Top 12 Albums of 2007, Part III

It's no secret that I burned out on music as 2007 rolled into its final quarter. After moving to Chicago and getting a job that actually kept me busy, it was hard to stay motivated splitting all of my time between working from 6AM to 6PM, keeping up appearances to try and get a foothold on this place, and making sure I paid all my bills. Growing up is demanding, I don't have to tell you this. Unfortunately for newcomers, there are a lot of albums already suited to coping with this issue. And looking back on this list, not too many from the second half of the year survived for consideration. That is no coincidence.

It's not just the real world that got to me, though. I am still re-evaluating what we even do this for. I've always had doubts about the Internet and blogging because, seriously, who gives a fuck that we were nominated for a Nielsen award, right? I tried mentioning that I was in The Wall Street Journal at the office Christmas party last week, just to see if I had gotten it wrong... But believe me, on East Wacker, nobody cares if you're doing it out of the goodness of your heart. Hey, if you've sold out by 20, you have no soul, and if you haven't sold out by 30, you have no brains. Somewhere in there, you have to make the transition.

All of that is to say that this list, like every other you read this holiday season, should not be looked upon as some kind of authoritative resource for what was good in '07. I sure as hell don't know. All I know for sure is what I thought was good. So consider this not as a best-of, but rather as a snapshot of who I was in 2007. I don't know what's going to happen in 2008 because I don't know how to keep this interesting for either you the reader or me the writer (term used loosely) anymore, but I want you to know that I respected all of these albums and even had it in my heart to love some of them. Hey, if you're cynical by 22, you've had no luck, and if you aren't cynical by 32, you have no limit for love. Somehow, it always goes back to the head and the heart, doesn't it?











The Nein - Luxury / Sonic Unyon

The Nein - Journalist, Pt. 1 (Sonic Unyon 2007)

I thought long and hard about how much I wanted to add Durham's The Nein to the end of this list, but after some consternation I decided that talking about them was worth more than wishing I had. Luxury was a quantum leap forward for a group that just two years ago was relying on a setlist full of poor Magazine ripoffs. Instead of boring post-punk riffs and silly Gang of Four dance beats (because there weren't already enough of those in the world in '05), The Nein took it to another level with found-sound sonic collage patchwork quilting and a thirst for adventure. The result was my biggest surprise of the year and a renewed interest in the band.











Roam the Hello Clouds - Near Misses / ~Scape

Roam the Hello Clouds - Pretender's Hand (~Scape 2007)

There were a ton of jazz and jazz-influenced releases this year. For a genre that most people unfortunately associate with Kenny G Christmas albums and easy listening on your radio dial during the workday, jazz was as vibrantly alive as it's ever been in 2007 and Roam the Hello Clouds were one of the main reasons why. Less about more conventional sounds in jazz (which other artists whom you will see tomorrow mastered to great effect), Roam the Hello Clouds was more a project in experimentation and sonic manipulation. For three Australians who had never met prior to a blind date at the Sydney Opera House, Near Misses was direct hit after direct hit and impossible not to enjoy.











Madlib - Beat Konducta Vol. 3-4: In India / Stones Throw

Madlib - Indian Hump (Stones Throw 2007)

Otis Jackson, Jr. was a typically busy man in '07, and while Yesterdays Universe got all the love, Beat Konducta: In India was my personal favorite. I was fond of Movie Scenes last year, but there was something about the exotic flavor and Jackson's magical ability to take all of the annoying out of Bollywood in these songs that sold me. Crackling on Michael's record player the night before I found the apartment I now live in, Beat Konducta was the soundtrack to my midsummer's dream of moving to the big time. Thanks for easing the pain of Michael's hardwood floor, Otis. You were added motivation to never sleep on an air mattress again.











The Twilight Sad - Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters / Fat Cat

The Twilight Sad - And She Would Darken the Memory (Fat Cat 2007)

There was a healthy bushel of shoegaze albums that had me falling in love with hazy guitar sounds again this year: A Sunny Day in Glasgow, Cyann & Ben, Deerhunter, A Place to Bury Strangers, even My Bloody Valentine by way of Japancakes. While all were supremely good, The Twilight Sad stick out to me not just for their shamefully juvenile band name, but also for their deceptively juvenile songwriting. There was nothing revelatory about the way their guitars burst to life like a Rolls Royce turbofan, but their typically Glaswegian attitude was difficult for lovers of the especially noisy six-string to resist. Or maybe it was just the thick accents. That James Graham and his bluh eyes... So dreamy.











Black Dice - Load Blown / Paw Tracks

Black Dice - Kokomo (Paw Tracks 2007)



If you had told me in 2004 that Black Dice would be one of my favorite groups three years on, I probably would have tried to justify my hatred of the band via Miles of Smiles with some pretentious ramble. Now my pretentious rambles are in defense of Load Blown: Early singles should have (but did not) prepare us for a minor miracle. They conquered the arms-crossed crowd, they won over the new beat noiseniks, they left James Murphy to make the pop record the DFA always wanted out of them: If Black Dice care about the fence-sitters, they're not showing it. Load Blown was just another step forward for a band that has thrown down the gauntlet to fans and the merely curious alike: Survive and thrive or be left behind. My 2004 self still has no idea what hit him.











Mikhail - Orphica / Quartermass

Mikhail - Dance (Quartermass 2007)

It was interesting how two of the most progressive artists of the last 20 years, Björk and Radiohead, had mixed receptions about their respective releases in '07: Volta was by and large a disappointment to those who were looking for something more cerebral; In Rainbows was great for one disc and offered little on the second. London-based artist and composer Mikhail's efforts on Orphica go above and beyond both, and this quiet Quartermass release stands as one of the most interesting albums of the year to incorporate pop, classical and Aegean folk. It may also be the only album of the year to do that. All Greek to you by now? Then you're ready to listen.











Boris with Michio Kurihara - Rainbow / Drag City

Boris with Michio Kurihara - You Laughed Like a Watermark (Drag City 2007)

Though Mammatus made a strong argument, nobody rocked as powerfully this year as Boris and Michio Kurihara did on Rainbow. The former was looking to bounce back after the good-but-bizarrely-worshipped Pink and a muted split with Sun0))); Kurihara was looking to collaborate with a group that had superseded his own Ghost as Japan's most thundering psychedelic export. The result was one of the best albums in the career of either and positive reception that fueled the fire for Kurihara's Sunset Notes and will hopefully fuel the fire for future Boris releases.











Odd Nosdam - Level Live Wires / Anticon.

Odd Nosdam - The Kill Tone Two (Anticon. 2007)

There were a lot of days during the summer where I felt like I was toiling in my girlfriend's apartment wondering what I was doing (as most people do right out of college with no clear path to grad school, I guess). It was pathetic. I would go out on those hot Columbia evenings and get $2 burgers at The Whig and mull over another pint of Guinness, toasting certain strangers to no certain ending. If Madlib was the sound of me finally moving forward, Level Live Wires was the sound of me in stasis, a holding pattern, trying to figure out how to simply get it in gear and go. The airy beats, the humid strings, the hazy sampling - Like all things, the summer sun finally set on my time, too. But it wasn't without a learned appreciation of Columbia in my final weeks there. I'll miss it more than I like to admit.











Battles - Mirrored / Warp

Battles - Tonto (Warp 2007)

Battles was the great "indie" success story of 2K7, so chances are that you've already heard this album and toiled through the countless raves of it. Once more, with feeling: An unlikely foursome of rock deconstructionists tore apart the conventions of math-rock, post-rock and the very nature of the microgenre at large to brew up something better. There are two ways of looking at this "better."

1. Futurist-pop, another made-up sub-genre that the Brooklyn quartet can look around and see no one else in
2. The future

I don't know which is the truth, but I am glad "Tonto" had so many remixes.











Pantha du Prince - This Bliss / Dial

Pantha du Prince - Moonstruck (Dial 2007)

Hendrik Weber's latest under the Pantha du Prince moniker was released extremely early on in January, leaving all year to be upstaged in the press by The Field, Gui Boratto and numerous others. That is a matter of bad luck. It was a great year for electronic music, and even though there were countless great albums, Pantha du Prince stands out in my mind as the defining electro work of 2007. The ultra-minimal beats, the icy synth stabs, the chromophobic aesthetic Weber so meticulously cultivated, the very name I'm still not sure I'm pronouncing correctly... All the Lawrence and Efdemin comparisons in the world couldn't lower my opinion of This Bliss. Also, there really is nothing better for cold weather.











Dälek - Abandoned Language / Ipecac

Dälek - Tarnished (Ipecac 2007)

Though I've always been a sucker for sentimentality, 2007 was the year I finally proved to myself that I could actually move forward without just looking that way. It could be argued that Dälek was the catalyst in January for this. With a reputation for bringing together the most disparate elements of hip-hop, rock and the avant-garde (They worked with Faust, after all), this New Jersey duo brought the streets of Newark to me and reaffirmed what I always knew I wanted: Something grittier than any city south of DC could offer me. Newark was never a serious option, but thank God it exists, because without it, well... Who would have the balls to both show and tell us how tarnished our streets really are?











LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver / DFA/Astralwerks

LCD Soundsystem - Get Innocuous! (DFA/Astralwerks 2007)

When it leaked last December, Sound of Silver was almost immediately heralded as album of the year for 2007. It was also a prime example of why blogging's breakneck pacesetters couldn't remember anything beyond "All My Friends" and the campy "North American Scum" by June.

For me, Sound of Silver is the crystallization of a lot more than just James Murphy's musical vision. I'll take heat for loving this album given the esteemed company I'm keeping here, but I loved it because it was the sound of the record collector growing up; in that regard, it was the sound of me growing up. I kept coming back to two particular songs on this record. "Someone Great" was the first, a 45:33 rehash that still left the sentimental side of me appreciative of the warm synthesized sounds that built the beat and broke down the manliest of Mastodon-loving hipsters.

But it was "Get Innocuous!" that left the indelible imprint of 2007 upon me. If I actually gave a fuck about media player add-ons and worried about new places to find music, it would've been my most listened-to tune by a country mile. Just as "Losing My Edge" revealed more on repeated listens, so too did its sequel pull back the Burial-like hood of its dark dancefloor riches to expose an extended critique of the dancefloor itself. It was the sound of the end of the night, not the beginning. It was the sinister sound of progress creeping up on a 21-year child's play party interrupted by disturbing strings and the reality of normalizing life after the glass house. It made me feel alive. Jesus, it made me feel alive. I can only hope you felt that way about something this year, too.