I put no effort into compiling this list and I make no attempts at originality or telling you anything you haven’t already heard on everybody else’s lists. These are just bands who put out albums that I listened to a whole lot in 2007. This probably tells you more about how little time and energy I put into seeking out new music these days than anything. I’m too busy writing the music that’s going to top everybody’s list in 2008.
Battles
Beach House
Bear, Panda
Bird, Andrew
Burial
Deerhunter
Einsturzende Neubauten
El-P
Eternals
Justice
LCD Soundsystem
Low
Moore, Thurston
Radiohead
Strategy
Spoon
West, Kanye
I think the Low album was the sleeper of the year. It’s spare and raw and it hurts to listen to sometimes, and all the voices are stuck way over in the right speaker but it’s the absolute best combination of electronic and rock production I’ve heard in forever. I could live in the vocal harmonies on Belarus.
Panda Bear and Beach House were the soundtrack for my flight to Italy so every time I listen to it I’m transported back to broken slumber in the cramped Alitalia window seat, but it still sounds like vacation to me.
Kanye and Radiohead are the twin no-brainers, both managing to sidestep the hype and continue to exceed expecations. Any artist who can straddle the gap between mainstream and underground while simultaneously retaining credibility and continuing to innovate will get my eternal respect and benefit of the doubt.
LCD Soundsystem towers above the haircut hipster masses by continuously bolstering their dancefloor grooves with really well thought out hooks and a kind of scene-grandpa vibe that 28-going-on-35 year old dudes like myself can really identify with.
Thurston Moore and Einsturzende Neubauten are the true scene grandpas, calming down from all the crazy earsplitting noizefcukery of their youths with more adultness and serenity and understatement.
Spoon, I can’t even start to talk about. They bring the hooks and the rocks and so much pizazz you’d think they were a classic rock band. Go Spoon.
Hooray for Strategy and the Eternals on the international assimilation soundsystem tip. Combining worldly influences with beats and live instruments is such a treacherous path, so easy to veer off into shitty L.A. backwards kangol fusion wankery, so when somebody manages to pull that off without sounding like professor groove dipshit, I have to give props.
I wish I’d had more time and motivation to get out and check out more stuff. I heard Beirut is great, I loved that New Pornographers song where they were all “who cares you always wind up in the city”, I completely lost track of hip hop by anyone besides Mr. West Mr. West or MadLib, but I understand it’s still around. Who knew?
Techno/electronica fell completely off my radar in 2007 except for Burial and Justice but everybody was all “OMG dude, Apparat!” so that’s on my EMusic to-download list.
And I really just have to give mega props to Chicago Public Radio for the Friday night music info lineup of Kot/Dero’s Sound Opinions into Tony Serrabia’s Radio M. I was really skeptical about the CPR foray into trying to appeal to a “younger more edgy” audience, and I know this makes me sound like a geezer Starbucks patron yuppie chad, but man, I stay home on Friday nights and listen to that shit religiously. Ugh, talk about nailing me into a demographic coffin. Love it.
Happy 2007 everyone and please watch for Parks and Gardens in 2008 because we will be coming to your town and blowing your sweet little mind.
Update:
Hi, I *totally* forgot that Of Montreal’s “Hissing Fauna Are You The Destroyer” came out in 2007 (I was sure it came out in ‘06). But it’s very important that I mention how awesomely amazing this record is. It’s like disco glam emo cock-rock weirdness and it contains the best lyric ever written: “we made love like a pair of black wizards.” ‘Nuff said.
Ok so instead of killing it off I decided to migrate to WordPress. Tumblr’s cool and all but not nearly as customizable as having your own template files and (barf) php files to tweak to your heart’s content (<-double-entendre fully intended).
