An Ear For An Era: 2011

2011 was back then.

Actually, what I kind of want to talk about is how exhausting the 2598 songs (7 days worth) of 2011 were. I considered stopping as it dragged on and on. I'm still mostly enjoying this project, but this one just had me really wanting to live more in the moment, because this seems like such a critical moment to be present in. But it'll be fine. I did a count for 2012 and there are only 1791 songs, less than 5 days worth. I think 2011 was probably the biggest chunk. And I considered ending it after 2012 since I started this project way back at the beginning of 2013...but then that would cheat me out of all these years I've put into this. Because due to said project, I didn't spend enough time with current music. So everything I've accrued in the past 4 years has gotten not enough attention already. So might as well give it its due here.

Okay, that is out of the way. let's go back 6 years to 2011. Sorry if I'm somewhat brief (and heavy on the footnotey section at the bottom) but I started listening to this back in November and I am going to have a hard time remembering it all that well. I've been on a break (listening to new music) a full month now, and I'm probably going to go another month before I dive into the next one.

Here's what I wrote at the time:
best of the music of the 2011th year since we started counting up

The summer of 2011 was when I was really working on my lawn for my house. Lots of digging holes. I remember this specifically because of a couple songs from a couple albums that came out in 2011.

Peter Bjorn & John's Gimme Some was quite an enjoyable collection of upbeat tracks, and many times I was digging holes with "Dig A Little Deeper" in my head.

My main soundtrack to that summer was Helplessness Blues by Fleet Foxes though. So much that I made it my album of the year back then. And the title track was my anthem as I worked to make my property into something. It was some sort of a growing up song and album. Trying to figure out what I really should be, what I should do with this land, work 'til I'm sore.

Fleet Foxes "Helplessness Blues"

Thao & Mirah was my introduction to both Thao Nguyen and Mirah. I checked it out because it was produced by tUnE-YarDs and included a song featuring her. Three awesome, empowered, unique, and incredibly playful voices playing off each other. I wonder if they are going to get back together again. They have both put out some awesome solo stuff before and since then though.

Speaking of tUnE-YarDs, W H O K I L L might be her best album. Bird-Brains (no more stylizing with punctuation, I've put enough effort into getting that right) had hints of W H O K I L L with a few tracks that could be on this one, but this one was this one. The power of looping, the power of the creative energy, the power of the rawness.

Tune-yards "Powa"

Speaking of catchy and creative, let's go further down that road to Deerhoof. Deerhoof vs Evil is one of my favorites from them. I read a review of their most recent album that badmouthed this one a little bit for whatever reason, and it seemed uncalled for. This one is different in that it doesn't rock out as hard as classic Deerhoof, but it just finds quieter ways to be very very weird.

TV On The Radio, man. TV On The Radio. What do I write about Nine Types of Light that I haven't already written about TV On The Radio? I guess at this point their pop is getting poppier without sacrificing any of their inventiveness. The ballady songs are especially heartfelt, and the rockers keep me banging on my steering wheel.

I had a Facebook "memory" the other day from 2011 when I was in the conundrum that new TVOTR and Battles music was available to me at the same time and I didn't know what to listen to first. Because they are two of my always favorites, and new music from either is an event. And then when I heard "Ice Cream," the first song Battles released from their new album Gloss Drop, their first without founding member Tyondai Braxton, I was absolutely blown away. They brought in some guest vocalists to fill in the gap, and while they didn't really need them (as they proved on the instrumental tracks and then the subsequent album), it was a very creative exercise for one of the most creative bands I've heard. I've written about Battles a lot so I won't say much more except that I saw them live that same year and I wrote a blog post about it, so if you want to you can check it out:
Battles 7.19.11: A Deconstruction of Carefully Controlled Noise

St. Vincent won me over with Strange Mercy. I hadn't realized what I'd been missing but checked this one out because I was checking everything out in 2011. And this album is why it is good that I checked so much out in 2011. I didn't realize she was so experimental/art rock! And I didn't know she could wail on guitar so effectively! Those licks pulled me in and then the "in between" slower songs hooked me (with her also awesome vocals).

The Antlers' second one Burst Apart was basically equally devastating as their previous one. A big step forward musically without sacrificing (wow I used the same basic sentence just a couple paragraphs ago...but I'm not gonna change it!) what makes it such an engaging challenge to listen to. I remember worrying it would be less intense when the reviews said it was less raw, but...it wasn't. Not very fair to have a song called "Putting The Dog To Sleep" though.

More indie rock was Bon Iver with his doubly self-titled album Bon Iver, Bon Iver. That one is pretty mind blowing. I remember comparing his trajectory to Kanye West, calling this his My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. I stand behind that, though I'm not sure if his new one is his Life of Pablo. But as of 2011, totally apt. A combination of all of his tricks he'd accrued over his previous material and put together in fascinating ways. I still can't get behind that Peter Cetera esque last track though.

When the album Wild Flag by the "supergroup" Wild Flag was released, it was exciting because Carrie Brownstein was playing music again after mostly being known for Portlandia for so many years. It was a nice reminder of how great of an artist she was when she was being sincere instead of sarcastic. It was a nice reminder where she gets the credibility to lampoon hipster culture so effectively. And it was my introduction to Mary Timony, who is about to re-release material from her old band Helium and similarly rocked me to my soul with her other newer band Ex Hex. But what about Wild Flag? It's just a great collection of high energy punk, a throwback to Sleater-Kinney, and even though it was kind of a side project (especially now that SK is back together) it will never be a minor footnote release. It stands tall.

M83 caught my ear with Hurry Up, We're Dreaming, a massive double album with massive hit after massive hit (okay maybe the hits weren't technically massive, they just felt that way. Epic hit maybe? I hate overuse of that word, but I think these songs qualify). Synthy, high energy, it just makes me want to see them live and feel the energy of the room on the opening notes of some of these songs.

Remember when The Weeknd was a new, mysterious thing? House of Balloons kind of blew my mind. The rawness, the desperation, that voice, it was very engaging. And I'm not generally into modern R&B unless it's something wild along the lines of Janelle Monae. But The Weeknd came out of nowhere and expressed something very raw and sad in such an engaging way. Side note: I ended up also getting the "remastered" versions of the first three albums/mixtapes/whatever and listened to both. I liked the remaster of House of Balloons but when I heard the original version again I loved it that much more. The rawness!

Charles Bradley came on shortly after the election with his song "The World (Is Going Up In Flames)" and it was so poignant and timely and sad. Most of the rest of the album is not particularly political, more love song based. That man can sing.

Another one that came on shortly after the election was The Ex with Catch My Shoe. This was their first one with the new singer, and while it definitely changed the experience a little to have a different singer, there is so much rhythm to The Ex that I think it would have been weirder if they swapped out the drummer or guitarist.

The Ex "Cold Weather is Back"

The final Beastie Boys album was a very fine Beastie Boys album. Leave it to them to keep pushing musical innovation 25 years into their career, but Hot Sauce Committee Part Two was amazing. Enough of that old school swagger and playfulness combined with forward thinking production. RIP MCA!

Other hip hop was a bunch of things, of course including that Jay-Z & Kanye West collaboration Watch The Throne. I feel the same way now as I did when it came out. They've both done better, they've both done much deeper, but it is a hell of a lot of fun to listen to anyway.

Regarding Kendrick Lamar, I just want to say that what I wrote about in my 2011 write-up (linked above) was "very optimistic about his future." Now, I don't think I could have predicted anything like Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City (or of course To Pimp a Butterfly) but I would like to point out that I astutely knew he was capable of better than Section.80. His lyrics and delivery were great (particularly on "Rigamortus") but the production left a bit to be desired. And then he delivered a short year later. In all seriousness though, Section.80 was better than I'd remembered/recognized at the time. But of course now it's all about what he went on to do, isn't it?

The Roots had another brilliant one in undun, a very raw, gritty set that has a certain artfulness, seamlessly incorporating a Sufjan Sevens instrumental track in full before expanding on that with an extended outro.

Of course, all hip hop that came out in 2011 had to be compared to Black Up by Shabazz Palaces. It ended up very close to the top of my list and pretty much ruined all other hip hop that came out because it was so far beyond what I understood hip hop could be. I still don't know how to write about it (see my attempt in 2011) other than it feels like it elevates me, clears some space out, and puts me...somewhere. Up there. Cleared out.

Shabazz Palaces "Recollections of the wraith"

But what about Tom Waits? Bad As Me is still his latest album and it is still as awesome as most of what he's put out in his long career. I love his alternating between banging blues blowouts and sincere  bona fide ballads. Nobody does it like Tom Waits. Not even close. It was quite haunting to listen to "Last Leaf" though, in early 2017, so soon after the likes of Bowie and Leonard Cohen left this plane. Stick around forever please!

I had a couple massive, very experimental/heady benefit compilations come up that were made for Japan, and I still feel like the world didn't mourn enough for what happened to Japan in March of 2011. It was a massive catastrophe and so much bigger than some little blog.
And while I was writing this, I googled Fukushima and saw this story from YESTERDAY that there are currently "Deadly Nuclear Radiation Levels Detected" in Fukushima.

Grouper "Cassiopeia"

Other words.

• Explosions in the Sky. I was just getting into them because Take Care, Take Care, Take Care was pretty well received. Quite awesome instrumental post rock.
• Similarly, Mogwai with the best song title of most times: Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will.
• I Am Very Far was yet another quite good Okkervil River album but this was when I was a little less into it than their predecessors. Still a couple songs I gave 4 stars to though.
• Kind of ditto for The Decemberists/The King is Dead.
• I always remember liking The Dodos but I never decide that I want to listen to The Dodos. But Here came No Color to remind me of why I always remember liking them. Very catchy and creative.
• Iron & Wine just kept getting more and more weird and that's one of the few acts I'd rather hear stick to what they're known for. Still a couple songs I love though.
• Big K.R.I.T. had a breakthrough with Return Of 4Eva, and I ran the turkey trot listening to it. It was very good running music.
• I'm not sure if there's much unique about The Mountain Goats' All Eternals Deck but I do remember getting it at Twist & Shout on vinyl and they had held onto a special limited version of the vinyl for me. That was when I knew I had "made it" as a music fan. My favorite record store knew me! It also, in retrospect speaks volumes to why I had so much damn 2011 music.
• Obits! Still awesome.
• The Lionheart Brothers! Still great. A little more wistful and less poppy on Matters of Love and Nature but I still like them quite a lot.
• Lykke Li seemed to get more bold with her vulnerabilities on Wounded Rhymes.
• Cut Copy made for a good stand in for Hot Chip on Zonoscope.
• I like Smoking Popes, but This Is Only A Test is just an awkward album where he tries to speak for kids much younger than he is. It just doesn't work for me.
• I should probably mention Radiohead so Radiohead! I think I liked the random other tracks they put out more than The King of Limbs but it still has its moments.
• of Montreal put out an EP called thecontrollersphere, which was okay, but its centerpiece, the 8 minute "Holiday Call" was great.
• There were two Buddy Holly tribute compilations for some reason. Lots of variation in quality...
• I usually skip Christmas songs with this project but the holidays actually lined up with it this time, so I had the quite enjoyable Songs for Christmas Vol. X by Sufjan Stevens (including my favorite, "Christmas Unicorn") and A Very She & Him Christmas come up. Enjoyable tree decoratin' music.
• The Lonely Island is pretty great, eh?
• And speaking of funny things, The Book of Mormon.
• Jens Lekman's EP An Argument With Myself has my wife's favorite Jens song (the title track). I prefer "A Promise," a heartfelt song for a very good friend.
• People Under The Stairs are like the Spoon of hip hop. Always great.
• I remember Tinariwen's album Tassili. It featured numerous TV On The Radio cameos and some great guitar work.
• Retox is pretty awesome.
• LP1 got me over Joss Stone. Great voice, but at that point I'd finally had enough.
• Washed Out was the sexier version of the xx.
• Mi Ami went totally electronic on the EP Dolphins. I still prefer the more outrageous guitar-flavored version of them.
• I think I realized while listening to Take Care that I don't really have a personal need to listen to Drake.
• Doomtree Bangarang!
• Feist! Metals! Still great!
• ...And another classic by "Weird Al" Yankovic. Alpocalypse seemed almost like he was trying to be relevant to the 2011 world with songs about Craigslist and ringtones and forwards, but still quite good. And the White Stripes style parody "CNR" is pretty right on. (he did better on the next one though)

The Mix of the time:
Sound is the Blood Between Me and You: It Was 2011
1. Wild Flag "Romance"
2. Snake Rattle Rattle Snake "Hastily"
3. M83 featuring Amy White "Steve McQueen"
4. Beans "Gluetraps"
5. Shabazz Palaces "Recollections of the wraith"
6. Mayer Hawthorne featuring Jimijames "The Walk"
7. Bon Iver "Perth"
8. Lia Ices featuring Justin Vernon "Daphne"
9. Jens Lekman "Waiting for Kirsten"
10. The Antlers "Putting the Dog to Sleep"
11. Deerhoof "I Did Crimes for You"
12. Tom Waits "Hell Broke Luce"
13. Battles "Inchworm"
14. TV On the Radio "Repetition"
15. Tinariwen featuring Tunde Adebimpe & Kyp Malone "Tenere Taqqim Tossam"
16. Tune-Yards "Esso"
17. Colin Stetson featuring Shara Worden "Lord I Just Can't Keep From Crying Sometimes"
18. Fleet Foxes "Helplessness Blues"

Next One is 2012 (eventually):
Dirty Projectors' best maybe? Rock off with Cloud Nothings vs Japandroids! The year of El-P and Killer Mike before they joined forces officially! Frank Ocean! Kendrick Lamar! Call Me Maybe! And much more!

An Ear For An Era: 2007

I've been putting off writing this one for some time now. Maybe not on purpose. Mostly just because I was busy with Christmas and catching up on the ton of music I'd acquired in the previous couple months in an attempt to have some sort of grasp on the music of 2015. Not that I ever felt I even sort of caught up on that. But I've spent the past month listening to recent acquisitions released from 2013-2016. 2016 is Bowie. That's a whole other thing. I always make it a big deal to myself what my first album of a year is and I'm so glad it's Bowie this year.

Okay, where am I?

2007 was my favorite year for music. So much so that I was hoping to get this up by the end of the year so I could say something like "2007 was my favorite year of 2015!" but at least that's here, so that's something.

When I started this project I was looking forward to 2007. I was wondering if context would make a difference, if I'd change my opinion on 2007 music because it might have just been the sheer quantity I consumed that year that helped me find so many albums I loved (and in many cases, my introductions to many artists that I love). But that's not really how it works. Because these are albums I loved and they will always be albums I love. Regardless of context. Are there some lesser albums? Of course. Just like every year. But the top bunch are amongst my tip top bunch of all time.

I'll try to not make this too long but I feel like there will be a lot I will want to write a lot about. And things that deserve full paragraphs might end up in the notable things at the end just because there's so much great here.

I guess I can get started since I've already made the intro much too long.

It started this time with Ted Leo & The Pharmacists. I'd long respected them and lots of my friends liked them, but Living With The Living was where I finally really got it personally. The energy, the passion, the politics...they really captured my feelings during the Bush years and the aftermath of the war in Iraq. And then the slightly softer songs were just so damn catchy, it's just a great album from front to back. And it has one of my favorite lines that really exemplifies the whole reason I have this blog project, from "The Lost Brigade." Repeating and repeating, more and more earnest...

"Every little memory has a song."

2007 was a year I was so into music that it was the year I got to go to SXSW in Austin for work. We interviewed tons of bands, saw tons of shows, just absorbed the whole thing, and it was amazing.

We had to run to try to catch Les Savy Fav's set and only caught the last song. To this day that is the only time I witnessed LSF live, which is a big regret (but not as big as if I had missed it completely!). We interviewed Tim and he gave us some fun soundbytes because he is a very clever man. Anyway, the album. Let's Stay Friends is the album from this year and is a huge ball of energy, just like the band.

The other SXSW story I have to share is when we went to a "US vs Norway" showcase. We went through the line outside and asked people "US or Norway??" and got some great answers. Then we went inside and a band was playing called The Lionheart Brothers. I was supposed to get some footage of bands playing so I sat there taping them. And continued to. And was completely mesmerized by this band with its spacey guitars and lovely vocal harmonies, matched by a driving beat. They don't have very good distribution in the states but I got their album Dizzy Kiss on itunes, one of the few albums I've ever bought on itunes.

When we headed back home after an amazing few days with very little rest, I think it was an early morning flight. Everyone was so tired and I listened to my iPod in the airport. And this memory has this song. And the lyrics don't really fit it much other than being tired, but I was picturing the film of our journey, and it was the end credits, and I saw everybody sitting half-dead or napping at the airport, everyone with their own favorite adventures and memories, and this song played.

Sundowner, "This War Is Noise"

Yes, Chris, best known for The Lawrence Arms, one of my favorite songwriters in two of my favorite band, and the man who wrote my senior quote, put out his solo debut as Sundowner. Four One Five Two. Just a great set of songs, including a couple Lawrence Arms covers that he completely transforms. But "This War Is Noise" will always take me back to that airport in Austin and the recovery from one of the best weekends of my life.

Another memory has a song (or an entire album!). I had just gotten The Shepherd's Dog by Iron & Wine and I got sick. Sicker than usual. I never take sick days but I had to go home and take some drugs. And I put it on the turntable and listened to it. And about halfway through the album I realized that no, there wasn't a female guest vocalist on all of those songs. My record player had gotten all messed up and was playing everything at some rpm between 45 and 33. Oh, and the album itself: it's great!

Hey guys, Shellac only puts out an album every several years and it is always an event. Excellent Italian Greyhound was my first "new" Shellac album. The End of Radio kicked off my "it was 2007" mix CD and was a great statement on the state of music. The rest of the album is just pure Shellac. Rage, calculated rage, and aggression (calculated aggression).

Speaking of calculated aggression, I have a confession. I didn't really start listening to Nick Cave until Grinderman. Their self-titled debut as Grinderman is so great and it introduced me in a more official capacity to the genius that is Nick Cave.

Deerhoof came onto my radar with Friend Opportunity. Kind of. I had heard a few songs but it always seemed so weird and abrasive (both qualities I've loved for a while, but for some reason I couldn't get into them). Friend Opportunity was my opportunity to really understand them and spend more time listening to them (particularly because it came out early in the year!) and really find the catchiness aspect they excel at. Catchy and weird rather than abrasive and weird. With pieces of the right kinds of abrasive.

Another band known for being catchily abrasive and weird is Animal Collective. After reading some great reviews and loving the idea in theory I picked up Strawberry Jam and I tried. I really, really tried to get into it. But I couldn't. It just wasn't the right kind of catchy or abrasive. The right kind of weird maybe. But I gave it a bunch of spins and it didn't do much for me. Cut to a couple months later. Riding in a friend's car. He has it playing on the stereo. Suddenly I love it. It had snuck into the back of my brain!

Panda Bear (of said Animal Collective) had the highly lauded Person Pitch album that year as well. Less weird, more beautiful in general, and a similar burrowing quality.

I listened to 23 by Blonde Redhead a lot at work that year. It was one of just a few albums on my computer there but it always made me feel so good to put it on. I don't know if they've hit this balance of synthiness and catchiness in the years since.

Perennial favorite Enon had what ended up being their final album Grass Geysers...Carbon Clouds. This one was a little more focused than usual, almost to its disadvantage. I always like the kitchen sink approach of their albums and this was more rock-centric. But that made the songs that stray from the straightforward beat (such as "Pigeneration") that much more interesting in this context. They are having a lot of fun on this album and you can tell.

Okkervil River really hooked me with The Stage Names. As good as Black Sheep Boy was (and I was too much of a latecomer for it to be "my" Okkervil River album), The Stage Names is just so catchy and smart, sad at the right times, and really reminds me of the French New Wave of cinema. Will Sheff is so learned about music and he has so many references that are placed at the perfect place while putting his own spin on everything, it's just fun to listen to and catch everything flying by. But especially when the last song goes into "Sloop John B" and gives me such a rush of joy.

Okkervil River, "John Allyn Smith Sails"

Spoon has always been on a hot streak. I remember we ambushed Britt Daniel at the Monolith Music Festival and talked about his new album Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (even he had to count on his fingers to get the title right). This one might even be better than the average Spoon album. It seemed like they really expanded their sound here without losing their core. It's great fun.

The Shins hit a high point (and I got them the same day I got my first album of 2007) with Wincing The Night Away. Or I just accepted them into my world. Friends and loved ones already loved them, and they were hugely popular because of Garden State, but I didn't have much interest in them until I decided to have interest in EVERYTHING around this time. And I liked it, some catchiness reminiscent of The Beach Boys, and a great kickoff beat to start the whole thing.

Speaking of a great kickoff beat, how about that LCD Soundsystem? Sound of Silver could have been #1 and maybe if I take everything into account it is now. Just the one-two punch of "Someone Great" and "All My Friends" hit me on such a personal level and are some of my favorite 14 minutes of music.  Surround that with some great party jams and end it with an earnest ballad and you've got a classic on your hands. I don't know how necessary it is for me to write much about this since everyone seems to know about them (how about the hype around their reunion only 5 years after their hiatus?!), but this is really something special.

LCD Soundsystem, "All My Friends"

I feel like !!! started off their still-going streak of greatness with Myth Takes. I really dig their earlier material (and you may recall that their EP/single thing was basically at the top of my list in 2005) but they did what they kind of set out to do. They reached a certain kind of maturity here (keep in mind that they are still as gleefully juvenile as ever with lyrics and antics; I'm talking about the way they handle a groove) that has propelled them way beyond anyone's expectations.

Talib Kweli had a banner year in 2007. He started it off with a free collaborative EP with Madlib. This was kind of what kicked off my interest in Talib, and I ended up ranking the free EP very highly on my year-end list. It felt like nobody remembered it since it came out at the very very beginning of the year, but it sits close to my heart. I'm guessing a big part of that is because he is such a great artist and it was my window to a world of talent. But he also put out a very long, very acclaimed album called Ear Drum. Probably the most successful he has been at the pop thing. I was less interested in it at the time but upon revisiting it, it really works for him. He's tried a few times to be a popular rapper and shed the "conscious" label even though he's so good at that as well.

How are we already to the end of the great Guru? Guru's Jazzmatazz Vol. 4 was released in 2007 and was my real intro to his great voice. His delivery had a certain knowing swagger to it, an authority that makes me take notice. Gang Starr was before my time and just about all of the Jazzmatazz stuff was as well. He came into the studio once and talked about his new vegetarian diet and healthy lifestyle, which made his heart attack just that much more shocking. I don't feel like I'm doing justice to the album or the man, but just give him a listen.

Guru's Jazzmatazz featuring Kem, "Connection"

I finally "got" Kanye West when he put out Graduation. He has gone on to even greater heights, but I just really liked how vulnerable he allowed himself to be (briefly) on this album, it made him human. Plus he'd just dissed George W Bush on national television so he was getting good will from me.

I really really liked American Gangster by Jay-Z. It seemed like he really found some inspiration from that movie and had to put it out there. It's just full of great songs, from the catchy ones (Roc Boys) to the inspired (Pray).

Saul Williams and Trent Reznor released an optionally free album (around the same time as Radiohead)  so I really tried to help get the word out. The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust! is a very intense and confrontational album about race in America, with some great production by Trent Reznor. It was like nothing I had heard before, the mix of industrial and beat-poetry-hip-hop, and should have been more successful than it was.

Janelle Monae finally released her EP and the beginning of her Metropolis arc and it was just so great right out the gate. The two follow-up LPs are absolutely amazing, but the kickoff EP is more than just promising. It is a full chapter of greatness, an introduction to a very interesting career indeed.

I didn't really like M.I.A. at first but then we got the video for "Boyz" at the station. As obnoxious as it was, it really dug into my brain and I ended up getting the album. Kala. And I really really got the appeal. Such a fantastic album, including the never-going-out-of-style "Paper Planes."

I picked up a single by Jesca Hoop out of a free bin because it had a quote by Tom Waits. Turns out she worked as a Nanny for Mr. Waits, which is a pretty funny concept to me. But his endorsement was not unfounded. Her debut album Kismet is really something special. I'd call it my introduction to "quirky" female singer-songwriters. Because my ignorant brain always equated them to softer folky stuff. But Jesca Hoop jumps all over the place with her vocals and her production and her rhythms and lyrical content in a way that is so engaging and fun to follow.

Nicole Atkins will always be related in my mind to Jesca Hoop because she was the other great woman singer-songwriter I discovered around the same time. But her stuff is less bouncy and more brooding. I always wanted to edit together a dramatic dance sequence set to "The Way It Is."

Jens Lekman too?? When I first got Night Falls Over Kortedala I thought he was getting too soft. Particularly the front end of the album sounds almost new agey in its mix (despite the usual lyrical brilliance). But it works and you get used to it. Plus this has the very personal song "It Was a Strange Time in My Life," which also takes me back to walking my dog around Congress Park when I lived over there. For whatever reason. I know I listened to that song pretty obsessively and probably listened to the album a few times while doing that.

My #1 album at the time, after much internal debate, was Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? by of Montreal. I have written a lot about this album so I won't spend too much time here except to say that I still love it, and this time around I could really feel the transition from the front end (gleeful depression) and the back end (gleefully shoving that depression back so far you can almost pretend it's not there). Such nuance on an album that feels so much like a circus is quite an accomplishment. Making me feel like a sad clown at a psycho carnival but still wanting to dance and sing along, no wonder it was the best of the best.

And the other other album that could have been #1 with a different order of operations was Mirrored by Battles. When it came out I was producing a show where we talked about the new albums every Tuesday. I took on the research portion myself because I really didn't want to miss anything. I didn't know anything about this band except what I was reading about the pedigrees of the members (including someone from Don Caballero) but it turned out we had a video available! We played this video after I made the host talk about how cool this band was, and that day I went out and bought the album. And listened to it a lot.

(Note: I can't find the video on YouTube so this is just the song)

Battles, "Atlas"

Other Stuff of Note:

• I feel like I'm being a jerk putting Neon Bible by Arcade Fire way down here. It's probably lots of people's favorite album of the year. But to me this is where it felt like they started to believe their own hype. Self importance. Revisiting it 8 years later, my tune has changed a bit and it has a lot of great songs, I just wish it didn't feel like it thought it was as great as it is.
• My official first acquisition was Best Kept Secret by Ultramagnetic MCs. It still took me a long time to get any of their earlier material but I wasn't huge on this anyway. I like the other sides of Kool Keith.
• I didn't listen to Modest Mouse as much as I probably should have but We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank was a good one.
• Dinosaur Jr: same. Beyond is way beyond expectations for a reunion album, it's like they didn't miss a beat.
• Wilco kind of officially went "dad rock" with Sky Blue Sky, but that just means it's something my dad and I would probably both enjoy. I have a specific memory of going to a shoot for work and listening to this album for the first time in a couple weeks and deciding I quite liked the direction they were heading.
• There was an Amnesty International benefiting John Lennon tribute album, and when I was listening to it I was remembering how boring most of the contributors were and I was wondering why I'd bought it. Then I remembered it was a benefit. And also there are a couple gems on there, including a rare Postal Service cover of "Grow Old With Me." That stuff's way at the back though after lots of U2, Christina Aguilera, Aerosmith, etc etc.
• The I'm Not There soundtrack is much more successful. A great Bob Dylan tribute album with heavy Calexico involvement.
• I really dug the party mode White Stripes on Icky Thump after they started taking themselves seriously on the previous album.
• You know how KRS-One is the Teacha? I learned a lot about hip hop just listening to his album with Marley Marl called Hip Hop Lives.
• There's an Evil Dead musical and it came out in 2007. I just got the cast recording to play at our Evil Dead party when the show premiered. Pretty ridiculous but I enjoy much of it.
• I continued to be loyal to CocoRosie even though they just wouldn't quite be exactly what I hoped for.
• I really really wanted to like the Chrisette Michele album but couldn't get beyond the production and the lyrics. Great voice though.
• Simian Mobile Disco, they were pretty awesome.
• Kate Nash writes some pretty interesting songs. At the time she kind of felt like a Lily Allen ripoff but upon further investigation I can appreciate her style and her songwriting is on a much higher level.
• Dirty Projectors' experimental Rise Above is a cool way to do a tribute. But the best is yet to come with them...
• Boxer was my introduction to The National but at the time I just thought it was serviceable indie singer-songwriter stuff. It would take me a bit to really appreciate them.
• I also got back into They Might Be Giants! The Else is a lot of fun.
• The New Pornographers are too damn consistent. Everything feels new and great with them.
• Feist! The Reminder was a great reminder of her powers. "One Two Three Four" was inescapable but the whole album is fantastic. I really should have put this in a full paragraph form. But I love the sound of her voice and the songs and the words and all of it!
• I dug Joss Stone at the time.
• More Nina Nastasia please! 
• Also where I got into Aesop Rock. None Shall Pass was almost too much for me to handle.
• Qui had David Yow in them for a little bit. Love's Miracle is what they have to show for it. One of my more favorite abrasive albums of recent memory.
• Rumblings of some guy named Bon Iver.
• Radiohead too!?!? How much stuff is there to write about?! In Rainbows was that crazy industry changing album (or not) that allowed people to pay what they wanted to a band that was in a position to do something like that. The music itself is quite good.
• Do you like to D.A.N.C.E.? So does Justice!
• Old dudes Paul McCartney and Neil Young remained relevant with some quite good albums.
• Andorra is the end of a certain part of Caribou's trajectory. I dig it.
• I was still sleeping on some Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings at the time but 100 Days, 100 Nights is some classic throwback soul. Obviously.
• Sentai, including former member(s) of Black Eyes, are way too overlooked.
• The Weakerthans too man! Too much stuff.
• Lupe Fiasco's The Cool.

Mix From The Time: 2007 Was It

1. Shellac - The End of Radio

2. Battles - Atlas

3. Blonde Redhead - Silently

4. The Lionheart Brothers - Hero Anthem

5. LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends

6. Kanye West - Can't Tell Me Nothing

7. Talib Kweli & Madlib - Time Is Right

8. Animal Collective - For Reverend Green

9. !!! - All My Heroes Are Weirdos

10. Enon - Dr. Freeze

11. Jesca Hoop - Intelligentactile 101

12. Jens Lekman - It Was a Strange Time in My Life

13. M.I.A. - XR2

14. KRS-One and Marley Marl - Nothing New

15. Jay-Z - No Hook

16. of Montreal - A Sentence of Sorts in Kongsvinger

17. Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - (Hidden track from the bonus EP)

18. Okkervil River - John Allyn Smith Sails

Next Time:

2008! Great! Breeders! The return of Del! DeVotchKa! Gnarls Barkley! The Roots! She & Him! TV On The Radio! And More! This was the year I was unemployed and got a job and moved to the suburbs so...yay!