EricZoo’s Top Albums Of the Year
Wednesday, December 26th, 2007
- 10. Pinback - Autumn of the Seraphs
While not quite as good as their previous album, Summer in Abaddon, this one still retains Pinback’s signature bouncy beats eclectically produced from guitar, bass and good ol drums.
Standout Tracks: Good To Sea, Torch, Subbing For Eden - 9. Fall Out Boy - From Under the Cork Tree, My Chemical Romance - Black Parade
When compiling top ten lists, its easy to dismiss albums that have break out into the minds of the unwashed masses. But strip away the drama and whats left is effective rock love songs with great vocal works for the former, and an ambitious concept album thats cohesive and unpretentiously pretentious for the latter.
- 8. Battles - Mirrored
Prodigy and Chemical Brothers have long been the weapon of choice for hard hitting techno beats. Well time to retire those old guns and pull out this BFG (Big F$#king Gun) of an album. Listeners won’t know what hit them but don’t be surprised if they’ll shout, “Baby, hit me one more time.”
- 7. Peter Bjorn and John - Writer’s Block
I was surprised to hear the catchy whistling intro of Young Folks in heavy rotation in our local version of Big Brother. Kudos to the people behind it for discovering this Swedish indie musical act. Don’t let the boring name fool you. - 6. Jimmy Eat World - Chase This Light
Emo rock acts tend to be the depressive and suffering kind. JEW is no different but an earnest voice and music laced with New Wave sensibilities puts them above the lot. Chase this Light finds them reinvigorated with energy although lyrically its a bit juvenile and full of doo-wop and ah-ah, the tunes will undoubtedly make you emotional. - 5. The Good, The Bad and The Queen
I truly regard Damon Albarn as one of the new generation musical genius. After penning delicious British songs (check out Parklife) as the frontman of Blur, he then co created the virtual band, Gorillaz and now formed the real super group, The Good, the Bad and the Queen. Featuring the bassist from the legendary punk band The Clash, the Verve guitarist and a world renowned Nigerian drummer. Their debut album is a concept album on London and even though I have never been to the place, this record really nailed the feeling of London. - 4. Tegan and Sara - The Con
The new album from the twin sisters of Indie rock. I admit at first listen I was not into the album’s spastic and shifty nature, like Spoon’s characteristic to change tunes without warning except it sounds out of place. I found just 2-3 gems within it and dismissed it as inferior to So Jealous, their previous work. However, 3 months later, I revisited it, found myself getting comfortable with the sharp corners and strangely loving every song in it. Like its title, I’ve been conned into thinking its less but its actually more.
Standout tracks: Relief next to me, The Con, Back in your head, Dark Come Soon - 3. Feist - The Reminder
My first contact with Feist was with that Lacoste Ad. The tune was so catchy I looked high and low on the Internet for the song and discovered it was Feist’s Mushaboom. From then on I was hooked on her imperfect but impossibly sexy voice. I immediately got this one the moment it became available. Unlike other artist that upgrade production on their sophomore album, Feist strips back on it but puts her incredible voice on the forefront and adds her close musician friends to play instruments,. This resulted into the most intimate record I have ever listened to. Every note, every slight change of tone feels organic. It felt like the artists were playing in the same room as you. Listen with a good headphone. - 2. Interpol - Our Love To Admire
Along with The Strokes, Interpol was one of bands that pushed me into forming a cover band back in the day. The sinister voice, the masterful placement of each instruments and the murky shoegazing musical style always gets me all fired up for this band. With their third album, the guys further refine their formula with more atmospheric songs and improved vocalization but otherwise becomes dangerously close to stagnating. Nonetheless, a fine effort and my top album for the year, if not for… - 1. Radiohead - In Rainbows
Radiohead stands as one of the most interesting musical acts of the decade if not of all time. After finding their footing in their debut album, Pablo Honey, which spawned the famous song “Creep”, they made one of the best straight up guitar rock albums in the form of the Bends (High and Dry, Fake Plastic Trees, Just, MY Iron Lung, Street Spirit). While other bands would hang on to a successful formula, Radiohead puts out OK Computer, a record that sounded not unlike a guitar band infested with a computer virus. In the first line on the first song, Thom York sings “In the next world war, In a jackknifed juggernaut, I am born again”. Indeed Radiohead was born again. Widely regarded as one of the finest rock albums of all time, you would be forgiven to think they would stick to this, more successful formula.Then they put out KID A, a record that was a result of an experiment in their band structure with them having no attachment to instruments and instead contribute to the music itself. It was a success and so was the similarly structured Amnesiac. The sixth album came three years later, Hail to the Thief, a return to the guitar rock format but still was under an experimental protracted recording session.
Two years later, Radiohead is now free from the music label middlemen it publicly despised and now a free agent. They released their seventh album and once again, the critics are divided, but this time the argument is whether its a great record or just a good one. For me, it has been in heavy rotation for the past two months. Its certainly a grower, meaning the more you listen, the more it reveals layers and layers of musical details that when you finally get the whole picture, you will be richer for it.
Thats it! I wasn’t able to check out MIA’s new album nor The Fields, Spoon’s Ga ga ga was generic, and Arcade Fire didn’t quite clicked. Watch out for my Top and Bottom five movies of the year.
