ddgreen
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Howdy Ho! Most of you know by now, I hate "Best of" lists... That being said, I would still very much like to share some of the music that I ran across in 2007. Some of it was great, and some of it was crap. I usually don't mention the stuff that I pick up that I wasn't impressed with. I would much rather spend my time focusing on what I liked. So, here it is... My favorites of 2007. (In no particular order!)
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible The National - Boxer Iron & Wine - The Shepherd's Dog Maserati - Inventions for the New Season Bloc Party - Weekend In The City Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer (Actually, if I had to pick a favorite of the year, this is probably it.) Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga Battles - Mirrored The New Pornographers - Challengers Minus the Bear - Planet of Ice Band of Horses - Cease to Begin LCD Soundsystem - Sound Of Silver Okkervil River - The Stage Names Menomena - Friend or Foe Sunset Rubdown - Random Spirit Lover Blonde Redhead - 23 Bright Eyes - Cassadaga Panda Bear - Person Pitch Field Music - Tones of Town Peter Bjorn and John - Writer's Block The Fiery Furnaces - Widow City Caribou - Andorra Hail Social - Modern Love and Death Explosions in the Sky - All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone Field Music - Tones of Town Klaxons - Myths of the Near Future Stars - In Our Bedroom After The War Elliott Smith - New Moon Pelican - City of Echoes Wilco - Sky Blue Sky Lucky Soul - The Great Unwanted Deerhoof - Friend Opportunity
And the verdict is still out on Radiohead - In Rainbows. I love Radiohead with all my heart, but I've only given the album one listen. I was so surprised it has been showing up so high on many people's lists. I just got it two days ago.
Now a few albums that fizzled for me. This isn't to say I hated everything about them, but they just weren't as good as I expected:
Editors - An End Has a Start Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! - Some Loud Thunder Feist - The Reminder (I know, I'm one of the few who don't love it.) Interpol - Our Love To Admire Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam (I just don't get it... ) Liars - Liars Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Living with the Living Low - Drums and Guns Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before the Ship Sank Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger Beirut - The Flying Cup Club (I have decided I just don't like Beirut. At all.) The White Stripes - Icky Thump The Shins - Wincing the Night Away Kaiser Chiefs - Yours Truly, Angry Mob
What better way to kick off my first post, than with a fundamental argument that I've been making with myself? Recently, some of my favorite (as well as not-so-favorite) magazines have been compiling their "Top of 2007" or "Best of 2007" lists. I'm always forced to ask myself what kind of impact, if any, these lists really have on non-mainstream music and the readerships they're reaching. In a genre that urges listeners to decide for themselves whether or not they like what they're hearing, I feel like sometimes these lists are forcing a mainstream perspective on something quite the opposite.
The biggest event that sparked my thought process was Paste Magazine's Top 100 list that recently hit the stands. I read the article, grumbled about it, then decided to see what other people had to say. Stereogum (www.stereogum.com) had a short write-up and subsequent STORM of comments regarding the list, which put The National's Boxer at #1. Some people were irate about the order, others about the selection, and some simply mused about the overall task. I, personally, find it a daunting one. Independent music finds itself lumped into one genre, which is almost categorically inaccurate. The label doesn't determine what you're listening to. There's everything from electronic, hard rock, post rock, progressive, alternative, orchestral, folk, acoustic... the list goes on and on. You know the drill. To lump ALL of this together and try to come up with some sort of comprehensive list is impossible. Yet there are still efforts.
I tell my friends and colleagues to LET music challenge them. I get more satisfaction out of finding something I really, really like when it’s something I worked through on my own. I love to give recommendations and tell people what I like and don’t like, but I rarely categorize it in any way that would make something “best” or in any kind of descending order. It just doesn’t work that way for me. Besides, as you can see from any of the article responses to these magazine lists... people get upset when their favorites are too low on the list or didn’t make the cut at all. That’s why it’s ultimately just personal favorites. So I’ll keep sharing MY personal favorites, but I certainly won’t assume they’re yours.
Comments
I'm with you on that! I love making up my own mental lists of favourites, and then comparing them to the critics'. It's a joy to criticize their lists! I am certainly not going to change my picks to match the reviewers'. But occasionally I do give an album a second chance based on what a reviewer has said. At any rate, the year-end lists attract a lot of attention (positive and negative) to the artists.
I am probably one of the few people who was not infatuated with The National this year...
What were some of your favourites of 2007?
I guess the best that one of those end of year lists can do is bring something to your attention. Paste has good taste and I agree the National's The Boxer was one of the year's better. I also liked Sinead O'Connor's Theology, Hansard/Irglova's The Swell Season/Once soundtrack and Cave's soundtrack The Proposition. Oh, and the soundtrack to The Fountain. Anyway, welcome to MOG. R. Baird
everyone is talking about the national, am I missing something? maybe i should head over to their page and give a listen. i agree with your thoughts on lists, they are extremely one-sided, but they do seem to work quite well at elicting responses. maybe thats what they are for, to start a discussion like this one. that said, i was thinking of making a post of my own BEST of 2007...
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Pretty sound list. I jibe with most of it.
For all the stuff that came out in 07, it's nice to look back and see that there really was some decent stuff that came out.