Top 10 Albums of 2007
Jim asked me about my favorite albums of the year, so this is them. Obviously there were a bunch of great new albums by old favorites (The Fiery Furnaces, Interpol, Band of Horses, Devendra etc.), but looking back, I spent most of the year listening to albums by bands I’d never heard of before this year. Here they are, from least favorite favorite to most favorite bestest favorite of the year:
Bowerbirds — Hymns for a Dark Horse Devendra’s new album got most of the folk vote for album of the year, but excepting a few listens when it first came out, I haven’t really given it that much attention. For my money, the debut album by Bowerbirds was much more compelling.
Oh No! Oh My! — Between the Devil and the Sea Yeah, it’s only an EP, and yeah, most of these songs were on the demo album years ago, back when Oh No! Oh My! were called the Jolly Rogers, but technically this album was released this year, so I’m gonna let it in. Besides, this is a great song:
Born Ruffians — Hummingbird Another EP, but whatever, every song on this album is pure gold (including a cover of Grizzly Bear’s Knife). Also check out the super-charming video for this song here.
White Rabbits — Fort Nightly Okay, so maybe these guys sound like they learned everything they know about music by listening to the first two Walkmen albums, but you act like that’s a bad thing…
Black Kids — Wizard of Ahhhs All four songs this band have recorded are available for free download on their MySpace page. So, so good.
I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You [mp3]
Animal Collective — Strawberry Jam I know I said I was gonna leave off all the new albums by established favorites, but this album was just too good to pass up.
The Shaky Hands — The Shaky Hands I wrote about this Portland band earlier in the year, and here we are at the end and this album was still one of my favorites. This is a slightly different version of the song I posted before, this time from their debut EP.
We All Have Hooks For Hands — The Pretender I wrote about these guys too, but what I didn’t say back then was that I spent pretty much two full weeks listening to this 30-minute album over and over and over. The song I posted before is still my favorite, but Elvis “MF” Christ is pretty good, too.
Vampire Weekend — Vampire Weekend Yeah, sure, they’re huge now, but they totally deserve it. Actually, I wish they hadn’t gotten huge before I went all the way out to Echo Park for their tickets-at-the-door-only show only to find that it’d sold out 30 minutes before the first band even went on, but whatever.
Fourth of July — Fourth of July on the Plains And this is my Number 1.
How about some runners up?
Shapes and Sizes — Split Lips, Winning Hips, A Shiner (Previously)
And finally, who could forget all the great 2006 music that I didn’t hear until 2007?
I guess I have a ridiculous amount of catching up to do.
Comment by Pierce — December 18, 2007 @ 8:01 am