If you want to find out what music was a hit with critics in 2007, check out the Metacritic list. Each year they do a brilliant job at pulling together the picks of the various music mags and site. Albums that pop up on a few lists include:
The December issue of Q has a cd that brings together some of the standout tracks of ‘07 – the sublime combo of Bjork and Antony Hegarty ”The Dull Flame of desire”, Cold War Kids “We used to vacation”, Interpol “Pioneer to the Falls” and the swirling mini-epic “Watch me fall apart” by Hard-fi.
TIME Magazine has come out with 50 Top 10 Lists. Their songs of the year incorporates a video. Rehab as sung by superslim beehived diva Amy Winehouse comes in at number one (Her cd Back to Black also hits the top spot in the Best albums list). Other top songs are Rihanna and her Umbrella (”the sexiest song of 2007″) and LCD Soundsystem’s All my friends.
I’d add some surprises like Happy Monday’s tasty Unkle Dysfunktional, Grinderman’s dirty low down grit and Rufus Wainwright’s gorgeous Release the Stars. Gigs of the year – Muse at Westpac Arena and Lloyd Cole at Al’s Bar.
Are you prepared to nail your colours to the mast? What was your favourite song, performance or top album? What was on high rotate in your home?
19 December 2007 at 8:27 pm
Eurrrr! I hate that “umbrella” song with a passion. There are just way too many “ellas” in it.
Picking one song out of the whole year is a big call. I’m going with Chelsea Dagger by The Fratellis. Emminently danceable. Also loving the slightly melancholic One day by Opshop as featured in the lastest NZ Post ads.
20 December 2007 at 9:02 am
mo-mo is like the bizarro me i think, i love ‘umbrella’ but ‘one day’ is the most overplayed piece of dribble! love sound of silver, great album. my local pick is die! die! die! – promises, promises and im a big fan of the new Jens Lekman album Nightfall Over Kortedela.
20 December 2007 at 9:40 am
I’m gonna have to go all ‘High Fidelity’ on it & pick my top 5 of 2007 – wether or not it was actually released in 2007 is another matter!
OK..here goes… high rotate in the house of P.I.N.A.C.O.L.A.D.A. (from the female side at least)
1. Digitalism
2. New Young Pony Club
3. Simian Mobile Disco
4. Tiger Tones – OK, so their CD is not actually out yet (March 2008 plug!plug!) but it playing at my house – so there!
5. Classic Hits Saturday as played by iTunes (Fleetwood Mac/The Police/10CC/and lots of other dodgy stuff)
20 December 2007 at 9:58 am
Other than Camp A Low Hum (which was beyond measure in its awesomeness), my fav gig of the Year was probably YACHT and Panther’s shows at Al’s and at Red Panda’s Space Gallery, plus Calvin Johnson and Woelv at Zebedees, with Die! Die! Die! and Black Market Art bringing the goods as local acts. Fav song would again go to Jens Lekman for ‘Nina, I can’t be your boyfriend’, though Justice’s reworking of ‘You’ll never be alone again’ captures the spirit of the season to me.
20 December 2007 at 11:00 am
Simon Sweetman’s Blog on the Tracks has some good recommendations and comments too on the best of ‘07 and Stuff lists the Best 25 releases of 2007.
20 December 2007 at 1:18 pm
If I had to put together a time capsule of my favourites things of 2007, the following items could found within:
Item 1: My personal fave release this year- The Brunettes ‘Structure and Cosmetics’ CD.Awesome production and some killer songs, especially their Beatles knock-off ‘B.A.B.Y’.Pure audio chocolate.
Item 2: A Sunny Day In Glasgow ‘Scribble Mural Comic Journal’ album -Philadelphia based group, twisted shoegaze meets electronica meets Nina Hagen.Definitely waaaay out there!!!
Item 3: Air ‘Pocket Symphony’ album – Their genius is not diminished over time…some much going on within the grooves of this record…
Item 4: Blonde Redhead ‘23′ album -more shoegaze inspired stuff, the title track is awesome and one of THE tracks of 2007 for me..
Item 5: Kanye West ‘Graduation’album- people think I’m a freak for liking this, and for once they might be right.But you can’t deny that ‘Good Life’ and the epic ‘Stronger’ are killer!!!
Item 6:Bat For Lashes ‘What’s A Girl to Do?’ single -reminded me so much of Saint Etienne in their glory days.Great stuff.
Item 7:Tigertones ‘Seventeen’(track from their upcoming debut album) – this track doesn’t come out ’til next March, but if you’ve caught them live recently chances are they would’ve played this song.Best keyboard hook of the year.A band to watch for in 2008(hint hint, plug plug…)
Item 8:Studio ‘West Coast’ album – from Sweden, these dudes combine Krautrockish instrumentals with the swagger of early Happy Mondays.Long tracks that just go and go and…you get the picture.
Item 9:The Go! Team ‘Proof Of Youth’ album -a solid second album from these guys.Opening track ‘Grip Like Vice’ is great. The critics seemed to hate this album but who cares about them.Sounds particularly great on car stereos.
Item 10:Groove Armada ‘Soundboy Rock’ album – this is all over the show, but the production is amazing and it only has one dreadful track out of fifteen (the god awful second single’Song For Mutya’ that is always skipped over). Check it out if you haven’t already, there’s something here for (almost) everyone…
Sorry to Mo-mo that I couldn’t fit in Op Shop’s ‘One Day’ on this rather long winded list, but that song is like a disease.It is EVERYWHERE.And if I hear it one more time I think I might explode…
..BANG!!!
Too late.
21 December 2007 at 12:21 pm
Well you’ve asked so, in no particular order and with all the swear words present and correct (am I supposed to edit them out?), a 100 on high rotation:
1. FLAIRS “Trucker’s Delight”
2. PASE ROCK “Lindsay’s Lohan’s Revenge”
3. !!! “Yadnus”
4. KLAXONS “Golden Skans (Erol Alkan’s Ekstra Spektral Dub)”
5. NOONDAY UNDERGROUND “Put You Back Together”
6. CLUE KID “Kid Cobra”
7. TOMMY ILL “Bill Cosby” **NZ**
8. BASS CLEF “Cannot Be Straightened”
9. THE LOVES “She’ll Break Your Heart”
10. THE ASTEROID #4 “Ask Me About Pittsburgh”
11. SLOAN “Who Taught You To Live Like That?”
12. LIMEWAX “God”
13. FREDDIE FOXXX “Hard Ghetto”
14. THE FALL “Fall Sound”
15. WELCOME “Bunky”
16. THE BASTARD FAIRIES “We’re All Going To Hell”
17. RINGO DEATH STARR “Some Kind Of Sad”
18. DURRTY GOODZ “Badman”
19. BIB “Tear Up The Streets”
20. BARR “The Song Is The Single”
21. PEEL “Oxford”
22. AUDIONOM “Kein Bock”
23. GUI BURATTO “Beautiful Life”
24. MR LIF & CANNIBAL OX “Brothaz (Remix)”
25. HELL RAZAH featuring KILLAH PRIEST “Smoking Gunz (Alternate Version)”
26. PANDA BEAR “Comfy In Nautica”
27. AMERIE “Gotta Work”
28. PINK MOUNTAINTOPS “Single Life”
29. MALCOLM MIDDLETON “We’re All Going To Die”
30. SCHWAB “DJ’s In A Row”
31. TINY MASTERS OF TODAY “Stickin It To The Man”
32. THE BEEP SEALS “Tell Your Friends”
33. JUPITER BLACK “We Like Moroder (Divider Remix)”
34. HOORAY FOR EARTH “So Happy”
35. ROB ROB ROB “Tiger Hunt”
36. THE WILLIAM BLAKES “Secrets Of The State”
37. YOUNG GALAXY “The Sun’s Coming Up And My Plane’s Going Down”
38. SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS “My Cabal (Robin Guthrie)”
39. THE MARY ONETTES “Void”
40. THE DULOKS “I’m Gonna Follow Your Star Trail”
41. EL-P “Poisenville Kids No Win”
42. THE HOLLIES “King Midas In Reverse (Beyond The Wizards Sleeve Mix)”
43. TIM TEN YEN “Girl Number One”
44. SPARO “The Falling”
45. J DILLA “Nothing Like This (Instrumental Version)”
46. ULRICH SCHNAUSS “Stars”
47. WHITEY “Stay On The Outside”
48. OLIVER NORTH BOY CHOIR “Shell For The Mourning”
49. SHIT & SHINE “Cunts With Roses”
50. PLAN B “Missing Links (Featuring Radiohead)”
51. BLAQ POET & NYGz “NHB (Nigga, Ho, Bitch)”
52. MAHOGANY “Supervitesse”
53. SHIT AND SHINE “Practicing To Be A Doctor”
54. RHYMEFEST “Angry Black Man On A Elevator”
55. MILANESE featuring KATIE KESTREL “Double Face”
56. MATTY G “One Step”
57. HOW I BECAME THE BOMB “Killing Machine”
58. PRINZHORN DANCE SCHOOL “No Books”
59. THE TEMPORARY SHELTERS “Tear Away”
60. CENTRAL BAND OF THE ROYAL BRITISH LEGION “Gravity’s Rainbow”
61. CARIBOU “Melody Day”
62. DURRTY GOODZ “Licence To Skill”
63. SHITMAT “Zagreb”
64. SUPERMAYER “Two Of Us”
65. NORTHERN STATE Featuring CHUCK BRODY “Mother May I?”
66. THE OTHERS “Bushido (Caspa Remix)”
67. ELECTRICITY IN OUR HOMES “Some Marvels”
68. GLASS CANDY “Rolling Down The Hills (Spring Demo)”
69. HEARTS REVOLUTION “Choose Yr Own Adventure (C.Y.O.A.)”
70. GNAC “Nautical Episodes”
71. DUBBLEDGE “9 To 5″
72. GENOD DROOG “Bomwich Y Byd”
73. SHRAG “Talk To The Left (DJ Downfall Entente Cordiale Remix)”
74. MOUNTAIN OF ONE “Brown Piano”
75. ZZT “Lower State Of Consciousness (Justice Remix)”
76. DISASTERADIO “Digital Pop” **NZ**
77. BOOM BIP “One Of Eleven”
78. PUZIQUe “Don’t Go!”
79. LETHAL BIZZLE “Police On My Back”
80. BASS CLEF “Get On The A10 And Drive And Drive”
81. JEFFREY LEWIS “I Ain’t Thick”
82. SOFT HEARTED SCIENTISTS “I Wanted You”
83. GEORGE PRINGLE “Carte Postale”
84. LOS CAMPESINOS! “The International Tweexcore Underground (Dirty)”
85. SHOCKING PINKS “You Can Make Me Feel Bad” **NZ**
86. JAKOBINARINA “This Is An Advertisement”
87. MIA “Paper Planes (Featuring Rye Rye And Afrikan Boy)”
88. CUT OFF YOUR HANDS “Still Fond” **NZ**
89. BRITISH SEA POWER “Atom”
90. SIBRYDION “Gwyn Dy Fyd”
91. HIGH ON FIRE “Rumors Of War”
92. PONI HOAX “Antibodies (To The Bones Edit)”
93. BURIAL “UK”
94. BATTLES “Atlas”
95. ELECTOLUXE FAMILY “Rock That Shit”
96. GIRLS ALOUD “Black Jacks”
97. POPOF “Serenity”
98. DIRTY ALICE “10,000 Soviet Children Marching Towards The Sun”
99. LINKIN PARK “Bleed It Out”
Always leave space for one track you forgot about.
Too much?