This album has a lot of attitude, which it should given Kesha’s well-publicized legal battles. It’s fundamentally a pop album, with rock and country providing a gritty sheen.
ZZ Top, Afterburner
Eliminator has the bigger hits, but Afterburner is the better album.
Prefab Sprout, Two Wheels Good (a.k.a Steve McQueen)
Prefab Sprout is one of those bands about whom I knew without actually hearing their music. So it was nice to discover they fell somewhere between Yaz and ABC in their pursuit of a jazzy new wave sound.
TV on the Radio, Return to Cookie Mountain
I didn’t get TV on the Radio at first. The few excerpts I heard seemed unfocused and tuneless. But I picked up their albums from thrift shop to see if I could eventually understand. By then, I had listened to more hip-hop and R&B and realized the band is Black af. A decade and a half ago, my rockist collection had little room for Black voices.
Aceyalone, All Balls Don’t Bounce
I confess to sacrilege — I didn’t pay attention to the lyrics on this album. The beats are too damn distracting.
The National, Trouble Will Find Me
The National is one of those bands I like, but I would not consider myself a fan. I would seem demographically suited to be one, given the rest of my collection, but I just haven’t been convinced enough to jump in two-footed. But I do like Boxer and this album.
A decade ago, I wrote a series of entries ranking my favorite albums from 1985 to 2004. My collection has expanded greatly since then, particularly in the last five years. So I wanted to see what has changed in 10 years.
The further we get from the present day, the more we’ll find retroactive changes to the Favorite Edition lists. The 2007 list sees a lot of shifting in the Favorite 10, and a number of retroactive additions.
Explosions in the Sky, All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone
UA, Golden green
The Dead Betties, Nightmare Sequence
Björk, Volta
unkie, the Price of Fame
Nico Muhly, Speaks Volumes
Stephen Sondheim, Company (2006 Cast Recording)
Once, Music from the Motion Picture
Sasagawa Miwa, Mayoi Naku
Tokyo Jihen, Goraku (Variety)
Other favorites from the year:
Synapse/Elliott Cole, The Oracle Hysterical
Tommy heavenly6, Heavy Starry Heavenly
Kawai Kenji, Seirei no Moribito
Office, A Night at the Ritz
M.I.A., Kala
The National, Boxer
Band of Horses, Cease to Begin
Jason Isbell, Sirens of the Ditch
The cast recording for 2006 production of Company gets a retroactive boost, missing the Favorite 10 the first time out. A PBS broadcast of the revival directed by John Doyle went a long way in raising its ranking.
I didn’t discover the Dead Betties till a year and some change after the release of Nightmare Sequence, and it would have shot up to the Favorite 10 had I known about it. The album doesn’t lose its punch more than a decade on.
Rufus Wainwright’s Release the Stars and Smashing Pumpkins’ Zeitgeist fall of the list entirely. I think those albums earned their place on the Favorite 10 because I was not paying attention to what was happening in 2007, if the expanded list is any indication.
I’m not sure I actually like The National, but I remember catching the band’s appearance on Live from the Artists Den and thinking Matt Berninger was a tall drink of water. Boxer is rather fine album, nonetheless.
I would not have picked up Band of Horses without Renée Fleming. I get them mixed up with the Band of Heathens and Band of Skulls.
I didn’t actually like Sirens of the Ditch the first time I listened to it. I was just starting to explore Jason Isbell’s work after hearing Southeastern, and I wanted everything to sound like it. I had no context about his work with Drive-By Truckers. Sirens of the Ditch is closer to his work with the Truckers than his more recent albums, and that understanding goes a long way to building appreciation for his solo debut.