The Top Albums of 2007 - #7

#7 - The Good, The Bad, and The Queen - The Good, The Bad, and The Queen



This album didn't get a lot of love on year-end lists, and I'm not sure why. I know why it shows up on mine, though. I'm an unabashed Damon Albarn fan. Blur's Parklife is one of my favorite albums of the 90s, and I love the Gorillaz catalogue, so when I found out that Albarn was doing an album with Clash bassist Paul Simonon, Verve guitarist Simon Tong and former Fela Kuti drummer Tony Allen, I was extremely excited. The album didn't disappoint.

It's rather familiar territory for Albarn, as most of the songs seem to capture life in London, something he examined to perfection in the aforementioned Parklife. However, whereas Parklife had the jaunty upbeat nature of someone experiencing London nightlife in their twenties, this album has a more contemplative feel of someone who doesn't know where they are heading. Even though I can't necessarily discern why I feel this way, one word keeps popping into mind while listening to this album: post-apocalyptic. It may only be because of one particular line "The medicines man's here 24/7, you can get it fast in Armageddon", from the album's standout track, "Herculean", but the general afro-beat provided by Allen, tonal quality from Tong and detached vocals from Albarn have something to do with it as well.

As I said earlier, I don't know why this album was overlooked, but a January release could have had something to do with it. If you happened to miss this album, give the tracks below a listen, maybe you'll be able to explain its absence. As for me, it's definitely good enough to clock in at #7.


Essential Tracks: "Herculean", "The Good, The Bad, and The Queen"



"Herculean"


"The Good, The Bad, and The Queen" (Live)

The Top Albums of 2007 - #8

#8 - Lil' Wayne - Da Drought 3



Lil' Wayne is a polarizing figure in today's hip-hop universe. Many call him the best rapper alive, touting maxims like "Lil' Wayne is your favorite rapper's favorite rapper." Just as many call him garbage, a punchline rapper who doesn't have much else in his repertoire. I'm not going to call him either, but as far as 2007 goes, Wayne ran the game.

The southerner has been shaping and finding his voice over the past few years, ever since he re-invented himself on The Carter. With Da Drought 3, a sprawling 2-disc mixtape that was released online for free, it seems that Weezy has cemented his style, with the help of the year's hottest beats and a whole lotta promethazine. The thing that makes Wayne such a interesting artist is his wordplay, how he stretches vowels and consonants, constantly reworking words and lines in order to create a unique sound. While some write this off as a failure to "ride the beat," I find it to be invigorating.

If there's any theme running through the mixtape, it's the metaphor of eating. Wayne likens himself to a vegetarian, eating "beats, karats, and green" on "Ride For My Niggas" and implores the listener to feed him rappers in the intro to "We Takin' Over (Remix)". This seems to be an extension of the concept of a mixtape in and of itself, in which a rapper takes (bites?) preexisting tracks , then raps (spits?) new lyrics of his own in order to create a brand new song (meal?) Actually listening to the mixtape with this concept in mind adds more layers to it than one would initially expect, especially if one was initially turned off by the general glorification of violence and misogyny that is sadly par for the course in most mainstream hip-hop.

The more disturbing trend is how much lean Wayne seems to be drinking, as evidenced by the amount he references it, and how much raspier his voice has gotten over the years. I'd hate to see one of the most prolific and interesting rappers in the game to go the way of DJ Screw. After all, we've already been waiting over 2 years for The Carter III, I'd hate for it to end up as a posthumous release. But, it's not like Lil' Wayne needs a standard album release to make one of the best albums of the year, does he?

Essential tracks: "Ride For My Niggas", "We Takin' Over (Remix)", "Back On My Grizzy", "President"


"Ride For My Niggas"


"We Takin' Over (Remix)"

The Top Albums of 2007 - #9

#9 - Okkervil River - The Stage Names



My first introduction to Okkervil River was at the unfortunately named Fun Fun Fun Fest, where they put on a blistering set late on day 1. I later found out that they had cemented themselves as one of the top Austin bands. Soon after the show, I decided to check out their most recent album, The Stage Names.

I'd consider myself a bit of an amateur critic, with a huge pop culture encyclopedia running around in my head. Well, it came as no surprise that singer Will Sheff is similar, a former critic with a clear understanding of the music and media that came before him. When I get referential, it usually comes in the form of a timely Chappelle quote (those are still timely, right?) When Sheff gets referential, he creates an album where he alludes to porn stars, Roy Orbison, Nena, and even his own work. The Stage Names is unabashed theatrics, carried by strong instrumentation, but mostly by the emotion of Sheff's voice.

His best vocal delivery in on the second track, "Unless It's Kicks," an ode to both his fans, and the concept of fandom in general, and the strongest song on the album. There aren't really any throwaway songs on the album, as they all seem to have a deeper message that can get lost if you aren't paying attention to the lyrics. "Our Life's Not a Movie, or Maybe" follows the idea that life isn't a huge production, it's simply normal, even the life of a rock star. "Savannah Smiles" is based on the tragic suicide of Savannah, a porn star from the mid-90s, told from an outsider's perspective.

Mostly on the strength of their live performances, Okkervil River has cemented itself as the best Austin band since Spoon, and The Stage Names is their first step into getting national attention. Being located in their home base will allow me plenty of opportunity to watch this band grow, something I'm looking forward to for the next few years.

Essential tracks: "Unless It's Kicks", "Our Life's Not A Movie, Or Maybe", "Girl in Port"




"Unless It's Kicks"


"Our Life's Not A Movie, Or Maybe"

The Top Albums of 2007 - #10

Alright cats, since we’re at the end of the year, we’re going to kick this mess off with a bit of a blog standard, a list! To make it even more standard, we’re going to make it a top albums of 2007 list! Calm yourselves now, SWAT teams are waiting outside for riot prevention purposes. Over the next few days, I’ll be counting down my top 10 albums of 2007, with some bad summaries and some clips thrown in for good measure. Alright ramblers, let’s get ramblin’.

10. The White Stripes – Icky Thump

I’ve been a huge White Stripes fan ever since I found them on an FTP site in the dorms Freshman Year. I had heard “Fell in Love with a Girl” a few times, but it didn’t make much of an impact on me. I’m pretty sure it was “Hotel Yorba” that hooked me in, and I started listening intently. At that point, The White Stripes, De Stijl, and White Blood Cells had been released, with Elephant soon to follow. I worshipped all of them, which made Get Behind Me Satan all the more deflating when I couldn’t get into it. While occasionally rewarding, GBMS never seemed to capture the garage rock/blues/Jack-White-Crazy that made me fall in love with the band. The additional instrumentation (I’ll admit, I didn’t know what the fuck a marimba was) seemed almost gimmicky, and the simplicity of guitar+drums = rock was the most enticing quirk of the band’s created mythology.

So, with that ludicrously long and uninformative intro out of the way, let’s move into the album itself. Icky Thump doesn’t recapture the glory of their first four albums, but it seems like a step in the right direction. The album kicks off with the title track, and explodes with one of Jack White’s most memorable riffs. It also briefly veers political, something the Stripes have mostly avoided up to this point. The rest of the album mixes accessible, almost dancy tracks ("You Don’t Know What Love Is", "Conquest") with some solid dirty rock/blues ("Bone Broke", "Little Cream Soda"). The album gets a little off-track when White gets crazy with the bagpipe in "Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn" and "St. Andrew", but it ends solidly with the brooding "A Martyr For My Love For You" and the super catchy "Effect and Cause".

While not quite a return to peak form, Icky Thump is a step forward from GBMS. With the additional instrumentation on each album, and his Raconteurs side project, Jack White seemed to be drifting into the realm of the obscure. While not necessarily a bad thing, it takes away from what made the Stripes so listenable in the first place. With Icky, White has reclaimed his grit, and let us all know that he is still one of the best songwriters working today.

Essential Tracks: “Icky Thump,” “You Don’t Know What Love Is”, “Bone Broke”, “Effect and Cause”

"Icky Thump"



"You Don't Know What Love Is"

Dig It

So, here it goes, starting off brand new and sexy.

What we got here is the ramblings of a underachiever imbued with ennui, a regular chap who's ready to try something different, mostly to get myself writing again.

Most of the time you mosey through, you'll find some sort of amateur criticism of aural and/or audio/visual works.

On occasion, you may find something else, which is to say, more of the same stuff you could find anywhere else, written with more humor, brevity, levity, and intelligence than I could. This will mostly be self-masturbatory rants about my life. Boring to you, tough sleddin, pops. It's the internets, it won't take you long to find something interesting.

done