The Top Fifty Favorite Albums Of 2007 - Pt.4

IV.

20. 1990s – Cookies, (Rough Trade) 74.58
There is something so insidious, vapid and dumb about the 1990s - from the moniker to the album to the lyrics to the old-fart riffs. I shouldn't like it right? In the midst of this silly-rock-posture-snottiness are some fucking great tunes. The melodies are pretty ordinary, but addictive. The choruses are simple and memorable beyond comprehension. The hooks are legion! These are twelve slabs of classic 70s/80s/(and YES) 90s power pop. I love how hard the songs rock despite the lack of guitar crunch. Maybe I can identify with these freaks: "I've got cult status blues ... My cult status keeps me alive!" And to you my readers, my discerning music listeners: "You are my booglaloo, you wear my favorite pair of shoes ... I'll see you at the lights."

19. Super Furry Animals – Hey Venus!, (Rough Trade) 76.76
One of my petty hangups with the Furries is the proclivity towards overblown song length - eight minute seemingly endless songs, running forever instrumental breaks, seventy minute full lengths, etc. I would think, "if they could just edit!" Here we have Hey Venus!, eleven tracks of concise pop whilst retaining the uniqueness that is entirely SFA. It is slightly weird, often bizarre. They make a statement with the first track, “The Gateway Song”, a forty-three second burst of a kooky hook on raucous pop. "The Gift That Keeps Giving Again" opens with some kitschy 70s lite rock on warble-y synth, but rather than ruminating for 2-3 minutes, they move straight to the melody. The record flows nicely and never bogs down. Not a single song exceeds five minutes. Terrific stuff!

18. Against Me! – New Wave, (Sire/London/Rhino Records) 75.91
This Jacksonville quartet breaks through the emo-pop-punk ether on New Wave not by kicking in the teeth of their target market but by grabbing anyone who will listen by the arm and demanding an audience. Their songs shift slightly towards good ol' rock, which transcends just enough. Tom Gabel uses his wait-a-minute-and-listen charisma and the band executes with sheer energy to suck you in and think. The title track calls for personal responsibility, "Up the Cuts" and "Stop" lambastes a pathetic music scene, "White People for Peace" captures the frustration of political confrontation in trite/safe placebo-action, "Piss & Vinegar" is pure disgust at vapidity in thought, "Thrash Unreal" is a glorious exuberant coming-of-age-love-to-the-freaks tale, and on and on. While Gabel's approach borders on preachy, it isn't self-righteous.

17. Les Savy Fav – Let’s Stay Friends, (French Kiss Records) 78.57
I suppose this could be called the "Comeback Album of the Year" as Let's Stay Friends is the first album of new material in six years. "The Equestrian", "Scotchgard The Credit Card" (killer chorus), and "Raging In The Plague Age" are typical of the band's spazzy-yet-under-control post-post-punk, but that isn't what makes the record compelling. "Pots & Pans" is jittery pop, "Patty Lee" is killer-nervey-funk, "What Would Wolves Do?" is minimalist-80s-pop-into-unbridled-freakout, "Brace Yourself" is trippy-psych-rock, and "Comes & Goes" is a simmering Les Savy Fav take on UK indie (also a great duet of sorts with Fiery Furnaces' Eleanor Friedberger). It's the cohesiveness of the diversity that makes the record totally complete.

16. The Apples In Stereo – New Magnetic Wonder, (Yep Roc Records) 76.42
This is the first Apples record in about five years and is somewhat a return to form: concise indie pop with tons of hooks and simple melodies mixed with exuberance. "Can You Feel It?" opens the record as a proclamation and a command to "turn up your stereo" + [plus], never has a cowbell sounded so good (I am a cowbell hater too). "Energy" was cited as the big single, but I'll take "Skyway", "Sunndal Song", "Same Old Drag" (a tingling integration/homage to ELO), "Sunday Sounds", and "7 Stars" any day over that single. Clever production tricks litter the tracks and Schneider indulges his experimental side with his non-Pythagorean scale snippets and mellotron instrumentals. While they may ultimately be unnecessary, they are interesting and exude thinking-person creativity.

15. The Orchids – Good To Be A Stranger, (Siesta) 79.38
The WTF-where-did-this-come-from-holy-hell-shoot-me-in-the-face-under-the-radar record of the year. This former Sarah Records band comes from an era music snobs forgot - picking up right where they left off (see their semi-well-known "Something For The Longing"). Each song is a compartment that, when opened, offers something refreshing and familiar. From their semi-sweet power pop semi-rockers (the title track, "Another Saturday Night"), scrumptious arpeggio jangle pop masterpieces ("Down To The Ocean", "I Need You To Believe In Me"), AM radio comfort sounds ("Take My Hand", "The Last Thing (On Your Mind)"), cloudy day sunshiney ballads ("Feel The Magic", "Xylophone Song", "You Could Do Something To Me"), nostalgiac indie pop ("Do It For Yourself") each stands on its own creating a whole that allows you to simply push play and leave it alone.

14. Editors – An End Has A Start, (Kitchenware) 74.35
I am constantly surprised how much I played this record. The last month of 2007 and into 2008 was a very difficult time for me and my family. On this record, there is a hope in the darkness, a happiness in the absurd, a plaintive-near-tears vibe in the energy encapsulated in the songs reflected back to me and the grief and resignation of the tragedy of my own life. Yadda yadda blah blah blah. Being able to identify on a personal level alone doesn't make a great album; yes, it's the songs. From the sinewy "Bones" to the dynamic "Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors" to the nervous tension-anger of the last two minutes of "When Anger Shows" and the enitrety of "The Racing Rats", the record is crafted with a deliberate intensity that overcomes the post-Radiohead-slash-Joy Division-influence. Lead singer, Tom Smith (his vocals are amazing) pitches all of this back to you straight into your heart.

13. Walker Kong – Deliver Us From People, (Magic Marker) 77.21
This Minneapolis returns with a record of shimmering indie pop. The Flying Nun kiwi bands and Soft Boys are definitely touchstones, but so is the jangle of the mid-80s and power pop of the early 80s (any one else hear The Only Ones? Any one?). We are looking at some great company here. Walker Kong wastes no time sucking you into these hooky, simple, energetic tunes: "Change Your Mind" and "We Are Falling Stars" are a brutal, attention-demanding one-two punch . Jeremy Ackerman’s sorta-nasally-kinda-whine perfectly compliments the shiny musical base - acoustic guitars strum with heavy downstrokes, electric guitars jangle and produce cleverly placed power chords, bass lines jab-and-rumble, and the backbeat is mega-steady. The record's sequence is near perfect, it's a straight through listen. Finally, there are some really excellent lyrics, clever and thought-provoking with poignant humor. The album title is a great indicator of what I'm getting at. Besides this is my favorite album title of the year!

12. Club 8 – The Boy Who Couldn’t Stop Dreaming, (Labrador Records) 76.60
Like many Labrador bands, Club 8 craft indelible indie pop. You already know that. The Boy Who Couldn't Stop Dreaming is twelve tunes that inhabit the mellow-to-midtempo realm of indie pop. The highlights: "Everything Goes" is absolutely a killer mellow track with a metronome serving as beat, backwards/forwards synth lines, a melody that is worldweary and wise ("The drugs you take will make you happy they say, it's another lie" sings Karolina Komstedt with such sad knowing); "Heaven" is Club 8 at their rockinest - the arrangement is so full, a bongo line here, a punchy walking bass line there, a sinewy guitar hook, giant hook-to-chorus; "Football Kids" is Dylan doing Belle & Sebastian heavily influenced by The Legends. Really every song is a highlight.

11. The Everybodyfields – Nothing Is Okay, (Ramseur) 76.92
The debut record from this Johnson City, TN band is … amazing. Let me go a bit deeper. The band is essentially the multi-talented duo of Jill Andrews and Sam Quinn and together they craft and execute brilliant alt.country tunes. I like this description that I wrote in my September 2007 review: “The sheer amount of movement – in tempo, in vocalization, in paradox/dichotomy – is what makes Nothing Is Okay a truly compelling record. You can put the record on and let it roll; or you can pick and choose specific tracks to crank up or sink deep into the sofa. This movement is pure and rich with emotion, something that much alt.country attempts to conjure via imitation. It’s that there is something real in these songs, reflected equally in music, lyric, and performance.” {see review}

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