mtroads

I just had to take a moment to jot a couple quick points about two albums that missed out on my top 20 because I hadn’t heard them in 2007. The first of which was mentioned already in the comments but the second one is brand new (although you may have heard me rave about the album already).

Firstly, Plague Park by the Handsome Furs needs to be mentioned. I’ve heard it referred to as Wolf Parade with a drum machine and it’s not too far off. That said, it’s still an excellent album and an enjoyable listen. If you like Wolf Parade, you’ll like the album.

Secondly, I need to mention a guy who’s album I’ve listened to so much in the last month that it’s already in my top 10 on my Last.fm profile. I had download a track from Doug Burr’s Promenade album back when it was released thanks to Velvet Blue Music. It definitely fit in with the whole alt-country scene and didn’t seem like anything special. After New Years, I had a little bit of money kicking around and heard some positive review of the album, so I decided to pick it up. It hasn’t left my rotation since then. Doug Burr is a great song writer. The songs are subtle but move at a decent pace. He’s from Texas and there’s definitely a large portion of country flavouring on the disc but it’s just a phenomenal disc front-to-back. It definitely would’ve been in my top 5 had I actually listened to the disc. Anyways, I’d recommend checking it out if you like Wilco and Left & Leaving-era Weakerthans.

Just when you thought this blog was going to go into another extended drought of posts, I bring you one more in my series of recaps of 2007. After discussing the best albums, I thought I’d present my mixtape. These are not all of my favourite songs but ones that seem to fit together when heard.

1. The Almost – Say This Sooner: This is probably the best song of the year to turn up and just rock out to. I wasn’t really fond of the rest of this side project from the Underoath drummer but this song rocks more than enough to make up for it.

2. Tim Armstrong featuring Skye Sweetnam – Into Action: Ever wonder what happened to Canadian pop one hit wonder Skye Sweetnam? Apparently, she went to work with Tim Armstrong. Here she guests on the poppiest song from his reggae record A Poet’s Life.

3. Sev Statik & Dust featuring Elias – Far Cry: I have no idea who Elias is but the other two guys come from two of Christian rap’s most well known crews; Sev Statik from the Tunnel Rats and Dust from Mars iLL/Deepspace 5. This track slows it down a little and it can be a little cheezy but it’s still solid.

4. Fono- On The Line: I’m not sure how this song got included but it seemed like the perfect fit. I had listen to a little bit of Fono’s debut Goesaroundcomesaround in 1999 but lost track of them. They resurfaced this year by giving away copies of Too Broken To Break as a download. It’s got a pretty heavy U2 influence, but still good.

5. The Rentals – Little Bit Of You In Everything: Why can’t they let Matt Sharp back into Weezer? The Rentals released The Last Little Life EP in 2007 and it’s miles better than anything Weezer has done since they reformed.

6. Pneumatics – Right Rear Damage: I talked about these guys a little in my honourable mention posts. This song just name drops a lot of local Winnipeg streets and describes taking in a Jets game. I don’t know if people without this nostalgic effect will like the song.

7. Bishop Allen – Like Castanets: A light song that bops along about a time spent in South America.

8. The Weakerthans – Night Windows: Kind of a morbid song to include (hint: it’s about missing a loved one who’s died) but I love the bass line in the song.

9. Spoon – Black Like Me: The closing track to my favourite album of 2007. Not quite as depressing as the track previous but it doesn’t bring the mood up too much. This song will still be great long after the poppiness of The Underdog has faded away.

10. The National – Slow Show: As we start to build back up, we get this track by one of my new favourites, The National. They’re touring with Modest Mouse and R.E.M. in the spring. It should be such a great show.

11. Foo Fighters – Long Road To Ruin: And we’re now back to full speed. I’m not sure why but I just love the chorus in this song.

12. Holler, Wild Rose! – Captive Train: Starts out like an African-American spiritual and just builds. It’s a little long at 6 minutes and 23 seconds but well worth it.

13. Cuff The Duke – If I Live Or If I Die: I already talked about this a lot in the top 20. Just enjoy it.

14. Band Of Horses – Is There A Ghost: A great opening track to an album but it gets shoved to the back here. These guys have made a good chunk of money selling songs for commercial use. Too bad it hasn’t led to more radio play (although Alan Cross has name dropped them as a band to watch in his blog).

15. Feist – 1234: Sure you’ve all heard the song thanks to the iPod commercial but it’s still a great song.

16. Starflyer 59 – Minor Keys: This is just a demo from the upcoming Ghosts Of The Future album but it really works as we begin to close out this session. Thanks again to Burnt Toast Vinyl for putting out the 7″ series. Oh yeah, this was ripped off a 7″ record, so it might be a bit quiet.

17. Tumbledown – Atlantic City: Finally we close with Mike from MxPx’s ode to Atlantic City. He likes to brand this as country but I’m not sure it’s completely there. Whatever, it just seemed like the perfect way to end this.

Thoughts?

After a couple days off, I figured that I should probably finish this off, especially since a couple people have admitted to reading this.

2. The National – Boxer: I’ve been trying for a couple days to come up with a short, concise way to describe The National’s sound. The best that I’ve come up with so far is, “soft and subtle, yet surprisingly anthemic”. The vocals are almost mumbled, barely rising above the guitars and drum work. Lyrics are poetic and mostly describe relationships. The instrumentation is surprisingly dense, which, while dominated by guitars, often contain various strings and brass backings. Tracks tend to start softly with a guitar line or piano intro and build, a tactic that allows these songs to work well in a live setting. This album has grown a lot on me over the year. I was initially pretty bored with the disc but was somewhat inspired to pick it up again after seeing them live early in the summer. As the months have gone by, this disc has stuck in rotation, gaining my respect and admiration. Without a bad song, the album is a seamless musical thought, something that’s fairly rare these days.

1. Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga: While it seems most bands are looking back to the 70’s and the disco era to make their Rock ‘N Roll danceable, Spoon goes back a little further to add a 60’s-like R&B feel to give their songs a bit more propulsion. The album is a little short (clocking in at a quick 36 minutes) but each of the 10 songs is deftly crafted with horns, piano, guitars and a great rhythm section. The album bounces around (especially on super catchy The Underdog) until it hits album closer Black Like Me. This is an enjoyable, complete album made by people who understand how to get the most out of a song without making it too cluttered. Everything has its place and it works. I could go on and on but just go and have a listen.

And we’re almost there. Just five more albums to go until we’ve reached the end of our week and a half of rapid posts before this blog once again descends into the abyss and becomes like so many other rarely updated blogs.

5. Holler, Wild Rose! – Our Little Hymnal: Like many of the albums on this list, I’m at a loss for words to adequately describe the sound of this band. At times the vocals are very reminiscent of Thom Yorke but the lyrics are pretty upbeat. “Captive Train” starts with almost a African-American spiritual sound and moves on to swells of distorted guitars and counter-melodies. Other portions of the album have enough noise and post-rock influences that could be found on an Appleseed Cast album if it weren’t for the very prominent vocals. The only real detractor is the nearly 12 minute song “Poor In Spirit”, which drags occasionally and would help the flow a little more were it shorter. That said, it’s a great debut and I look forward to more music from the New Jersey-based band.

4. Radiohead – In Rainbows: I don’t really want to write anything about this album because it’s all been written already. The discbox is beautiful and this is the most accessible Radiohead album since OK Computer. It’s awesome, but if you want a more descriptive take on the album, go read one of the thousands of reviews already out there.

3. The Weakerthans – Reunion Tour: The biggest criticism I’ve seen of this album is that it’s nothing new for the Weakerthans, that it’s the same album musically as Reconstruction Site, Fallow and Left & Leaving. I guess that’s partly true but The Weakerthans are about so much more than that. The real highlight here is John K. Samson’s storytelling. Whether it’s about a bus driver lamenting a lost love, a conversation with a former NHL goaltender or a sequel to the story of a cat begun on the previous album, Samson manages to create descriptive scenes, giving us a glimpse into the lives of actual characters. Although Winnipeg isn’t mentioned by name on this album, there are still a few allusions to it like the opening line of the album talking about “Confusion Corner commuters”. Greater Canadiana is also represented with the song Tournament of Hearts, which describes a half-drunk man sitting at a bar in the local curling club dreaming of what could’ve been.

10. Explosions In The Sky – All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone: I have a bit of a weakness for post-rock. Witnessing the building noise is such a powerful experience. While this isn’t the group’s best effort (I really like The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place), it’s still 6 tracks of soaring guitar, taking the listener on a wild ride without the use of vocals. Melodies weave through layers of noise to create a beautiful sound.

9. Anberlin – Cities: My love affair with emo goes back to the days of Sunny Day Real Estate and the Get Up Kids. One of the things that I’ve been disappointed as the genre has grown in popularity is that every single lead singer has this whiny part to his voice that just kills the experience. Thankfully, Anberlin is missing that annoying trait. The music falls in line with other stalwarts of the genre like Jimmy Eat World and Copeland and the lyrics still written towards high school students but somehow this works. I really didn’t expect this album to be on this list. I gave it a chance on a whim and haven’t been disappointed. This is just one of the albums to turn up loud and rock out to without thinking too much about the music.

8. M.I.A. – Kala: Sorry for linking directly to her site. Don’t worry, I’ll give you a minute to finish up your enjoying the seizure produced by the flashing bright colours. Good? Ok, we’ll move on. Kala pretty much picks up where Arular left off. Odd, off-kilter rhymes set against music that represents a mixture of musical styles. It can be tough to listen to at times but it’s a solid disc and requires a little more effort than the standard party rap CD. Also need to make note of the use of the lyrics from Where Is My Mind? by the Pixies in 20 dollar.

7. Cuff The Duke – Sidelines of the City: It’s nice to have a Canadian band this high on the list. To simplify a description of their sound, I’d say something along the lines of Sloan with a heavy country influence. Songs range from an ode to their home town to the near gospel country sound of the title track. It’s definitely different than a lot of the stuff that I’ve talked about already but still worth checking out.

6. Foo Fighters – Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace: I’ve been a fan of the Foo Fighters for a long time but I’ve been disappointed with their last couple albums. For some reason, they just couldn’t recapture the mix of energy and balladry that made The Color And The Shape such a great album. They tried splitting it into separate albums and thoughts with In Your Honor but it worked best when mixed together. That’s where ESP&G comes in. Both styles are once again mixed with a little bit of southern rock and presented in a single musical thought. The album starts off with the rocker The Pretender and doesn’t slow down until you reach the back half of the disc. This is the album that I’ve been waiting for since 1998.