A couple of late in the year holiday releases---Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood and Denzel Washington's The Great Debaters---have forced me to stave off on the Top 10 Movies of the year, but I'll get my list of best flicks out to you fine folks soon enough. Also, look for the Top 10 Sports Stories of 2007 before the New Year's ball drops. I realize it's probably a bit strange that I like Top Ten lists so much. Maybe it's just all the Letterman I watched growing up.
Anyway, and more importantly, happy holidays to everyone! If you need some music to bob your head to right about now, the following list of albums would be worth a little of your money and a lot of your time. Here are my picks for the Top 10 Albums of 2007:
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1- Arcade Fire, Neon Bible
"Every night my dream's the same/The same old city with a different name."
Far from a perfect album, Neon Bible is, in many ways, a tremendous achievement because of its flaws. Striving for greatness, Win Butler, wife Regine Chassagne and the rest of their Canadian crew recorded most of this disc over twelve months inside of a giant old church. The creaks and groans of the building did nothing to hurt this album's spectacular acoustics, ranging from the guitar-driven urgency in Springsteenfest "Keep the Car Running" to the soft prayer of organ-laden "Intervention" to the quiet anger simmering on ivory throughout "Ocean of Noise." Released in March, not every song on Neon Bible stands on its own, but that's part of what makes the whole so strong. Apocalypse, war, poverty, self-loathing and love are just several of the many themes the group tackles here. Arcade Fire's debut album, Funeral, probably had a bit more of a "wow" factor to it. But this is still a great effort by a young band just learning how to use everything at its disposal while at the peak of its powers. My album of the year.
2- Kanye West, Graduation
"Can I talk my shit again?"
Please do, Mr. West. Career album number three continues the rocket ride Kanye's been on over the last four years. Face it: most of the tracks on this one just make you want to get up and shake your booty. "Champion", "Good Life", "The Glory" and "Homecoming" are all grooving floor rompers. "Stronger"---with its bizarre Daft Punk sample---not only works, but would absolutely be on most music fans' mix CD for the soundtrack to 2007. It might even be the lead single. Clearly, Kanye West is as good a producer as there is in the music game today. Is he an elite MC? Absolutely not. But with age may come a little more ego checking at the door, and a la "Big Brother" Jigga, he may just get there yet.
3- Wilco, Sky Blue Sky"Nothing more important than to know someone's listening."
You could argue that this was the best "album" of the year. Which is to say, almost none of the tracks on this disc jump out at you on their own. But taken as a whole, from the twangy rumbles of "Impossile Germany" to the dream world of "Leave Me (Like You Found Me)", there may not have been a better vision of cohesiveness on a record this year, and there most certainly hasn't been in Wilco's career. Lead man Jeff Tweedy is older and wiser now, but still as mournful as ever for the lost youth of his past. Truly one of those albums you just throw on the CD player and let play from beginning to end. And again. And again...
4- Jay-Z, American Gangster"Pray for me."
Inspired by Ridley Scott's movie of the same title, Jay-Z bounces back from the lameness of Kindgom Come to release his most relevant music in four years. It's a pseudo autobiography for Mr. Hove. Musically, at least. "Pray" and "Fallin" are dynamite as the opener and closer (how funky is that hook on "Fallin"!?!), but "Roc Boys" is the best song on the album, and may be the coolest hip hop song this year. Why'd Jigga retire in the first place again? Uh, you got me on that one.
5- Radiohead, In Rainbows"How come I end up where I started? How come I end up where I went wrong?"
The greatest living band in the world today is in prime form on its seventh album. All the fanfare and headlines surrounding the self-release of this one via the Internet overshadowed how good the music actually sounds. Ten tracks that flow seamlessly into one another, starting with the rock drop of "15 Step" and "Bodysnatchers", floating through slow burners like "Arpeggi" and "All I Need" before closing with the dramatics of "Videotape." Even with the pay-what-you-want distribution system, Thom Yorke and company prove that, in pop music, the album still matters more than anything else.
6- Spoon, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga"Blow out your cherry bomb for me."
Austin's finest are it again, with maybe their most polished effort to date. This one has Beatles overtones written all over, especially in ditties like "You've Got Your Cherry Bomb" and "Underdog." Gotta love the horns sprinkled around, even if some of the lyrics sound like they fell out of a major acid trip. Strong opener "Don't Make Me a Target" is both political and direct. This album proves that a terrible title doesn't necessarily mean anything about what it holds inside.
7- Bruce Springsteen, Magic"Is there anybody alive out there?"
A deep album really, about America and the perilous times in which we live. But it's got the beautiful facade of E Street's jangly sound too. This is as old school as Bruce gets with his homeboys anymore. "Radio Nowhere", "Livin' in the Future" and "Long Walk Home" are all instant classics. "Terry's Song" is the best song about friendship the Boss has written since "Backstreets." Besides how good it all sounds, any excuse to get the E Street Band back on tour is good enough for me.8- Seal, System
"Rolling out of my bed/I still can't find the truth I've been searching for."
Some people are probably laughing at this selection. But Seal is an artist who's been underrated for a long time. Such is the plight of anyone with a smooth voice and smash singles coming out the wazoo for most of the '90s. Yesterday's news, right? I guess not. Every track on this one is grooving, most with techno beats but some with simple acoustic guitar a la Seal's greatest album, Human Being. The duet with wife/supermodel Heidi Klum is too much, but songs like "Amazing" and "Rolling" get stuck in your brain and won't come out any time soon.
9- Common, Finding Forever
"The karma of the streets is needs and takes."
Chicago's finest MC keeps the momentum of Be rolling throughout this disc. Kanye is back to lend a hand on the beats and production side of things, but it's the engaging lyrics that keep me coming back for more. "Drivin' Me Wild" and "The Game" are both gems, while "So Far to Go" makes me want a D'Angelo comeback album really, really badly. Common's first ever #1 release, and justified.
10- The White Stripes, Icky Thump
"Well, America, you can't be a pimp and a prostitute too!"
Jack and Meg White drop another straight-forward stompfest. The title track single had, in my opinion, the best guitar riff of the year. The cover of "Conquest" is cool and "You Don't Know What Love Is" comes across as downright funny---in a good way. Jack's side work with The Raconteurs isn't half bad, but it's not the same kind of magic rock he creates with Meg.
-JAB
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