10) Iron & Wine - The Shepherd's Dog
This album's really quite a departure for Sam Beam. There are a lot more musical styles involved, more instruments, more of just about everything. More is not always necessarily better, and I can't say this became my favorite Iron & Wine album, but a not-the-best I&W album is still better than a lot of other stuff out there. I ranted about going to see these guys live previously on this blog; it's really a hit or miss live show. But again, don't let that discourage anyone from checking out this CD.9) Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
I sort of reviewed this album very early in this blog's life, and I stand by my statement that it only ranks third among Spoon albums. But Britt Daniel and his crew fall in with Andrew Bird and Iron & Wine in that for the time being, they can do no wrong in my eyes.
8) I'm From Barcelona - Let Me Introduce My Friends
Phew...I don't even know where to start on this one. What we have here is basically a bunch of Swedes (and by a bunch I mean over two dozen at times) who got together to make a lot of happy scrappy music. Oh, and they named their band, such as it is, after a Monty Python sketch. 'Cuz, you see, they're not really from Barcelona. They're from Sweden, being Swedes and all. These are songs about oversleeping, building a tree house, comparing love to chicken pox. Pretty simple stuff. Whenever I needed a pick-me-up, which happened a lot this past year, this was the CD I went to.
7) Josh Ritter - The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter
It's kind of sad that I had to hear about Josh Ritter (who's from Idaho) from my Irish pen pal. The dude's apparently huge in Ireland. Again, there's lots of fun songs here, with "Wait For Love" and "Empty Hearts" being two of my favorites. A lot of it's just simple singer-songwriter stuff--Josh and his guitar. There's almost a crude quality to the production, which I like. I also liked this album considerably more than Hello Starling, the only other Ritter album I've hard. But after enjoying this one so much, I'm going to check out his last album, The Animal Years, as soon as I get the chance.
I read a lot of negative reviews for this album--a lot of Rilo Kiley fans apparently felt it was too much of a departure from their older stuff, or that it sounded like they were trying to hard to sound more accessible. Whatever. I thought it was a strong album pretty much from beginning to end with some great hooks and plenty of racy lyrics here and there. And how cool is Jenny Lewis? This album couldn't be much more different than Rabbit Fur Coat, the recent album she did with the Watson Twins, yet both are, in my opinion, excellent.5) The New Pornographers - Challengers
I came very close to not even listening to this album. I liked the New Pornographers alright, but they never blew me away. This album changed that--it quickly became not only my favorite NP album, but obviously one of my favorite albums of this year. On earlier albums, the songs tended to blend together for me a bit, but here every song is different and every song is good. And "Myriad Harbour" is definitely in my top 5 songs of the year. It's just so weirdly addictive. Again I say, go Canada!4) Menomena - Friend and Foe
I have to confess that I bought this CD this past spring based exclusively on the packaging, something I generally try not to do. But really, this is the the coolest CD package you might ever see. Sometimes cool packaging means the band is trying to compensate for crap music, so one can imagine how pleasantly surprised I was to find the the music was awesome. There's so much to listen to in every song, it really bears repeat listens just to try to catch all the details. I'm extremely jealous that Evelyn Is Not Real got to see these guys live a couple times this year. They've got to do some mad looping to pull these songs off live.
3) Brandi Carlile - The Story
If any album on this whole list makes me lose any cool cred I ever had, it'll probably be this one. I heard Brandi Carlile interviewed on NPR and they played the title track of this album. "The Story" is easily my favorite track of the year. Why? It's hard to say. It's a love song, an anthem. It actually mentions crossing mountain tops and swimming oceans, or something along those lines, which should be the kiss of death for any song. It's really pretty over-the-top. But I really, really like it, and I'm not embarrassed to say so. I had it stuck in my head today just thinking about writing this post tonight. So I bought the CD and initially was listening to it primarily to hear this song, and it eventually occurred to me that I really liked most of the other songs as well. The primary category for this album on Amazon is "Adult Alternative." I'm not sure what that means, but I'm guessing it signifies that I'm getting old. This is an album you might buy for your mom (my mom would have loved it), but secretly make a copy of it for yourself.
2) Bishop Allen - The Broken String
Another year and this album may not have been as important to me, but The Broken String was exactly what I needed to cheer me up when I needed it. A lot of the songs are re-workings of the best songs from the band's monthly EP project from 2006, but I like most of these versions better. These songs are intelligent, personal, catchy...everything I could want from an album. This was my Chutes Too Narrow for 2007.
1) The National - Boxer
When Evelyn Is Not Real and his friends put up their top albums of the year so far this past summer, this album kept popping up. It was completely off my radar, so I'm grateful for those lists. I can't even pinpoint why I like this album so much...at first listen it seems like a straight-up rock album. And to some degree, that's exactly what it is. Maybe it's Matt Berninger's vocals, or Bryan Devendorf's perfect drumming, the excellent song-writing...everything just gels for me on this one. This album became the perfect comfort food for my ears. It might take a few listens for it to really sink in, but it will sink in.
That's it. Finally. I'm sure I missed some good stuff. I'm also sure I like some stuff other people hate. Whatever. I hope this list at least piques the interest of a few people. Happy New Year!
4 comments:
Thanks again for the list. Many of the albums mentioned here are favourites of mine, too, but many I've never heard. Off to check them out...
Also, I've linked to you on my blog because I like your writing. Let me know if you'd rather I remove it.
Interesting list... guess I have a problem with women singers. I tried to like Brandi Carlile, but it just never clicked. The album seemed overly produced to me, which is something that I tend to shy away from. She a is very talented singer, but I like my music to be a little edgy. Personally, I felt like the New Pornos album Challengers was an unfinished product, like the songs are building up to something, but then they never take it the extra step like they did with Twin Cinema. Maybe I just am not ready for this music, at least that's what I tell myself.
That's cool. If we all had the same lists, there'd by no point in making them. And really, I don't know that my taste is all that great. I mean, everyone seems to be raving about the new Radiohead album, and I honestly can't stand it. I didn't buy it, but I've heard most of the songs now, and it's just not my bag. But I'm apparently in the vast minority there, so I have my own taste issues.
Also, I'm stewing over a female vocalists post to be coming soon (I have a slew of them in my CD pile now). Maybe some of them are edgier. And I did say Brandi Carlile was for moms, after all.
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