danwashburn

January 20 08

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20 albums I liked in 2007

This list is both tardy and hastily thrown together — fitting for what I thought was a lackluster year in music. No rankings this year, my 2007 music selections are presented alphabetically. I think all of the albums listed below are worth checking out, but time will tell how many I'll still be listening to this time next year. My guess is a handful.

Perhaps more interesting this year is the list of artists that put out albums I am surprised I didn't like more. In previous years, these guys would have been shoe-ins: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Interpol, Spoon, Wilco, Iron & Wine, The New Pornographers, Rogue Wave, Band of Horses, Radiohead, John Vanderslice and Elliott Smith (the last one just being too hard for me to listen to, for a variety of reasons).

Maybe I'm just getting harder to please as I get older.

I'd love to hear your thoughts. And even more, I'd love to hear your recommendations — this is by no means a complete list.

• 1990s, Cookies
  Raucous and fun. Methinks the lads form Scotland dabble in the drugs (because that's all they sing about).
• Arcade Fire, Neon Bible
  Springsteen crashed this Funeral, but I still liked it.
• Beirut, The Flying Club Cup
  I was serving beer and burgers when I was 21. Zach Condon is creating one of the best and most unique albums of the year.
• The Besnard Lakes, The Besnard Lakes are the Dark Horse
  The Beach Boys go electric (and dejected).
• Andrew Bird, Armchair Apocrypha
  His "professional whistling skills" on full display here.
• Bishop Allen, The Broken String
  "Corazon" is one of the best songs of the year.
• Bright Eyes, Cassadaga
  Listening to him makes me miss home for some reason. (According to Last.fm, I listened to this album more than any other in 2007 ... but that doesn't take into account what I listen to on my mp3 player.)
• The Cave Singers, Invitation Songs
  Interestingly this was not the 2007 album that sounded like it was recorded in a cave. That award goes to Panda Bear's Person Pitch.
• Field Music, Tones of Town
  A little bit Yes, a little bit XTC. Good in small doses.
• Frog Eyes, Tears of the Valedictorian
  One of the year's best. Reminds me of Wolf Parade.
• Handsome Furs, Plague Park
  Side project for Wolf Parade's Dan Boeckner.
• of Montreal, Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
  A fun, fun ride. Kevin Barnes seems to put out a solid record every year.
• Okkervil River, The Stage Names
  Not quite as rousing as 2005's Black Sheep Boy, but enjoyable nonetheless.
• Peter Bjorn and John, Writer's Block
  The whistling chorus from "Young Folks" is still my ringtone.
• Rilo Kiley, Under the Blacklight
  Disappointing. Superficial. Mainstream. Accessible. Those are some words critics threw around when reviewing this album. True, it is different and perhaps not as good as previous efforts, but I find myself listening to it again and again. Maybe I just have a thing for Jenny Lewis.
• The Shins, Wincing the Night Away
  Overall kind of disappointing, but makes the cut based on the first two songs alone.
• Shout Out Louds, Our Ill Wills
  The best Cure album in a long, long time.
• White Rabbits, Fort Nightly
  Gets better with each listen. A great party album.
• Robert Wyatt, Comicopera
  He turns 63 later this month, and put out one of the most creative albums of 2007. "Just As You Are" is a gem.
• Neil Young, Live at Massey Hall (1971)
  Seems the only new Neil Young albums I like these days are not really new.

Could have made it:

Art Brut's It's a Bit Complicated, Blonde Redhead's 23, Grinderman's Grinderman, Gruff Rhys' Candylion, Jens Lekmen's Night Falls Over Kortedala, Oakley Hall's I'll Follow You, Pop Levi's The Return To Form Black Majick Party, Spoon's Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, Voxtrot's Voxtrot, Patrick Wolf's The Magic Position

Album that easily would have made the list had it not actually been released in 2006 and for some reason I didn't listen to it until late 2007:

Midlake's The Trials Of Van Occupanther

Related Links
The five best albums of 2006 ... so far
The Top 20 Albums of 2005
This is when I force my taste in music on you
The Top 25 Albums of 2004
The Top 20 Albums of 2003
A fond farewell to a friend

# · Notes · (2) · 01.20.08