While people have lists and powerpoints to show their "best of" 2007, I will just forgo all of that nonsense and just write. I'll try to be entertaining.
I thought back to early 2007 and wondered what my most significant music purchases were during that time. I remember Air's "Pocket Symphony"
. That release was just perfect for my travel to Tokyo. Its very easy to get influenced by Japanese sounds and culture and this release was Air's way of saying "Merci" to the Japanese.
And then somewhere around Spring time, I ended up with Bjork's "Volta". I watched her performance on SNL and thought, "Hmm. I like the song." So I ended up buying it. It stayed on my repeat rotation for a bit until Summer.
The Chemical Brothers released "We Are the Night" and that easily pushed my Bjork playlist aside. Around that time, I remember watching a video of the Klaxons "Golden Skans" and thought, "maybe I should give that release a try. I mean, it did win a Mercury Prize - beating out the likes of Amy "I thought I heard a mouse" Winehouse. So I bought "Myths of the Near Future" and I got sucked into that album's nuveau post-punk wave sound. And then I bought UNKLE's "War Stories" and was surprised at the hard rock sound that James Lavelle was able to hone in on.
Around Fall, I bought Charlotte Gainsbourg's "5:55" based on the fact that I finally watched Michel Gondry's "The Science of Sleep" and remembered reading that Air helped write and record music with Charlotte. That was my surprise purchase of the year. When music is done by Air, you can't really go wrong. This album was on repeat on my iPod for about three months.
What kicked "5:55" from my repeat? Radiohead's "In Rainbows". The album deserves all sorts of acclaim. The thing about the release, though, was that most of the songs off the album were played live at various concerts. So in essence, some of the tunes weren't "new" in the sense of the word. They were just cleaned up, studio versions that got a final track spot on the LP or CD or download.
Along the way, I encountered some interesting news about Courtney Love's "leaked" demo. I will leave it up to the listener. I'm not going to say anything until Courtney releases the album. And the biggest leak of the year (at least, big to me as a fan) has to belong to Goldfrapp's "Seventh Tree". Ironically, its starting to become the most interesting release of 2008 based on the fact that the sounds kinda do harken back to the days of "Felt Mountain" but only while combining the sounds of their other releases. Their sound has matured and this release might actually prove to be bigger than "Supernature" because its a genuine pop album. Nothing to be ashamed of at all. The oxymoronic lyrics set against poppy, upbeat sounds is quintessential Goldfrapp.
So there you have it. My highlights of sounds of 2007. 2008 should be a good year for musicians, not so much for the major labels though. That would have to be another blog post and for another time.
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