2007 was another good year for music. There were the old favorites such as the New Pornographers and Spoon putting out new albums. As always, new favorites (at least for me) emerged to leave an indelible impression on me, as well as the rest of my fellow like-minded music geeks. There were plenty to choose from but, ultimately, I was able to pare down a list of my favorite albums down to 10.
10. José González - In Our Nature
For an artist that’s essentially a singer-songwriter, I’m almost perplexed by how much more I prefer González’ covers over his original songs. I said that about his last album, Veneer, and I find myself saying nearly the same thing again with In Our Nature. With his latest album, I’m trending toward it being a toss-up between the two varieties. At first listen, the track that jumped out most was his laid-back acoustic cover of Massive Attack’s Teardrop. Upon further listening, Cycling Trivialities as the powerful closer, has emerged as the best track on the album.
MP3: Teardrop
9. Band Of Horses - Cease to Begin
8. The New Pornographers - Challengers
My initial reaction to Challengers: “This is the worst album The New Pornographers have put out.” After listening to the album quite a bit, my opinion remains unchanged. Thankfully, their worst effort means that it’s just merely a good album and not that it’s a pile of shit.
7. Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala
6. Feist - The Reminder
Feist put out a great album in 2004 titled Let It Die that cemented her place as a Canadian indie goddess. With the release of The Reminder this year, she’s made her mark in the U.S. as well - I guess we can drop the Canadian part and just call her The Indie Goddess. With the selection of 1234 by Apple for use in their iPod Nano ad campaign, she’s emerged from the coziness of indie stardom and has pretty much been exposed to the masses. Hopefully, all the people who downloaded that track off iTunes stuck around for the rest of the album because there are plenty of great songs. Chief among them is I Feel It All which is an undeniably catchy indie pop song.
MP3: 1234
As a bonus, here is Leslie Feist with an all-star choir on The Late Show:
5. Beirut - The Flying Club Cup
Beirut’s second offering, The Flying Club Cup, has managed to outdo their debut album. While it has the syrupy singing of Zach Condon that dominated Gulag Orkestar, the new album boasts a better layer of instrumental work. While I didn’t feel as though they overindulged on their use of trumpets and horns on the first album, I’m glad to hear that they’ve added more to their reportoire of instruments. While this album feels like a more complete work from a band, make no mistake that it’s still Zach Condon steering the good ship Beirut.
MP3: Cliquot
4. M.I.A. - Kala
There’s an interesting story behind this album as M.I.A. was originally set to travel to the U.S. to work on Kala with Timbaland. After visa issues derailed her from hooking up with Timbaland, she ended up traveling throughout the world including India, Trinidad, Liberia, Jamaica, Australia, and Japan before finally making it stateside. The result of her travels was this gem of an album as each stop on her trip left its imprint on her and, ultimately, her songs. One example of globe-trotting influence is Jimmy, a remixed cover of a Hindi song from a Bollywood film. My favorite song on the album is Paper Planes where she uses gunshots and cash register noises to illustrate her visa problems, not without a sly reference to our current immigration dilemma.
MP3: Paper Planes
3. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
This album is a classic case of a band setting the bar so high with ther first album that the follow-up would surely pale by comparison. Yes, it’s true that Neon Bible doesn’t measure up to the lofty standards Funeral the Arcade Fire. Now that we have that out of the way, let’s just focus on how greatof an album Neon Bible actually is. While it sounds similar to their first album, they achive that sound in a different way, choosing to build to an explosion instead of a quick burst. The change in approach makes for an album that is much better to listen to as a whole rather than by track. That’s not to say that there aren’t any tracks of note. The standout track on the album is No Cars Go, a song they should have ended the album because it seemed as that was what the entire album had been building up to. Interestingly enough, this song was on their 2003 EP, pre-dating this monster first album, but the version on this album is far superior.
MP3: No Cars Go
2. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
So their last album, Gimme Fiction, was a bit of a disappointment - it was a good album but it was nowhere near as good as Kill the Moonlight. Though it doesn’t quite reach those heights, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga is a return to brilliance for Spoon. In particular, The Ghost of You Lingers shines with a moody, almost Gothic, sound and pained lyrics. Also of note is the Jon Brion-produced The Underdog - it features the signature Spoon combination of cheery instruments and whup-your-ass lyrics, topped off with a crazy build to the finish.
MP3: The Underdog
1. The National - Boxer
The moment I first heard Fake Empire upon its release in advance of the album, I knew there would be no sophomore slump for The National. Its morose observation of America’s weariness with the war coupled with the heavy piano throughout and the horns at the end make it one of the best tracks I’ve heard this year. When finally listening to the whole album, I knew this would make my top 10. With plenty of strong tracks, such as Ada and Mistaken For Strangers, Boxer is easily my favorite album of the year.
MP3: Fake Empire
As a bonus, here is The National making their network television debut on The Late Show:
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