Goodbye to the Brixton sun - 1/4 show

Best of 2007 show today...

1) LCD Soundsystem / Sounds of Silver
* Nine tracks' worth of awesome. Good dance music, but also a little deeper than that. More consistent than the previous album.

2) Patrick Wolf / The Magic Position
* It still surprises me how much I like this one. Sort of a cross between Marc Almond and Rufus Wainwright.

3) New Pornographers / Challengers
* A solid yet varied pop album. Probably the secret ingredient is Neko Case.

4) Haale / Paratrooper/Morning
* Two simultaneously- released EPs rather than one album, actually. I discovered this one last spring, and it bowled me over. Music for people who thought Dead Can Dance would be better with electric guitar.

5) The Polyphonic Spree / The Fragile Army
* Up till now I haven't been all that impressed with the Polyphonic Spree... maybe I just didn't give them a fair chance before. Anyway, this album grabbed me and made me listen, and you know what? It's real good.

6) The Noisettes / What's the Time Mr Wolf?
* The Noisettes grabbed me, knocked me around, threw me against a wall, and made me listen. This is the hardest rock album of the list. Lead singer Shingai Shoniwa has a fantastic voice.

7) Battles / Mirrored
* I use 30% more of my brain listening to Battles compared with other indie rock. Patterns on top of patterns, slightly psychedelic: Battles makes the whole Math Rock genre less annoying.

8) Cass McCombs / Dropping the Writ
* This man has a great voice, and has put together a well-varied, solid album.

9) The Earlies / The Enemy Chorus
* Mix prog rock with electronica and Sugar-era Bob Mould and this is what you get.

10) Air / Pocket Symphony
* When Charlotte Gainsbourg's album came out this year, and all the music was by Air, I thought I liked it better than Air. But after a few months I realized that Pocket Symphony was the better album. It's a little bit like a warm bath. In a good way.

11) Jens Lekman / Night Falls over Kortedala
* Our favorite Swede has been studying 60's pop. The orchestrations are sometimes over the top, but hey, I like them anyway.

12) Rufus Wainwright / Release the Stars
* I wanted Rufus to give us a great album this year, and I didn't really get it. It is, however, good, and I know I'll be listening to it for years to come — maybe just not as much as Want One or Poses.

Honorable mention — albums I also thought were notably great but for one reason or another dropped out of my top list:

Mavis Staples / We'll Never Turn Back
Andrew Bird / Armchair Apocrypha
Office / A Night at the Ritz
Mirah and Spectratone International / Share This Place
St Vincent / Marry Me
Uztaglote / La liberation des corps

I'll admit I dropped Office from the top dozen because A Night at the Ritz is nearly identical to last year's self-released Q&A, which was #9 on my 2006 top list. It is, however, a great album, and one of the new songs makes my list of top songs for 2007.

Top Songs of 2006:

Architecture in Helsinki / Heart It Races
LCD Soundsystem / Someone Great
Iron & Wine / Boy with a Coin
The Polyphonic Spree / Section 29 [Light to Follow]
The Earlies / Burn the Liars
Aesop Rock / Coffee
Jens Lekman / Postcard to Nina
Office / Suburban Perfume

And now, today's playlist:

*: new stuff
(r): requests

artist	song	album	label
The Clash	The Guns of Brixton	London Calling	Epic
Laurie Anderson	From the Air	Talk Normal Anthology	Rhino
*The Stone Roses	She Bangs the Drum	Selections from the Brit Box	Rhino
*Daft Punk	Da Funk/Daftendirekt	Alive 2007	Virgin
*White Williams	New Violence	Smoke	Tigerbeat6
The Aluminum Group	A Boy in Love	Plano	Minty Fresh
The Postal Service	Such Great Heights	Give Up	Sub Pop
The Magnetic Fields	When My Boy Walks Down the Street	69 Love Songs Vol 2	Merge
*Vampire Hands	Opium Typhoon	Virgin Dust American Lips	Freedom-form
*Ween	Blue Balloon	La Cucaracha	Rounder
Rufus Wainwright	Do I Disappoint You	Release the Stars	Geffen
Jens Lekman	Sipping on the Sweet Nectar	Night Falls over Kortedala	Secretly Canadian
Air	Left Bank	Pocket Symphony	Astralwerks
The Earlies	No Love in Your Heart	The Enemy Chorus	Secretly Canadian
XTC	The Man Who Sailed around His Soul	Skylarking	Geffen
Michelle Shocked	Street Corner Ambassador	Mercury Poise: 1988-1995	Mercury
*Sufjan Stevens	Ring Them Bells	I'm Not There (Original Soundtrack)	Columbia/Sony
*Tokyo Police Club	Box	Smith EP	Paper Bag
The Cells	Grocery Store	Self-released EP	Self-released
The Pixies	Levitate Me	Come On Pilgrim	4AD
*Joe Lally	Tonight at Ten	Nothing is Underrated	Dischord
*Cass McCombs	Full Moon or Infinity	Dropping the Writ	Domino
Battles	Race In	Mirrored	WARP
The Noisettes	Count of Monte Christo	What's the Time Mr Wolf?	Universal/Motown
The Polyphonic Spree	Section 22 [Running Away]	The Fragile Army	TVT
*Moving Units	Dark Walls	Hexes for Exes	Metropolis
OK Go!	Antmusic	OK Go! EP	Self-released
Björk	Big Time Sensuality	Debut	WEA Elektra
Danger is My Middle Name	Sidecar One	Myspace
The Jam	In the City	Beat Surrender	Karusell
*The Hives	Return the Favour	The Black and White Album	A&M
*Malcolm Middleton	We're All Going to Die	A Brighter Beat	Full Time Hobby
Public Enemy	Welcome to the Terrordome	Fear of a Black Planet	Def Jam/Columbia
*Pedro	Spools	You, Me & Everyone	Mush
Haale	Morgue Sahar	Morning	Darya
The New Pornographers	Mutiny, I Promise You	Challengers	Matador
Patrick Wolf	Accident & Emergency	The Magic Position	Tomlab
LCD Soundsystem	Time to Get Away	Sound of Silver	DFA/Capitol
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy	I'm Loving the Street	Ask Forgiveness EP	Drag City
Zerostars	The Good Can't Escape	The Good Can't Escape	Self-released
Os Mutantes	Preciso Urgentemente Encontrar Um Amigo	A Divina Comedia Ou	Omplatten
*The Dragons	Sandman	BFI	Ninja Tune

Labels: music, playlists

posted by Tony at 9:26 AM