Songs of the year 2007 part one:
1. Half-handed Cloud (USA – 2006)
Christian rock ain’t what it used to be! Sufjan Stevens recommended this to me – well sort of. Would you call this an indie hymn?
2. Bjork – The Dull Flame of Desire (Iceland – 2007)
Bjork’s new album is pretty fantastic and it was hard to single out one song. This one edged it, partly due to the presence of an amazing vocal performance by Antony Hegarty (of the Johnsons fame).
3. Of Montreal- A Sentence of Sorts in Kongsvinger … (USA - 2007)
Sing-a-long now - “I spent the winter on the verge of a total breakdown while living in Norway”. I’ve always liked songs that create this kind of mood dissonance between sound (stomping joyous pop) and lyric (depressed and alone).
4. The Tuss – Shizz Ko E (UK - 2007)
As many might know, this is Aphex Twin very thinly disguised as “The Tuss”, from an album called “Rushup Edge”. Very funky electronica, suitable for rocking round the Christmas tree to. Got the nod about this from Boomkat records, which does a good (if too long) weekly e-mail about new releases.
5. The Shins – Turn on Me (USA - 2007)
When you hear a song in Nov 06 and you’re still wailing it loudly to yourself in the bath in Dec 07 you know you have a winner. I suppose I’d call the Shins my favourite (conventional) rock band. Hard to miss a Shins release now but I first got wind of ‘em via Pitchfork media.
6. The Devastations – Man of Fortune (Australia - 2006)
The wee Aussie sons of Nick Cave. Well not really but you can’t help but hear the influence of the big bad seed on this three-piece. This gently smouldering ballad features a nice duet with NZ singer Bic Runga. Came across this band at 1am in Butlins at All Tomorrow’s Parties. Very impressed.
7. LCD Sound System – Someone Great (USA - 2007)
There is a reason why LCD Sound System can successfully meld delicate electronica and vibey dance sounds into their rock music. They love it and feel it – it’s not a gratuitous pose or a clever conceit. Here, the nuances of echo, decay, opening filters and microscopic changes in timbre all feature in this fine song. And like a few LCD songs the lyrics to this are quite moving and tender.
8. Panda Bear – Bros (USA - 2007)
Panda Bear is from Animal Collective and there’s no disguising the similarity in the sound. This (and the album it comes from) is much less diverse than your average AC album (see below) but Panda Bear has captured an essence of something of the Beach Boys and turned it into a hypnotic campfire chant.
9. Animal Collective – 1 (USA - 2007)
Without a doubt, Animal Collective are the most interesting and melodically inspired band in the world today (and – IMO - the most likely to write something immortally brilliant – ONE DAY). Like every other AC album, the parent of this song is so full of ideas, hooks, rhythms and sounds that listening to it leaves your head spinning. I chose this song because of the wonderful synth arpeggio (note of techno) and the peculiar baritone vocals (avantgarde), which, together with those Beach Boys-esque counter vocals (pop) go someway to capturing in a nutshell what I love about them (though you can never hear one AC song that totally sums them up).
10. Amy Winehouse – Back to Black (UK - 2007)
Much has been written and even more photographed on the crazy whirl of Amy’s world. All I’ll say is this is truly superb Motown-inspired pop music sung by a great singer.
11. Neil Landstrumm – Kids Wake Up (UK - 2007)
Mr Landstrumm probably wouldn’t thank me for saying it, but his album has much in common with Amy Winehouse’s, because this too is an exercise in faithfully (almost religiously in fact) recreating a sound. In this case, close your eyes, crank up the volume and re-enter that E-warped-pupil-dilated “moment” of pure elation you experienced in some heaving sweaty club circa 88-92. Top one, nice one, get sorted.
12. Mum – Guilty Rocks (Iceland - 2007)
Bit of a change of tack for Mum but to very good ends. The glitchy electronica of yore has been replaced (on this song at least) with an almost Morricone-esque pallette of sounds. The result is a really haunting piece, evoking Lynchian fairgrounds and quirky French films.
13 and 14. Blonde Redhead – My Impure Hair and Spring and by Summer Fall (USA - 2007)
There is something quite epic about Blonde Redhead – not a quality I’m usually attracted to. But there’s an exoticism here that twists this miles away from your standard “big rock” sound. A brief biog - Jazz-trained Italian twin brothers and Japanese art students form band in New York which soon gets endorsed by Sonic Youth – probably explains the magic.
15. Robert Wyatt – Stay Tuned (UK - 2007)
Comicopera, the album from which this song comes, is a real treat. Eclectic and strange, yet tuneful and warm and not prone to the slightly whimsical feel of some of his recent albums.
16. Matias Aguayo – Lineas (Chile - 2007)
I do like my deep-minimal-house and I’ll keep bothering you non-believers (as I know many people I’ll give this to are) whether you like it or not. Can you hear the textures? Feel the tweaks? And those microscopic incremental progressions in sound? Oh yes!! Feels good. No?? Well tough – skip the track then J
Songs of the year 2007 part two:
1. Burial – Etched Headplate (UK - 2007)
Deeply soulful and haunting. Burial is in a class of his own in the dub-step scene. In fact his beautifully textured sounds almost define a new style in the same way that Boards of Canada came to define a sound. After last year’s equally brilliant debut album, “Untrue” cements this artist’s position as a major new talent.
2. Flying Lotus – Tea Leaf Dancers (USA - 2007)
Very deep sounding cut-up on Warp records. One of that label’s best releases for a while I think. Don’t know much about Flying Lotus really but this EP (6 songs) is cosy like a velvet fog (which is how they used to describe Mel Torme’s voice by the way – seems appropriate here too). I heard this in Sister Ray and bought it on the spot.
3. The Good, the Bad and the Queen- Kingdom of Doom (UK - 2007)
This saturates you in its own London story. One of the few songs that really does echo the haunting quality of the Specials’ best work – an accolade all too often rolled out for any old twerp who sings of desolate provincial Friday nights of puke, loveless kwik-sex then chips on the way home on the bus.
4. Beirut – Nantes (USA - 2007)
After his strange (and now hugely successful) indie/Balkan concoction (my fave of 2006), for his second album Beirut (Zach Condon) turns his unfeasible talents to French torch singing. The real secret of why this works: this guy can really really sing a song. And if you get a chance, check out the amazing videos of performances of songs from the album at http://flyingclubcup.com/.
5. Battles – Atlas (USA - 2007)
Nouveau glam for indie beard strokers. A compliment, by the way, for this truly weird and wonderful tub-thumper.
6. Coleco Music – Please Add Me (Argentina - 2007)
The social networking generation gets a love lament. “Please Add Me” by Buenos Aires-based Coleco Music is part of a mini-concept EP. Appropriately, the EP is a download only freebie from the quite amazingly brilliant “8 Bit Peoples” project – an online repository for music in the burgeoning underground “chiptune” scene. Get out your old Atari/Commodore/Sinclair and get chipping.
7. Dean and Britta – Me and My Babies (USA - 2007)
Cor! You know this could easily work on the fabled Bradley’s juke box. Dean’s slightly nasal baritone (it does work!) is perfectly counter-pointed by his other half’s sexy cooing “la las” and those warm spacey vibes. Nancy and Lee would be proud.
8 and 9. Mr76ix – 9 and Spirit of Man (UK - 2007)
Two deeply atmospheric tracks from a superb album “3 minority of one”. An album of dark dystopian visions to get totally immersed in. Very futuristic and just a bit scary and ominous.
10 and 11. Deerhoof – Cast-off Town and Whither the Invisible Birds (USA - 2007)
I’m a latecomer to Deerhoof and some of their long-term devoted fans suggest that this album is a tad soft and “poppy”. Personally I found it to be one of those wonderful collisions when something weirdly off-kilter gets infected with a pure pop aesthetic, resulting in something strange but entirely accessible.
12. Mike in Mono – Europe Eccentric (UK - 2007)
It was so nice to find this ace little 7 inch when trawling through the racks at the new Rough Trade store off Brick Lane in London (great shop by the way). Mike is an old friend from Brum who was once part of the criminally underrated Plone. This is a great bit of electro-pop fun.
13. Fiery Furnaces - My Egyptian Grammar (Canada - 2007)
I’m pretty sure that Fiery Furnaces are trying to be clever – which can often be a deadly killer to a good tune. But it’s almost despite themselves that this band do deliver (frequently) some really inventive pop songs. Like all their other albums this one features a whole batch of things where they have indeed over-egged the cerebal pudding. But on this one they reign in the post-modern tendencies just enough.
14. Rufus Wainwright – Tiergarten (USA - 2007)
When I play this soppy piece of genius on the train I find myself looking out of the window and sighing wistfully – hopefully embarrassing the Telegraph-reading-Chippenham resident I always seem to get sitting next to me. If I was getting married again I’d go up the aisle to this. No irony.
15. Francois – I’m So Glad I Met You (UK/France - 2007)
Did you know that Bristol has its very own French indie scene? Yes - Francois – a Bristol-residing French singer/songwriter is a lovely Gallic jewel in the city’s already rather great musical crown - inner city Britain is much more exotic than you thought.
16. Grinderman – Get It On (UK/Australia - 2007)
Nick Cave demonstrates that a gentle descent into mournful balladeering is not his last shake of the dice. Lascivious old thing!
17. Malcolm Middleton – We’re All Going to Die (UK - 2007)
Something we all share – a universal – so put on your Santa hat and sing it “You’re gonna die, you’re gonna die, you’re gonna die alone”. Feels great – try it! And yes – this is actually a Christmas song.
18. Husky Rescue (Finland - 2007)
This Finnish band captures the sound of snow melting. That’s it really. Lovely stuff.
19. Komputer – Like a Bird (UK - 2007)
Wistful electronica with an eye to a bygone age. The human factor. A welcome return to form from the authors of one of my all-time-favourite songs “Looking Down on London”. Great to have Komputer back to their best.
20. Daedelus - Fair Weather Friends (USA - 2007)
Daedelus is back. Yipee. The greatest solo electronica performer in all of Christendom returns with a real pop belter.
21. Dirty Projectors – Rise Above (USA – 2007)
“Rise Above” is a song-by-song "reimagining" of Black Flag's “Damaged” album which is a pretty bizarre concept. All I can say is, if you know Black Flag (an 80s US hardcore punk band) you’ll probably be very surprised to hear that this sounds like it does.
