music 2007 review

So, this is my top ten albums of the past twelve months (in effect, 2007). It should be noted that many of my recent musical discoveries are pre-'07, but I might attempt some way of covering them later. The HTML took longer than the actual reviews, I think. I'm really not sure why I did this, but it gave some degree of satisfaction. Plus, you never know, you might discover something new and wonderful. Maybe.

Special Mentions

I See Red - Uh Huh Her I'd listened to a few tracks by The Murmurs after my discovery that Leisha Hailey made music, and although it was a little different to the music I frequented at the time, I found myself immediately liking the catchy wee tunes like Genius and You Suck. So I was expecting something similar, I suppose, when I found out she had a new band. But Uh Huh Her are a tad different from Leisha's previous musical pursuits - like many reviewers and/or fans have said, and I now agree, they have a little Cocteau Twins about them. I See Red is just an EP (for a moment before I actually heard the title track I thought it was going to be a Split Enz cover...) but the four songs are all catchy but mellow electropop that makes me desperately want them to release a full album. Please, Leisha? 5:55 - Charlotte Gainsbourg Well, it was her first album since 1986, when she was 15. So there isn't much to compare it to. And I'll admit, her voice can be a little grating after a while - but aren't all too many great musicians? (Billy Corgan, for one...) But it's well suited to her ethereal style and lyrics, and the slightly disconcerting switching between French and English within the space of a single song frequently. Favourite track? Probably The Songs That We Sing or Little Monsters. I haven't actually heard the whole album, but still. I will, one day soon. Until then, I'll just rewatch The Science Of Sleep. In Swings The Tide - Anika Moa Rediscovery of Anika occurred thanks to having fellow Whitcoullers with excellent music taste. So in a spectacular music swap which also resulted in my discovery of Iron & Wine and the lovely Bic Runga album Beautiful Collision I loaded Annabelle's copy of In Swings The Tide onto my laptop and now have her acoustic guitar driven melodies to serenade me. Her voice is I suppose fairly conventional as far as folk-y acoustic musicians go but it doesn't stop it being gorgeous. Let it be noted that the fact that she came out in 2007 did not affect my decision to listen to this album, I actually listened to it before I realised. It was just serendipitous. Juno Like most of the Western World, I went to see Juno and I loved it. And between my mother my sister and myself we all decided that we loved the cutesy Kimya Dawson-driven music, despite some reviewers saying it was the low point of the movie. So on a little trip out to JB (when I succumbed to the pull of One Beat, Post and a Sugarcubes album) my mum bought a copy of the soundtrack. As much as the Kimya stuff is cute, it does get old. But it's interposed with all sorts of other artists, from Sonic Youth to the Velvet Underground to Cat Power (yay!) to Belle & Sebastian. So it's very listenable.

TOP TEN

TEN

Bottoms of Barrels - Tilly and the Wall This was a major impulse purchase, I must say. I heard Rainbows In The Dark on someones MySpace profile or something, and absolutely fell in lust with it. And I fell in complete love when I realised that they had a tap dancer for percussion. Well. At Real Groovy it was $34.99 second-hand, but I still needed it. And it was worth it. Rainbows remains my favourite track, but other songs like The Freest Man are up there too. Technically this was originally released late '06, but according to Wiki it was released in Australia in early '07, so I can only assume that it was released at the same time or perhaps later over here. So it still counts. It's poppy, perky and definitely twee, but that's fine by me.

NINE

White Chalk - PJ Harvey This is, like so many, an album which I do not yet own but plan to. But I have in my possession the majority of the tracks from it and so feel I am justified giving it the lofty heights of number nine on this list. Entirely different to any PJ I had listened to before this (Down by the Water, The Letter, etc) it is beautiful and haunting. Unlike many artists that I tend to listen to (cf. the White Stripes. lol) White Chalk contains songs that all feel connected and part of the same story, all with the same 'spindly' (I think that was a RIU adjective) piano, rather than her usual electronica based music. Love love love!

EIGHT

Sweet Tooth - The Electric Confectionaires Okay, admission time. I don't own this album, I don't even have any songs from it on my computer. I have, however, seen them live, and listened to all the songs on their MySpace page. And they rock. Honestly, there is not a group of cooler late teens early twenties guys. Except for maybe Zach Condon (see below). They won RockQuest a coupla years back, and played Big Day Out this year, as well as all sorts of other gigs. Piece of my Heart would be my favourite, particularly live, but everything that I have heard is well worth me actually going to go buy it. Yes. Seriously, go to their MySpace and LISTEN to them. Guys that young shouldn't be making music this good.

SEVEN

The Flying Club Cup - Beirut I admit, I only discovered this band about a week ago. But a week with Beirut playing is an extremely excellent one, and good enough to make this much-lauded spot on my list. Ha. Zach Condon is 22 or something insane like that, and yet this is his second release as Beirut and he had a couple of releases under other guises before this. Wow. It's basically this fantastic gypsy/Balkan style music brought into a contemporary context. His voice is reminiscent of Julian Casablancas at times, but goodness me, there is much much more to Beirut than The Strokes (no offence, I still love The Strokes). Plus, for a band with a name like Beirut to be making such wonderful sounds can only improve US-Middle East relations, Beirut being the capital of Lebanon and all that... After all, like those kitschy-awful Supré t-shirts say 'Make music, not war'.

SIX

Structure and Cosmetics - The Brunettes There's quite a long story behind how I got into The Brunettes, but I won't go into it here. But the climactic moment in my love affair with them was realising that song bFM had been playing practically constantly and that I totally loved was actually by them. Celebratory moment when worlds collide. The song in question was B.A.B.Y (Brunettes Against Bubblegum Youth) (I posted the video like a week ago) and it made me run out and buy this album. Truth be told, the rest of the tracks aren't quite so enticing (except maybe Stereo (Mono Mono) and Her Hairagami Set) but they are still good to listen to. But B.A.B.Y bumps this up from a lower point in this list. I could actually (and have been known to) listen to this all day. Now I'm just waiting for them to actually play an all ages gig. Or for me to turn 18.

FIVE

I'll Be Lightning - Liam Finn Someone said of Liam Finn 'the son is rising'. So true. He's got something of a musical background, I suppose you could say. As the son of Neil Finn and nephew of Tim Finn he's part of a NZ musical dynasty. And as his debut solo album, I am well-pleased. I knew a little betchadupa (his old band) but not a lot, but no matter what, Liam on his own is a machine. He plays most of his own instruments (something crazy to see live) and his song-writing skills have clearly been inherited from his Crowded House/Split Enz father. Second Chance was the first single, and I'd say it was my favourite from the album, though Lead Balloon comes close. The whole album, though, slots in together very nicely and I highly recommend checking it out.

FOUR

Made of Bricks - Kate Nash Before Big Day Out, I'd heard only Foundations and a slow live version of We Get On. I thought her music was cute and decided that I'd make a trip to her slot at BDO (luckily she was the next act on the Essential Stage after Liam Finn). After forty five minutes of near-the-front Kate experience I was converted. In my break at work the next day I bought Made of Bricks and I've had it pretty much on repeat since. She's like the indie princess version of Lily Allen. Seriously, she is adorable, talented and on MySpace. Go look. There is not a single dud track on the whole album, they are all insanely catchy and sing-along-able. Today's favourites from the album are Mariella, Skeleton Song and Merry Happy. But you still can't beat Foundations. Seriously. And as I write this, I have just discovered on her MySpace page a Seven Nation Army cover. Awesome.

THREE

Icky Thump - The White Stripes Definitely my most anticipated album of the year, this really could have been in any of the top three places, but after much consideration I realised that it was slightly surpassed. Sorry Jack, Meg. But still. Way better than Get Behind Me Satan, Icky Thump still continued The Stripes' movement away from their pinnacle of Elephant. I still love them to bits, but seriously, Seven Nation Army et al were the ultimate. And their eponymous debut was that wonderful raw garage bluesy sound. Icky Thump, not so much. The title track - big thumbs up. Conquest, 300mph Outpour Blues, Rag and Bone, Effect and Cause, St Andrew (lol), likewise. There's plenty of good stuff in there, Jack's guitar playing and howling are in as good form as they ever have been, but it's just not quite the same as The White Stripes that I started to love in year 10. Still fantastic, though - they are still number 3, after all.

TWO

Volta - Björk Granted, if I hadn't seen her live, Bjork wouldn't necessarily rank quite so high on my list. But once I saw her in person, I fell in love with her and suddenly her music meant so much more to me. My main complaint about Volta is the hard-core copy-control software on the album which meant no songs on my iPod. So I wasn't as familiar with the contents of the album as I was with others. But I made myself sit down with my CD player and listen to it in a non-ear bud experience. And it is amazing. I actually think that it may surpass Homogenic as my favourite Bjork album. Particular highlights include Earth Intruders, obviously, Wanderlust, Declare Independence, and the Timbaland mixed Innocence. Declare Independence was the most amazing, anthemic closing song of all time. This is more experimental electronica at its best and is entirely amazing. Buy it, love it.

And finally... ONE

Neon Bible - Arcade Fire Bjork was almost number one, but I think overall, based on the whole album, The Arcade Fire take the cake. I've had songs from Neon Bible hanging around for quite some time now, and I have loved them all, but yesterday I got my hands on the whole album and I honestly don't think I have ever loved a CD straight away as much as I did this. Funeral was great, yes, but this is in a realm of its own. Win and Régine have created the most amazing combination of band/orchestra infusion through all their songs, and for such a huge band to be so cohesive on stage was pretty phenomenal. Bonus points for Will scaling the stage. Seriously, The White Stripes have been my top band for so long but I think it's official - Arcade Fire have taken their place. Is it the instrumentalisation? Is it the lyrics? Is it the occasional delving into French? I don't know, but it's glorious and I can't wait for more.

in the beginning...

Technically I'm not an 'impoverished artist' yet, but it's only a matter of time. I'm a student doing a Bachelor of Arts (arts...) in a combination of the most useless subjects in the world - Creative Writing, English, Classical Studies, Art History, French, Spanish, and I've still got plenty of time in which to discover more useless subjects to waste my time taking.

If I ever grow up, I'm going to be a writer. Even if I don't grow up, I'm a writer now. Just not an especially successful one.

So. This blog is going to contain all sorts of random information, reviews and general stuff sometimes pertaining to my state as an Impoverished Artist In The Making, sometimes not. The fact that I work in a bookshop to get by at present will also likely affect the content. Expect pseudo-essays, rants about life itself, reviews of music/movies/books/gigs etc etc.

So (again). That is my wee little introduction to let all the world who wants to know a little bit about what this whole thing is going to contain. At some stage.

Ciao xx