"If I Woke Up Next To You": The Best of 2007 (D&D Writeoff) Jan 11 '08 (Updated Jan 22 '08)    Write an essay on this topic. Tweet Popular Products in Music The Dirtchamber Sessions, Vol. 1 by The Prodigy From $11 Jersey Boys [Original Broadway Cast Recording] by Original Broadway Cast From $8 The Bottom Line ....new year! As I look back on 2007, a lot has changed. In fact, so much has changed that I think for me to write a normal year-end list would be a kind of cop-out. Honestly, as soon as I got to college my music listening cycles abruptly changed. I was no longer listening to music 50-75% during my day; instead it was more like 10-15% due to things going on and school. This being the case I feel like the majority of the music I have procured after the summer I haven’t really been able to listen to completely, therefore rendering any attempt at placing it in a neat little top ten list impossible and in some ways dishonest. So instead I’m merely going to look back on the year, and highlight some of the albums that were by my side as I traversed the path of life as well as some of the changes in my musical taste. ”They lied when they said the good die young…” My memories of the beginning of the year are very hazy. It almost feels like everything before this summer was a completely different year than the summer and college life. However, I do remember the two albums I bought in February that are still two of my favorites to this day. These two albums are Anberlin’s Cities and Dustin Kensrue’s Please Come Home. Being a huge Thrice fan I knew I was going to love Dustin’s album, even though its folk styling’s are a huge departure from Thrice’s hard hitting rock. However, it was Cities that blew me out of the water. Up until this album, I was a fan of Anberlin, but thought they were derivative and boring at times. I think that no longer. The aggressive rock and pensive lyrics that permeate Cities carried me through those cold, overcast days of the winter. The months of March and April yielded very little in the way of music, other than Relient K and their newest album Five Score And Seven Years Ago, which was a surprisingly mature outing from the band. And closing out the album was Deathbed, one of the best songs of the year. I think that the early spring also marked the beginning of a turning point in my music tastes. The metal started to phase itself out, and I began to listen to more hip-hop, a trend that is still carrying on till this day. ”Let me light up the sky for you…” Then came the summer, and I bought a lot of albums in the summer. Two that I remember the most were probably the two heaviest albums I bought all year, but they both have memories attached to my leaving home for college. August Burns Red released their sophomore album Messengers which I happened to buy on my way back from freshman orientation in June and An Ocean Between Us from As I Lay Dying I purchased the day before we began the drive to the college for move-in day. I also picked up Yellowcard’s newest Paper Walls, and yes, it isn’t very original but it was a great summer album. I had that album blasting on the way to The Warped Tour, and I can’t recall how many days I would be driving, window down, breeze blowing listening to Yellowcard. The summer also had a few disappointing albums like Mae’s Singularity and Dream Theater’s Systemic Chaos. “Reach for the stars so if you fall you land on a cloud…” Then there was college and a wonderful program called Ruckus, which allows college kids to download music for free and listen to it on your computer. I began to delve farther into hip-hop due to Ruckus. One of the first albums I got that I really loved was Kanye West’s Graduation, and it really lit up the first couple months of college for me. Also a couple albums I got over the summer really began to mean more to me at college like Cosmos by The Send. Also, due to the proximity of a small Christian bookstore near the college I was able to get Remedy by The David Crowder Band and Love And Radiation by All Star United, two really solid albums. But the middle of October came and probably the album I was most anticipating finally came out: Thrice and The Alchemy Index: Vol. I and II. I wish I could say that it lived up to my expectations completely, but it didn’t. I also have to admit I didn’t have the time that I would have liked to dedicate to the proper listening of a Thrice album. “I’m revving up my love this Christmas, and here it is…” November set in and with it the beginning of the Christmas season. Easily my favorite Christmas album of the year and possibly ever is Over The Rhine’s Snow Angels. I recently became a fan of Over The Rhine and I can’t get enough of their magnificent music. Snow Angels is no exception and is a sultry concoction of romance, heartache, jazz, and folk that warms the heart in the cold weather. Making their second appearance on this piece of writing, Relient K also released a Christmas album cleverly titled Let It Snow Baby…Let It Reindeer that gave me my dose of pop-punk Christmas cheer. But it was the end of the year that held probably the two albums that impacted me the most. “I saw what I saw and I can’t forget it…” I was coming back home for Thanksgiving break and I heard a song by Sara Groves called I Saw What I Saw. The song was so simple and elegant that it immediately made me think about its message, which I found out was about social justice in other countries in the world. The album it is from, Tell Me What You Know, is full of songs that speak to the heart and challenge the listener to go out and do something about the evil in this world. It’s the kind of album that could be career-defining. “You don’t have to be a billionaire to get a ticket up to the moon…” I was watching Fuse over the same Thanksgiving break and they had Wycelf Jean on The Sauce, which is their daily music news show. He performed three or four song from his upcoming project Carnival Vol. II: Memoirs Of An Immigrant, and they were so powerful and full of optimism that I knew he was an artist I could love. And love this album I do. There’s not much I can say about the star-studded guest spots or the amazing blend of rap, reggae, middle eastern, and r&b in the music that can’t be heard by a simple listen. However, I can say that what Wyclef is doing and the passion he brings is something that is truly remarkable and he deserves to be looked up to for that very reason. So that’s 2007 in an incredibly small nutshell. A year of change and beauty. A year of love and knowledge. A year of work and rest. A year to sing and write about. A year that will be remembered for struggle and victory. A year that will never be forgotten. So here’s to hoping 2008 has all the same and more for myself and all of you. Let’s hope I write a bit more too. Note on the title: It's from Fall Out Boy's song I'm Like A Lawyer In How I'm Always Trying To Get You Off (You and Me), due to the music video, which I thought was one of the best videos of the year. If you haven't seen it I would recommend it. Best of '06!

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