Albums of 2007
m posted in General moans, Music on January 10th, 2008
Right. I’ve been putting this off, because there’s lots to say about lots of albums, and I never get round to it. So, with almost no nonsense, here’s my list of favourite albums from 2007. Why so many? Well, this year I thought I’d rate every track in iTunes, then work out averages for albums, and use that as the basis of a chart. Then, I shunted things around a bit, because some albums hang together really nicely, but might not have as many big-hitting tracks on them. So this, more-or-less, is the result. Most really bad things, or things that annoyed me a little too much, were deleted and therefore not included in the rankings. Other things missed out because I cocked up the years e.g. Sondre Lerche, though I wasn’t overly keen on that album anyway.
Anyway, stop faffing. Here’s my album chart of 2007. Podcast to follow shortly.
The top 25;
 1 Voxtrot - Voxtrot |
Simply wonderful. At first, Voxtrot struck me as a bunch of fairly dull indie weaklings. It seems that most people still agree with that initial appraisal, but I don’t. Many reviews have said that the album didn’t live up to the promise of their earlier EPs, but I prefer to think they’ve gone in a slightly different direction. Given the added resources (in terms of time, money and an experienced producer) the album contains more layers than the EPs. Some of the songs are packed with strings, woodwind and layers of guitars, giving the music the kind of gravitas that the lyrics often demand. In other places, they strip it back, and leave Ramesh Srivastava’s fragile vocal stranded, drawing attention to the words and the melody. It’s a beautifully crafted album, with a number of immensely powerful songs, which reward repeated listens. There’s something quite charming about an album whose climactic finale revolves around the line, “I’m just trying to do my best; I’m not afraid of life, I’m afraid of death.” It’s an admirable motto for life, I think. You may prefer to think that it’s nonsense or trite, but I’d have to disagree. It very nearly sends shivers down my spine. |
 2 Apples in Stereo - New Magnetic Wonder |
 3 Polyphonic Spree - The Fragile Army |
 4 Polytechnic - Down til dawn |
 5 Fortune Drive - A modern question |
 6 Shins, The - Wincing the night away |
 7 LCD Soundsystem - Sound of silver |
 8 Rakes, The - Ten new messages |
 9 Manic Street Preachers - Send away the tigers |
 10 Aliens - Astronomy for dogs |
 11 Switches - Heart tuned to D.E.A.D. |
 12 Serj Tankian - Elect the dead |
 13 Hot Hot Heat - Happiness Ltd. |
 14 Jason Falkner - I’m OK…you’re OK |
 15 Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga |
 16 Arcade Fire - Neon bible |
 17 Black Francis - Bluefinger |
 18 Future of the Left - Curses |
 19 Crimea, The - Secrets of the witching hour |
 20 Maximo Park - Our earthly pleasures |
 21 Biffy Clyro - Puzzle |
 22 Electrelane - No shouts, no calls |
 23 Of Montreal - Hissing fauna, are you the destroyer? |
 24 Bloc Party - A weekend in the city |
 25 Wildhearts, The - The Wildhearts |
Here are the rest;
| 26 Mark Ronson - Version 27 Super Furry Animals - Hey Venus 28 Art Brut - It’s a bit complicated 29 Radiohead - In Rainbows 30 Mando Diao - Never seen the light of day 31 New Pornographers - Challengers 32 Malcolm Middleton - A brighter beat 33 Patrick Wolf - The magic position 34 Air Traffic - Fractured life 35 Stars - In our bedroom after the war 36 Fields - Everything last winter 37 Nine Black Alps - Love/Hate 38 National, The - Boxer 39 Gruff Rhys - Candylion 40 The good, the bad and the queen 41 Dan Deacon - Spiderman of the rings 42 Wombats, The - Proudly Present A Guide To Love, Loss & Desperation 43 Modest Mouse - We were dead before the ship even sank 44 Hives, The - The black and white album 45 Silversun Pickups - Carnavas 46 Interpol - Our love to admire 47 Foo Fighters - Echoes, silence, patience and grace 48 Jackdaw4 - Bipolar Diversions 49 Architecture in Helsinki - Places like this 50 Hoosiers, The - The trick to life 51 Pigeon Detectives, The - Wait for me 52 Flash Hawk Parlor Ensemble - Plastic bag in the tree 53 Tim Armstrong - A poet’s life 54 Pepe Deluxe - Spare time machine 55 Bravery, The - The sun and the moon 56 Beirut - The flying club cup 57 Buffalo Tom - Three easy pieces 58 Euros Childs - Bore Da |
59 Cribs, The - Men’s needs, women’s needs, whatever 60 Reverend and the makers - The state of things 61 Jakobinarina - The first crusade 62 Shout Out Louds - Our ill wills 63 Rooney - Calling the world 64 Mumm-Ra - These things move in threes 65 Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero 66 Calvin Harris - I created disco 67 Ash - Twilight of the innocents 68 Rilo Kiley - Under the blacklight 69 Hours, The - Narcissus Road 70 Bjork - Volta 71 Zita Swoon - Big City 72 Robocop Kraus, The - Blunders and mistakes 73 Mystery Jets - Zootime 74 Ginger - Yoni 75 Hoover’s Ooover - Futoshiki to Sono Kai 76 Concretes, The - Hey Trouble 77 Fountains of Wayne - Traffic and weather 78 Unkle - War stories 79 Charlotte Hatherley - The deep blue 80 1990s - Cookies 81 Ghosts - The world is outside 82 Warlocks, The - Heavy deavy skull lover 83 Kaiser Chiefs - Yours truly, angry mob 84 Cult, The - Born into this 85 Panda Bear - Person pitch 86 Battles - Mirrored 87 St. Vincent - Marry Me 88 Port o’Brien - The wind and the swell 89 Dykeenies, The - Nothing means everything 90 Lethal Bizzle - Back to Bizznizz 91 Air - Pocket Symphony |
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