top albums of 2007
I seem to always start these the same way: how could it be time again? Here we are, in the last week of 2007, and I humbly present my annual list of favorite albums of the year.
A few notes: last year, I wrestled to narrow my list of favorite albums down to ten, and felt guilty for my exclusions. This year, it felt like I hardly heard anything, though there were still a few entrants who just barely missed the list. In the end, there were eleven albums I simply could not exclude, and I decided that I really did feel equally strongly about two of them (barring the existence of the other, both Kevin Hume's marvelous piece and Elliott Smith's posthumous demo collection would have been number two, so I allowed them to share the spot).
The list of items I had heard a bit but not all of is pared down to the point of being completely omitted, thanks largely to the KCRW feed being blocked in my office; I literally don't know where else to go for music. This also hindered the construction of a list that I haven't had in the past, but Schubin insisted I include: favorite tracks of the year. I think he ended up with 25, while I struggled to get up to 20 and called it a day. The albums are in order but the tracks aren't.
As always, I must reiterate that this list consists simply of my favorite albums of the year -- for those of you music snobs who have lost your souls, that means the ones I liked the most. If you feel that The Reminder was empirically better arranged and recorded than Cassadega, well, you're certainly entitled to your opinion, but I just straight up played Bright Eyes more often. My advice to those people: stop thinking so much and just listen to music because it's awesome.
10 Rilo Kiley - Under The Blacklight
9 Feist - The Reminder
8 The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
7 Bright Eyes - Cassadega
6 Fire Flies - Two New Sciences!
5 Hansel and Gretal - Stories From The Stove
4 Amy Winehouse - Back To Black
3 Beirut - The Flying Club Cup
2 (a tie!) Kevin Hume - The Truth About Ants and Aphids and Elliott Smith - New Moon
1 Radiohead - In Rainbows
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Rilo Kiley - Under The Blacklight
Kevin Hume - Towns Where We Live
Hansel and Gretal - Deeper Than Our Love
Feist - I Feel It All
The Arcade Fire - Keep The Car Running
Amy Winehouse - Tears Dry On Their Own
Coconut Records - West Coast
Beirut - Nantes
Albert Hammond, Jr. - Cartoon Music For Superheroes
The Bird and The Bee - Fucking Boyfriend
Neil Young - Man Needs A Maid/Heart Of Gold (Live at Massey Hall)
Andrew Bird - Plasticities
Ryan Adams - Two
Radiohead - All I Need
The Pipettes - Pull Shapes
Band of Horses - Is There A Ghost
Sea Wolf - You're A Wolf
Five Alpha Beatdown - Ninja of the Nasty
The Sense Offenders - The Life and Times of Doc Holliday
Fire Flies - Call Me Your Darkness
Comments
As for Under The Blacklight: I'll agree that it's not anywhere near as good as Execution of All Things and probably not even as good as More Adventurous, but the songs are still really good and it contains that sort of trademark attention to detail that makes their construction so engaging. But I can see where, especially after Rabbit Fur Coat being so genius, that might have been a let-down.