It seems like every band is coming out with an album this year. Most of them fairly good, but a handful of outstanding pieces.
Here’s how this works: I’m going to rave about the albums I love, rant about the ones that disappointed me, and just list the others that were released because I started this list earlier writing a paragraph for each album and I ended up with over 5 pages.
!!! – Myth Takes
Air – Pocket Symphony
Andrew Bird – Armchair Apocrypha
Apples in Stereo put out Magnetic Wonder - I had high expectations for this album and I ended up being highly disappointed. There were a few good songs on it, but I didn't think it had potential to stand up as an album.
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Arctic Monkeys - Favorite Worst Nightmare: Snore...
The Beastie Boys – The Mix Up
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club has Bruce Willis to talk about their new album Baby 81 – Unlike the critics, Bruce apparently likes B.R.M.C.’s new album. I like how this album combines their distorted sound that they had for their first 2 albums with the nice acoustic rock from “Howl.” I’m going to go ahead and pick this as one of my favorites of the first half.
Blackfield got more recognition with Blackfield II than I expected – The project of “David Bowie of Israel” Aviv Geffen and genius English producer Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree and about 1 million (an exaggeration…but only a slight one) other projects. Aviv wrote most of the dark, progressive pop songs because Steven has a self admitted problem of not being able to write many songs under 5 minutes. The album is beautiful, grim and catchy as hell. Much to my pleasure and surprise, they did well amongst the critics and the College Music Journal (CMJ) charts. Apparently a live DVD and Blackfield III are both in the works. Need I point out that this is an obvious favorite of mine this year?
Bright Eyes - Cassadaga
Chris Cornell disappointed me with Carry On – I mistakenly had high hopes for Cornell’s second solo album after his first – Euphoria Morning – was beyond superb. Let me just say this, there are a few good songs but damn does a majority of the album sound forced!!!!! It sounds like he’s bored as hell and thus making the album… you guessed it! Boring as hell! Chris, you were awesome once but you should just stick to your restaurant and your clothing line for the rest of your life.
The Comas surprised me with Spells – This album made me realize that they are one of the best catchy indie-pop bands out there. This album, while not all songs shine, has some brilliant songs that will get stuck in your head. Maybe not one of the best of the year, but certainly memorable enough for me to give it an honorable mention this year.
The Dear Hunter debuted with Act II: Something something really long name – Fantastic album. Most definitely one of my favorites of the year. Usually I’m not a fan of their vocal type, but after a few listens I really started to dig the sound. It’s almost like …Trail of Dead but much darker. There is some really cool instrumentation involved and it feels fairly progressive. Check it out.
Derek Webb - The Ringing Bell
Devin Townsend blew my mind with Ziltoid the Omniscient – Quite possibly one of the best albums that will be released in this era of music. Not only is it an original concept album about an alien who goes to destroy Earth because he was not satisfied with the cup of coffee that it produced, but also it is an album where you can actually hear the creator enjoying what he is doing. Yes, it is so rare to actually be able to tell that an artist is really having fun with a record. I mean lots of artists have fun writing and recording… but to actually HEAR it, that’s something to be said. This will be in my top 5 at the end of this year.
Dinosaur Jr - Beyond
Explosions in the Sky - All of the Sudden I Miss Everyone
Fields impressed me as a new band with Everything Last Winter – They’re from some European country, and they have a nice folksy rock sound. I haven’t listened to the album in a while, but it is memorable enough for me to say they’re one of the new artists that I’ll be keeping my eye on.
Golden Smog – Blood on the Slacks
John Doe – The dude from X – put out A Year In the Wilderness – I should know this because I stuffed his CDs into countless envelopes at Yep Roc. It’s a good alternative album with some cool guests like one of the Black Keys. A decent album and it’s worth giving a shout out to a punk veteran.
Kelly Jones (Stereophonics lead dude) – Only the Names Have Been Changed
Manic Street Preachers - Send Away The Tigers
Modest Mouse – We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank
The National kicked the “sophomore slump” in the bum with Boxer – I have a feeling the other writers on this blog will agree that “Boxer” is an outstanding album for this year, and the National is one of those bands that will be recognized as a great indie rock outfit in the coming years.
Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero: Another one of those albums that will end up on my top 5 at the end of the year. ½ of its awesomeness is because of the concept around the album promotion. There is this whole online “game” involved and a really complex setting for the album to take place. It’s basically 1984 with Trent Reznor. Oh yeah and the music’s sweet too because instead of whining about his problems, he whines about the country and its problems.
Porcupine Tree – Fear of a Blank Planet: As most of you know, Porcupine Tree is my favorite modern band in existence. This album did not disappoint. In fact, screw top 5 of the year, this baby’s going in the top 5 ever made.
Rufus Wainwright – Release The Stars
Rush – Snakes & Arrows
Ryan Adams – Easy Tiger
Sea and Cake – Everybody
Soulsavers – It’s not how far you fall, It’s how you land: Without question one of Mark Lanegan’s finest contributions to the music world. This album is in my top 5, without question (I guess I’m going to have to make a top 10 at the end of the year instead). It’s hard to explain the awesomeness of this record… it just is. Think Air meets Johnny Cash.
Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga: Quite possibly their finest album to date. The first single “The Underdog” is a very catchy anthem that I will most likely play on repeat for a while.
The Stooges – The Weirdness
Ted Leo & The Pharmacists – Living with the Living
They Might Be Giants – The Else
White Stripes – Icky Thump
Wilco – Sky Blue Sky: A nice peaceful turn for Wilco. Reminiscent of their Being Their days with a new jazzy undertone. This album is a bore to those who only appreciate the complexity of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born. For those that want a nice hammock album, Wilco made SBS just for you to listen to and relax.
Winterpills – The Light Divides: Marvelous album that contains catchy folk songs and beautiful vocal harmonies. Stunning album and it sounds fresh every time you listen to it.
I know I left out a lot because a) my iTunes recognizes some albums as 2006 for some reason and I’m too lazy to go pick them out and b) Can anyone keep track of every single release from the numerous mentionable artists releasing stuff this year?
The main question in my mind is… will 2008 be even better? Steven Wilson is rumored to have a solo album coming out, Opeth is going to release an album and I’m sure we’ll see a lot of the bands with 2006 releases trying to follow up (2006 had some great stuff… but 2007 stomped the hell out of it within the first 4 months). Oh hey… and did I mention that Weezer has a new album coming out in the beginning of 2008? Yeah, well they do (hopefully).
As usual I wrote this late at night/early in the morning and it is absurdly long and I’m sure full of countless grammatical errors and typos. Just ignore my unprofessionalism and go get some good 2007 music.
Peace, Love and Keep Music Alive!!!
-DJ KMA
P.S. Someone teach me how to do Expandable Post Summaries for the sake of us all.
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