In reverse order, the best albums of 2007*
10. Mum - go go smear the poison ivy
A joyful scatter of strings, beats and mournful scando voices. Not just for middle class dinner parties.
9. Wu Tang Clan - 8 diagrams
The wait was worth it…just. Looking forward to more hip hop competition in 2008’s best of.
8. Flaming Lips - at war with the mystics
Beer adverts haven’t ruined it - their weakest record but still the better than 99% of guitar bands out there. And they remain very out there.
7. Sons of Noel and Adrian - EP
Sons of Noel and Adrian - Untitled EP
A surprise live sensation discovered on my birthday - as yet unsigned Brighton folk band who will undoubtedly go big. Stormy acoustic tales of salty sea captains and broken hearts on dark beaches…topped by the voice of an undead lover.
6. Miracle Fortress - five roses
Brian Wilson had an awful come back this year - he should have left it to this odd Canadian, Graham Van Pelt. Wilsonesque, yet up to date thematically and musically (and far less tiresome than Panda Bear, who’s solo album made most ‘best of’ lists this year).
5. Thurston Moore - trees outside the academy
This should have been terrible - what other 50 year olds are making rock music this relevant? But it’s a tour de force (possible exception of the ‘experimental’ final track, Thurston at 13), combining acoustic tunefulness and abstract noise - it’s (steady…) fun!
4. Beirut - the flying club cup
Zach Condon and friends discover France, and throw accordions and songs of old Parisian postcards into the pot. Given that the pot already contains mariachi brass, eastern European folk and that wonderful dirge of a voice, it’s a fine feast. Can’t get tired of it.
3. Devendra Banhart - smokey rolls down thunder mountain
The Laurel Canyon freak folk nutter finds rock, and bursts through the confines of lo-fi. Not that his lo-fi folk wasn’t great - it was - but this album sends him to the bosom of Iggy Pop as well as Neil Young, and even chucks in some dub for good measure. 16 great tunes - and he kicks it live.
2. A Hawk and a Hacksaw and the Hun Hangar Ensemble - eponymous
This EP saw a happy marriage of Hungarian virtuosos Hun Hangar, with New Mexico-based violin and accordion/percussion/vocals duo A Hawk and a Hacksaw. Truer to eastern Europe than previous records, and less experimental with it, nevertheless this isn’t ordinary stuff. Cymbalom solos, rocking brass, Heather Trost’s errie violin and the unfairly talented Jeremy Barnes doing pretty much everything else. Another great live act this year.
1. Deerhoof - friend opportunity
If I was being really honest, I’d have filled the top 10 with this record. That would have been a bit pointless, I guess, but shows how far ahead of the rest of ‘em I think this is. Perfect music - a righteous balance of noise (knife edge guitar, one hell of a drum clatter, odd time signatures aplenty) and tune (the usual out there soprano nursery rhyme vocal, bass like McCartney at his very best) and nary a duff track. Say no more - just get it!
*as measured scientificallilly by their ability to inspire one or more of the following: joy, jumping around, shock, awe, tears, peaceful sleep.
