The Best of 2007 and 2008 (so far)

Three months into 2008 and you're only now releasing your best of 2007??? As I said in my inaugural post, that's the beauty of having your own blog, you can post whenever you want about whatever you want! Plus, with three months passed it has allowed for some of the later releases of the year to fully soak in and instead of receiving a bias review, I have gained some perspective and can more accurately place them where they deserve to go. I've also included, in my opinion, the best records that have been released (or leaked) so far this year!! So take a gander at said lists and amaze all your hipster friends with your new found musical goodies!!!!

Best of 2007:

1) Yeasayer - All Hour Cymbals


There's a whole world of sound going on in the debut album from this New York byway of Baltimore crew. Very few albums are released these days where you can't precisely pinpoint what "sound" the band is striving for, or what inspirations they're drawing from. This album happens to actually be one of those. It defies classification, but can no doubt be considered in the company of some of the all time greats. Yeasayer has quickly found themselves among my favourite bands, and from here on out I eagerly await anything these boys release. You'll notice that I've also chosen to not number any other album. I originally wasn't going to number any of them, but to deny Yeasayer their rightful place at the top would be a mistake. Now, here are the rest of the best, in no order besides alphabetical:

Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam


Arcade Fire – Neon Bible


Black Lips - Good Bad Not Evil

Dr. Dog - We All Belong


Iron & Wine - The Shepherd's Dog


Kanye West - Graduation


Kings of Leon - Because Of The Times


M.I.A. - Kala


Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank


of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?


Radiohead - In Rainbows


Wilco - Sky Blue Sky


White Stripes - Icky Thump



There it is, the 14 best records of 2007! Sorry, I just couldn't cut it down to 10..... and now for the honorable mentions:


The Almost Made The Top Ten's:

Foreign Born - On The Wing Now
The Chocolate Robots - Purr Quality
Blitzen Trapper - Wild Mountain Nation
The Shins - Wincing The Night Away
A Band of Bees - Octopus
!!! - Myth Takes
Devendra Banhart - Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon
Bright Eyes - Cassadaga
Neil Young - Chrome Dreams II
LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
Bruce Springsteen - Magic
Justice - † (cross)
Queens of The Stone Age - Era Vulgaris
Art Brut - It's A Bit Complicated
Rilo Kiley - Under The Blacklight
Josh Ritter - The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter
Les Savy Fav - Let's Stay Friends
Band of Horses - Cease to Begin
Grampall Jookabox - Scientific Cricket
The Hives - The Black And White Album
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
Blood Meridian - Liquidate Paris!
Kevin Drew - Spirit If...
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss - Raising Sand
Panda Bear - Person Pitch
Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala

And The Rest:

Taken By Trees - Open Field
Do Make Say Think - You, You're A History In Rust
The Besnard Lakes - Are The Dark Horse
Grinderman - Grinderman
The Stooges - The Weirdness
The Avett Brothers - Emotionalism
Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha
Blonde Redhead - 23
Arctic Monkeys - Favorite Worst Nightmare
Dinosaur Jr. - Beyond
Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Tori Amos - American Doll Posse
Feist - The Reminder
Chromeo - Fancy Footwork
Xavier Rudd - White Moth
Paul McCartney - Memory Almost Full
Beastie Boys - The Mix-Up
Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger
Okkervil River - The Stage Names
New Pornographers - Challengers
Ben Harper - Lifeline
The Go! Team - Proof of Youth
Foo Fighters - Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace
Babyshambles - Shotter's Nation
Lupe Fiasco - The Cool
Once - Music from the Motion Picture
Gogol Bordello - Super Taranta
The National - Boxer
Battles - Mirrored
Manu Chao - La Radiolina
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Is Is EP
Grizzly Bear - Friends EP

Holy shit, there were a lot of good records in 2007!!! Does 2008 stand a chance? Why don't you be the judge, here is what I believe are the best records of 2008... so far:

Black Mountain - In The Future


For Fans Of: Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, getting so baked you can't feel your face.

She & Him - Volume 1


For Fans Of: Zooey Deschanel, M. Ward, 1935 - 1945

Hot Chip - Made in The Dark


For Fans Of: !!!, LCD Soundsystem, drinking heavily and dancing till 3:00AM

Drive-By Truckers - Brighter Than Creation's Dark


For Fans Of: Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Allman Brothers Band, alt-country, three axe attacks.

Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend


For Fans Of: Paul Simon circa Graceland, frat house hipsters

The Black Keys - Attack & Release


For Fans Of: The White Stripes, blues music so raw it makes you feel like you've just been wrongly convicted of murder and your about to spend the remainder of your days behind bars.

Gnarls Barkley - The Odd Couple


For Fans Of: The biggest single of the past ten years.

Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago


For Fans Of: Recently breaking up with your significant other and moving alone to a cabin in the wilderness to cry away the winter months.

MGMT - Oracular Spectacular


For Fans Of: The Summer of Love, dripping synthy goodness, getting naked and dancing flamboyantly around your neighborhood.

The Whigs - Mission Control


For Fans Of: The Strokes, Modest Mouse, Perfectly constructed melodies of southern fried indie rock pop.

Cat Power - Jukebox


For Fans Of: Cover tunes, Bob Dylan, super hot chicks with smoke soaked vocals who also have severe cases of stage fright.

Fleet Foxes - Ragged Wood*


For Fans Of: The Band, My Morning Jacket, also Band of Horses and Blitzen Trapper (their label mates). * That is the cover of their ep Sun Giant, which was recently released, but if you look hard enough you'll be able to sniff out Ragged Wood.

DeVotchKa - A Mad & Faithful Telling


For Fans Of: Arcade Fire, Little Miss Sunshine, gypsy punks.

Man Man - Rabbit Habits


For Fans Of: Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa, wearing war paint.

Tapes 'n Tapes - Walk It Off


For Fans Of: Modest Mouse, The Pixies, Sonic Youth, Pavement.

Earth - The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull


For Fans Of: Pink Floyd, psychedelic alt-country, getting lost in the desert for 40 days and 40 nights.

Dr. Dog - Passed Away, Vol. 1


For Fans Of: The Band, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, but if you haven't heard Dr. Dog before you should probably check out their other albums first as this is simply a collection of rarities and home recordings.



Well there you have it Ladies and Gentlemen, the best of 2007 and 2008 so far. That should keep you busy for quite a while!!!