Top 7 Albums of 2007 (So Far)
I know it’s only early November, but there isn’t much left to go on the album-releases front. So, here are the top releases from this year, in my opinion of course. To be honest though, if any of the artists listed below appeal to you and you haven’t got this year’s album, buy it. This year has been truly stunning for releases.
NB: These are in no particular order.
1. Interpol - Our Love to Admire. A spectacular return from Interpol. Some have argued it’s an experimental album, and perhaps in some respects it is. The opening and closing tracks (”Pioneer to the Falls” and “The Lighthouse”) are fairly pondering in places, as is the superb “Pace is the Trick”, but nothing too outrageous. In other respects, this is much more like their first album, “Turn on the Bright Lights”. Some of the more upbeat tracks like the relentless “Mammoth” may also seem hard-to-place, but all are brilliant. The first single, “Heinrich Manoeuvre” is nothing short of brilliant.
2. The Hives - The Black and White Album. Another return-to-form album (this was a year full of returns: Interpol, The Hives, The Shins, and the reformation of James and The Verve). The madness resumes again, and is fantastic as always. Any album which contains a single entitled “Tick Tick Boom” has to be quite fun. There is the odd slow track which doesn’t really seem to work - “Puppet on a String” springs to mind - but as a whole the album is very good, and is the first Hives album I’ve listened to in its entirety.
3. The Pigeon Detectives - Wait for Me. I recently saw the Pigeon Detectives for the second time, and although they weren’t on form (the singer was clearly struggling a little, there were technical problems, and the band is just generally better outside) they were still quite good. In particular they played a track called “Emergency” which is for their second album, due out in May next year, which was incredibly good and I am now desperately trying to hunt down (I’ll never succeed - they’ve only ever played it at gigs or in practice, and last I heard recording is due to start in January). The first album, although perhaps a bit samey, is superb. The catchy melody of I Found Out and the shout-along lyrics of “Romantic Type” alone would be good enough for the album, but the lyrics are, if nothing else, of interest. Take for example, the complete confusion of Don’t Know How to Say Goodbye:
I’m so in love with you / I just don’t know what I should do. / I’ll do nothing and I’ll just dream. / I never seem to get it right it seems / that I, I don’t know how to say goodbye, / and if I did I’d surely cry, / oh aye. / If it’s a choice between you and me then I’d go for I, / and that’s why / I never really thought that you liked me anyway.
Perhaps the odd desperate rhyme (I worry when “Oh aye” is included), but unusual to get such a sense of chaos in a song.
4. Editors - An End has a Start. Perhaps not quite the direction I was expecting to go (arguably leaning more towards “Bullets” from their previous album “The Back Room” than “Munich”), but the combination of Tom Smith’s vocals - albeit with obscure doomy lyrics - and the screaming guitars creates a truly epic sound, typified by “Escape the Nest” and “The Racing Rats”.
Not what I expected from Editors and took a while to sink in, but fabulous stuff.
5. The Shins - Wincing the Night Away. Another return album after a 3 year break, the Shins seem to be settling a little and becoming more accepted in the mainstream. Although the odd fan objects to this and in particular their popularity after being featured in Zach Braff’s “Garden State”, I wouldn’t deny them it - they deserve the money (plus of course, I discovered them via that film!). The album opens with the crashing “Sleeping Lessons”, which also acts as a great opener for gigs. It then settles into the pop-ish but pleasing “Australia” and the likeable “Phantom Limb” and slows a bit. If it weren’t for weird tracks like “Red Rabbits”, they might get a shot at doing well in the UK.
6. Maximo Park - A Certain Trigger. Some elements of this album clearly work on the previous success, such as “Our Velocity”, but it still works very well. Other aspects seem to have matured a bit, such as the slightly dramatic “By the Monument”. There’s nothing like “Graffiti” on here, but frankly in my opinion that’s probably a good thing. Considering the first album was great, they’ve done incredibly well to better it.
7. Bloc Party - A Weekend in the City. I was disappointed by this at first, but on second thoughts the second Bloc Party album was just another album taking a different direction. A lot of the songs work a lot better live, such as “Song for Clay (Disappear Here)”, and there’s nothing quite as good as “Helicopter”, but to be fair they’d be hard pressed to repeat it. Their ‘new sound’ is perhaps a bit more club-y, but still good.
Doubtless I’ve missed loads off here. Any suggestions for additions to the list?