1 post tagged “top 5”

It was an odd year for music, Radiohead tried their download experiment to mixed result, the RIAA continued chasing Joe Average and press for Arcade Fire went through the roof when Harry Potter came out as a fan. Throughout the year though I’ve not found a great deal of music that has really grabbed me. In 2006 there was a great Hold Steady album and a Decemberists release that just blew me away, the Artic Monkeys presented their outstanding debut and we had a Tom Waits triple album. Really 2006 spoiled me for choice.

2007 has been a little more sparse and while I had a tongue in cheek jab at a few albums last week there has been a number of very good albums released. Without further dilly dallying, my Top 5 albums for 2007 are as follows:

#5 Raising Sand – Robert Plant / Allison Krauss
The standout track to my ear is “Gone Gone Gone” which bounces along at a nice clip with a really catchy riff. In the end though this album is all about the unlikely harmonies of Plant & Krauss, a surprise duet that I would never have expected but the results are just brilliant. It’s really strange to hear Plant so contained. The album does get just a little ‘folksie’ in places but is always engaging. Made #24 in Rolling Stones Top 50.

#4 Sound of Silver – LCD Sound System
Ouch, I’m listening to Electronica and enjoying it. "Sound of Silver" is really infectious and pulls me in from the opening track. "North American Scum" is the highlight for me from this album but I find once I start listening to SoS I pretty much go end to end. If you don’t usually listen to Electronic music I’d recommend SoS as a very accessible entry point to the genre. Made #7 in Rolling Stones Top 50.

#3 New Moon – Elliott Smith
This album has been my WOW moment for 2007 and the only reason it’s not further up the list is that I only just got it in the last couple of days. Predominantly acoustic with beautiful guitar work this double album is the sort of record that I can sit back and just listen to as an event in itself. I had never listened to Elliott Smith before and was immediately sucked into this album and will be digging into his back catalog.

#2 GaGaGaGaGa – Spoon
This album was a surprise to me and to be honest it took a while to grow on me but now at the back end of the year GaGaGaGaGa is one of my most played albums of the year. The highlight track for me is definitively “The Underdog” which opens with a nice bouncy acoustic groove and breaks into horns through the chorus, it’s just a fun song…I love this quote from Pitchfork, ‘”Underdog” is a battle cry against succumbing to mediocrity masquerading as a middle finger to the standard-bearers’. One complaint, it’s a bloody short album. Made #10 in Rolling Stones Top 50.

#1 Children Running Through – Patty Griffin
“Children running Through” has been my highlight album of the year. The album opens with a soulful jazz bass and a glorious clear voice through “You’ll Remember” and then the bluesy groove through “Stay the Ride”. There are so many great songs on this album, perhaps one or two fillers that didn’t appeal to me. This is the album has definitely become my favorite for 2007.

Honorable Mentions

Restricting any list to 5 is almost impossible, here are the albums that I just couldn’t fit into my Top 5 but had to give a nod to. If I had gone to a Top 10 these guys would definitely be there. 

• From here we go sublime – The Field
• Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters – The Twilight Sad
• Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace – Foo Fighters