The Way it Sounds to Me: Best of 2007

It's kind of a joke for me to write a Best of... entry, since I've barely heard a tenth of the interesting music that was released last year. However, I can comment on what I have encountered and crown a few winners, plus I've had a few beers, so bite me.

Best of 2007
Deerhunter Cryptograms

Timeless. This album spans a wide variety of musical styles, and DAMN, it sounds really good. Half the songs are "rock", while the remainder are some form of electronica. Three or four tracks are straight ambient, but are among the most beautiful and interesting ambient that I've ever heard. Truly tracks for the headphones or a nice system. Some of the early rock tracks are driving noise pop, with insistent bass lines and emotive vocals that are distorted beyond recognition. These include the title track and Lake Somerset, where vocalist Bradford Cox sounds like crackling energy, moaning and ranting about god-knows-what. A hybrid song, Octet, incorporates the more accessible electronic/ambient style with an addictive bassline and noise pop/shoegaze sensibility. But after another ambient track, these styles synthesize with a dose of dream pop for some really nice psych-pop songs like Spring Hall Convert, Strange Lights, and especially Hazel St. I've listened to this about 30 times and it has yet to approach getting old.

Best of the rest (in alphabetical order)

!!! Myth Takes
Experimental dance-rock record that calls to mind the Talking Heads with the addictive polyrhythmic instrumentation and emotive vocalizations, but the whole package comes off as edgier and less apologetically dance music. Great sense of humor, great variety of styles.

Antibalas Security
Everyone needs this album. Antibalas has been around for awhile as a collective that focuses on Afrobeat, somewhat in the style of Fela Kuti. You will move. You will keep moving. It is good for you, plus there's the side benefit of subliminal antiestablishmentarianism. Deep, organic, real.

Arcade Fire Neon Bible
Already discussed at length here.

Arthur & Yu In Camera
Very nice album of well-crafted 60's psych/folk/pop tunes. At first, it sounds like a contrived gimmick, but as you get deeper into the record, and the songs are still so good, you realize that they really know what they're doing. Great comfortable music to put you in a good mood.

Battles Mirrored
Battles is usually described as math rock, which implies mostly instrumental tunes that use complicated time signatures. Battles pulls this off with great rhythm, and often mind-blowing precision. Take the concept behind speed metal, slow it down for us older people, and eliminate anything unnecessary, including the screeching solos; add in some funk and crazy creative knob-twisting, and you have the goodness that is Battles. What a great-sounding album!

The Field From Here We Go Sublime
My prior experiences with techno involved watching a smackhead co-worker glide around the kitchen in ridiculously large pants to very loud bootleg DJ mixtapes instead of doing his job. Needless to say, I was reluctant to explore further. I picked this up because of its high MetaCritic score, and was not disappointed. This got heavy playtime during my thesis preparation, and I still love it. I don't know enough about the process of making this type of music to write intelligently about it, so I'll settle for "minimalist techno that builds beautiful layers amid soothing washes of white sound". I doubt that techno gets any better than this. Close runner up for Best of 2007.

Great Lake Swimmers Ongiara
Beautiful and spare
songs of nature, love and loss
Best band name, ever

Our Brother the Megazord Time the Teenage Twister
Detroit artist Randolph Chabot, Jr. is your typical dude-with-a-laptop, guitar, and synth who makes music in his basement. He performs as Deastro, Our Brother the Megazord, or Jr. Jr. to showcase different flavors of his musical interests. This record, available only through CD Baby, is largely electronic experimental pop. Lots of it is kind of dreamy, and highlights his good instincts, great voice, and a sense of humor.

Panda Bear Person Pitch
The record that would have happened if Brian Wilson had taken a bunch of drugs back in 1965 and had access to a Mac stuffed with samples and mixing software. Great '60s tinged tunes with the freedom to grow on their own. Panda Bear is one part of Animal Collective, who specialize in slightly more freaked-out song styles, so it's really nice to get his perspective in clearer light. "Bros" is one of my songs of the year, and is the ultimate song for walking or biking around on the most gorgeous, relaxed day of summer. You WILL have a huge grin on your face, looking at all the wonderful people who must all be doing wonderful things and thinking wonderful thoughts in this wonderful day. This is a close second place for Best of 2007.

Radiohead In Rainbows
OK, I'm cheating. I haven't actually bought this yet, but the local station, KEXP, has played most of the tracks for me at this point, and it is pretty fantastic. I especially like "Bangers and Mash", off the second disc. I look forward to eventually getting this and playing it to death.

Stars of the Lid And Their Refinement of the Decline
I'm including this because of how much play it got this year. It had the dual effect of providing great background to my thesis writing, and it would help Elaine get to sleep. This is total drone-core, comprised entirely of sparse waves of sounds generated from synths, piano, guitar, horns and strings. It moves so slowly that it really takes several listens to feel the rhythm and melody of any one track. One review that I read called it music to accompany the end of the world, to echo through crumbling cities. Apt.

I only had so much money to spend on music, so I may have missed out on other gems. Notably, I haven't heard the 2007 releases by Iron and Wine, LCD Soundsystem, Burial, Eluvium, Blonde Redhead, Beirut, Band of Horses, Feist, Robert Plant & Allison Krauss, Caribou, Liars, Stars, The Good The Bad and the Queen, Okkervil River, and many others that seem to be right up my alley (That's right, I name-drop. Whaddyagonnadoaboutit?).

I think that 2008 will be the year that I make an effort to explore more female vocalists. I've been impressed with the work of Leslie Feist, Cat Power, and Neko Case-- heck, even Goldfrapp has some new stuff coming out that is a departure from the dancehall. I'm also hearing some really cool alt-country and folk on KEXP that I want to check out. The new Tyler Ramsey sounds amazing, as do the offerings I've heard from Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Drive-by Truckers, and The National.

Finally, HEY! LEMON JELLY! MORE MUSIC PLEASE!

That is all.