The Top Fifty Favorite Albums Of 2007 - Pt.5

V.

10. Tricot Machine – Tricot Machine, (Grosse Boite Records) 78.08
This Montreal francophone band plays things a bit different from their French-Canadian peers who have received attention from the American press. Essentially we have a male-female duo (Matthieu Beaumont and Catherine Leduc) of piano/acoustic-based folk-pop. Like their more rock inclined peers, Tricot Machine switch it up with idiosyncrasies (though these quirks are more subtle). Both Beaumont and Leduc take lead vocals, share double leads, and execute the melodies with perfection. This self-titled record is one of the most stunning debuts of the last fifteen-twenty years. There is a wonderful mix of the mellow and the upbeat all centered on hooky songcraft: from mellow-goldish-ballads ("Super Ordinaire", "La Pluie" - droning chords are a stellar touch, "Les Oreillons") to bouncy-indie-pop ("L'ours", "Un Monstre Sous Mon Lit", "Ambulance") to more earnest-semi-dark-near-rockers ("Beau Temps Mauvais Temps").

[watch “Pas Fait En Chocolat”]

09. The Brothers Martin – The Brothers Martin, (Tooth & Nail Records) 78.39
This is a project of Ronnie and Jason Martin who are more known for their respective acts Joy Electric and Starflyer 59. Before their cult success in tese bands, they started making music together nearly 20 years ago in Dance House Children. The Brothers Martin is very different than that band that was bent on house-influenced pop. This record contains ten songs of mid-80s brit-indie-dance-pop (think New Order), jangle-UK-pop (The Smiths), in some ways its homage, but overall it's insanely well-crafted pop that is utterly additcive in the infectious meodies, mega-hooks, and superb choruses. Each brother gives five songs with Ronnie's inclined to the synth as base, while Jason's ae more guitar based. Actually, it is a perfect amalgamation of each man's trademark styles. This record came about ten years too late, but I'm just glad we finally have it.

[stream “The Plot That Weaves”]

08. Lucky Soul – The Great Unwanted, (Ruffa Lane) 78.10
No doubt this record would have been huge following the success of that then-ubiquitous "Love Me" by The Cardigans. Ok, that “no doubt” and “huge following” is total hyperbole. This kind of music will never garner a huge following. Moving on: like The Cardigans, Lucky Soul has a terrific iconic lead vocalist in Ali Howard. She coos with the best of them (Nina Persson, Shirley Manson, Anita Robinson), she cuddles and coddles the melodies, she twirls her hair and she dismisses with a playful stare. And she can sing! Super good! Let’s not forget the band either – they lay down twelve songs of cheeky, lovely indie-orch-pop (tinges of Golden Age pop, Motown R&B, semi-jazzy-lounge) with a mind-boggling tighness/efficiency/effectiveness. I wrote about the glories of “Lips Are Unhappy”, but there’s more: “Ain’t Never Been Cool”, “My Brittle Heart”, “The Towering Inferno” and “One Kiss Don’t Make A Summer”.

[watch “Lips Are Unhappy”]

07. Liars – Liars, (Mute Records) 78.73
Only a year removed from their stellar tribal-thump-thump called Drum’s Not Dead (a left turn stylistically), comes another tremendous record from these transplanted NYC freaks. Liars is an unfocused-mixed-stew of experimental bizarre pop genius. “Freak Out” is the obvious hit (#43 on my Top 50 Favorite Songs), but one cannot forget the helium-vocal-buzzing-Beck-ish, “Houseclouds”, the pulverizing-garage-pysch “Plaster Casts of Everything”, the trippy-trip-hop-ish “Sailing To Byzantium”, and the pounding-rhythm-blast of “Clear Island”. The entire record is just so jarring and weird that it’s a veritable mindfuck to the nth level of space-out-madness. To paraphrase Salvador Dali, “I don’t do drugs, because I listen to Liars.”

[watch “Plaster Casts of Everything”]

06. Los Campesinos! – Sticking Fingers Into Sockets, (Wichita Recordings) 79.80
This is a five-song EP of wildly addictive, crazy-motherfucking-with-your-mind-and-body indie rock. Whew! That was as exhausting as listening to Cardiff’s greatest export ever to ever been exported: Los Campensinos! (the exclamation is theirs). Sure, it’s a little silly with every band member owning the surname, Campensinos!, but that’s kids (oh shit, knock it off old man!). I love glockenspiel and so does this band – every song features the twinkling-twee quite liberally. I’ve already told you about “We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives” (chuckle – these song titles are great), so what else is there? “It Started With A Mixx” is slinky-quirky happiness (I can’t help but think of my dear Jetenderpaul here), “Don’t Tell Me To Do The Maths” is pure high-energy with super crazy C86 rhythm guitar, “Frontwards” drops steady guitar ala David Gedge mixed with Superchunk, and “You! Me! Dancing!” is the absolute perfect coda to the EP, super-charged-as-hell-hold-on-to-yer-hat indie pop madness. The sheer audacity of the music-geek-outsider bend on the lyrics and the pure glee in the music makes them the antithesis to serious-minded indie rock like the overbearing-blah Arcade Fire.

[watch “We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives”]

05. Sloan – Never Hear The End Of It, (Red Ink/Murder Records) 77.22
C’mon Sloan! You are killing me! From my review (8/28/2007): “I will admit that this record drives me near-crazy, not because of a derogatory this-or-that, but for the sheer simple fact that a THIRTY SONG record from Sloan should not be this good, nor should it be this consistent. It is sequenced so well, playing each songwriter off the other from track to track, mixing up-tempo creating a sonic drama. They wisely vary the song lengths – 60.0% are 3 minutes or shorter and only 13.3% go over four minutes! So much for self-indulgence! Every time the record starts to drag (for example, “Something’s Wrong” to “Ana Lucia”), a totally bitchin’ song follows (following the cited example, “Before The End Of The Race”). This combination of strategic sequencing, stellar songwriting, and been-doing-this-for-years-wisdom is the crux of what makes Never Hear The End Of It one of the year’s best records, and one of the pleasant surprises.” {see review}

[watch “Living With The Masses”]

04. Gallows – Orchestra Of Wolves, (Epitaph Records) 75.38
Over the last six months or so, I’ve raved about this band to anyone who would give me chance. The press talked about the live performance as unparalleled, the attitude is classic punk rock, and the fanbase rabid (count me in!). Orchestra Of Wolves is everything I expect from post-hardcore/21st-century-punk-rock: unbelievable amount of f-bombs, extreme everything in the delivery of words and notes, tons of swagger and passion and fury, and a crazy pop catchiness. If that isn’t enough, let me continue! From my review (8/21/2007), “We’ve got a wicked concoction of post-hardcore infused with 80s hardcore punk, British pub punk, and mid-90s aggro-metal delivered with such a gut level ferocity that you feel it in your stomach. Naturally, not all is amazing, a limitation of bludgeoning hardcore is where the riff and noise so often comes first. Still, it is uncommon that a band making this kind of music can make a record this consistently listenable and powerful.” Incredible. {see review}

[watch “Just Because You Sleep Next To Me Doesn’t Mean You’re Safe”]

03. Jacquemort – Dent De Lait, (Grosse Boite Records) 83.28
The Montreal music scene is a very special place right now, and not because of that one band. It’s a vibrant Francophone scene, where the indie-minded bands craft some of the most idiosyncratic tunes. LY Pitchfork introduced the great Malajube to the world. Jacquemort is a band fronted by Malajube’s keyboard rocker/vocals person, Thomas Augustin. Like his other band, Jacquemort plays it rough, tumble, and melodic. Dent De Lait is just a little five-song EP, but each song is a hit, a near-masterpiece of that rough, tumble, and melodic fare. Jacquemort’s joie de vive is ramshackle-explosive push-n-pull dynamics. There is something akin to Brit-avant-poppers The Boo Radleys in the arrangements, the breathy vocals, the jarring guitar work, and that is very cool. This was part of my review (6/5/2007) of the EP: “The major problem with this release is a good one – it is too damn short. The record is an ultimate tease. Discerning music listener, it is time to put down that neon bible and listen to some truly compelling songwriting coming from that bilingual Canadian province. Plenty of you picked up the great Malajube record, and you’d be doing yourself major harm by not adding to your francophone collection. Malajube was your start, now you can augment with Jacquemort.” {see review}

[stream “Biscuit Chinois”]

02. Field Music – Tones Of Town, (Memphis Industries) 77.33
Field Music get no credit for this tremendous release – perhaps because it is one of the most understated and complicated records ever to hit yer ears in years (heh heh). Every time I listen to it (and I did listen many a lot times this past year), I am struck by the particularity of the arrangements. The band makes a million choices on where to place each element (weird electronic noises, variety of percussive instruments, stripped bare string arrangements, tinkling piano riffs, bizarre human beat-boxing, lyrical/vocal/musical repetition, serendipitous vocals, and peculiar harmonies) that pits everything against each other in an odd “juxtaposition of melodic minimalism and sonic richness.” Great examples of this are “Closer At Hand” (the opening of vocal harmony held long then bam into a jerky-duh-duh-duh rhythm), “She Can Do What She Wants” (one of the more driving tracks, the best part: the sinewy-one-note guitar leads against strings), “Give It, Take It, Lose It” (this it’s the long drawn ride cymbal crashes against tip-tapping hi-hat against melodies/countermelodies), and “A house is Not a home” (honky-tonky guitar riffs with weird-drum-fills and big string flourishes). {see review}

[watch “A house is Not a home”]

01. My Teenage Stride – Ears Like Golden Bats, (Becalmed) 79.24
My Teenage Stride is essentially Brooklyn inhabitant/musical prodigy, Mr. Jebediah Smith (he started writing/recording at the age 14 – so the internet says!) and he has released an amazing collection of killer indie pop that relies heavily on the electric guitar and wears influences proudly. The sounds on Ears Like Golden Bats are comprised of Smiths-y-jangle-pop (“Heartless & Cruel”, “To Live and Die in the Airport Lounge”, “The Genie of New Jersey”), C86-UK-indie-workouts (title track, “Terror Bends”), jittery post-Pavement-American-indie (“Reception”, “Chock’s Rally”, “We’ll Meet At Emily’s”), Velvets-plodding-pretty-pop (“Ruin”, “Boys Will Tell”), and nerve-y Joy Division post-punk (“Actor’s Colony”, “Reversal”, “Depression Kicks”). If you’ve been paying attention, it isn’t just really fucking great influences that make this record the best of the year, it is: a) ultra-mega-memorable melodies; b) the hooks are tremendous and undeniable; c) a weird complexity that lurks beneath the surface of the songs – this is exemplified in a vocal tick, an inscrutable hum of synthesizers, a driving-reverb-heavy rhythm guitar, the plucking of violin strings, etc. d) Smith’s words are quirky, sarcastic, weird, biting, melancholy; and phrases pop out of the songs with complete randomness; e) the album length is nice and compact (14 songs at just over 37 minutes); f) the perfect song order. All of this stuff means that Smith and his band overcome the stylistic homage/nostalgia/influences “problem”, and the story turns to the songwriting, which is – hell, pick your adjective, they all apply – great, blissed, excellent, peculiar, stellar, unique-in-the-details, brilliant, gorgeous, freaky, wonderful, killer, blah blah bleh bleh bleh. The songs that are so meticulously arranged, each part laid out, brought together, and delivered with the perfect pop punch – it’s only enough to be the Record Of The Year.

[watch “To Live And Die In The Airport Lounge”]

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