Top Ten Albums of 2007, Pt. 2

It's taken me a while to finish this one with the FTM day journal and the baseball preview work, but I'm back on board.

The best of 2007:

1. M.I.A. - Kala
If you've ever wanted to know what it sounds like to take reggae, hip hop, electronica, and world music and play them all at once while maintaining pop sensibilities and super catchy hooks, this is the album for you. And it was done so well, it was the best record of the year. If you've heard the track "Paper Planes" even once, you've undoubtedly listened to it 100 times. And it doesn't get old.

Stand-out Tracks: Paper Planes, Boys



2. Robert Plant & Allison Krauss - Raising Sand
If I were to ask you about unlikely duets in music, the reigning queen of bluegrass and the frontman for unarguably one of the loudest, hardest-rocking bands in rock history would rank among the most unusual, right? Well, this record surprisingly proves the theory wrong.

Stand-Out Tracks: Please Read The Letter, Rich Woman



3. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Simultaneously dark and lovely, this reminds me of the best record R.E.M. never made. This creative 7-piece has tastefully blended 80's pop, new wave, arena rock, and Springsteen into one of the most re-listenable albums of the year.

Stand-Out Tracks: Keep The Car Running, The Well & The Lighthouse



4. Kanye West - Graduation
Not nearly as genre-bending as his two previous efforts, Graduation takes what Yeezy does best to new heights of pop appeal. It was almost impossible to avoid the Daft Punk collabo "Stronger" considering you would hear it nearly every 30 seconds throughout the summer. Thing is, it was such a fun record that I didn't mind.

Stand-Out Tracks: Stronger, Barry Bonds, Good Life



5. Amy Winehouse - Back To Black
Until this release, I had always been curious what Etta James would've sounded like mixed in with today's pop garbage. It was so refreshing to hear something so retro yet so fresh. It's hard to believe someone so crazy could record something this real.

Stand-Out Tracks: Me & Mr. Jones, You Know I'm No Good, Rehab



6. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
James Murphy and the boys managed to take their previous self titled release, and make their rock harder, their dance bolder, and their groove deeper. While most bands try to reinvent their own wheel, bands like LCD just take what they do well and do it better.

Stand-Out Tracks: All My Friends, North American Scum, Watch The Tapes




7. Fair To Midland - Fables From A Mayfly: What I Tell You Three Times Is True
This major label debut from System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian's imprint Serjical Strike maintains some of the chaos that SOAD fans have grown to love, while incorporating gentle elements of bands like Coldplay to form a very animated manic sound. The journey from hard and heavy to soothing melodies is surprisingly easy on the ears, enough to be the only hard rock album on this year's list.

Stand-Out Tracks: The Wife The Kids & The White Picket Fence, Tall Tales Taste Like Sour Grapes




8. Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?
Apparently, self-help divorce therapy sounds a great deal like a Ziggy Stardust synth storm. Not exactly how I would express those feelings, but for this record, it works like a charm.

Stand-Out Tracks: The Past is a Grotesque Animal



9. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
This is the sound of a true-blue indie rock band recording a fantastically commercial record. They always say that "a lot of times, less is more", and this album proves the cliche.

Stand-Out Tracks: The Underdog, Don't Make Me A Target



10. Deerhoof - Friend Opportunity
Fuzzy, riff-heavy guitars with art rock synth over childlike vocals. A strange brew that is hooky enough to catch you by surprise. This is noise pop downplayed for the masses.

Stand-Out Tracks: Believe ESP, Matchbook Seeks Maniac





NOTE: Unlike 'Freak, I included the Fair To Midland release while not including The Timeline Post due to the fact that the FTM record was a formal label release but TLP's effort was independently distributed. I will, however, recommend everyone to check out The Timeline Post's self titled album here, as it was a very good record and deserving of a spot on this list in terms of quality.

'06 is a-comin'...

Top Ten Albums of 2007, Pt. 1

Top Ten Albums of 2007

Next on the list is 2007. So, here is my list of the ten best records from 2007:

1. Band of Horses - Cease to Begin - This Seattle band has a very high ceiling. Ben Bridwell has amazingly unique vocals, and fairly simple lyrics that you can't help but think he really means something more sinister. Birdwell's lyrics remind me a little of a David Lynch film. Everything is pretty much picture-esque on the surface, but you get the feeling there's something dark that's boiling just under the facade. I generally prefer the less twangy, southern inspired tunes, but I love this whole album.

Stand-out tracks - Is There a Ghost?, Ode to LRC, Islands on the Coast

2. Radiohead - In Rainbows - I wasn't real sure on Radiohead's latest effort when it was first released. The first time I really gave it a real chance was right after New Year's 2008, when I made a road trip by my lonesome to Shreveport for training. "Reckoner" came on while I was driving around the darkened Louisiana streets, and suddenly it all clicked for me. Maybe I just had to experience it.

Stand-out tracks - Reckoner, Nude, Videotape


3. Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? - After the break up of he and his wife, singer Kevin Barnes seemed to have really begun shifting his writing style. A lot of the happiness has been sapped out of Of Montreal, and a much more manic, synth heavy record was born. And it's really damn good.

Stand-out tracks - The Past is a Grotesque Animal, Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse


4. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga - I've been listening to Spoon off and on for a few years now, but this Austin group only really took my fancy with the release of Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. Of course, going back and listening to the older records (particularly Girls Can Tell), I'm able to appreciate them more now. At times, Britt Daniel's vocals even remind me of an indie version of Neil Diamond (check out the track "The Underdog" to see what I mean).

Stand-out tracks - The Underdog, Don't Make Me a Target


5.Les Savy Fav - Let's Stay Friends - Les Savy Fav are a diverse band that does a lot of things well. From infectious grooves, to intense punkish crunches, Let's Stay Friends is a very cool record with some of my favorite songs of the year on it. Check out the stand-out tracks.

Stand-out tracks - The Year Before the Year 2000, What Wolves Would Do, Patty Lee


6. Type O Negative - Dead Again - I may be the only person to give Dead Again a spot on the best records of 2007. I do happen to think it is a wonderful record though. Type O really stepped out on a few limbs with it, incorporating weird Sgt. Pepper's style melodies and out-of-nowhere tempo changes on every song. Give it chance, it ain't your father's Type O Negative.

Stand-out tracks - September Sun, The Profits Of Doom

7. Panda Bear - Person Pitch - A very cool album with a sound like The Beach Boys at their highest (drugwise) peak. Person Pitch is pretty much all over the map. The vocals are smooth and wonderful, and this is juxtaposed by sometimes strange ambient sounds of instruments overlapping them at pretty much the same gain. Tons of reverb and weird jungle beats are the norm on "Good Girl Carrots". "I'm Not" is steeped in a world music vibe (also with a lot of reverb). All of this experimenting makes the album as good as it is, even the sometimes tiresome, twelve and a half minute run times of two tracks.

Stand-out tracks - Comfy in Nautica, I'm Not


8. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible - The Arcade Fire take on a pretty menacing tone with Neon Bible, and it works. It also feels really big, and intricate. Every song seems really important on its own and to the entirity of the album. In fact, the entire thing sounds like some kind of end of the world prophecy.

Stand-out tracks - Keep the Car Running, No Cars Go, The Well and the Lighthouse


9. Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank - A pretty safe record to make following up the success of Good News, We Were Dead is still a good representation of Modest Mouse (even with Johnny Marr).

Stand-out tracks - Dashboard, Parting of the Sensory, Florida



10. Rilo Kiley- Under the Blacklight - A very poppy album, Under the Blacklight is still worth a few spins. Lewis' voice is still really sultry, and there are a handful of golden tracks on the album.

Stand-out tracks - Silver Lining, Breakin' Up

Please note that I have made the decision not to include Fair to Midland - Fables from a Mayfly: What I Tell You Three Times Is True or The Timeline Post - S/T records on the list. This is because I have personal attachments to both albums, and would have them both tied at number one for me on a personal level. Just know that I think they are both fantastic records.

Top Ten List of the Week

Top Ten Movies of 2007 (Thus Far)

I'll be the first to admit that I've not seen enough movies from this year yet to make me qualified to construt such a list as this. But tough titty. I'm doing it anyway. So, here it is, my top ten favorite flicks of the year, thus far, in order:

1. Zodiac
2. Hot Fuzz
3. Knocked Up *
4. Grindhouse
5. 28 Weeks Later
6. Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix
7. Live Free or Die Hard
8. The Simpsons Movie
9. 300 *
10. Spider-Man 3

Looking at this list is pretty sad. I must've missed a lot of good films over the course of this year, cause my number ten hole is filled by a movie that I wouldn't give more than a 5.5 out of 10. Hell, the movies at seven, eight and nine wouldn't get more than a six! I've not had the chance to see a lot of movies that I want to (like Bug, Fido, The Lives of Others, Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, etc.) as of this writing. But that's my list, so far, sad as it is.

* Knocked Up and 300 are technically 2006 films, but had wide releases in 2007

- Jordan M.
Commerce, TX