The first fact is a cause for concern: I only saw one concert this year. The Pogues in March at the Congress Theatre.
Seriously?
No, wait. I saw Camera Obscura in February.
Still, only two concerts. Damn.
That's important, though. My mind and spending money was elsewhere this year, but that's for another post.
Okay, here's the list, making its triumphant return after taking a year off in 2006. (The winners were Belle and Sebastian and Mates of State, by the way.)
Rilo Kiley: Under the Blacklight
It might be their best album, but I don't listen to it all that much. Maybe because it makes me feel horribly dirty after I finish it. It's all random sex and skanky L.A.
The Darjeeling Limited Soundtrack
Yes, I liked the movie. And yes, I got the soundtrack. Which I like a lot. I accept my position as one of the Anderson Faithful. He is Mighty.
LCD Soundsystem: Sound of Silver
I didn't spend a lot of the year listening to new music (mostly a lot of Bob Dylan and Wagner opera, to be honest.) The albums assembled for my 2007 faves are mostly the latest offerings of bands I got into several years ago. The last time I found a new band that I went ape-shit for was Mates of State, a couple of years ago.
At least I made the decision to buy Sound of Silver, because "All My Friends" kicks fucking ass, to paraphrase Barry at Championship Vinyl. Best single I heard all year.
Paul McCartney: Memory Almost Full
I struggle with my belief in Paul McCartney like some people struggle with whether or not there's a Jesus. Over lunch on Sunday I spent a good twenty minutes discussing with my friend Eric whether or not Paul should have messed around with Let it Be.
But anyway, Paul put out a new album this year, right after a fairly decent one the year before. So he's kind of on a roll. A few songs are kind of bleah, but a good chunk of 'em are some of the best stuff I've heard Paul do in a long, long time. (The folky stomp of "Dance Tonight", for one.)
There's still the sappy, needy Paul, who wants to forever escape from Lennon's long shadow, and there's also the Paul that drags out John's name every time he starts talking about how "this album was written like me and John used to write!" And of course there's "Ebony and Ivory."
But then there's "Here, There, and Everywhere", "Jet", and now "Vintage Clothes." And that early frenetic-Little Richard-howling-mad energy that seemed to possess him until '65 or so. That has to count for something.
It was freezing outside while I loaded the students onto the bus, and to keep warm, and to entertain the kids, I belted out "She Came In Through the Bathroom Window" at the top of my lungs like some crazed evangelist. I still believe in Beatles.
The New Pornographers: ChallengersIt's great. They're always great. The Dan Bejar songs are brilliant. Neko is a sexy force of nature. But that's about all you can say about Challengers. Still, a good New Pornos album is 99% better than anything else out there.
The Shins: Wincing the Night Away
Predictably indie brilliance. Does that make sense? "Turn on Me" was lovely, and they were great on Saturday Night Live. A band I have yet to see live.
Wilco: Sky Blue Sky
Some lovely tunes on here, and I understand why Tweedy wanted to write some really nice songs for a change, but it really drags in the middle. If it wasn't for "Impossible Germany" and "What Light" this would have been kind of a shitty record. I spent more time listening to the live tracks from Sunken Treasure.
Radiohead: In Rainbows
This past summer I directed an original adaptation of Julius Caesar. I tried to merge Shakespeare and Hail to the Thief, and it more or less succeeded, because both were about power, corruption, and lies (a quick nod to New Order, which also played a part in the production.) For the longest time I couldn't wrap my head around Thief properly, not like I had with The Bends or Kid A (still their best album.) But it all fell into place perfectly while I was working on that show.
In Rainbows is another great album, but once again I don't think I have it quite figured out yet, and that's what's great about Radiohead: they're so far ahead of everything else out there, it sometimes takes a few years to digest it all and catch up to what they're doing.
The Arcade Fire: Neon Bible
I didn't really get what the big deal was about The Arcade Fire when I bought Funeral a while back. Heard they were good live, the album had a few bright spots, but overall.....eh?
Then I bought Neon Bible and I became a convert. After a bunch of decent half-albums from the old standbys, this was the only album that I really, truly cared about this year. "Antichrist Television Blues" makes me pee my pants it's so good.
Good Music That Made Me Say Meh: Or, Gee, That Wasn't As Great As I Thought It Would Be
Modest Mouse: We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank
More of the same. I haven't heard anything truly outstanding by them since most of the stuff from The Moon and Antarctica.
Bruce Springsteen: Magic
I'm not sure why people thought this was so brilliant. I still stand by Devils and Dust as the better album. And the Seeger album was fun, and different, at least. Magic is growing on me, though, so we'll see.
Feist: The Reminder
Well, it's kind of good, but because of the iPod commercial and fucking Grey's Anatomy I can't associate the songs with anything else.
Album That I'm Sure I'll Love Because I Got All the Rest, But For Some Reason I Haven't Gotten Around to Purchasing
The White Stripes: Icky Thump
But the fact that I haven't bought it yet says something, doesn't it...?
So there was, what--one album that I really got into this year? That can't be right. There was plenty of music that really got to me this year, but a lot of it didn't come from the year 2007. Right now I'm listening to Bob Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home, and there's this song on there called "She Belongs to Me," and I have to admit--I've never heard that song before. Or at least I never noticed it before.
And it's brilliant. It's so good, and it's like hearing a Dylan I never knew before. I had that moment a couple of years ago when I heard "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" for the first time. I was at rehearsal, and Brems was playing some music, and the song just jumped out over whatever I was doing, and I was like, "Jesus, I never heard that one before."
I would have, had I gotten around to buying Highway 61 Revisited. But I hadn't.
You see, I hold Dylan back a bit. I could have gone out and bought all the essentials a while back when I really started getting into him, but I held off, just buying an album here and there, every year or so. I want there to still be surprises left in a guy like Dylan.
I do the same with The Beatles. That's what The White Album, or A Hard Day's Night is for me: that last bit that I don't quite know backwards and forwards, the stuff that'll still sound new to me.
Nick Hornby had it right when he talked about that moment when you hear a song by an artist that hasn't been played to death on classic rock stations:
If you can hear Dylan and The Beatles being unmistakenly themselves at their peak--but unmistakenly themselves in a way we haven't heard a thousand, a million times before--then suddenly you get a small but thrilling flash of their spirit, and it's as close as we'll ever get, those of us born in the wrong time, to know what it must have been like to have those great records burst out of the radio at you when you weren't expecting them, or anything like them.
from Songbook.
