Since I started scrounging through the racks of CD Warehouse on Berry Street years ago with my brother, I have accumulated a ginormous amount of music. But, by far, this year has resulted in more first meetings with great albums and bands than any other time in my life. And the majority of those, of [...]
Archive for February, 2008
Top 50 Albums of 2007
Posted in Top 50 Albums of 2007, tagged 2007, Music on February 5, 2008 | 1 Comment »
#1 Deerhoof – Friend Opportunity
Posted in Top 50 Albums of 2007, tagged 2007, Deerhoof, Friend Opportunity, Music on February 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
For as much effort as has gone into previous posts, you may have been expecting a grand thesis to accompany my number one slot. But since this was my first-ever published album review – with a few tweaks since then, of course – I thought it only appropriate to let it speak for itself. [...]
#2 Radiohead – In Rainbows
Posted in Top 50 Albums of 2007, tagged 2007, In Rainbows, Music, Radiohead on February 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
For all the notice Radiohead’s post-EMI record In Rainbows has been given (even in some of these blog posts) for its trailblazing “give it back to the fans” marketing technique, the fact is that many bands, if any, could have pulled it off besides them; as many have already said and will continue to [...]
#3 Sunset Rubdown – Random Spirit Lover
Posted in Top 50 Albums of 2007, tagged 2007, Music, Random Spirit Lover, Sunset Rubdown on February 5, 2008 | 2 Comments »
As vocalist for indie favs Wolf Parade, Dan Bejar team-up Swan Lake and co-founder of Frog Eyes, Spencer Krug hands-down deserves the maple leaf award for most prolific Canadian to have emerged in the recent north-of-the-border flurry. An exhaustive craftsman whose wildly abstract song constructions are only matched by his vocal acrobatics, his latest [...]
#4 Iron & Wine – The Shepherd’s Dog
Posted in Top 50 Albums of 2007, tagged 2007, Iron & Wine, Music, The Shepherd's Dog on February 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
As far as purely individual musicians go, Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam is probably the single most consistently great songwriter I’ve ever heard. And I owe the introduction to my old friend Josh Williams, who dropped in on me one afternoon while I was workin the music racks at Hastings to get me to use [...]
#5 The National – Boxer
Posted in Top 50 Albums of 2007, tagged 2007, Boxer, Music, The National on February 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Undeniably my proudest moment as a budding rock journalist, which validated my entire leap of faith in moving to Nashville a year ago to escape the armpit of hell that was Arkansas and pursue my writing dreams on my own terms, an interview I conducted with The National’s frontman Matt Berninger for American Songwriter [...]
#6 Of Montreal – Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?
Posted in Top 50 Albums of 2007, tagged 2007, Hissing Fauna Are You The Destroyer?, Music, Of Montreal on February 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Arguably the only survival story after the Elephant Six co-op went defunct in ‘02 – before being recently revived by label founders Apples In Stereo with their latest effort – Atlanta, Ga.,-based quintet Of Montreal have managed to keep critic’s heads turning over the years, despite what was considered to be a dramatic twist [...]
#7 Feist – The Reminder
Posted in Top 50 Albums of 2007, tagged 2007, Feist, Music, The Reminder on February 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I can scribble down a dozen great women musicians off the top of my head, from the chanteuse gospel of Neko Case’s solo work, anti-stiletto punk of The Breeder’s Kim Deal and Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon, to Bjork’s alien sensualism and harpist Joanna Newsom’s Neil Young-meets-traveling bard folk epics. Still, I almost always find it [...]
#8 Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Posted in Top 50 Albums of 2007, tagged 2007, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, Music, Spoon on February 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
After a plodding grassroots effort to spread their art-punk staccato since the late ’90s, Spoon are still not only tirelessly innovative with an uncanny ability to perpetually unearth interesting ways to expand their singularly addictive sound, album upon album, but their determination has paid off in large dividends with an ever-expanding fanbase and, finally, [...]
#9 Animal Collective – Strawberry Jam
Posted in Top 50 Albums of 2007, tagged 2007, Animal Collective, Music, Strawberry Jam on February 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
For as much attention as Noah Lennox was given for the tribal, plaintive beauty of side project Panda Bear this year, I hold Animal Collective’s back-breaking Strawberry Jam in much higher regard. Snuffing out the distracting quirks that made Person Pitch a slightly monocrhome indulgence for Lennonx, the band’s sixth LP capitalizes on each [...]
