I'm a bit frazzled and depressed about the current state of the music industry. Right now, I don't even feel like listening to music. I feel a death. It's literally akin to the feeling I had the morning after Dime was shot onstage. I'm at a point in my life where I can't justify supporting an industry that continues to take from the people that support it (artists and consumers alike). There are too many other goals and hobbies competing for my money (nonetheless of which is getting my wife through grad school and buying our first home in the near future). I'm not saying I'm giving up music, it's in my blood, but I suggest a change for us all. I am working out the logistics of boycotting the big four music companies and all their subsidiaries. When you look at the lists of labels this includes, it's depressing, because not only are they numerous, but there are also many labels whose artists are among my favorites. It will be a major sacrifice (no pun intended). In the near future, only truly independent artists and labels will receive my dollars. I have yet to decide if I will include indie labels that are merely distributed by the big four, or if I should just find the ones with RIAA ties. As I said, I'm still working on the logistics. If we want to speed up this process of killing off the old regime, we have to make them feel it in their bank accounts (and let me assure you, I filled their coffers aplenty). Vote with your dollars. Vote with a bullet. Fuck 'em.

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Well, this year I put much more time into my listening and choices. It was an excellent year in music, and I had a really hard time narrowing albums down to two, top 10 lists (and even more trouble putting them in order, except for my absolute favorites). There is still a ton of stuff I haven't gotten to, but towards the end of the year, I just cut myself off from being able to add new contenders. These are the albums that moved me this year, and quite simply, the albums I probably listened to the most.

METAL:

10. Atreyu - Lead Sails Paper Anchor

9. Machine Head - The Blackening

8. Divine Heresy - Bleed the Fifth

7. Chimaira - Resurrection

6. Baroness - Red

5. Pig Destroyer - Phantom Limb

4. Neurosis - Given to the Rising

3. High on Fire - Death is This Communion

2. The Dillinger Escape Plan - Ire Works

1. Between the Buried and Me - Colors

EVERYTHING ELSE:

10. The Bravery - The Sun and the Moon

9. Okkervil River - The Stage Names

8. Queens of the Stone Age - Era Vulgaris

7. Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero

6. Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha

5. Carina Round - Slow Motion Addict

4. Iron & Wine - The Shepherd's Dog

3. Saul Williams - The Inevitible Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust

2. Bat For Lashes - Fur & Gold

1. The National - Boxer

Ire Works almost beat out Colors for my fave metal album, but Colors wins just because they surprised me (I knew the DEP was going to be phenom). Both are similar in that they don't really stick to one genre or style, and yet have an unmistakable sound. Colors somehow melds the epic songwriting of Queen with death metal, whereas Ire Works is like Faith No More on steroids. Machine Head was a late addition because I had forgotten that it had come out this year. Atreyu is just a fun, anthemic rock record (and they take the place of Avenged Sevenfold this year for throwback, arena metal; A7X meanwhile, put out a toothless and mediocre followup to the excellent City of Evil from 2005).

Other noteworthy metal releases: Every Time I Die - The Big Dirty; A Life Once Lost - Iron Gag; Clutch - From Beale St. to Oblivion; As I Lay Dying - An Ocean Between Us; Devildriver - The Last Kind Words; Evergreen Terrace - Wolfbiker; Apocalyptica - Worlds Collide; Darkest Hour - Deliver Us; Poison the Well - Versions; and Comedy Central's cartoon band from Metalocalpyse, Dethklok - Dethalbum.

Metal's big disappointments of 2007: Down III Over the Under; Demon Hunter - Storm the Gates of Hell and Avenged Sevenfold - self-titled.

The National's Boxer is my album of the year, hands down. It wasn't even close. It's music for the night, loaded with introspection and soaked with alcohol and cigarette smoke. It's a melencholy record, except for the fact that the drums are just too lively to keep it down, and the lyrics and vocal melodies are just too tasty and sing-alongable (yeah, I know I totally made up that word). Bat For Lashes won me over with their video for What's A Girl To Do and a live performance of Trophy (you can find both on Youtube). Saul Williams album, produced by Trent Reznor, refuses to be hip-hop and refuses to be rock, and yet is somehow both (and I'm not talking about the BS from the 90's like P.O.D. or Limp Bizkit either). Read his lyrics and check out some of his other writing and interviews, and you'll be won over by him too. Carina Round could technically be disqualified since her album really came out overseas in 2006, but had distribution problems here in the states until this year. The Bravery is a fun album, and they managed to add new layers to the retro dance-rock of their debut album.

Honorable mentions: The Editors - And End Has a Start (it's ok, this will be on everyone else's list); Bloc Party - A Weekend in the City (and the B-sides, Another Weekend in the City); Kings of Leon - Because of the Times; Jose Gonzales - In Our Nature; Interpol - Our Love to Admire; Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga; Hot Hot Heat - Happiness Ltd.; Grinderman - self-titled; Arcade Fire - Neon Bible; and Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank.

Disappointing: PJ Harvey - White Chalk (I love, love, love her, but her voice just doesn't work with these arrangements. Please pick up the guitar again and leave the quiet, piano-driven songs to Tori); Tori Amos - American Doll Posse (I just haven't been able to get into her stuff since From the Choirgirl Hotel); and Elliott Smith - New Moon (can we please stop with the post-humous, unfinished demo track releases? Thank you.)

A few other quick mentions:

BEST EP: Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Is Is

BEST SOUNDTRACKS: Glenn Hansard and Marketa Irglova - Once; Various Artists - I'm Not There; and Nick Cave and Warren Ellis - The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

BEST HARBINGER OF INDUSTRY CHANGE: Radiohead - In Rainbows; Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero, Year Zero remixed and the Limitless Potential; and Saul Williams - The Inevititble Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust. Playing by their own rules, cutting out the middle-MAN and being successful as well as leading the way for many bands to follow. Major labels' days are numbered. Tick tock, tick tock.

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