Lunch of Champions

Sam’s Top 5 for 2007

This has been the kind of year I really hate, musically speaking that is. If you get nothing but crap music, it’s an easy enough year to deal with. Lock the door with the chain up and listen to old Dire Straits albums all year and you’ll survive. At the bare minimum it provides you with bitching matereals for the next year.

This has been a pretty good year for music, but there hasn’t been a lot to get really excited about. Wilco and Ween both released new albums that were pretty damn good. It’s been a year of UK hits in the U.S. with every other song on the radio touting british accents. And, of course, the Flaming Lips toured to massive crowds without even having to release a new album. And, of course, I’ve had the good fortune of reviewing some really fantastic albums here.

But, if I’m going to be perfectly honest, there haven’t been a lot of new albums that dominated my music listening habits. Most of my new records were listened to a few times through and then spent the rest of the year gathering dust while I listened to last years releases.

So, before I get into the top five, let’s review some of the honerable mentions.

They Might Be Giants released The Else. Produced by the Dust Brothers, it really was a good album, but it didn’t have the same strange poetry that I’ve come to love them for. It did come with a bonus disk of songs from the TMBG podcast, but even that was a bit sad since it marked the end of their Dial-A-Song service, everyone’s favorite answering machine service (always free in the New York City area).

The Shins new album, Wincing the Night Away, hit hard when it first came out, but the excitement quickly died down. It was a good album, but had it been released by any other band, it probably would have been a flop. That’s not to say it was a bad album, just that it was a little less than ground-breaking. While it’s definitely not just an extension of their previous albums, there is starting to be a distinct “Shins” sound. After listening to this for about a week straight, I found myself passing it up for the sake of listening to their previous two albums. If anything, Wincing made me realize just how fantastic their album Oh, Inverted World was.

Of Montreal came out with Hissing Fauna, Are you the Destroyer? This album would probably top my list if it weren’t for the fact that it snuck out into bootlegs some time in September or October of the previous year. Great album, probably their best to date. Plus, they’ve always been big on vinyl releases, and I can’t help but get a little rush of excitement when one of my favorite artists releases their album with vinyl-only tracks. But, by the time it came out, it was already old news for most of their fans. I must admit that even I was overcome by curiosity, stifling my guilt at giving it an early listen by promising myself I’d buy the record the day it came out. Most of the tracks were memorized by then.

One last honorable mention I’d like to make is the Cribs with Man’s Needs, Woman’s Needs, Whatever. Catchy beats, got some decent air play, but I don’t think it really got quite the exposure it deserved. Sure, it’s not the best album to come out of the UK recently, but it certainly trumps a lot of artists who received a much bigger reception here in the states.

Now! On to the top 5

Coming in at number 5, The Ponys with Turn the Lights Out. This album is everything I’ve come to expect from the Ponys. Somewhere between the Cure and AC/DC, it’s seductive, powerful, and animal while never being inhuman. I guess I love these guys because they offer up a slice of the human condition with as much love as aggression.

Number 4 is Radiohead with In Rainbows. No, it’s not their best album, but it is a good album. It mixes light and dark perfectly and sounds like pure emotion caught on tape. I’d probably be filing this away with the other honorable mentions if not for it’s creative release. This album is so important in the grand scheme of things. It was a grand experiment when first released. Give it to the customers and let the customer pay what they think the album is worth, even if that’s nothing. OK, they’re not the first band to do that, I know that, but they’re the first really big band. And they made a pretty penny off of it too.

Number 3, Modest Mouse with We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank. This album proves that there are still artists who aren’t just putting out collections of songs that seem to be on the same disk more or less just because they were all written and they needed to fill some space. The songs spill into each other, and it isn’t until you play the whole album front to back that you really appreciate it. If you don’t have this album yet, get it and listen to it all the way through.

I told you Coconut Records would make my top 5. The more I listen to it the more I like it. It’s just, to me, a perfect album. It speaks to me. For every song I can think of a different experience in my life. It just matches those universal experiences of love, loss, pain, joy. It’s the burden and the benefit of living and this album makes me feel like all of it, even the most painful losses have not just colored my life but were worth living through because they make me a part of something bigger.

And my number one album of the year.

Drum roll please…

The Apples in Stereo with New Magnetic Wonder. This is, by far, my favorite Apples in Stereo album. I was a little worried when it came out. It seemed like it could be the end. The band has had limited success and a relatively small following. Their last album came out in 2002 and they had three new members for this album, one of whom (John Dufilho) replacing one of the original members (Hilarie Sidney) who also just happened to be Robert Schneider’s ex wife, Robert being the front-man of the group. It’s a combination that could have killed almost any band. And amidst all that to release a double album! That’s tough. It’s so easy for a double album to drag on.

New Magnetic Wonder balances energetic upbeat songs with calm, mellow musical cool-downs. It’s familiar and experimental all at once. You can pick out individual hit tracks or listen to the album as a whole. It just doesn’t ever seem to get old.

And so, my friends, I’ll close the musical year. It’s been a good year, if a bit forgettable. But there are a few albums that won’t get old. I hope you’ve all picked up a few disks that’ll stay with you forever. Now, one last time before the year ends, lock the door, drop the needle, and crank that knob to 11. I’ll see you next year.