I’d feel a lot better about this if I had actually listened to every album that came out in 2007. But who has that kind of time and money hard drive space?
Albert Hammond Jr. – Yours to Keep – New Line
It’s always interesting when a member of an established band branches out with a solo effort. The All Music Guide’s review of Yours to Keep compared it to the debut from James Iha of the Smashing Pumpkins, whose Let It Come Down was unfairly panned for being everything that a Pumpkins project wasn’t – an unoffensive pop album. “The lesson here for side musicians with solo aspirations is this: Don't craft melodies and write lyrics unless you really can do both,” is what Rolling Stone reviewer Mark Kemp wrote in reference to Iha’s debut. But “Yours to Keep” works mostly because Strokes guitarist Hammond Jr., the son of an accomplished singer and songwriter, is able to do just that. “Bright Young Thing”
Andrew Bird – Armchair Apocrypha – Fat Possum
There are so many of the right influences in Andrew Bird’s work, that listing them would not only be clichéd and lazy writing, but also pretty redundant. I didn’t know much about Bird prior to hearing Armchair Apocrypha earlier this year, but after listening, I was very impressed at how well-thought out his compositions were, both in lyricism and musicianship. So, as a music nerd to the utmost, I began to do some research and found that Bird is a longtime student of his craft, and as such, approaches his solo work with a sort of informal yet scholarly meticulousness that isn’t often found in your typical rock outfit or coffee shop troubadour. There is an overwhelming subtlety throughout Armchair Apocrypha that pushes just the right effects to the forefront and wastes very little musical “space” (i.e., it’s not the notes he does play, but rather the one he doesn’t) in what clearly has to be some of the year’s best thinking man’s indie pop. And this is from a person who spent their formative years listening to Eazy-E shooting prostitutes on N.W.A interludes. Consider me convinced. “Plasticities”
Beastie Boys – The Mix-Up – Capitol
Many heard The Mix-Up and were put off by it, for reasons that still don’t make sense to me. Honestly, what should we be expecting from the Beastie Boys at this point? Each member is in his early 40s. The days of trim coordinators and raising hell on Raising Hell Tour are over. For a group that’s been together close to thirty years, with a 2007 nomination for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – which you can take for what it’s worth – the Beastie Boys have earned the right to record the music they see fit, without any adherence to what people have come to expect based on their past work. I’m not saying we should go batty, batty, batty over twelve tracks of the trio farting and burping on wax, but I applaud an effort like The Mix-Up because it’s a snapshot of where the band is today, having survived an industry which has disemboweled many a career over the last three decades. In a lot of ways, the all-instrumental Mix-Up updates formulas drafted on the heralded Check Your Head and Ill Communication, which were loved then. But they’re hated now? What a drag it is getting old. “The Cousin of Death”
Benny Sings – Benny...At Home – Sonar Kollektiv
If there has to be a number one on this list, Benny...At Home is it. It has everything a successful album needs – quality production, accessibility, sensibility, and originality. I try to stay away from comparisons like this, but there is an undeniable Shuggie Otis-ness prevalent that blew me away upon my first full listening. The Dutch-born Benny, also known as Tim Berkestijn, has worn different hats in his work prior to Benny At Home, but here, settles into a cozy little organic nook that runs the gamut from soul, to pop, to lounge, with startling ease. Dusty Groove describes his style as one that “almost takes us back to Stevie Wonder or Donny Hathaway in the 70s.” I don’t think there are enough methamphetamines in the world to ever make me talk that recklessly, but look at it this way – I worship Stevie, I adore Donny, and I really, really like Benny Sings. “Let Me In”
Black Milk – Popular Demand – Fat Beats
Hip-Hop music at its core is two turntables and a microphone. It’s good to push limits within the culture – which is desperately needed in today’s stale radio- and club-driven singles market – but in doing so, rap artists run the risk of attempting to become too progressive. For every Definitive Jux or Stones Throw, there are hordes of producers and MCs reaching for something they simply don’t have the vision to achieve. Black Milk, equally adept at rapping and producing, takes the opposite approach on Popular Demand with just the basics in crisp Detroit flows over lean, soul-heavy production. And to be honest, he isn’t even trying that hard. Just 24, Black has the moxie and swagger of an artist on the brink who knows that his time has yet to come. This is most apparent in the well-enunciated, slightly off-center rhymes on Popular Demand, but eventually, where he will grow the most is with his music. I give Black Milk the nod over many of his peers this year partly based on the merit of his 2007 work, but also because in 2008 and beyond, he has the greatest chance of still being around. “Popular Demand”
Justice – ┼ – Ed Banger
Few genres have benefitted from the early-1980s electronic revolution as much as dance music, which was underground for so long, that advances in technology allowed for radical experimentation that wasn’t happening at a commercial level in pop, rock, jazz, and the like. Justice – Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay – take these advances, digest them, and pretty much shit all over what many of their peers are doing in a way that makes ┼ a throbbing and disgusting affair. This album is like an aural “Fight Club” – in particular, the scene where Ed Norton mercilessly beats Jordan Catalano into a bloody, bleach-blonde human stain. In a style where it is considered bad taste to “play it safe,” Justice creates with more blunt, abrasive, and head-scratching turns than other EDM acts would even consider. And this includes torchbearers and fellow countrymen, Daft Punk. Where Daft Punk is more mystery, Justice is more middle finger, as Augé tells the New York Times, “We just don’t care about respecting the rules.” “Let There Be Light”
Kanye West – Graduation – Roc-A-Fella
Graduation was the last addition to this list – mostly because I couldn’t justify adding anything else in its place. To me, it is by far one of the best hip-hop albums of 2007, but upon its September 11 release, I had few good things to say on its behalf. While Kanye West is known for putting 110% into his work, for whatever reason, Graduation doesn’t feel like that 10% beyond perfection. But I’m not going to go delve into this project any more than was already done in the weeks leading up to the time both it and 50 Cent’s Curtis hit stores. What a shameless and pitiful display of “marketing” that was. At the end of the day, it proved that Kanye at ¾-speed is still faster than almost all of his contemporaries. And he knows it. There are few albums in any genre that are going to top Graduation this year for that reason alone. “Flashing Lights” featuring Dwele
Kenna – Make Sure They See My Face – Interscope
Much ado has been made over Kenna’s experiences in the music industry, but there comes a time when an artist has to let the music speak for itself. Make Sure They See My Face is his attempt to do so – to prove his ability to take a myriad of influences and form a cohesive package, and then shape that package into something suitable for mass consumption. Or is it mass appreciation? In 2007, it’s a tough call. With an album co-produced by the Neptunes’ Chad Hugo, and assistance from Hugo’s partner Pharrell Williams, it’s safe to assume that Kenna isn’t afraid of carving his own niche in the mainstream. He’s been slighted for a lack of originality, and also for the album’s disjointed feel, but his faults are a lot more interesting than the areas in which other artists excel. Kenna is still a work in progress, and I’m more than content in tagging along for whatever the future holds. I have a feeling it will be worth it. “Say Goodbye to Love” and “Out of Control (State of Emotion)”
Marvin Gaye –
Here, My Dear expanded edition –
Hip-O Select
Here, My Dear is the story of Marvin Gaye’s tumultuous divorce from his first wife, Anna Gordy Gaye. Released in 1978, the suite was attacked by critics as indulgent and irrelevant, a misstep in a musical career noted for breakthroughs and artistic bravery. Commercially, it failed. Thirty years later, everything has changed. Now fans and writers rank Here, My Dear among Gaye’s finest work. It has achieved a place of honor next to What’s Going On, Let’s Get It On, and I Want You…
During the mid-Seventies divorce proceedings, Marvin pleaded poverty. “I’ve gone through all my money,” he told the judge. “I have nothing to give her.” The judge ordered Gaye to give her the proceeds of his next album. Under the guise of sweetness and generosity, then, Marvin set out to craft a poison pen letter, a portrait of a failed marriage and an unsympathetic wife. But in the course of creating this ode of rebuttal and revenge, something very different happened. Art overwhelmed anger, and healing, the by-product of courageous introspection, was miraculously achived. - From “Great Art,” the liner notes to the Here, My Dear expanded edition, by David Ritz/“I Met a Little Girl”Easy Mo Bee alternate version
M.I.A. – Kala – Interscope
I am admittedly not an M.I.A. fan. Her life story is rather remarkable, as are her endeavors in visual art, but musically, I’m not sure that she isn’t just a more sonically stimulating Fergie. The reason I find Kala so appealing is because it is a marked improvement over her debut, Arular, which I would have voted one of the worst albums of 2005 if given the opportunity. That would have put me in the minority, however, because most critics creamed themselves over something for reasons that, at the time, I chalked up to a matter of people longing for anything of even remote substance. But Kala is a less manic and more focused effort, and sounds as if it were done with better direction and fewer hands in the cookie jar than its predecessor. It’s the kind of album you’d expect from an artist who has had time to grow, as opposed to one who was merely discovered. “Jimmy”
Shawn Lee’s Ping Pong Orchestra – Hits the Hits – Ubiquity
Shawn Lee is isn't as well-known as some of the other artists who released collections of covers in 2007, but his is one of the best. This isn’t to say that a project in a similar vein, such as Mark Ronson’s Version, wasn’t worthwhile, but it lacked the variation from song to song and detailed attention to the intricacies of the originals that Lee provides on Hits the Hits. In turning Missy Elliott’s “Get Ur Freak On” into maniacal surf-groove, twisting Britney Spears’ “Toxic” into a funky paean of the Middle East, and re-working the Gorillaz’ “Clint Eastwood” into something along the lines of Black Ark dub, accomplished multi-instrumentalist Lee is a one-man assault on all things pop. In a show of respect, perhaps, there is a version of Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab” that is just as well-done as the original produced by lead scenster Ronson, while singer Kelis gets two entries – “Trick Me” and “Millionaire” – from her breakthrough 2003 Tasty LP. “By the Way”
Soil & “Pimp” Sessions – Pimpoint – Brownswood
The Japanese have more reverence for some aspects of American culture than we (Americans) do, so it’s no surprise that Pimpoint is one of the best jazz releases of the year. Soil & “Pimp” Sessions attack every selection on this album as if it were the last song they would ever play. In a sense, they have pimped what is one of our country’s oldest art forms, and done so extremely well. I had the great pleasure of talking to George Wein earlier this year, a legend in the world of event production and the man responsible for both the Newport Jazz and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage festivals. Wein explained how jazz is currently in a transition period with great musicians searching for an identity, searching for a sound, and creating very interesting music, but not much of an image for the public to embrace. In the case of Soil & “Pimp” Sessions, a Japanese sextet playing intensely rhythmic and raucous hard bop, these musicians have found who they are and know exactly what they’re doing. Those that choose to embrace their music are best served to try and hold on for dear life. “We Want More!!!!!”
I’m out for a while. Happy Holidays.
