Top 15 albums of 2007

MUSIC: TOP 1501 Goodbye the Band - Sky Tiger LP [download it here, free]Goodbye the Band (download many more of his other albums here, free, as well) is my longtime friend and couple-of-times roommate, the New Jersey-born John Acquadro. He and I have bonded (and occasionally tussled) over the last near-decade about the music we make (among other things), and it is safe to say I've rarely (if ever) been more consistently astonished with a single person's musical output than I have with John's. He has a completely singular worldview and expresses it through completely singular music, no matter how many of his influences show through (over the years: Beck, Talking Heads, Lou Reed, Sonic Youth, Nine Inch Nails in his "formative times" and so on). He has hundreds of songs, and I like and even love hundreds of them, and he works fast. When he puts together albums, I often wear them out.Sky Tiger LP isn't worn out yet; I'm savoring it. My highest praise of the year had recently gone to Rise Above by Dirty Projectors - incidentally, John's 2nd favorite album of all time, according to a list on his Myspace page - but his own work has triumphed in a way I've not quite seen it triumph before. The title track is a nine-minute fantasy, delivered with the passion and background of an autobiography (which it also is, abstractly), with a patchwork composition comparable to some of the most enjoyable prog rock while in no way resembling it sonically; it's as if They Might Be Giants (another influence of his) had some even more psychedelic imagination to stretch out with. It's completely unique, and the more astounding part is that it fits onto a bizarrely structured album, following a five-minute speed-demon also-fantasy that would have served as the climax of any other record ("Amazing Marsheen") and bracketed by two versions of the same song ("I'm Insane") in which John raps hysterically with a pitch-shifted voice over, respectively, cartoonish industrial beats and a cartoonish J-pop bounce. These are almost false descriptions of what the album sounds and feels like; luckily, it's available for free download above (okay, here's the link again) sanctioned by the artist himself, so you can give it a try and see if it doesn't strike you as remarkable as it strikes me. Maybe it's my years of familiarity with the man and his method, but Sky Tiger LP beats the rest of the new music I've heard since J Dilla's Donuts came out nearly two years ago. 02 Dirty Projectors - Rise Above [review here]03 Boredoms - Super Roots 9 [review here]04 Meshell Ndegeocello - The World Has Made Me the Man of My DreamsI've been following Ndegeocello for a while and hope to have a review up for this record soon. This is her finest work and a shining beacon for American "black music" in dire times for hip hop/R&B radio and what I consider to be some wheel-spinning in the underground.05 Deerhoof - Friend Opportunity06 The Fiery Furnaces - Widow City [review here]07 James Rabbit - ColoraturaI would be remiss not to describe another friend's album that made my list. James Rabbit is the compulsion of Tyler Martin in Santa Cruz, CA, and Coloratura (contact him here for a copy) is definitely a most impressive production and a very personal statement. He is also a wonderful melodist, and some songs here are his best from that perspective as well. Featuring lots of talking (not rapping or sprechstimme-ing, but talking) and incessant catchiness, the 18 tracks comprise a suite and a multi-faceted mood of a man who loves and lives pop music. His brother-drummer Conor and friend-pianist Max are the constants, and voices of his other friends pop up, but despite his fine and encompassing control over the material on the album, the album is about his struggles to connect/collaborate with his friends and his "audience" as a musician and a person, and the joy and depression that results. Starts with joy, ends with depression, like many good works; also like many good works, the joy lingers. 08 Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam09 The Sea & Cake - Everybody [review here]10 Radiohead - In Rainbowsxx Antibalas - Security [review here]xx Colombiafrica - The Mystic Orchestra - Voodoo Love Inna Champeta-Landxx Thomas Mapfumo - The Long Walkxx Ricardo Villalobos - Fabric 36xx Robert Wyatt - ComicoperaMUSIC: 10 ARTISTS WITH SONGS WITHOUT ALBUMSBjork - "The Dull Flame of Desire (featuring Antony Hegarty)," from Volta [review here]I enjoyed Volta for the most part (currently I admire Bjork a bit more than I listen to her), but the track I come back to is "Dull Flame," quite possibly Bjork's finest moment in song, and Antony's as well.Manu Chao - "Tristeza Maleza" and "Politik Kills," from El RadiolinaManu Chao did not make a full record that engaged me this year, despite his last two efforts and his work with Amadou & Mariam causing me to label him "my hero." Nonetheless, he still has a way with a tune and a feel, and these two songs explain it best; a whole album of them and I'd be raving.Daft Punk - "Human After All/Together/One More Time/Music Sounds Better with You," bonus track from Alive 2007Fulborn Teversham - "Beachtune" and "You and Me," from Count Herbert IIThis obscure British group somehow found its way to me... okay, it was Tyler Martin of James Rabbit that told me about them; he amasses knowledge about pop music like no one else I know. These are his two favorite songs, punky and poppy though not pop-punky (the lineup is vocals, organ, sax, drums), and they're mine too, even though the rest of the album is a decent post-rock thing. They remind me of Need New Body, except these two songs are better than any NNB for tune and musicianship both. The Good, the Bad & the Queen - "Three Changes," from The Good, the Bad & the QueenA kind of sad album, in that though it was nice, it in no way fulfilled the potential of its supergroup lineup (Albarn, Simonon, Tong and Tony Allen), except in this song, and even then only about halfway.Jay-Z - "Roc Boys (and the Winner Is...)" and "I Know," from American GangsterKassin + 2 - "Agua" and "Simbioticos," from FuturismoKassin + 2 is the weakest of the three + 2 albums, a Brazillian post-tropicalia band that so far has had all three of its members take a turn as singer/songwriter. The previous was under Domenico + 2, and the first one was Moreno + 2; that's Moreno Veloso, son of Caetano. Veloso's was surely the best of the three, and if their plan goes through for the next album to be a hybrid of all three, I will be looking forward mainly to his songs. He's truly the son of his father.R. Kelly - "Leave Your Name," "The Zoo," "I'm a Flirt (Remix)," "Real Talk" and "Sex Planet," from Double Up [review here]Kylie Minogue - "In My Arms" and "Wow," from XI've got a weakness for ripoffs of the song "Holiday" by Madonna (which may be itself a ripoff of something, and if it is, please let me know, I want to hear it), and "Wow" is the best one I've heard, even better than Kylie's previous "Love at First Sight." Kylie lives and dies by her production and the songs she gets, no matter how sweet and sexy she might be, and these two songs are as good as she's gotten yet. Prince - "Future Baby Mama," from Planet Earth [review here]