Top 5 Albums of 2007
1. Radiohead: In Rainbows
I liked Radiohead a whole lot in 1993 when I was in the eighth grade, so being assured by In Rainbows’ 10 tracks that it’s okay to still like the band of my youth (screw you, Nirvana) a whole lot as an adult capped my music-filled year off nicely. In Rainbows, the band’s seventh studio album, is their most mature batch of recordings yet; likewise, the way they handled the release of the album was sophisticated, so much so that you can expect the details of such to go down in music history books. (Singer Thom Yorke claims that they’ve made more money off of In Rainbows than everything else they’re released combined.) But in the case of this list, the money and hoopla are neither here nor there, it’s the music – and only the music – that earned In Rainbows the No. 1 spot on my list. I’m already nostalgic for the first time opener “15 Step” hit my ears; instantly more original in construction than anything on Hail to the Thief or Amnesiac, it marked the return of a band who many had recently started to think were out of grand ideas. Following such an amazing song can be tricky (I also remember the fearful and skeptical feelings of my aforementioned first listen), but with the guitar-heavy “Bodysnatchers,” Radiohead offer up their best song since “Idioteque.” “All I Need,” “Reckoner,” “Videotape” – they’re all good, and I could go on and on about why I think that, in sum, they make for the best record of the year. No need. Just know this: Radiohead have more ideas, and, below the mountain of media ruckus and against the naysayer’s cozy odds, the five brooding wimps from England put together another great album, one that cements them as the best (and most uncompromising) avant-garde band mainstream music has seen.
2. Ryan Adams: Easy Tiger
Just as sure as there is a mental age where pretentiousness becomes a passage to understanding, there’s also a time where it becomes, well, dreadfully pretentious. Ryan Adams might be the only person on the planet who has convinced me that he can do just about anything he wants if given some instruments and a studio or stage. Because of this simple fact, his incredibly up-front Easy Tiger stands out amongst the countless other great albums in his already busting catalog ‘o rock as a classic. Yes, it’s straight ahead – almost even to the point of being 70s pop/rock radio – but it’s also the most “repeat button-worthy” album I heard all year, an accomplishment not to be hastily overlooked. Stockpiled with more memorable lines, beautiful vocals and love-of-your-life melodies than anything Adams has done since Heartbreaker, Easy Tiger doesn’t sway and experiment like Panda Bear’s Person Pitch or clang and mystify like Menomena’s Friend and Foe (two highly acclaimed albums from 2007); no, this is a simple, timeless collection of songs that no one but Ryan Adams could write. Easy Tiger is built to be the kind of record you listen to not just at a certain stage of your life, but for the rest of your life. As the cheese balls like to say, this is “one for the ages,” a new classic for the post-pretentious rock n’ roll crowd.
3. The New Pornographers: Challengers
Against my better judgment (I’d traded in all of my New Pornographers records in 2006), I bought Challengers after reading an album review written by whatzup’s Derek Neff. As I recall, Neff didn’t like the album nearly as much as the Porno’s previous two efforts, but he did say that it was different. According to Neff, Challengers attempted to have some variety, rather than resting on the band’s genius knack for in-your-face sugary pop. Upon first listen I was happy to find that Neff’s assessment was both right and wrong: Challengers had five times the variety of the band’s other albums, but, at least in my opinion, it was also about 10 times as good. Though Dan “Destroyer” Bejar’s three offerings are effortlessly enjoyable (especially “Myriad Harbour,” one of 2007’s finest moments), it is resident pop genius Carl Newman’s nine songs – sometimes sung by Neko Case or newbie Kathryn Calder – that lead the way. While Bejar’s songs follow the theatrical route he’s long been building up to, Newman’s songs would most easily be classified as imaginative retro-pop. Yes, most of Newman’s offerings are big-hook pop songs, but the arrangements are Brian Wilson-worthy, at least as far as unpredictable inventiveness goes. That said, you don’t need a PhD in music history to enjoy the hooks and heart of Challengers. It’s pop music, enjoy it.
4. Magnolia Electric Co.: Nashville Moon
No tricks here – Magnolia Electric Co.’s Nashville Moon is torn from the gut of early-70s Neil Young, but with (thanks to living legend Steve Albini) much better production. It’s a dark, poetic, sturdy-as-hell, natural-sounding record that rewards with (and demands) repeat listens. It’s the album that should’ve made the world finally believe in the enduring genius of Magnolia’s brooding honcho, Jason Molina. But alas, almost no one heard Nashville Moon in 2007, as it was only issued as part of the very rare Sojourner box set. No matter your route, just be sure to listen to “No Moon on the Water” before you, like, die.
5. Okkervil River: The Stage Names
After listening to Okkervil River’s 2005 conceptual opus, Black Sheep Boy, over and over again for a few solid weeks I was convinced that they were destined to become the band I’d head into my 30s with. They’d next make an unthinkable album similar to the Flaming Lips’ Yoshimi that would change the world, I just knew it. Then came The Stage Names, the band’s by-far most orthodox (read: boring at first) album to date. Then it set in: The Stage Names isn’t about conceptual growth or mongo gestures; it’s about making the best batch of songs without hiding behind indie rock’s overused blanket of abstractness. The Stage Names, which comes armed with some of the year’s very best songs (”Unless It’s Kicks,” “A Hand to Take Hold of the Scene” and “A Girl in Port,” to name three) is an organically conceived indie rock album with not just a pinch of soul and swagger, but also all the usual off-kilterness the scene kids needs to feel special.
Honorabled mentions: Spoon, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga; Thunderhawk, Gravity Wins!; Low, Drums and Guns; Bill Callahan, Woke on a Whaleheart; The Black Lips, Good Bad Not Evil; LCD Soundsystem, Sound of Silver.
