Ah, my pretties, here it is. As I mentioned yesterday, my “top albums” lists are always very personal and very much based on how certain releases faired on my iPod. These are the albums I played most this year, which to me is the most subjective way to do these things. Apologies to very good albums that I just didn’t spend enough time with: Besnard Lakes, Panda Bear, Burial, Battles, Vampire Weekend, the A-Sides, AA Bondy, M.I.A. (only blogger in the world who can say this), St. Vincent…the list goes on and on, but my free time doesn’t always. Next year.

Let the snide remarks fly, and have a happy holiday week.

Bishop Allen/The Broken String (Dead Oceans) - To me, this is the most special record of the year because it grabbed me from the first listen and I’ve yet to tire of it. That’s what’ll happen when you spend a year “practicing” the making of records before you actually cull together an album. Indie pop rock at its most thoughtful and nearly flawless.

MP3: Bishop Allen - Rain

Georgie James/Places (Saddle Creek) - If Bishop Allen is the prettiest fictitious person-named band of 2007, Georgie James is the most gregarious. Places is unrelenting in its crunchy, well-oiled machine of crafty, garage-based guitars and marching keyboards. One of the better shows I saw this year, as live there’s a bit less sheen in the power pop and a bit more grit in the storytelling.

MP3: Georgie James - Need Your Needs

Arcade Fire/Neon Bible (Merge) - Ah, the old Arcade Fire. I’ll say one thing first: Neon Bible didn’t move me in the same way Funeral did three years ago, most likely because the latter was an introspective record that felt cathartic for both the band and the listener, and Neon Bible is much more worldly in its ambitions. That said, I wouldn’t expect any band to nail the collective societal outlook of an entire generation on its sophomore effort, at least not while so obviously trying. Those gripes aside, there’s a reason roots-based rock will always have a place among even the most critical set - it’s a desperately beautiful way of baring the soul without spilling the guts.

MP3: Arcade Fire - Black Mirror

LCD Soundsystem/Sound of Silver (Capitol) - Dance, white kids, dance! Or go read Pitchfork’s gushing.

Jens Lekman/Night Falls Over Kortedala (Secretly Canadian) - Jens also made my list of top albums by solo artists, which should tell you that I really fell hard for this gorgeous (and gorgeously cheeky) bedroom pop ensemble. After the honeymoon with Oh You’re So Silent Jens in 2005, I was prepared for the ultimate letdown. Luckily, I’m now planning love, marriage, and baby carriages with the dude after Kortedala.

MP3: Jens Lekman - Friday Night at the Drive-In Bingo

Radiohead/In Rainbows (self-released) - I am a blogger who is not a Radiohead fan (there, I said it), but the hullabaloo surrounding the release of In Rainbows (or really, any Radiohead album - released on a label or not) made it impossible to not listen to the damn thing with a curious ear. “Bodysnatchers” is as nerve-jangling a song as I’ve heard all year, and In Rainbows haunts in both its subversive, pulsing energy and its authoritative reminder that this band cannot and will not be stopped.

MP3: Radiohead - Bodysnatchers

Modest Mouse/We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank (Sony) - MM has been one of my three favorite bands since 2000’s The Moon & Antarctica, and major label sparkle, MTV darlinghood, and inclusion in my dad’s CD collection can’t taint the edgy indie rock gold of radio smash “Dashboard.” It may have taken a decade, but Isaac Brock and company are enjoying the general public’s embrace of a more challenging pop song structure and a non-Daughtry-smooth, quirky yelp of a vocal delivery. Adding the legendary Johnny Marr to the MM ranks didn’t hurt this one, either.

Dinosaur Jr/Beyond (Fat Possum) - For anyone who felt the underground shockwave of hardcore in the early to mid-80s and its repercussions through the mid 90s, Dinosaur Jr stood out as a perfect storm of driving punk rhythm, twangy country melodies, weird new wave guitar effects, and Hendrix-inspired riffs. Beyond is the band’s first effort it 10 years, and it recalls all of J Mascis’ blatant disregard for a cohesive aesthetic on the Dino masterpiece that swallowed ‘punk’ whole, 1987’s You’re Living All Over Me.

MP3: Dinosaur Jr - Almost Ready

Fall Out Boy/Infinity on High (Island/Def Jam) - A pop hook is a pop hook, and when the ash and eyeliner of rock music in the first decade of the 21st century clears, Fall Out Boy will remain. After years of ridicule for his shoddy live performances, Patrick Stump has finally grown into his humongous tenor voice and incomparably catchy melodies, all of which made Infinity on High the most important release yet from our hometown d-bags.

Kings of Leon/Because of the Times (RCA) - This wasn’t a critically popular record, but despite the major label status and generally unadventurous lyrical turf, Because of the Times still howls with the Southern rock intensity that’s fueled a generation of good ol’ boys towards some sort of artistic relevance. Despite the somewhat clumsy stabs at indie-rock importance (the screeching “Charmer” comes to mind), “Fans” was one of ’07’s best acoustic singalongs, and Times was one of it’s most consistently solid rocknroll albums.

MP3: Kings of Leon - Fans

Share This