Best Albums of 2007

A picture of Permanent Records on Chicago Ave, not far from my house.  This is where I kill time flipping around.  Permanent is a sort of cat-reef of records, where you can occasionally see great things like Warhammer 48K or Bird Names.

Music I've Been Enjoying This Year:

Pylon is from Athens, GA, and REM cites them as a big influence even though they don't sound like REM.  This is the coolest record I've heard all year.

I really like the Deerhunter album Cryptograms; it strikes me as really different and great.  Bradford Cox also makes an amazing amount of music and posts it all to his blog for people to download for free.  You can hear some songs where he works with "healing music," writing songs for specific people and situations that might be helped by music, even in the sense of sonic vibrations having a beneficial physiological effects on sick people, which is very cool, almost as cool as doing an interview with Pylon. Which he also did. 

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Elliott Smith / / / XO

Patti Smith / / / Horses

the Cocteau Twins / / / Heaven or Las Vegas

King Khan & BBQ Show / / / What's For Dinner?

Wolves in the Throne Room / / / Diadem of 12 Stars

Okkervil River / / / The Stage Names

Dinosaur Jr. / / / Beyond

So the whole Numero Group thing is great. I love the idea that there are record detectives out there. Having a few beers, listening and reading through the liner notes to a new episode is a great way to kill an hour.

 I like Feist and Panda Bear, like lots of people.  Their albums, Remainder and Person Pitch respectively,  are both really relaxing and smooth.  Not like Warhammer 48K.

               

The single best thing I've heard might be the Dirty Projector's album Rise Against, a recasting of Black Flag's Damaged from 1981. Dave Longstreth, the main force of the band, has classical training combined with a really eccentric ear and, from what I've heard, a drive to accomplish difficult musical tasks even if it takes several years. This album is one of them; I think it turns on its head the underground fashion of punk simplicity in 81' to reflect the renewed emphasis on frenetically complex melody.  

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