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The Most Delayed 2007 Best-Of List Ever. But this stuff still sounds good...Jun 08 '08 (Updated Jun 12 '09) Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line 2007!
So I've got 20 gems. If you are sick of 2008, give these a shot - they still feel new, they're pretty freaking good, and if you missed them, you made some mistakes! In the process I'll discredit the White Stripes 3 times (*), who, despite being one of my favorite bands in previous years, left me sour in 2007 (Icky Thump was a snoozer wasn't it?), recap some of the better live experiences of the year (**), point out some sweeeet album covers (!) and ignore anything from last year that I feel in love with after this January. So I propose we all travel back in time, say January 24th, 2008, I've just gotten home from the Brooklyn Masonic Temple where I has artists #8 tear a hole in my heart with the most downright earthshaking 10 minute finale of blistering noise that would make early Swans weep. It's cold out, so I've got a fire, a 20 CD changer, or maybe a 20 track mix-tape that takes me from broadway-white-girl-rap-ska (#10) to an excerpt of the sounds of the deepest pits of hell (#9), drops me into the darkest woods where I'm this close to being eaten by bloodthirsty wolves (#13) before I dance my what off in a neon paradise that would make Val Kilmer and Chris O'Donnell and whoever else was in Batman Forever weep (#6). I will repeat the words tribal and worldly in my head. I will notice that world music is creeping into everything. It was 90 today in New York, so bringing myself back to this is nice. I feel good. Let's do it. I'll keep some of them short. Some of them long, I'll assume you know some of them - 20. Konono N°1 Live at Couleur Café ** Alright, I didn't spin it as much as I did Congotronics 1, and hell, even 2, but any Konono release is worth having, and this one captures their sound in totally raw and funky form. My Mixtape Selection: "Kule Kule" - Their sound is a revolution and these 6 minutes go down easy and hit deep. **Live Experience!: Opening for Björk at both Radio City and United Palace, they just sounded amazing - they kept an unstoppable groove for 40 minutes or so and I couldn't get enough. 19. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds The Abattoir Blues Tour Cave's live energy leaves me panting and sweating. Pant and sweat with his punk-blues-gospel-rock complete with a stunning background "choir" (man they make "Stagger Lee" (My Mixtape Selection coincidentally) something special!), and, well, Nick Cave. 18. Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof Any soundtrack that uncovers a gem like "Baby It's You" (It'd be on the 20-tracker) from Smith is solid - add to that great cuts from April March, T. Rex and Joe Tex, throw in some of Quentin's most unrefined dialogue yet and you've got a perfect soundtrack. 17. Ghostface Killah The Big Doe Rehab The true sequel to Fishscale - less of an obvious masterpiece than that one, but still packed with enough of what makes a Ghostface record such a treat - slick production, soul samples, and crime drama. "Yolanda's House" would represent it. 16. Baroness Red Album ** Their live show is phenomenal; this hardly comes close to capturing the brutality of their sound. But on its own it's still a great album – the melodies are turned up and in the process some of the heavy energy is lost, but it still burns, just slower, catchier and a little more polished. My Mixtape Selection: "Isak" **Live Experience!: With Radio Moscow and Witchcraft at Bowery Ballroom, Witchcraft was the standout, but Baroness definitely caught my attention. 15. Maya Azucena Junkyard Jewel She manages to cook up some damn sweet soul hooks with laid-back, unplugged production. Nothing slick, nothing hip, just pure, naked, and often stunning songwriting and singing, like "Warriors" which, with it's rap verse, and catchy anthem of a chorus, manages to retain a skeletal production and arrangement that lets it breathe and sound that much more empowering. And the title track is an absolute gem. My Mixtape Selection: Give it to "Down, Down" with its bluesy feel. 14. Interpol Our Love to Admire Oh, how I both love and hate how much I dig Interpol. All the detractors have their points, but this is pure pleasure - unabashed epic emotions, and semi-post-punk textures that just feel huge, and even as their sound becomes more mainstream I'm with them. I'm a sucker for Interpol. The opener, "Pioneer to the Falls" would be the one. 13. Wolves in the Throne Room Two Hunters ! This beast is just stunning. Melodic and huge, crushing, suffocating - a trip. A trip man. I'd have "Dea Artio" on there just because it would fit! !Sweeeet Cover: Completely illegible logo, woodsy, creepy dark, creepy man kind of standing there - Those Southern Lord covers are just, they capture something, alright. 12. DJ Spooky Creation Rebel I didn't think any reggae/dub mix-tape/compilation would ever grab me like Daddy G's DJ-Kicks, but this one did - and Spooky's much more involved than Daddy G, remixing every track like a freaking pro. Classy, funky and modern but always a throwback. MMTS: "Under Mi Sensi" 11. The Fiery Furnace Widow City * I'm still with them, maybe 'cause I skipped Rehearsing My Choir, but the Zappa-esque lunacy they provide just grabs me. This one's churning guitar riffs keep it heavy, and heavy avant-pop just works. Especially with Eleanor's voice smothered all over it like honey. "Clear Signal From Cairo" captures it all. *Discrediting Icky Thump: Used to be compared to them, now exist somewhere completely beyond the Stripes. 10. Nellie McKay Obligatory Villagers Whacky - a departure from her first releases, a trip to Broadway, which sort of made me sick, but tracks like "Testify," (probably the one I'd hear on my mixtape), "Zombie," and "Identity Theft" are her best songs yet by miles - complex, wordy, catchy. 9. Grave Temple The Holy Down A drone release that seems to takes drone in a new direction - one hour long track containing a masterful build up that leads to a strange, horrifying and glorious fusion of doom, drone and avant-jazz jamming. A masterpiece, with a back story that gives it the relevance of Diamanda Galás' most political works. Only way more subtle. Kind of hoping that O'Malley lays off his other projects, puts Sunn 0))) to rest and goes crazy with Grave Temple; these concepts and experiments in a more digestible form could me mind-blowing. 45:03 - 50:54 could set fire to the mixtape. 8. Neurosis Given to the Rising ! Neurosis get heavy again, and this ones another epic, filled with the usual mix of the apocalypse interrupted with eerie and trippy premonitions of the quiet of the post-apocalypse - there's not much new to say about Neurosis, but they remain masters, and every track here is huge, crushing and purging. It is as powerful an experience as they've ever brought down upon us. MMTS: "Hidden Faces" !Sweeeet Cover: A better and more fitting use of these creepy still animal shots than the Interpol cover. **Live Experience!: Creepy, trippy video backdrops, unbelievable dynamics, and a tribal noise intensity made their rare live appearance in Brooklyn genius. And Mastodon proved to be not worth the hype with a disappointing opening set. 7. Dax Riggs We Sing of Only Blood or Love Alright, so I swore I'd disown this album when Decibel Magazine used it to trash an album that appears much higher up on this list, but then I actually listened to it - and man, man, man, Riggs has assembled a quick blast of doomed, could-be-death-metal lyrics, moments of riveting punk-blues, a lay-it-all-on-the-line, stripped-naked vocal, and catchy quick alt-rock melodies that seem somehow relevant again and never overstay their welcome. It's a strange and scattered classic, a snapshot of a strange and scattered mind, and it's a the best snapshot Riggs has taken yet. Listen to "Didn't Know Yet What I'd Know When I Was Bleeding" and tell me you're not convinced. 6. M.I.A. Kala This album is so freaking good I threw out my copy of Arular. 5. Tomahawk Anonymous * A cheesy concept that seems motivated only by the band's name rather than any sound any Mike Patton side project has explored, Anonymous, which is not really a Patton side project (Duane Denison came up with the concept) manages to be an always fascinating fusion of traditional Native American melodies with alt-metal textures and strange twists and turns. It features Patton's most enjoyably surprising vocal performance in years, "Mescal Rite 1" is as theatrical and mad as he's ever been, but the track is stomping and rough, and somehow kick-sas, while slower moments like "Antelope Ceremony" lend a crucial balance that makes it all work. And it all does works, a 45 minute sizzling piece of chants, riffs, desert grooves, and slicing punk/metal asides. I'm hooked. *Discrediting Icky Thump: Released on the same day, this thing, for me, stole all its listening time, 'cause it is better! 4. Björk Volta ** She's yet to make a bad album, and this, probably her least acclaimed disc yet (still well-received) is more proof of her bulletproof genius. Despite the misleadingly complex and exploding "Earth Intruders," which was my most compulsively listened to song of the year, the album finds itself in a place of world-music tranquility - a subtle and often breathtaking examination of cultures, emotions, spirits and ideals. (Come to think of it, it actually sits pretty nicely next to Tomahawk's release - try 'em back to back.) "Declare Independence" is the best anthem she's ever written, "Wanderlust"'s huge soundscapes are as moving as Jóga (if not as groundbreaking) and "Vertebrae to Vertebrae" features her most haunted vocal yet - a guttural werewolf snarl that made it's omission from the 3 New York shows I attended in 07 her biggest mistake yet. **Live Experience! Just three of the most memorable shows of the year. 3. Angels of Light We Are Him ** Besides the fact that the opening track "Black River Song" may be the most wisely placed track ever, its rough, drugged, and sexy (those background vocals!) groove announcing the return of a madman (It's Michael Gira's most alive, original and completely overwhelming performance yet), and besides the fact that the haunting and poisonous chant "Promise of Water" is one of his most potent dirges, and besides the fact that this completely stunning album feels like it has existed forever, and besides the fact that the best songs here finally match Swan's best works, "Sometimes I Dream I'm Hurting You" maybe even surpassing it with it's end-of-the-world epic build and it's mind-blowing mid-song transformation into the most doomed gospel, rock, folk rave the Angels of Light have ever cooked up - besides all that, well I don't even know how to finish that thought. That's how good this album is, it leaves me incoherent. **Live Experience!: The day I finally purchased the CD was the same day as a stunning Gira solo set at Highline Ballroom supported by Castanets and Marissa Nadler. Three twisted variants on folk, a mind-expanding, emotional and Altered States kind of experience. 2. Grinderman Grinderman !/*/** Cave lets everything he's been holding in since The Good Son out, and the result is a post-punk, blues-rock, pure noise assault, shuffling, screeching, bleeding - this is Suicide, The Stooges, White Light/White Heat Velvet Underground resurrected in spirit. Cave's voice manic, out of control, his guitar a bit of pent up sexual frustration. “No P*ssy Blues” is the best song of the year, and one of the best in Cave's canon, hilarious, hilarious, hilarious; those guitar blasts are a freaking punchline. Just a classic. I want to hear this on classic rock radio of the future. All the time. !Sweeeet Cover: Awesome monkey. Neon! */**Discrediting Icky Thump/Live Experience!: Probably one of the finest live moments this year was seeing them open for the White Stripes, and in the process complete ruin the Stripe's set. Can't take those two seriously after seeing Nick Cave destroy MSG - mothers clutching their children's ears ("I GOT THE NO P*SSY BLUES!"), fan-club members who would later begin a "Let's Go White Stripes" chant while waiting for the encore) just getting slayed by Cave's guitar assault, completely baffled by what hit 'em. I was in the top top top section and their sound was stabbing me in the chest, and pummeling my brain (I could barely hear the Stripes). 1. Meshell Ndegéocello The World Has Made Me the Man of My Dreams ! Probably the best neo-soul/jazz/folk/funk/ambient fusion ever, well probably the best neo-soul album ever also, funk, jazz, folk and ambient would be bigger claims, so I'll back off, but Meshell has released her absolute finest album - a masterpiece. I don't even know what to say to capture how stunning this album is, I can just point you to “Relief”, where you’ll learn how to mix slow burning soul with heavy metal riffage, or “Article 3” where you'll witness a punk-world-funk explosion. Or maybe you can just settle for that bass, oh that bass on “Solomon”, just a groovy little beast of a track, and then feast on the dystopian rock & roll of “The Sloganeer: Paradise.” Elsewhere she's throwing us up into space, a sexy space, a cosmic psychedelic universe, and she's tuned in to everything, every beat, every emotion. “Shirk” just cries, “Elliptical” is a slow cruise through the sky. As epic a subtle album as ever one existed, it's like every album behind this one on this list crawled up in Meshell's brain. She's completely gone beyond the Prince comparisons - Prince could never make an album like this. ! The Sweeetest Cover: perfectly captures the spirit of the album. And I have no closing words.  |
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