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Best Music of 2007 – Songs

Picking the best album is hard enough, but picking the best song is essentially impossible in my opinion. A song can serve so many different purposes. You might be able to compare songs of a similar style, but comparing songs across the spectrum is like comparing apples and antelopes. Anyway, to make my list, I thought about all the music I had heard in the last year and which songs had stuck in my head – what songs popped to mind right away and were the best at achieving their respective goal.

Top 10 Songs of 2007
1. “Dashboard” – Modest Mouse – We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank. It’s about being on the road, music, and fire. What more could you want?
2. “You! Me! Dancing!” – Los Campesinos – Sticking Fingers Into Sockets. They’re a large-piece indie-pop band from England that’s got some good songs and some not great songs but this one gets me moving like an idiot.
3. “Unless It’s Kicks” – Okkervil River – The Stage Names. Simply a kick ass song.
4. “Resurrection Fern” – Iron & Wine – The Shepherd’s Dog. This songs a little more like Iron & Wine’s older stuff but has a slightly fuller sound while just being simple and hauntingly beautiful .
5. “Cape Cop Kwassa Kwassa” – Vampire Weekend. These guys have their first album coming out the end of this month – look for it.
6. “Hate It Here” – Wilco – Sky Blue Sky. This doesn’t share all of the same intensity and nuiance that other Jeff Tweedy songs have, but maybe because of it’s simplicity you could argue that it does an even better job of showing of his songwriting abilities.
7. “The Underdog” – Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. This is a different sound then the Spoon I was used to – more to it with the horns and what not – but definately a tune that I can’t resist playing over and over again.
8. “The Devil Is My Running Mate” – Jason Isbell – Sirens Of The Ditch. I don’t usually like political songs and this will probably end up being dated a few years from now, but it takes such a unique perspective on the Bush era that I can’t help but be impressed by it. It also gives a glimpse at the great song writing of Isbell who I feel has the potential to be as strong a musical talent as Jeff Tweedy.
9. “Tonight I Have To Leave It” – Shout Out Louds – Tonight I Have To Leave It. A Swedish indie-pop band that puts together a song to grab you and make you move like you were a thirteen year old spaz all over again.
10. “That Beat” – Amy LaVere – Anchors & Anvils. LaVere has a wonderful, unique sound and this thing just grooves in the sweetest, most seductive way.

Best Music of 2007 – Albums

The following has been pieced together from a series of e-mail exchanges that Colby had with a couple of friends over the last few weeks and edited to make a web post.

It’s that time of year again – time for everybody-and-their-brother’s “Best of 2007” lists. So, not to be left out, here’s my “Best Music of 2007” review. Most years it’s relatively easy for me to pick two or three albums that stand out above everything else I’ve heard. This year was different. In fact, even though there was quite a bit of good music, I find myself feeling slightly disappointed because of an overall trend I saw – the good-but-not-really-their-best-work trend. In my opinion, there were a bunch of artists who came out with work that just didn’t match their past performances. What got me down was that two of these albums came from my favorite artists – Wilco and Okkervil River – as well as The New Pornographers, Ryan Adams (an album and an EP), Spoon, Kings of Leon and Bright Eyes. As you’ll see, several of these still ended up as my top picks, but I think this has more to do with the limited number of outstanding records.

Top 5 Albums of 2007:
1. Neon Bible – Arcade Fire. I got burned out on this album early in the year and was almost reluctant to give it my top pick, but it’s hard to deny that it’s a great album – consistent and hard driving with a distinct sound.
2. We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank – Modest Mouse. A break in the year’s trend – this could be their best album yet.
3. Challengers – The New Pornographers. A great album by anyone else’s standards, but they’ve set the bar very high with past releases like Electric Version.
4. The Shepherd’s Dog – Iron & Wine. This album was a fairly significant change in sound for Sam Beam and a lot of long time fans didn’t like it. I thought it was his best overall work yet, that it showed a lot of maturity and confidence, and that he took what had tended to be a slightly limited sound and made it into something that was strong enough to stand on it’s own with any audience.
5. Armchair Apocrypha – Andrew Bird. This was the most exciting album for me this year but a lot of that had to do with the fact that Andrew Bird was a new artist for me personally. He’s not a new artist though; he has 5 or 6 prior releases (I’ve bought one so far and love it as well) and I’m excited to hear the rest of what he’s done. I’ve read that some folks more familiar with this work feel this wasn’t one of his better records, but I think it’s an amazing piece of song writing and musical construction.

Honorable Mention:
The Stage Names– Okkervil River. Some critics were calling this their best work so far and it does have some incredible songs and more examples of Will Sheff’s impressive song-writing abilities but it’s just not quite consistent enough to make the top five.
Sky Blue Sky– Wilco. The funny thing is that this album has gotten more exposure then any of their previous work (thanks to a series of Volkswagon commercials) but actually falls short of their best. It’s a little uneven in it’s song quality and lacks the same bunch that older albums have had. Don’t get me wrong though, Wilco has yet to put out a bad or even “just okay” album. It’s better then 99% of the crap you’ll hear on MTV or commercial radio.
The Historical Conquests of…– Josh Ritter. This is probably the best album of the year in terms of all-around appeal. It’s not as adventurous or unique as many of the other albums on my list, but it’s full of songs that are easy to enjoy and smartly written.

Music from Austin

Last Friday night we went out to Old World Deli (home of Corvallis’ local brewery) to see Matt the Electrician play. Matt (Sever) is originally from Corvallis and stops in town to play a show whenever he’s touring on the west coast. I first heard Matt playing open mic nights at a now defunct campus coffee shop some 12 years ago – Matt has since moved to Austin to try and make it in the music business. He’s a strong songwriter, with a folky sound that at times reminds us of Paul Simon.

Matt put on a great show in an intimate, friends and family environment (with great micro-brews), but the big surprise of the night for us was the extremely talented band he was touring with – especially his backup singer and bass player Seela. She too is a singer-songwriter living in Austin and has several solo albums out. She performed one of her own songs (Under the Influence) in the middle of the set and stunned the entire crowd with her big, luscious voice. If you’re looking for some new music, we’d highly recommend checking out her website. She’s also in a a great jazz band with the drummer Jon Greene.