12/27/2007

It's been 3 years since I did a top 10 list, so this year is as good as any to get back in the habit, or just start writing period. I actually did intend to do lists in '05 and '06 (.....Searching for a former clarity and The Bronx (II) would have been my number 1's respectivly) but better late then never. Hey, '07. The year just about everyone went digital information really became instant with portable internet and famous people's (and people who became famous because they told people they were)every moves were broadcast online or on TV every 30 seconds. It's like the future Orwell and Warhol predicted came true where everyone's every move is watched and everyone's famous for 15 minutes. So lets taste some Chocolate Rain and do this.


Top 10 Albums of 2007

10. Radiohead- In Rainbows
For now this album is more about it's method than it's content, which is probably just as revolutionary; the peerless musical cool kids of the last 10 years emerge from a 4 year absence by announcing their new album will only be available online and you pay what ever you want for it, which includes the option of not paying anything. Was the idea here to put the Napster ideal into practice and show the music industry that the consumer will really pay for something they can get for free out of sure ethics or appriciation, or was the band just out to scorn the record label or even the entire music industry by not letting them have a piece of a rumored masterpiece the public had been waiting years to hear? We may never really know the answer or know what portion of the public decided to download and dash, but it's a great album simply on it's own musical merits. I wouldn't say it's revolutionary in that it sounds like more of what we've come to expect from the band who knocked the world on it's ass with OK Computer 10 years ago, but it's still probably a foreruner for musical quality in a landscape paved by ringtones and soundalikes.



9.Lily Allen- Alright, Still

As first sight, this seemed like just another Britney clone out to take on TRL, but when I actually heard the album it was closer to NWA meets the Specials. You've got this English child of priviledge who essentially got a record contract because her dad's famous and then takes her love on Jay-Z and English ska and puts out the poppiest example of shit talk I've heard since Screeching Weasel. Songs like "Smile" where she sings about how her cheating ex boyfriends pain and misfortune make her down right cheery or "LDN" where a town full of crack and ho's is her kind of London. Extra points for refering to law enforcement as the filth. That that Easy E.


8.Patton Oswalt- Werewolves and Lollipops
Somebody told me this doesn't count, but I don't care it's my list. I've loved Patton's comedy since I don't even know when I started seeing him on Conan back in highschool and I've been listening to his last album on a regular basis since it came out in 2004 so this was definately a highlight of my year. So many of his jokes reference things that I grew up on, weither it's the hatred for the local movie critic in the small town you grow up in being oblivious to culture or how being so cynical can just remove you from reality. Oh and he voiced the rat in Ratatouille. How 'bout that.



7.M.I.A.- Kala
M.I.A is just awesome. She samples the Clash and the Pixies, raps about 3rd world economies and has 12 year old aboriginal guest rappers droppin beats over digery doos. Mia really has started to bring parts of the world that most of western society is completely oblivious or ignorant to to hipster culture, that with any luck will open up the eyes of the rest of the world, or maybe even at least hip hip. Definately the most orginal and diverse album I've proably ever owned.


6.Gallows- Orchestra of Wolves

Everyone name drops Black Flag, At the Drive-In and Refused but no body really sound like them. I mean, really sounds like them. Gallows does. There's been a lot of Clockwork Orange refrences made towards them because of their overt Cockneyness, but it really does apply, and as the album starts, you can just picture a white sleeved, eyeball-linked cuff smacking you over the head with a sword cane and shoving you in a pond. Their music has almost an art to it's agression that I really haven't felt since the first time I heard any of the bands I just mentioned, and unlike where more hardcore it's more of the same toughness, this just feels so raw and real and I'm glad people are taking notice.


5.The Good, The Bad and The Queen

I think this was the first album I bought in '07 and I really dug it's chill, yet interesting nature. Paul Simonon's bass lines are unmistakenable and Damon Albarn's projects seem to get better and better. Dangermouse produced this record and I think that's a first for him as far as doing something not at all hip hop, and he really brings some good beats to the music that also give it that much of a groove feel that really made me enjoy it.



4. Every Time I Die- The Big Dirty

This basicly a stupid rock record written by smart guys that is beyond a guilty pleasure. It just kicks ass, but has a sense of humor to it that's been missing from a lot of punk music. ETID can't really be described as punk, metal or hardcore but some of all with some Southern Rock thrown in which gives it a winking, cock-rock appeal in that parts could be seen as chauvinism, but to be taken with a huge rock of salt. It's just awesome.


3. Kanye West- Graduation
I've been kind of hit and miss with Kanye, but I did really like this album. Alot of the tracks (especially Stronger) contain a level of energy you can really feel and strikes you in a way most hip hop dosen't. As much shit he talks about being the greatest and being robed of awards given to others, he pretty much is as great as he says, not that that means he can get away with it, but I do feel he is one of the most talented people in music today. His beats aren't just nursery rhyme harmonies but have depth to them as well, using samples that sound like the come from Bond themes and give them an aura of grandness. Plus he raps about the Cosbys and Isotoner gloves, which as a kid raised by tv in the 80's makes me likey.


2. Against Me!- New Wave
Hey, our boys made it to the majors, got Nirvana's producer to do their album and jumped from the Che Cafe scene to the Beauty Bar. How fucking dare they. I'd like to say I'm glad one our our (read; fat wreck era punk bands) is out there in the majors, but I don't think Tom Gabel would like to admit the asscioation to the pages of Vice or Spin any time soon. But, good for them. The album I didn't feel knocked me on my ass, at least not in the way thier last album did, but it's still pretty good none the less and has some of the best song writing in a long time and unlike so many bands in the past who've jumped to majors only to crash and burn, Against Me! definately have their best years ahead of them.


1. Lifetime-Lifetime
This album is a prime speciment of what I love; pop punky hardcore. It's fun, it's fast, it's a little heavy, it's fucking Lifetime. I still can't get enough of this record. I don't what else to say except it's great.

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