The Best of 2007: We Built These Cities Out of All the Shepherds' HousesDec 31 '07 (Updated Dec 03 '08) Write an essay on this topic. The Bottom Line This is a weird and rather random list of favorites because, well, the music industry's becoming rather de-centralized these days. New Year's Eve is fast approaching, which of course means that it's time for more behemoth list-making! That's one of my favorite ways to waste time, for some strange obsessive-compulsive reason that I have yet to understand. So, without further ado, here's the lowdown on the music that I appreciated most (and least!) in the year 2007. THE BEST ALBUMS OF 2007: As has been the trend over the past few years, I've found that my favorites for the year 2007 are an uneasy intersection between Christian music, mainstream rock, and semi-independent stuff that gets a bit of critical buzz but not a lot of radio play. I think my tastes have fragmented into these departments because the music industry itself has done so. Christian music, specifically, is coming to a bit of a threshold where a lot of the more artistic types are jumping ship, moving to small-time Christian-owned labels, or making a bid at mainstream acceptance (generally without having to change their content), or going entirely indie. The increasing ease of digital distribution and the tendency of the Internet to turn the underdog into a phenomenon has made it a lot easier for critical favorites to be spread much farther across the map, which lends to me being more and more disconnected with whatever's new and hot on mainstream radio. (Shoot, one of the albums in this list didn't even see a physical release.) If anything here's a hit, it happened by pure dumb luck. And I would never make it that way intentionally, but I kind of like it all the same. 1. Iron & Wine - The Shepherd's Dog The bearded one-man-band know in real life as Sam Beam managed to impress me like no one else this year, by doing exactly the thing that solo folk artists aren't supposed to do. He built a band around his minimal acoustic guitar-driven Southern folk tales, and suddenly all manner of layers and colors came flying out of the speakers, and critics were dubbing him "the next great folk singer". Some had a problem with this designation - because it's very un-folksy to have haunting bits of electric distortion and backmasking and filtered vocals and top-notch studio production, etc. I think he made a great album in an entirely different genre than the one he was exploring on Our Endless Numbered Days - and yet you can see the seeds for this stylistic expansion when you look back. It's a sonic collage of the highest order - one of those busy records where you discover something new with every listen, but it's also very human and vulnerable - the net balance is still very organic and the stories Sam chooses to tell about hypocrites and misfits and the places where religion and superstition meet are appropriately unsettling. Perhaps it's easier to miss these stories due to all of the sonic layering, but pay attention to the lyrics and you'll find that they're some of I&W's finest. There are probably catchy pop/rock albums that I listened to more in 2007, but this one was a work of art that sunk in slowly in such a unique way that it won itself an early lock on the #1 slot. Standout Tracks: "Boy with a Coin", "Carousel", "House by the Sea", "Lovesong of the Buzzard" 2. Deas Vail - All the Houses Look the Same I almost considered bumping Iron & Wine out of that #1 slot, though, due to the work of these impressive newcomers from Arkansas, who managed to take "pretty piano rock" to a whole new level with this shimmering, labyrinthine collection of poetic songs. Half the time I'm not totally sure what they're on about, but I feel the tension and the longing for release in these songs while trying to solve each lyrical puzzle. Most striking is the triple threat skilled (and often fast-paced) drumming, creatively melancholy piano melodies, and the unbelievable lead vocals of Wes Blaylock, whose falsetto is enough to make unaware observers ask, "That's a girl, right?" It's rare for any artist's first full-length album to impress me this much - this one would likely end up on my short list of "Desert Island Discs", should such a cruel fate ever befall me. Standout Tracks: "A Lover's Charm", "Shoreline", "Rewind", "Light as Air" 3. Anberlin - Cities Every Anberlin disc feels like more of the same at first, then I listen more closely and realize that they've made slight tweaks to the formula that have resulted in significant improvement every time. This one wins the prize for being the year's best straight-up rock album, with several dizzying guitar riffs that stick in your head long after the typical power-chording of many modern rock bands has faded out, and the fierce but sensitive lead vocals of Stephen Christian drive the intended feeling home, often with great urgency. From the opening thrash of "Godspeed" to the eerie children's choir in the closing epic "(*Fin)", it's hard to find a dull moment here. Standout Tracks: "The Unwinding Cable Car", "Godsend", "Dismantle. Repair.", "Inevitable" 4. Relient K - Five Score and Seven Years Ago I'm going to have to go back and re-evaluate Mmhmm to be absolutely sure, but this one might be RK's best album yet. It certainly shows how far they've come since the embarrassingly cheesy, Blink 182 copycat days of their self-titled debut - they're a legitimate player in mainstream rock now, they've spruced up their sonic palette and Matt Thiessen's songwriting has managed to find the place where pointed wit and honest spiritual questions meet, while not being too self-important to write a completely un-ironic love song. A few moments here sidestep the conventions of the pop/punk genre entirely, most notably the closing epic "Deathbed", which was more than enough to tide me over in a year where Sufjan Stevens was almost completely MIA. Standout Tracks: "Forgiven", "Deathbed", "The Best Thing", "Give Until There's Nothing Left" 5. Future of Forestry - Twilight Last year's self-titled EP was a great teaser for this powerful full-length album from the band formerly known as Something Like Silas - I might still like SLS's album a little bit more, but this one is stuffed to the brim with a grand sense of wonder that is unleashed through powerful ambient rock anthems and a few intimate moments that go beyond the usual conventions of "worship" songwriting to simply reflect on what God is doing in the life of a brokenhearted and lonely person. It's a record that admits to sadness, but wisely looks ahead to the promise of God doing something new. That makes it a lot more real and relevant to me than a lot of what the Christian "mainstream" usually has to offer when they label a group as a "worship band". Standout Tracks: "All I Want", "Twilight", "Speak to Me Gently", "Sunrising" 6. The Polyphonic Spree - The Fragile Army The choral rock group with a fluid membership of 20 seemed like a bit of a novelty when I first discovered their music video for "Light and Day" on my Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind DVD. I finally took the plunge with a full album of theirs this year, and once I got over the somewhat grating vocals of Tim DeLaughter, I found that the cheesy, happy sentiments that often permeated his songs were well-tempered by some of the universal struggles that were admitted to in other songs. What's really great about this one is how it holds together as a rock record, and yet there's this overwhelming dose of symphonic goodness from the various horns and strings and keyboards and electronic whatnots and endless layers of backing vocals that these folks have to offer. It's a bohemian musical paradise where seemingly anything goes. You have to be in the right mood to get into this one, but when you are, it's like being admitted into your own special, weird version of Heaven. Standout Tracks: "The Championship", "Light to Follow", "Watch Us Explode (Justify)" 7. Steven Delopoulos - Straightjacket This would be one of two albums in my Top 20 that hasn't yet seen a physical CD release (the other one belongs to Radiohead, and you'll see that one on store shelves New Year's Day). It's a real shame that the former (and possibly current?) frontman for Burlap to Cashmere hasn't been able to scare up the funds to mass distribute his second set of puzzling and melodic folk songs - his first album Me Died Blue was an overlooked masterpiece, and this one is almost up to the same level, with its stream-of-consciousness lyrics that seem to constantly turn unexpected corners and make you wonder just how Steven manages keep his prolific vocabulary in check long enough to keep all of these songs coherent. (I don't know, but he pulls it off beautifully without ever being predictable.) His deft finger-picking is at once light-hearted and light-speed, meaning that several of these songs don't even need percussion to give them a sweeping sense of motion, and his stylistic restlessness comes to the forefront in new ways, be it chanting monks, a straight-up call-and-response spiritual, or even an off-kilter spoken word piece that's pretty much all percussion and vocals, which can only be described as "street theater". And there’s that powerful, Cat Stevens-esque vibrato that keeps our attention on the words throughout the whole thing (well, except for the song he doesn’t sing on). I had to knock off some minor points because I miss the Greek influence found in his earlier work, but if the rumors are true and we get another Burlap to Cashmere album next year, then that craving will likely be satisfied soon enough. This one's for sale through his website as a digital download, for only 10 bucks, which is definitely a steal given the wealth of solid songwriting and performance found here. Standout Tracks: "Wallfly", "She Held My Hand", "Ruin of the Beast" 8. Over the Rhine - The Trumpet Child The motto of married songwriters Karin Bergquist and Linford Detwiler for many years was "Quiet music should be played loud". Each successive album seemed to be a further expedition into the far reaches of just how sparsely a gripping folk song could be played, with light jazz overtones here and there, and then suddenly, they decided to go all cabaret on us. It's not like they threw their comfortably slow tempos out the window or anything, but this record feels so much more vibrant and alive and quite, frankly, easier to enjoy from end to end than anything they've done since Films for Radio, and this has all been done without sacrificing their usual musings on the tangled mess of frustrating hard work and loopy romantic interludes that for them constitutes marriage, the odd juxtapositions of earthly and spiritual matters that for them constitutes faith, and their unabashed love of the muse we all know simply as "music". I had a lot of critical respect for their previous albums, but I don't think they've ever been this fun to listen to. Standout Tracks: "Don't Wait for Tom", "The Trumpet Child", "Nothing Is Innocent" 9. John Reuben - Word of Mouth John Reuben is the goofy white rapper who is seemingly always try to break the boundaries of what's considered "music you can't rap to". Because of this, he's sometimes difficult to take seriously due to the sing-songy nature of some of his most addictive songs, but this time around he came up with his most consistent album, one that sort of demands that we re-evaluate him and take him seriously. There's still plenty of quirkiness to be found in the delivery - enough that it made this album feel like the square peg to my ear canal's round hole the first few times through - but then the lyrics really took hold, and I found a man asking honest questions about whether it's possible to grow older while retaining one's creative and optimistic outlook on life instead of just becoming a lazy cynic who no longer wants to be challenged. It's like a post-modern book of Ecclesiastes, in some ways. Kind of a downer to those who just expect their poppy rap songs to fire up the party, but hey, you've always got Toby Mac for that. Standout Tracks: "Focus", "Make Money Money", "Curiosity" 10. Wilco - Sky Blue Sky It seems weird to be putting Wilco in my Top 10 at a point in time where many of their former fans have turned on them, but I've gotta go with what I know. I've loosely followed them ever since the critical harbinger that was Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and I proceeded to keep putting my foot in my mouth by talking about how I didn't get their need to interrupt the actual music for long sections of weird noise - not all art is for everybody, I guess. This time around, though, they simply focused on their ability to play their instruments at well, and they looked to the soft-rock of the 70's for a lot of their inspiration, which is pretty much death in the eyes of most critics. The thing is that they sound really good doing this - it's a whisper of a rock record if you're going to call it one at all, but in between the mellow beginnings and endings of most of these songs are some pretty sweet guitar solos, and some of Jeff Tweedy's most relatable lyrics out of what I've heard so far. A few songs might skew too much toward the simple side of things, but then they'll make up for it with a more puzzling lyric or a bit of dry wit - even when Tweedy sounds depressed, he and his band sound like they were having a genuinely good time performing these songs, just letting them live and breathe instead of stifling them by over-thinking the production. Standout Tracks: "Impossible Germany", "Either Way", "On and On and On" HONORABLE MENTIONS: Because there isn't room for everybody in the Top 10, but these guys and gals still managed to impress me. I'm not going to go into detail about these here; either I've already given you the low-down in a full review, or I owe you one early in the new year. 11. Radiohead - In Rainbows Standout Tracks: "15 Step", "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi", "Nude" 12. Lost Ocean - Lost Ocean Standout Tracks: "Just Glide", "Lights", "Everything Is" 13. Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank Standout Tracks: "Dashboard", "We've Got Everything", "Little Motel" 14. Eisley - Combinations Standout Tracks: "Invasion", "Many Funerals", "Combinations" 15. Mae - Singularity Standout Tracks: "Brink of Disaster", "Rocket", "Crazy 8s" 16. Jars of Clay - Christmas Songs Standout Tracks: "Hibernation Day", "Peace Is Here", "Christmastime Is Here" 17. Caedmon's Call - Overdressed Standout Tracks: "Expectations", "Hold the Light", "Sacred" 18. Thrice - The Alchemy Index, Vols. I & II - Fire & Water Standout Tracks: "Digital Sea", "The Arsonist", "The Whaler" 19. Bjork - Volta Standout Tracks: "Wanderlust", "Innocence", "I See Who You Are" 20. Falling Up - Captiva Standout Tracks: "A Guide to Marine Life", "Drago of the Dragons", "The Dark Side of Indoor Track Meets" 2006 HOLDOVERS: Here's some stuff that I might have included on my best-of list from 2006 if I had been on the ball and listened to it before the end of that year: Anathallo - Floating World Copeland - Eat, Sleep, Repeat The Wreckers - Stand Still, Look Pretty Robert Randolph & the Family Band - Colorblind DISHONORABLE MENTIONS: This is the stuff that, more and more over the years, I find myself wanting to warn people about, but unwilling to waste my time on a full review. It's probably too little, too late on most of these (by now those who are going to buy them already have and everyone is rightfully ignoring them), but the year-end turkey shoot is always a blast, so I'll go over 'em anyway. 1. Joseph Arthur & The Lonely Astronauts - Let's Just Be It was evident to me ever since I became a Joseph Arthur fan in 2003 that he could occasionally write a crass dud of a song. 2006's Nuclear Daydream had more than a few of 'em, but it wasn't enough to undo the enjoyment that I got out of his previous albums. Then he went to all the trouble of forming a band just so they could all get really bloody p!ssed together (that's in the British sense meaning drunk) and record a 16-song album that's long on "Hey, let's try this really obnoxious idea that came to us at 3 in the morning and run it so far into the ground that it surfaces in China!" and short on, you know, actual artistic merit. Seriously, in what universe is a twenty-minute song that repeats a single word for over half of it ever a good idea? Never mind the fact that a few of the one-and-a-half minute songs are so obviously intended to irritate the ears of any sensitive person (see "Shake It Off" for a prime example) that it's difficult to even be patient with those. This disc is such an abominable stinker that I couldn't stand to listen to it - any of it - more than once. It far outstrips the usual "bland Christian music" suspects in my list in terms of how egregiously unlistenable it is, and trust me, that's one hell of a dubious accomplishment. Snarky review title that I didn't get to use: "Who needs quality control when you have alcohol?" 2. Building 429 - Iris to Iris Their debut record, The Space in Between Us, was among the most abysmal "inspirational rock" albums ever recorded, and the band showed significant musical improvement (if not lyrical) with their second album, Rise, which still made my bottom 10 for last year, but it was much further from the very bottom. They've managed to sabotage that growth by deciding that now's a good time to further narrow their lyrical lens and become yet another "modern worship" band. We all know how this story generally goes when interesting Christian bands do this, so... case closed. It's gotten to the point where it isn't even fun making fun of "Boring 429" any more. Snarky review title that I didn't get to use: "I guess Eye to Eye was already taken." 3. Newsboys - Go Remixed While I was rather middling in my review of Go, it sure seemed like a heck of a comeback after the pair of worship albums that the Newsboys released before it. Suddenly the band had regained a bit of their old fire again - they were danceable and catchy, and even a bit witty again. As programmed as Go was, it seemed like it wouldn't be that hard to remix it, so I was actually very curious about this one... until I heard the results. Whatever grooves these songs established have been totally laid to waste in these new versions. Dance remixes are supposed to accentuate the hooks, I thought, not obliterate them in favor of repeating small segments of the songs again and again and again. And what's with leaving off one of the songs from the original album so that they could include the B-side "City to City"? Lame. Snarky review title that I didn't get to use: "STOP." 4. Dustin Kensrue - Please Come Home I was quite intrigued when the frontman for Thrice showed up to play a solo set at the Uprising Festival (a Christian rock festival that apparently morphed into Cornerstone West) last year - just him, an acoustic guitar, and some original material plus covers of Thrice and U2. The lyrics seemed a little weak, but I was intrigued by the reverse crossover. Then he decided to put out an "album" (I put this in quotes because the thing only has 8 songs, and they're all the length of normal songs, so it's like a 30-minute disc) full of rather bare-bones acoustic tunes that completely eschew all of Thrice's musical development and experimentation for the sake of... well, a lot of lyrical cliches that pander to the CCM crowd. I'm not sure that's the crowd he was aiming for, but it's hard to stomach some of this album's blatantly obvious metaphors when I know he can do better. I kind of liked the lead-off track, "I Knew You Before", but even that one started to sound a bit judgmental in the long run. As for the 8 songs, it was apparently due to Dustin's childhood memories of the shorter albums that existed when he was a kid. Ah, there's a great excuse to walk down memory lane - outdated technical limitations. What's next, a phonograph record? Oh wait, he's not that old. Snarky review title that I didn't get to use: "Hey Dustin, there's this thing called 'Compact Discs' now. They hold 80 minutes of music. Look into it." 5. Neal Morse - Sola Scriptura Cheesy as it was, I kind of enjoyed the double-disc Testimony, which mish-mashes several genres of music into one big progressive suite chronicling the chain of events that led to the former lead singer of Spock's Beard becoming a Christian. Hey, we need more people in Christian music who actually write with the album in mind instead of just one or two hit songs. But you know what really doesn't gel well with the time-honored traditions of prog rock? Cheesy inspirational pop music. You know, the kind of stuff that Christian radio played in the 80's (wait, actually, it was the 90's, but it sounded like the 80's.) Morse seems to thinks that's the missing ingredient that will make his massive compositions something special, so he gets all bombastic with three ridiculously dense tracks that last upwards of twenty minutes a piece, and then has the nerve to throw a schmaltzy, radio-friendly ballad at us that sounds like it was stolen right out from under the nose of Michael W. Smith himself. I do genuinely appreciate the intent of the album's lyrics to honor Martin Luther, but the execution of this idea was rather didactic and overwrought, to say the least. Snarky review title that I didn't get to use: "Who invited Smitty to the prog rock party?" 6. The Fiery Furnaces - Widow City "Byzantine" is a word that a friend of mine has used which aptly described the Furnaces' experimental pastiches that they call "songs". I've been at least mildly amused by it for at least three albums now - underneath all of the wild and crazy acts of musical subterfuge, they actually know how to write a memorable pop hook and use that as the anchor for a song that otherwise does a lot of unpredictable things. On this album, it feels like the memorable, hooky bits took a vacation, and that just leaves the tireless random switching from one musical motif to the next, often at breakneck speed. (When they're not endlessly riffing on some boring keyboard phrase for three minutes at a time, anyway. But that's only in the first track on the album.) I'm all for a good experiment, but it's getting to the point where Eleanor and Matthew Friedberger seem to have run out of fresh ideas that will make their sound collages memorable. Snarky review title that I didn't get to use: "I just can't figure out how she keeps losing husbands..." 7. Corrinne May - Beautiful Seed I really hate to do this to an indie artist with a genuinely beautiful voice whose first album I championed quite a bit when she was trying to make a name for herself in L.A. - especially one who has strong ties to my home church, having performed there several times, making fans out of many of my closest friends with her soothing, encouraging songs of hope, romance, and faith. Somewhere along the way, though, she went from "coffeehouse troubadour" to "Lifetime movie of the week soundtrack", and I could sense the uncomfortable transition to a more familiar and cliched piano-based style on Safe in a Crazy World, but here, it's ballad after ballad after boring sleep-inducing ballad, with almost none of the wide-eyed wit that was previously found in songs like "Little Superhero Girl" or "Mr. Beasley". Someone needs to re-learn the art of "show and not tell" as well as the more fundamental lesson of "vary the freaking tempo a little". Snarky review title that I didn't get to use: "Mayday! Mayday!" 8. Dream Theater - Systematic Chaos Here's another former favorite of mine who sort of fell from grace this year. I can't quite explain why, because Dream Theater's brand of extremely complex progressive metal has been way over-the-top ever since I became familiar with the band in 2003. I guess this album felt like the first one that didn't surprise me by branching out in any way - it was pretty much the same old bag of tricks, and as technically accomplished and compositionally complicated as it might be, Each attempt to grab the attention of my eardrums seems to fall to the floor with a dull thud. Seemingly unintentionally, they've ramped up the cheesiness with some of their most melodramatic lyrics yet, even going so far as to dedicate an entire 30-minute song suite (which bookends the album) to a servant of Satan himself, who repeatedly addresses his lord as "Dark Master". It's a redemptive tale in the end, but the whole thing is unintentionally silly. And don't even get me started on this album's installment of the "Alcoholics Anonymous Suite". These guys need to find something new to write about. I had hoped that repeated listening to this album would soften my response a bit and clue me in to some of the great songs I was overlooking, but the opposite happened - it seems to get worse every time. That's probably because every good guitar riff from John Petrucchi or vocal passage from James LaBrie seems to be shortly followed by a campy spoken-word bit by Mike Portnoy that somehow sabotages the entire thing. Snarky review title that I didn't get to use: "Dream Theater sells their soul to the Devil... and he asks for a refund." 9. Linkin Park - Minutes to Midnight I defended these guys when a lot of critics were bashing them, and as much as I still get a lot of guilty pleasure out of those old LP albums, the time has finally come when I've got to admit that they're in way over their head. This album seemed to be an attempt to address critics who thought their rap/rock style was passe, and in doing so they dismantled pretty much everything that made their music so addictive in the first place, as well as falling prey to the time-honored blunder of trying to prove you've matured by using the f-word a lot. They might have come up with two or three memorable songs, but the rest of it sounds like a band going through an identity crisis, forcing themselves to be anything besides what actually comes natural to them. Snarky review title that I actually did use: "The Countdown to Linkin Park's Extinction" 10. Maroon5 - It Won't Be Soon Before Long The fact that Maroon5 sexed it up even more this time out should only come to a surprise to you if you really weren't paying attention to their first album. But what I found I could live with then just built up to the breaking point on the band's long awaited second album. Singing song after song about seduction might be a bit of a turn-on, but this time around it's all about getting what you want and then forgetting the person who gave it to you. This one's just plain uncomfortable to listen to, aside from a handful of tracks that ironically rank among the best pop songs I heard all year. Snarky review title that I actually did use: "Songs About Adam Levine Getting Laid" OTHER MILD DISAPPOINTMENTS: Not bad enough to do any major griping about, but still not up to par compared with what I've heard from these artists in the past. No reviews were written here, because these just weren't very interesting albums to write about. Chevelle - Vena Sera Norah Jones - Not Too Late Bethany Dillon - Waking Up BEST SONGS OF 2007: Here, once again, is the crown jewel of my gratuitous list-making. There's not much rhyme or reason as to which ones made the cut and which ones fell closest to the top spot, other than what came to mind as being the most catchy, memorable, and/or influential on my personal tastes out of all of the new music I was exposed to in 2007. As usual, some of these may be one or two years old, but as noted in the "2006 Holdovers" section, sometimes I'm a little late to the party. 1. "A Lover's Charm", Deas Vail (from All the Houses Look the Same) 2. "Dashboard", Modest Mouse (from We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank) 3. "Dokkoise House (With Face Covered)", Anathallo (from Floating World) 4. "Forgiven", Relient K (from Five Score and Seven Years Ago) 5. "Shoreline", Deas Vail (from All the Houses Look the Same) 6. "Wanderlust", Bjork (from Volta) 7. "The Unwinding Cable Car", Anberlin (from Cities) 8. "Deathbed", Relient K feat. Jon Foreman (from Five Score and Seven Years Ago) 9. "Love Affair", Copeland (from Eat, Sleep, Repeat) 10. "Something Beautiful", Newsboys (from Go) 11. "Twilight", Future of Forestry (from Twilight) 12. "The Balancing Act", Cool Hand Luke (from The Balancing Act) 13. "Beautiful", Barenaked Ladies (from Barenaked Ladies Are Men) 14. "Rewind", Deas Vail (from All the Houses Look the Same) 15. "Just Glide", Lost Ocean (from Lost Ocean) 16. "Oh! Gravity", Switchfoot (from Oh! Gravity) 17. "The Championship", The Polyphonic Spree (from The Fragile Army) 18. "Dismantle. Repair.", Anberlin (from Cities) 19. "My, Oh My", The Wreckers (from Stand Still, Look Pretty) 20. "Light as Air", Deas Vail (from All the Houses Look the Same) 21. "Impossible Germany", Wilco (from Sky Blue Sky) 22. "Speak to Me Gently", Future of Forestry (from Twilight) 23. "A Kiss to Send Us Off", Incubus (from Light Grenades) 24. "Godspeed", Anberlin (from Cities) 25. "Ain't Nothing Wrong with That", Robert Randolph & the Family Band (from Colorblind) 26. "When You Thought You'd Never Stand Out", Copeland (from Eat, Sleep, Repeat) 27. "Gennesaret (Going Out Over 30,000 Fathoms of Water)", Anathallo (from Floating World) 28. "Brink of Disaster", Mae (from Singularity) 29. "Invasion", Eisley (from Combinations) 30. "Fun and Games", Barenaked Ladies (from Barenaked Ladies Are Men) 31. "15 Step", Radiohead (from In Rainbows) 32. "4:12", Switchfoot (from Oh! Gravity) 33. "Light Grenades", Incubus (from Light Grenades) 34. "Blue Caravan", Vienna Teng (from Dreaming Through the Noise) 35. "Focus", John Reuben (from Word of Mouth) 36. "Eat, Sleep, Repeat", Copeland (from Eat, Sleep, Repeat) 37. "Inevitable", Anberlin feat. Aaron Marsh (from Cities) 38. "Combinations", Eisley (from Combinations) 39. "Angels", Robert Randolph & the Family Band (from Colorblind) 40. "A Summer's Song", Wavorly (from Conquering the Fear of Flight) 41. "Light to Follow", The Polyphonic Spree (from The Fragile Army) 42. "Obsession", Starfield (from Beauty in the Broken) 43. "On and On and On", Wilco (from Sky Blue Sky) 44. "Hanasakajijii (Four: A Great Wind, More Ash)", Anathallo (from Floating World) 45. "Many Funerals", Eisley (from Combinations) 46. "Hoodwink", Anathallo (from Floating World) 47. "Now Three", Vienna Teng (from Dreaming Through the Noise) 48. "Awakening", Switchfoot (from Oh! Gravity) 49. "Sunrising", Future of Forestry (from Twilight) 50. "Little of Your Time", Maroon5 (from It Won't Be Soon Before Long) 51. "Here (In Your Arms)", Hellogoodbye (from Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs!) 52. "The Hard Way", Fort Minor feat. Kenna (from The Rising Tied Limited Edition) 53. "One More Girl", The Wreckers (from Stand Still, Look Pretty) 54. "The Little Things Give You Away", Linkin Park (from Minutes to Midnight) 55. "Nothing Lasts Forever", Maroon5 (from It Won't Be Soon Before Long) 56. "Down to Earth", Barenaked Ladies (from Barenaked Ladies Are Men) 57. "The Fool", Luna Halo (from Luna Halo) 58. "Hibernation Day", Jars of Clay feat. Christine Dente (from Christmas Songs) 59. "Come Right Out and Say It", Relient K (from Five Score and Seven Years Ago) 60. "Alexithymia", Anberlin (from Cities) 61. "City Hall", Vienna Teng (from Dreaming Through the Noise) 62. "Don't Wait for Tom", Over the Rhine (from The Trumpet Child) 63. "The Best Thing", Relient K (from Five Score and Seven Years Ago) 64. "(*Fin)", Anberlin (from Cities) 65. "Rocket", Mae (from Singularity) 66. "The Trumpet Child", Over the Rhine (from The Trumpet Child) 67. "Peace Is Here", Jars of Clay (from Christmas Songs) 68. "Marsh King's Daughter", Eisley (from Combinations - iTunes bonus track) 69. "Disarray", Lifehouse (from Who We Are) 70. "Monster", Meg & Dia (from Something Real) 71. "Lights", Lost Ocean (from Lost Ocean) 72. "Little Motel", Modest Mouse (from We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank) 73. "One and Only", Barenaked Ladies (from Barenaked Ladies Are Men) 74. "The Joke", Lifehouse (from Who We Are) 75. "Madmen", Wavorly (from Conquering the Fear of Flight) 76. "A Love that's Stronger than Our Fear", Derek Webb (from The Ringing Bell) 77. "Expectations", Caedmon's Call (from Overdressed) 78. "Wind Off the Lake", Iona (from The Circling Hour) 79. "Make Money Money", John Reuben (from Word of Mouth) 80. "Roses", Meg & Dia (from Something Real) 81. "American Dream", Switchfoot (from Oh! Gravity) 82. "Give Until There's Nothing Left", Relient K (from Five Score and Seven Years Ago) 83. "Adelaide", Anberlin (from Cities) 84. "First Time", Lifehouse (from Who We Are) 85. "Boy with a Coin", Iron & Wine (from The Shepherd's Dog) 86. "Watch Us Explode (Justify)", The Polyphonic Spree (from The Fragile Army) 87. "House by the Sea", Iron & Wine (from The Shepherd's Dog) 88. "Kenji", Fort Minor (from The Rising Tied) 89. "The Way You Dance", Blindside (from The Black Rose EP) 90. "Shame on You (To Keep My Love From Me)", Andrea Corr (from Ten Feet High) 91. "Lovesong of the Buzzard", Iron & Wine (from The Shepherd's Dog) 92. "Hold On", KT Tunstall (from Drastic Fantastic) 93. "Carousel", Iron & Wine (from The Shepherd's Dog) 94. "Innocence", Bjork (from Volta) 95. "Either Way", Wilco (from Sky Blue Sky) 96. "Everything Glorious", David Crowder Band (from Remedy) 97. "Sleeping Lessons", The Shins (from Wincing the Night Away) 98. "Pardon My Dust", Chris Rice (from What a Heart Is Beating For) 99. "Wallfly", Steven Delopoulos (from Straightjacket) 100. "I Wanna Marry You All Over Again", Derek Webb (from The Ringing Bell) BEST LIVE PERFORMANCES OF 2007: I enjoy a good concert. I've been known to drive for hours, put up with long periods of waiting through boring opening acts and long intermissions during which overzealous fans cheer at every stage hand who emerges from the shadows, and even (shudder) fundamentalist evangelical rallies just to hear a good band play live. (It's a suburbanite Christian subculture thing. I promise we're not all like that.) Here, in brief, are my experiences with the bands whose performances impressed me most this year. 1. Mute Math, The Avalon, Hollywood, CA 9.27.07 This is the one band that, if you ever get the chance to see them live, I'd recommend that you drop everything and go do it. Their massively addictive electro-rock songs come across flawlessly in a live setting, often extended into spirited jam sessions that are as emotionally human as they are technically accomplished and driven by technology. Frontman Paul Meany is a relentless ball of energy, doing ridiculous flips over, and sometimes standing on, his keyboards, or helping Darren King out by banging on peripheral parts of his drum kit (not that King needs the help; he plays with the speed and precision of a guy with four arms), while bass player Roy Mitchell-Cardenas shows off by playing the upright bass and contributing his own percussion assistance all within an unforgettable instrumental performance amusingly titled "Obsolete", and guitarist Greg Hill helps out with the keyboard ambience when not delivering space-aged riffs to keep the faster-paced songs going. All of this frenetic energy was amazing enough, and yet the band also has the versatility to find three members firing up some unidentifiable gadgets (likely highly modified laptops or mp3 players) for the electronic wall-of-sound intro to the beautifully mellow song "Stall Out". Even the big rockers that you've already heard 10,000 times ("Typical", "Chaos", "Control", etc.) take on new life when you're watching these guys work, and if the new song "Clockwork" was any indication, we have great things to look forward to on this band's sophomore album next year. 2. Switchfoot, The Avalon, Hollywood, CA 3.30.07 The Avalon gets the high honor of having been the venue for the two best concerts of the year. While taking Copeland out on the road as their opening act wasn't the best plan (they make beautiful music, but it's a bit too sleepy for such a big crowd who came to see a rock show), Switchfoot more than made up for it with an extremely generous set bordering on two hours long, hitting the expected highlights from Oh! Gravity and The Beautiful Letdown, while also bringing new life to a few old favorites thanks to the addition of the string section (specifically "Learning to Breathe", "Only Hope", and the rarely-played "Daisy") and the electronic tweaking provided by Jerome Fontamillas's keyboards, an element that wasn't part of some of their earlier albums. The most attention-getting song in this exhausting but exhilarating setlist was either the fierce jam session that unexpectedly stopped on a dime at the end of "Dirty Second Hands", or lead singer Jon Foreman dragging a string of white Christmas lights out into the crowd and managing to pull off a climb into the balcony with the help of several willing fans during "The Shadow Proves the Sunshine". 3. Weird Al Yankovic, Orange County Fair, Costa Mesa, CA 7.20.07 This was a free show that some "white and nerdy" friends invited us to, and I expected Yankovic to do a perfunctory setlist that would keep a crowd happy who got in for free, but that probably wouldn't be the caliber of a show you'd expect to pay full price for. I couldn't have been more wrong. Though there was some lagtime due to the costume changes necessary to give some of Yankovic's most famous parodies the full humorous effect (during which we got clips of mock interviews made up of scavenged footage of things celebrities had said which Al could take out of context for humorous effect - his skewering of Kevin Federline was especially sharp), he and his highly versatile band went on for over two hours, striking a deft balance by hitting several of the cult classics loved by many of his most rabid fans (including the long, rambling "Albuquerque", which normally isn't a part of his setlist because it tends to punish his vocal chords), and knowing which parodies to choose that would be most instantly recognizable by those unfamiliar with his work who just came looking for a good laugh. Of particular note was the non-album track "You're Pitiful", a parody of James Blunt's left off of Straight Outta Lynwood due to crappy record label politics. Al made fun of Blunt's video by stripping off layer after layer of jackets and T-shirts during the song (one of which read "Columbia Records Sucks!", getting a huge rise out of those in the know), only to finally end up in a pink tutu and a Spongebob Squarepants shirt. Perhaps the only moment that seemed to go over the audience's head was when Al stopped the band cold in the middle of their first run through "White and Nerdy", announce that there was no reason to perform the song, and then switch to a thoroughly straightforward cover of Elvis Costello's "Radio Radio". This was done as a homage to Costello, who managed to get himself banned from Saturday Night Live by playing the very same song on live TV after being told not to, and I seemed to be one of the few who got the joke. In any event, we got to hear the full "White and Nerdy" later, as well as "Eat It" and "Amish Paradise" and "Smells Like Nirvana" and the Star Wars medley and pretty much every Weird Al classic in the book. It ran on for so long that the wife (who did enjoy most of the show, but had gotten up really early that day and was absolutely exhausted) was nagging me to leave before "Albuquerque" had concluded! 4. Eisley, The Avalon, Hollywood, CA 9.27.07 While not as impressive as their headlining show at the Hollywood House of Blues last year, this sibling-dominated band managed to hold their own as the opening act for Mute Math, immediately winning audiences over with their haunting sound that swirls sweet sisterly vocals into dreamy, vaguely indie pop/rock. Despite some of the newer tunes from Combinations being a bit more predictable, they generously played most of the album (unfortunately, not including the luscious title track), with the forceful "Many Funerals" and the eerie but catchy "Invasion" making the biggest splash as the opener and closer, respectively. 5. The Myriad, The Wiltern, Hollywood, CA 10.13.07 I knew absolutely nothing about this band, or even that there would be opening bands, when I took my wife to see the David Crowder Band on their Remedy tour, but I was pleasantly surprised by this newly signed group's sonic assault, reminiscent of Future of Forestry's take on U2-esque stadium-sized rock grandeur, with a little bit of Sigur Ros influence due to the use of a bow to play the electric guitar from time to time. These guys set a worshipful tone while remembering the mysterious grandeur of the God they're contemplating, and it's reflected in their more oblique lyrics, that are often more impressionistic than straightforward - I like it when a band can have a reverent attitude but also leave a lot of blanks for my mind to fill in rather than spelling everything out for me. Despite only playing five or six songs, they managed to (at least in my mind) upstage the main act (not to mention making second act Phil Wickham a bit of a disappointment by comparison). I'm anticipating great things on their upcoming major-label debut, With Arrows, With Poise. 6. Relient K, Bren Events Center, Irvine, CA 11.28.07 I really shouldn't have seen Switchfoot twice in one year - as awesome as they were the first time around, seeing them repeat roughly 2/3 of that set eight months later didn't quite pack the same punch. I went because they were touring with Relient K, and because both bands had promised to do a song with everyone on stage at once, which I mistakenly assumed would be the epic "Deathbed" (which RK did with Jon Foreman on their album) instead of what we actually got, a so-so new song called "Rebuild" that was collaboration between both bands and the middling opening act Ruth. But RK's set was more than worth it. The addition of a piano to their core sound has made them a much more versatile band, and this was easily showcased as they played several of the highlights from both Five Score and Mmhmm, while keeping the audience's attention engaged in a myriad of other ways - the segue from a Tears for Fears cover into their own "In Love with the 80's", the audience participation on guitar and tambourine during "Sadie Hawkins Dance", their silly love song to The Office, and most unforgettably, the snow machine that gave us California kids a rare experience during their version of "Sleigh Ride". 7. Future of Forestry, Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, CA 2.8.07 As much as I miss the old lineup from Something Like Silas, I must admit that the newer incarnation of this San Diego band has a bit more teeth. Drummer Spencer Kim was a force of nature during massive anthems like "Open Wide" and "Sunrising", while guitarist Nick Maybury showed proficiency on an eerie instrument known as the therein during the bittersweet ballad "Twilight". Lead singer Eric Owyoung flew mostly solo for the gentle reflection "Speak to Me Gently" and the old SLS song "Words that You Say", and all of these disparate moments were somehow part of one sacred musical continuum. There were only a handful of us there to see them that night - labelmates Dizmas and Lost Ocean were apparently a bigger draw, though I suppose none of these bands have amassed more than a niche following at this point. But the small crowd kind of added to the intimacy, so it was still a great set, despite its brevity. It's a shame that no one but Eric appears to be with this band any more, but it'll be interesting to see whether he just continues it as a solo project or dreams up some other band configuration with a name that I'll slowly come to appreciate. 8. David Crowder Band, The Wiltern, Hollywood, CA 10.13.07 I might have said earlier that they got upstaged by The Myriad, but these guys still did a very good job of letting their quirky, somewhat geeky personalities shine through during their unique take on a set of worship songs. The bleeps and bloops and constant tweaking of technology (while throwing in such old-school influences as the keytar, banjo and fiddle, though not all at once!) never ceased to amuse, whether they were singing through bullhorns or Crowder was using a Guitar Hero controller to cover the entire lead part of the simple singalong "...neverending..." (though it was admittedly a bit too similar to "Foreverandever, Etc." and "No One Like You", which also made appearances in the same set). These guys have a gift for reverent songs of praise and goofy sing-along fun, and somehow the fooling around never overshadows the serious message, nor does the need to have a message render the music humorless as it can with so many other Christian bands (especially the youth-friendly ones). I'd probably have rated this performance higher if the song selection hadn't relied so heavily on Remedy, which I don't think is one of their better albums. But they did a great job with what they had, and thankfully didn't waste their time leaving the stage and returning before the "encore". 9. Olivia the Band, Huntington Beach, CA 6.9.07 I really should know better than to go to evangelical rallies put on by Calvary Chapel just to see bands perform for free, since I know I'm gonna have to sit through the Gospel being presented in a manner that sounds much like a teacher talking down to a room full of fourth graders - the tendency of well-meaning churches to insult the intelligence of a captive audience is one of the chief reasons why I think some people want nothing to do with this Jesus stuff. Fortunately, a free concert means I don't have to contribute anything to the church doing the insulting in order to hear some good music made by a group of Christians who, for the most part, just want to put smiles on faces and have fun. That's a pretty universal goal, and OTB won't win any Nobel Prizes for it, but it's a perfect fit for a sunny summer day at one of Southern California's most renowned beaches. It was great to finally get to hear the material from this Hawaii-bred band's Back to Friends Where Summer Never Ends EP, and also to preview a new track from the upcoming Where We Come From It Never Snows - "Sunrise" was its name, and it boasted some well-layered backing vocals that became especially noticeable during the acapella ending (which sadly didn't end up in the album version), in which all four members were singing different parts at once. Of course, being a pop/punk band, fast and catchy rhythms and big happy guitar riffs are what they do best - they put on a performance that makes you feel like a kid again without making you feel as if you're being treated like one. I don't know if the bands who agree to participate in these rallies actually agree with the often boneheaded preaching that precedes their performances, but for OTB's sake, I sure hope they're a little smarter than that. 10. Skillet, Promenade Mall, Temecula, CA 5.12.07 Speaking of boneheaded preaching... my wife and I drove two hours to see Skillet play a free show all the way down in freaking Temecula (though we stopped for a short hike along the way so that the concert wouldn't be our only excuse for driving that far), and we had to wait through over an hour of thoughtless pandering to the crowd that was being done by opening band Seventh Day Slumber. Long-winded is an understatement... these guys apparently see their generic post-grunge rock as being secondary to the need to play "Christian fortune teller" with their audience - by that I mean trying to impress people by saying that God's telling them there's a drug addict in the crowd who's gonna be healed tonight, etc. Thanks for cheapening my faith with your parlor tricks, guys. Anyway, seeing Skillet perform was definitely worth our trouble - they ripped through a solid set, mostly full of the rockers from Comatose (which actually sounded a lot heavier live) as well as a few from the extra-fierce album Collide. My wife said she'd never seen mew headbang like that, which makes sense - she normally doesn't accompany me to see the "heavier" bands. Skillet's a pop band at their core despite the heavy exterior - the volume level and John Cooper's raspy voice might fool you into thinking it's a lot of mindless screaming, but there's a solid melodic sensibility underneath it all, which is especially apparent due to Korey Cooper's keyboards and backing vocals. A strange and somewhat goofy mixture, to be sure, but these guys and gals have more than enough energy to make it work. If you think thrashing about like a maniac to the unpredictable beat of a heavy rock song doesn't sound like "worship", then you've never heard the song "My Obsession", which was the show-stopping finale. Best part of all - John promised right at the outset that due to their limited time (which we all understood to be due to Seventh Day Slumber's stage-hogging), that he wasn't gonna talk much and they'd just shut up and play as many songs as they could. And the music spoke for itself better than any of the preaching I've ever heard at any of these silly evangelical events. And God saw that it was good. MOST ANTICIPATED ALBUMS OF 2008: The vast majority of these don't have confirmed titles or release dates yet, and a few of 'em are mere rumors at this point, but here are the artists whose Email newsletters, MySpaces and Wikipedia entries I'll have under heavy surveillance with the hope that we'll get something new from them before the next New Year's Eve rolls around. 1. Mute Math - untitled 2. Anathallo - Canopy Glow 3. Sleeping at Last - untitled 4. Burlap to Cashmere - untitled 5. Sufjan Stevens - untitled 6. Anberlin - New Surrender 7. Switchfoot - untitled 8. Green Day - untitled 9. U2 - No Line on the Horizon 10. House of Heroes - The End Is Not the End 11. Sara Watkins - untitled 12. Olivia the Band - Where We Come From It Never Snows (actually, I've already heard the leak) 13. Alanis Morissette - Flavors of Entanglement 14. Fiction Family - Betrayal 15. The Myriad - With Arrows, with Poise 16. Five O'Clock People - Temper Temper 17. Matisyahu - Escape 18. No Doubt - untitled And that's a wrap! Happy New Year! Oh, and don't forget to leave the obligatory gripes about what should have been on my list in the Comments section.  |
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