411 Music Ten Deep 12.4.09: Top Ten Albums from 2007

Posted by Andrew Moll on 12.04.2009

From Radiohead's In Rainbows to Nine Inch Nails' Year Zero, take a look at the Top Ten Albums from 2007 in this week's edition of 411 Music Ten Deep!


(Disclaimer: All opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of 411 Music and its staff.)


Welcome everybody to the twentieth edition of Ten Deep, brought to you exclusively by 411 Music. My name is Andrew Moll and I will be the one leading you though this week's list of the Top Ten Albums from 2007. First I'd like to bring something to your attention: If you're a fan of good-natured stage banter, I urge you to go to Chunklet and download Having Fun on Stage with Fugazi, forty-five minutes of Ian Mackaye and Guy Picciotto's on stage ramblings as they ask for the air conditioning to be turned down, chastise scalpers and rip on an alarming amount of assholes that showed up at their concerts. Trust me, you won't be disappointed. Now, let's get to the feedback from the Top Ten Albums from 2006.





Damn, no Gnarls Barkley?
Posted By: Ry (Guest) on November 27, 2009 at 12:26 AM

I wasn't a huge fan of St. Elsewhere, but that may have just been because I heard "Crazy" about nine thousand more times than I was comfortable with.

Sunset Rubdown?
Posted By: G (Guest) on November 27, 2009 at 02:06 AM

I like Sunset Rubdown, but it just wasn't good enough to make the list, unfortunately. They may very well be on my Best of 2009 list, however.

RE: Clipse

"...no obvious hooks, no attempts to crack Top 40 Radio."
"There are no crossover attempts..."

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't "Mr. Me Too" on this album?
Posted By: Tom (Guest) on November 27, 2009 at 04:53 AM

Correct, but if "Mr. Me Too" is your big crossover hit, then becoming pop icons clearly isn;t your biggest priority.

You know Andrew Moll lists are jokes when pseudo "artists" like Timberlake and totally OVERRATED ones like the Monkeys are ahead of the best of the late 90s/early 00s aka MUSE and its epic masterpiece "Black Holes And Revelations"

MUSE >>>>> Arctic Monkeys
Posted By: Epic Fail For Andrew Moll (Guest) on November 27, 2009 at 02:50 AM

Seriously, where the hell is Muse? It was bad enough you snubbed Absolution, but now you leave off Black Holes and Revelations? What the hell man!!

Nice call with Lupe and Arctic Monkeys.
Posted By: Matt (Guest) on November 27, 2009 at 10:05 AM

No Black Holes and Revelations = fail.
Posted By: Andy (Guest) on November 27, 2009 at 12:26 PM

I also gotta throw in some love for Black Holes and Revelations by Muse. It's a very strong contender for my favorite album of the entire decade, and this is coming from someone who was torn between Mer de Noms and Lateralus for the past 2 years.

Speaking of bands led by Maynard, I've seen you show some love on here for Tool before. No 10,000 Days honorable mention at least?
Posted By: Lenny (Guest) on November 27, 2009 at 11:02 PM

I'm sorry to all the Muse fans, but I just don't like them, at least as much as you do. They're a perfectly fine rock band, but to say they've made an "epic masterpiece" is a bit much in my opinion.

And don't even get me started on 10,000 Days. Ah, for the days of Ænima.

monkeys should be no.1..This is rigged
Posted By: jimmy (Guest) on November 27, 2009 at 01:50 PM

It's actually impossible for me to argue that this is rigged. You got me.



Top Ten Albums from 2007



The music year 2007 is one I actually know pretty well. How well, you ask? I listened to 163 different albums from that year, so trust me when I say that these are the ten best. Most of the time I'm bulshitting it all, but this time I know what I'm talking about. First though, let's take a look at this week's honorable mentions:


Some Honorable Mentions: Animal Collective - Strawberry Jame; Battles - Mirrored; Dillinger Escape Plan - Ire Works; Justice - Cross; Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala; Liars - Liars; Lupe Fiasco - The Cool Nina Nastasia and Jim White - You Follow Me; of Montrea - Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? Okkervil River - The Stage Names; St. Vincent - Marry Me




10. Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero


The genius behind Year Zero was as much in its marketing as it was in the music itself. Hiding messages, clues and nuggets in t-shirts, websites, games, while placing USB drives in bathrooms at concerts and inviting fans to become part of the process. This was an album as more than just a singular part of art, but rather as a part of a larger promotional blitz. The idea of art as resistance has long been a part of Trent Reznor's approach, and with Year Zero he took it all to an entirely new level. But the story behind the album's release is nothing compared to the story the album tells; while most rock and roll concept albums are self-indulgent and farfetched, the thing that makes Year Zero is that Reznor's alternate reality is all too real of a possibility, with a story about government takeovers, war with foreign enemies, bioterrorism attacks and more.





Concept albums often reach too far not just in plot but also musically, as the group thinks a larger concept needs larger music. Reznor goes the other way, making an trapped, insular album full of electronic and industrial noises that fit nicely with the rest of his catalog; even the electro-funk of "God Given" is a nice fit because of its urgency. The self-loathing Reznor of, well, pretty much every other Nine Inch Nails album isn't present, replaced by a passionate, purposeful man intent on telling his story and getting his message out. One of the best things you can usually say for a concept album is that the songs would work as well even if there wasn't a coherent story and while that's certainly the case for Year Zero, the story that surrounds is part of what makes it special. The album, the game, the t-shirts: it's all the same thing with the music itself as the final piece of the puzzle. With the story complete, we can now appreciate the entirety of it all and Reznor's ambition.





9. El-P - I'll Sleep When You're Dead


The Definitive Jux record label has given us some of the best hip-hop of the last ten years, with El-P, the label's founder, being the mastermind behind most of it. His second full-length, I'll Sleep When You're Dead finds a rapper on the edge in a post-9/11 America engaged in battles abroad and at home. With help from Trent Reznor, The Mars Volta, Cat Power, Aesop Rock and more, El-P's describes a world full of impending and already arrived doom. When it comes to his production, there's no way I can describe it better than AllMusic did, as they wrote, "If a Bomb Squad production made it sound like the Apocalypse was nigh, El-P's tracks come post-apocalypse." That feeling permeates each song, as the production is urgent and never welcoming in any way. If you want to listen to this album, then you must enter El-P's universe full of his insistent beat and crazy persona. He's not a man willing to suffer fools, or as he raps on "Up All Night, "I might've been born yesterday sir/But I stayed up all night."





Paranoia is the name of the game on I'll Sleep When You're Dead and nobody is off-limits, from El-P himself to the government to the Almighty, as he raps, "Why should I be sober when God is so clearly dusted out his mind," and Reznor joins him for a debate between faith and physics on "Flyentology." Oddly enough, the album's high point may just be the Orwellian romance of "Habeas Corpses (Draconian Love)" El-P is a guard on a prison ship meant to take out a prisoner but falls in love with her instead, and he asks, "Should a creature so sublime and young really be in line for the gun?" Questions like that could probably be asked more often, but if the world really is headed into the abyss, then at least we have El-P to lead the way and soundtrack our downfall.





8. Les Savy Favy - Let's Stay Friends


In the opening song of Let's Stay Friends, "Pots & Pans," Les Savy Fav sing, "There was a band called the Pots and Pans/They made this noise that people couldn't stand/And when they toured all across the land/The people said, "No, no, no!" The lyrics may have been about a fictional band, but Les Savy Fav could have easily been singing about themselves, as their raucous racket isn't for everybody. But the band's first album in six years doesn't sit around waiting for anybody else's approval; it storms out and kicks any ass it can find, with the second track "The Equestrian" leading in the way. Its opening riff is aggressive, with the lyrics, "How many times did you think you could cantor past my house/Before I called you to my stable for a little mouth to mouth," being dangerously sexy. But it's not all loud and fast guitars, although there are plenty of them; these twelve tracks have plenty of hooks to them for one hell of a dance punk album.





The earlier Les Savy Fav had been frantic, aggressive affairs and the best thing about Let's Stay Friends is that it maintains plenty of aggression while realizing that can only go so far. Songs like "Kiss Kiss in Getting Old" and the standout "Patty Lee" can get you up and moving as well as "The Equestrian" and "Raging in the Plague Age" can make you slam dance. It's all powerful though, as the guitars and Tim Harrington's voice are all razor sharp and intense. This hasn't been the best decade for punk rock, but as Les Savy Fav proves with this album there is still some life left in the genre. What makes it better is that Les Savy Fav were willing to change their approach slightly, and the result was a great album that hits on both the aggressive and melodic ends.





7. Menomena - Friend and Foe


Friend and Foe, Menomena's third album is full of big ideas and big sounds, a stunning combination of art rock and pop melodies is as impressive as it is catchy. The band's rhythm section is as good and heavy as any you'll find in rock music, as they push and the pull the song's in a number of different directions; that ever-shifting sound is what makes the band great, as the melodies and effects float in the air above and move with those heavier parts, like an object caught up in a strong wind. Menomena moves beyond any art rock pretensions and trappings by remembering that you can't deconstruct a song without actually having a song in the first place. A song like "Air Aid" has a great melody and makes good use of both handclaps and saxophones, but it also contains a number of sound effects and time changes that make it unique.





There are a lot of different sounds that end up on Friend and Foe, but the songs never become over bearing or dense. Instead, each individual part weaves in, out and around the other parts for an interesting listening experience as things hover just beneath the surface and, when they're uncovered give the song an entirely new dimension. Friend and Foe is experimental rock at its best since it doesn't skimp on either end of that spectrum. With great rockers like "Muscle'n Flo" and "The Pelican", and more ballad types like "Rotten Hell" and "West," Menomena covers all bases, infusing each of these songs with an arty touch that is never forced. Instead, all these parts come across as natural. In the end Friend and Foe is an intriguing listen that can be enjoyed in an number of different ways.





6. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga


Tight pop-rock with smart lyrics and just a bit of Motown influence? Spoon cornered the market on that genre throughout the decace, with great album (Girls Can Tell) after great album (Kill the Moonlight) after great album (Gimme Fiction). Things aren't any different on Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, which overcomes one of the worst album title imaginable, but at this point they're so good at what they do, there's no need for Spoon to make any drastic changes. That's not to say Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga is just a rehash, since the band is able to deftly explore new musical territory while staying within the realms of the sound they've been so good at. "The Ghost of You Lingers" is haunting with its insistent piano riff that never dissipates, while "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb" is nothing but good time soul for the modern era.





Tracks like "Eddie's Ragga," Don't You Evah" and "Finer Feelings" have more groove to them than most dance or disco songs could hope to have, but one of Spoon's best qualities over their career has been their defense of the downtrodden combined with those grooves, and never before had it been better defined and performed than with their single "The Underdog." With its classic pop and soul vibe and great horns, the song is an instant winner with Britt Daniel singing, "You got no time for the messenger/Got no regard for the thing that you don't understand/You got no fear of the underdog/That's why you will not survive!" But their appreciation of the underdog has helped allow to Spoon to not only survive but prosper, in addition to crafting the best pop rock any American band has been able to come up with this decade. Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga proved to be a fine finale on ten years' worth of great music, with hopefully more to come.



5. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver


With his first album, James Murphy's LCD Soundsystem created the genre of self-aware dance rock, but he just may have perfected it with his second album Sound of Silver, a tight nine song collection that amps up the dance part while Murphy vastly improves as a songwriter. Incorporating a number of electronic influences (Brian Eno, synth pop, David Bowie), Sound of Silver is a dance album that knows its place and excels at it. The best apart about each LCD Soundsystem song is that it's clear that they're being played by a real band and not a compressed result of a computer program. Opener "Get Innocuous" builds like a typical rock but has an electronic beat that necessitates moving along with it. He can even incorporate a political message with shoehorning it in, like on "North American Scum," a criticism of anti-American sentiments with lines like "Yeah, I know you wouldn't touch us with a ten-foot pole/'Cause we're North Americans."





Much like LCD Soundsystem's debut was highlighted by "Losing My Edge," so Sound of Silver is highlighted by its centerpiece, "All My Friends." Opening with a continuous rapid fire piano riff that sounds somewhat off, like a runaway train as it builds and builds for seven minutes. A song about the perils of agin, Murphy provides the perfect amount of gravitas to lines like, "You spent the first five years trying to get with the plan/And the next five years trying to be with your friends again." As the song builds, the piano riff and songs go from being wary to euphoric as Murphy wails, "If I could see all my friends tonight." It's one of the decade's greatest triumphs pretty much unmatched on the album, save for perhaps the album's closer "New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down," an elegant tribute to the Big Apple. That the great dance producer in recent years would end his album with such a songs right from 1970s art rock tells you all you need to know about the great Sound of Silver and its creator.





4. The National - Boxer


The National's albums tend to grow on you; the first listen reveals a perfectly acceptable rock band with intelligent songs. Repeated listens show that still to be true, but all the great instrumentation, the smart lyrics and singer Matt Berninger's baritone all become something much more. Boxer's songs tell of the impending doom known as maturity and all that comes with it, from late nights out to finding love to losing love to mindless white collar jobs, all of them told through Berninger's welcoming voice. When he sings of "another uninnocent, elegant fall into the unmagnificent lives of adults," as he does on "Mistaken for Strangers" you are almost ready for that fall yourself to come. His voice is also backed by tremendous instrumentation as drummer Bryan Devendorf, while not being John Bonham or Keith Moon, delivers some of the best and precise drumming you're likely to hear on a rock record.





Boxer doesn't really advance the band's sound in any way from their previous albums, but instead improves upon it, making it more focused, more emotional, and simply just better. It's easy to dismiss the band and the album as boring, but to do that would miss the point. The National find the beauty and feelings in the everyday of experiences of twentysomethings with phrases like, "Let's not try to figure out everything at once" and "We miss being ruffians, going wild and bright/In the corners of front yards/Getting in and out of cars/We miss being deviants," describing that life as well as any phrase could. Sparse, moving, and focused with each song relying on the others to create the overall mood, Boxer operates like an album should: with a theme and sound that continues through each great song, and one that only gets better with each listen.





3. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible


The sophomore album after a successful debut is a tricky one; do you stay with what got you there and risk becoming stagnant? Or do you change your sound and risk losing what people like about you in the first place? Fortunately for Arcade Fire, they succeeded where so many had failed. By keeping their musical approach similar but completely changing their perspective the band came up with a worthy follow up to Funeral. Looking outward instead of inward, Win Butler makes Neon Bible is at times a Springsteen-influenced stement on Americana and the world at large. Right from the opening song "Black Mirror," Butler is singing, "Mirror, mirror on the wall/Show me where them bombs will fall," and later on "Windowsill" is asking, "World war three, when are you coming for me?"





All the somewhat over the top hope and despair that made up most of Funeral is absent from Neon Bible, replaced by a frustration that subsists for much of the album. Whether it's war, televisions, culture, Butler is a man on a mission and his expressive voice proves just as good at emoting those frustrations as it was at inspiring people. He evens positions at himself as Joe Simpson on the tremendous "(Antichrist Television Blues)" as he sings, "The girl's thirteen, but she don't act her age/She can sing like a bird in cage/Oh Lord, if you could see her when she's up on that stage." That frustration seems to finally break on "No Cars Go," a triumphant song that rivals "Wake Up;" the song is glorious and triumphant, and representative of everything that the band strives for. It's telling, then, that the album finishes instead with "My Body is a Cage," a theatrical melodrama where Butler sings "I'm living in an age that calls darkness light," and has no sense of triumph. It's massive in size and ideal and proves the frustration wasn't an aberration, but instead it seems like the catharsis was. Either way, Neon Bible proves that the Arcade Fire are indie rock in albums sales only and not in talent or scope.





2. Radiohead - In Rainbows


In Rainbows began as a terrific idea; a pay-your-own-price experiment meant to completely subvert the music industry that might just completely change the way albums were distributed and phase out huge record companies. A couple years later and the jury's still out on whether or not In Rainbows represented a seismic shift, although a number of artists have taken similar approaches to the release of their albums. But strip away all the hype about the brilliant marketing and what it might mean and you're left with maybe Radiohead's most accessible album and their first album in a long time that doesn't sound conscious of the one that came before it. No longer responding to fame like they did on The Bends or Kid A Radiohead sound comfortable, or at least as comfortable as they can, on In Rainbows. There are still dark sonic textures and Thom Yorke's defeated lyrics, all funneled though a tense but vulnerable collection of songs.





This is probably the band's most human album, one that explores ideas of romance and unrequited love, both of which are explored on excellent songs like "All I Need" and its lyric, "I am an animal trapped in your hot car." The band has always had the talent to be haunting without being menacing and that feeling infuses a lot of these songs. Even the death note "Videotape" is tender and moving as Yorke sings, "This is my way of saying goodbye/Because I can't do it face to face," and the album's best song, "Jigsaw Falling into Place" is an intense meditation on the dark side of excess that reaches a thrilling catharsis. So for the first time in a long time, there is no great leap of faith for the band or their fans and no grand change to keep them from being stuck in one place. In Rainbows sounds like a band taking a breather without getting too comfortable with their position. Whatever you may have paid for the album , it's clear the music goes much further than whatever it may have cost.





1. Panda Bear - Person Pitch


Other than simply being the most beautifully sounding album of the decade, how does one describe Person Pitch? Panda Bear (real name: Noah Lennox) said himself that the record sounds like a sunny day in his now home of Portugal, and there is a tremendous warmth that comes over you when listening to it. You also get alternate images of a campfire and a computer, with Panda Bear as the ringleader of a nighttime sing along in addition to being the technical mastermind behind these sound collages. The numerous loops, the warped Beach Boys melodies, the psychedelic pop; it all makes for an album ulike any other thanot even Panda Bear had show signs of accomplishing up to this point. His previous two solo albums and work with Animal Collective had shown his talanets, but nothing could compare to the to the majestic brilliance that is Person Pitch. (I don't think it's a coincidence that AC's next album Merriweather Post Pavillion would be a huge step forward with plenty of samples and loops.)





Strip away the atmospheric effects and electronics, and Person Pitch could be a very good pop album, but it's those additional factors that turn it into something remarkable. From the Gregorian chant that dominates the opener "Comfy in Nautica" to the dreaminess of "I'm Not," the album becomes more than just an impressive achievement, and instead becomes a thrilling musical experience. The layered vocals, sound effects, tapes and guitars of these songs reveal new treasures with each listen while also containing melodies that rank with some of Brian Wilson's best stuff, especially on the astonishing twelve minute "Bros." Modern music doesn't deliver many albums like this one, ones that take you on a journey and make you part of the experience. Person Pitch envelopes you in its beauty and in sunlight, making you feel exactly like Panda Bear must have when he was making it.



That'll do it for this week folks, thanks for reading. If you have any questions, comments or concerns feel free to let me know, and make sure to leave your own lists in the comments. I'll see you all next week. And if you're out on your bike tonight, do wear white.