That's it, I can't stand it anymore!
I'm not quite yet ready to get my data demon on yet, so don't post your top 10's here, but seeing "+Mike+":http://mog.com/Marigold/blog_post/132428 and "+Pekka+":http://mog.com/1234chainsaw/blog_post/132355 post their lists today made me want to get my house in order. So, I've taken the evening getting entirely music-drunk on this year's output with a handy spreadsheet, and I think I've got this thing ready to go. As Pekka said though, this could easily change overnight.So, with no further ado, I present:*Dale's Top 30 Albums of 2007*30. Apartment - The Dreamer Evasive (Fleet Street)29. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver (DFA)28. Art Brut - It's A Bit Complicated (Rough Trade)27. Shocking Pinks (homonymous) (Caroline)26. Shy Child - Noise Won't Stop (Pias)25. Interpol - Our Love To Admire (Capitol)24. Editors - An End Has A Start (Kitchenware)23. Horrors - Strange House (Loog)22. Midnight Movies - Lion The Girl (New Line)21. Fields - Everything Last Winter (Atlantic)20. Autokat - Late Night Shopping (Akoustik Anarkhy)19. Nine Black Alps - Love/Hate (Island)18. Burial - Untrue (Hyperdub)17. Maps - We Can Create (Mute)16. Rilo Kiley - Under The Blacklight (Warner)15. Film School - Hideout (Beggars Banquet)14. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Baby 81 (Sony)13. Jesu - Conqueror (Hydra Head)12. Delorentos - In Love With Detail (Cottage)11. She Wants Revenge - This Is Forever (Geffen)Phew! Now on to the Top Ten. Here's where the agony begins.10. The National - Boxer (Beggars Banquet)Great songs: 5 (Fake Empire, Mistaken For Strangers, Brainy, Squalor Victoria, Start A War)Features: Dusky vocals, tasteful guitar, and drum lines that refuse to sit still.9. Emma Pollock - Watch The Fireworks (4AD)Great songs: 5 (New Land, Acid Test, Limbs, Adrenaline, Fortune)Features: Charmingly winsome vocals and the most emotional variety of any album.8. Bloc Party - A Weekend In The City (Wichita)Great Songs: 5 (Song for Clay, Hunting For Witches, The Prayer, Uniform, I Still Remember)Features: Kele Okereke's growing lyrical acumen, more subtle songcraft than debut album.This album was one that took me a long time to warm up to, given that it didn't make my top 10 for the first half of the year.7. Cinematics - A Strange Education (TVT)Great Songs: 6 (Break, A Strange Education, Human, Sunday Sun, Keep Forgetting, Asleep At The Wheel)Features: Passion, and loads of it. Not something you'd expect from a band that's doing a fine job of walking the post-post-punk tightrope.And yes, their live show made me more of a fan than I was before.6. UNKLE - War Stories (Mo' Wax)Great Songs: 6 (Chemistry, Restless, Burn My Shadow, Persons & Machinery, Morning Rage, Broken)Features: The same great production skill you'd expect from an UNKLE album, but with more rock flavor. Excellent collaborations. A mellowed-out Ian Astbury (yeah, really!).Apologies to those that can't see part Psyence Fiction; this album was my first exposure to UNKLE, aside from the Rabbit In The Headlights video, so I don't have those ridiculously high expectations.5. New Young Pony Club - Fantastic Playroom (Universal)Great Songs: 5 (Get Lucky, Ice Cream, The Bomb, The Get Go, Tight Fit)Features: Sass a-plenty, dancefloor-filling bass lines.Remember thinking that the neo-new wave fad would die out quickly? Good, me neither. No, it won't save the world, but it'll make you sweat for a few minutes, and that's pretty good for me.4. A Place To Bury Strangers (homonymous) (Killer Pimp)Great Songs: 5 (Missing You, To Fix The Gash In Your Head, I Know I'll See You, She Dies, Ocean)Features: dispassionate buried vocals, bass lines that sound like they're recorded underwater, and serious guitar noise. Oh yeah, and a healthy dose of menace.I want to go to a club that plays "I Know I'll See You" in heavy rotation. I could see myself dancing quite enthusiastically to that song. And "Ocean" might just be the neo-shoegaze "You Made Me Realize". This record has had me by the throat all week. It speaks to the quality of the releases this year that I have three that I rank slightly higher.3. The Mary Onettes (homonymous) LabradorGreat Songs: 5 (Pleasure Songs, Lost, Slow, Companion, Explosions)Features: Soaring vocals and guitars, tasty keyboard accents, solid rhythmic foundations. And goosebumps. Lots of 'em. "Lost" gets me every time. This band gets shot down frequently as a Swedish Echo & The Bunnymen clone, but I don't recall any Bunnymen song affecting me like this. So a big :P to the haters.2. Ceremony - Disappear (Safranin Sound)Great Songs: 7 (Dull Life, You Never Stay, Nothing Inside, Cold Cold Night, No Good For You, I Heard You Call My Name, Miss You)Features: Drum machine and synth bass pegged at 11, and from that point the formula includes varying amounts of swirling guitar noise and/or droning keys. Vocals betraying a hundred broken hearts.I may occasionally act tough (yeah right), but I'm just a big softie. Ceremony's lyrics, those I can hear through the noise at least, betray them as hopeless romantics at heart. I can totally support that.Here's the thing; there's a song missing from this album. If "Stars Fall" is on this album, there's no question which album is number one. It's not even close. But it's not, which left the door open for ...*1. Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worst Nightmare (Domino)*Great Songs: 9 (only Only Ones Who Know, If You Were There, Beware and Old Yellow Bricks don't satisfy)Features: The best lyrical wit in indiedom, and great leaps forward in musical variety and dexterity.I don't have words to add for what this album does for me. It's great sing-along material, it gets me pumped up, I find myself uncontrollably playing air guitar or air drums, "505" breaks my heart. If they keep growing like this, the next album's gonna knock us all cold.
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