively and musically interesting) record. And you hoped for something a little more fresh and different from the leader of a band who has created a heavy handful of over-long and meandering (albeit very creatively and musically interesting) records.
That’s not to say I was particularly disappointed by anything I heard this year (okay, I still fucking hate Band of Horses). ‘07 was a great year for music. So great that I haven’t even thought about beginning the ‘08 Top 10 list. Save for those upcoming Mountain Goats and My Bloody Valentine records…
The top 10
10. Low / Drums & Guns
With their last three albums, Low has polarized most of their fan base (and won over new fans) with their increasingly “unLowlike” recordings, incorporating huge guitars, Fridmann-crafted distortion, and electronic elements. But listen again: Alan and Mimi are through trying to put you to sleep, and are inviting us all to wake up with them with an album that – with all its vitriol – is political, personal, and beautiful.
Favorite: “Always Fade”
9. Bishop Allen / The Broken String
An astounding sophomore effort from this Brooklyn quartet. Their musical and songwriting facility and maturity has grown exponentially since 2003’s Charm School. One of those bands I’ll be glad to say I saw way back when with 30 other people in a tiny room, because I predict that they’re gonna be huge.
Favorite: “Corazon”
8. John Vanderslice / Emerald City
A perennial favorite of mine, JV has given us another sonic masterpiece. Cut almost entirely live in the studio, Emerald City has a stripped-down subtlety and transparency that sets it apart from his other solo works. Thematically, he continues to struggle with the policies and politics of post-9/11 America and their social and personal effects, ending with a heartbreaking true story about his repeatedly unsuccessful attempts to bring his French girlfriend through layers of political red tape and into the United States.
Favorite: “The Minaret”
7. Menomena / Friend and Foe
With their monstrously crashing drum sound so big you want to walk in and live in it, punching, prodding basslines and honking baritone sax, Menomena’s self-produced third album is simultaneously the most addictively poppy and purely fucking weird album I loved this year. Buy the cd – not just for the music, but for the brilliantly fun and complex cover art.
Favorite: “The Pelican”
6. Iron & Wine / The Shepherd’s Dog
Sam Beam’s versatile talents continue to unfold with his 3rd full-length album (among a handful of outstanding EPs), wherein he continually covers new harmonic, textural and rhythmic ground. Employing creative distortion and studio effects, afrobeat-influenced rhythms and instruments ranging from banjo to Wurlitzer piano to sitar, Beam and his musical cohorts bring it all together for an enthralling listening experience.
Favorite: “House by the Sea”
5. Okkervil River / The Stage Names
Will Sheff and crew return with a generally brighter and more accessible followup to the densely morose “Black Sheep Boy” suite. Which is not to say that The Stage Names doesn’t have it’s sad points, but for me the album is carried by the lyrically dark but musically “up” numbers like “Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe” and “Unless It’s Kicks.” Even the heart-wrenching closing track, a tribute to suicide victim-poet John Berryman, turns into a grand rip on the Beach Boys classic “Sloop Jon B,” with which you can’t help but sing along.
Favorite: “Plus Ones”
4. Wilco / Sky Blue Sky
Fourth in a string of genre- and label-defying albums, Sky Blue Sky finds Wilco continuing the sonic experimentation that has become their hallmark. Only this time, they are experimenting with sonic economy and clarity – resulting in a subtle and pristine-sounding record that I find myself not so much listening to as escaping into. It starts quietly and slowly grows to envelop you, while at times rocking your ass off. Extra gold star goes to mastering engineer extraordinaire Bob Ludwig, who left enough sonic space in the final master to make this album sound as close to perfect as possible at any volume and in any listening situation.
Favorite: “Impossible Germany”
3. Andrew Bird / Armchair Apocrypha
I read somewhere that when he was writing this album, Andrew Bird holed up alone in a farmhouse with only his own music to influence him. I hope that’s true; it’s the only reasonable explanation behind such a wildly unique and diverse creation as this. It is clear from his recordings and live performances that Bird is not just any musician, but someone who is so immersed in his art that he and the music are one. You hear it in the seamlessly dynamic arrangements throughout the songs; you can see it onstage as he jumps from one instrument to the next – guitar, glockenspiel, violin, keyboards, bizarre rotating-speaker constructions – with superhuman speed, a puppet of the sound. Like his previous projects (particularly The Mysterious Production of Eggs, one of my personal Desert Island albums), Armchair Apocrypha is an album that reveals itself more and more with each listening.
Favorite: “Armchairs”
2. Radiohead / In Rainbows
I am somewhat pleased to admit that this album was something of a “grower” for me. I didn’t immediately proclaim it a masterpiece on the order of (or better than[!]) OK Computer, like some fans did. In fact, I was almost inclined to dismiss everyone’s excitement as a result of having to wait five long years for an album that they probably didn’t pay for. I just found it hard to absorb, at least for the first couple of weeks of listening to it thrice daily. And then, one late night, its greatness made itself known to me. And I could understand what they were telling me, and I could hear the music for what it was. And I gained an appreciation for what I’ll call Radiohead’s second best album (come on, OK Computer sits on a whole other plane…). Hell, I even bought it twice. I’m listening to the “real” cd as I type this.
I enjoy listening to these songs almost as much as Radiohead seem to enjoy playing them. Watching their New Year’s Eve webcast, there is something that brings to mind late-career Beatles – the band laid bare in the studio, in the field (literally!) and in the interim video pieces. But there’s a distinct difference between these two Greatest Bands Ever – Radiohead are clearly having fun. They are comfortable in their place in their lives, with the music they’re making, and seem to actually enjoy one another’s company in spite of having been a band for well over 15 years. There are no John-and-Paul dirty looks, no Ray-and-Dave style fraternal punchups, no fighting over parts, just five old mates making the best music of their lives.
Favorite: “Bodysnatchers”
1. Josh Ritter / The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter
I had only marginally heard of Josh Ritter, and never heard his music at all, before this October, when I heard a live performance and interview on NPR’s “All Songs Considered” podcast. I was impressed with his (and his band’s) songcraft and musicianship, and with his down-to-earth humility in the interview. I picked the new album up at my next opportunity and in the last 2.5 months hardly a day has gone by that I haven’t played it. At least once. Or three or four times.
Sonically, this album is something to behold. More sonically adventurous and expansive than its immediate predecessor, the Brian Deck-produced Animal Years, Conquests features bizarre ambient noises and incidentals between and within the songs, encouraging the listener to not just listen but explore the music. And the mix is wide open in spite of its density – every instrument and sound is comfortable in its own space. This is the kind of record headphones and volume knobs were made for.
Despite the confidence of the album’s title, the songs on Historical Conquests are populated with hapless characters, seekers who find the occasional lucky break but still manage to isolate themselves and alienate others… in other words, typical men.
We can identify with the guy who falls in love with a woman who may be too much – too archetype-embodyingly powerful – for him; the guy who falls in love with literally the only woman around but recognizes what a tenuous hold he has on her, and would sooner destroy the world than see her go; the guy who buries himself in his music in a vain attempt to drown out the noise of his foundering relationship. I know these guys; they’ve lived inside me at one time or another. Surely that is part of the draw – this collection of songs says what I’ve been trying to explain plainly to myself for years. The bonus is that it’s packaged in outstanding wordplay and musical craftsmanship that makes it addictively joyful to listen to over and over.
Favorite: “The Temptation of Adam”
