Year in Review - Music

It's that time of year, when we can look back over the past twelve months and remember what we've heard, read and watched. Today, I'm going to cover my 2007 music listening, as there were lots of great stuff to show. This isn't necessarily music that came out in 2007, as I'm not often on the breaking edge of music, but rather music that was new to me in 2007.

My new music discoveries started rather late this year. One day during the spring, I hit play on my 5 disc CD player and a disc began playing that I just didn't remember. This isn't the first time it has happened (a The Cruel Sea CD in my car surprised me), but this CD was really good, hooking me right from the start. Turns out, it was a loaner from a friend (Hi, Mark!). The singer was Rhett Miller, a member of The Old '97s, who has done a few solo albums. Th Believer is a wonderful collection of solid pop-rock/alt-country songs. Singular Girl immediately jumped onto my collection of 2007's Greatest Hits.

Then another loaner from Mark (no surprise that our last.fm Taste-o-meter compatibility is Super) rocked my world. Rodrigo y Gabriela's passion, artistry and vision just blast through their eponymous CD, with its included DVD. Every song is a uproarious example of virtuoso guitar playing. Just remarkable stuff and I am really kicking myself for not going to see them when they were in town.
Next up was the wonderful We♥Music compilation, where every song was a winner. Two, however were so good as to make me immediately run out and pick up the associated CD.

Getting the 23 song by Blonde Redhead was easy, as their 23 (two-three) CD had just come out from 4AD. And that song was only the tip of the iceberg, as the entire CD showcased a remarkable variation on sounds. Every song has a different personality and each was good in its own way. I was also particularly struck by Silently. They are going to be coming to town next month, and I hope to catch them.

The other high water mark in a sea of great stuff on that compilation was Worship by Halflight and that proved to be a bit more trouble to track down, as Halflight hadn't yet actually released a CD. Lucky for me, their first one was soon to come and, after ordering it from their MySpace page, I finally got it. And it to was full of great songs, including the title track My Disguise and Lose the Lasso. The sound from the CD was also much better than the MP3 I had, which is something I usually don't notice.
One day I was surfing the music available in HD on my cable box and I came across a really cool song by a group called Goldfrapp (actually, the lead singer's last name). I just loved the beat of Fly Me Away and was glad to pick up their latest CD, Supernature. Other good songs from that CD include Oh La La and Ride a White Horse. It was cool that it came with a DVD version of the album, recorded in glorious DTS 5.1.
Two of my favorite 2007 CD purchases came on a lark, when I took a 40% off coupon to Borders and grabbed Collected by Massive Attack and Blown To Smithereens : The Best of The Smithereens. Massive Attack instantly became a fav, and I just recently picked up Mezzanine, their third CD, which contained two of the best from the Collected CD, Inertia Creeps and Teardrop, and added another great song in Dissolved Girl. The Smithereens CD just reinforced what I already knew but had never bought - they are a great rock 'n' roll band!
A song from yet another Mark loaner also jumps into my top ten, albeit not initially. I listened to the Scrubs Soundtrack CD here at home and thought it pretty good, but nothing popped out at me. So I was driving up to his house and I had it in the car CD player, intending to return it. Then John Cale's cover of the Leonard Cohen song Hallelujah came on and, for whatever reason, I became fixated on it. The CD didn't get returned that night and it is, according to my last.fm profile, my most played song, by a long shot!
Winterpills, whose debut album impressed me, came out with their second CD, the light divides and, while it didn't contain any real standouts like their first did, it was still a solid effort, topped by Lay Your Heartbreak.

Two "singles" I bought include one I first heard here on Vox, with its wildly clever video featuring animated dice. Fujiya and Miyagi's Ankle Injuries is a great electronic dance tune. And The Cave Singers' Seeds of Night was a great discovery thanks to WZBC.

So, to recap, my top ten songs from 2007, in no particular order:

• Rhett Miller - "Singular Girl" (The Believer [2006]) 
• Rodrigo y Gabrielle - "Ixtapa" (Rodrigo y Gabriela [2006]) 
• Blonde Redhead - "Silently" (23 [2007]) 
• Halflight - "Worship" (My Disguise [2007]) 
• Goldfrapp - "Fly Me Away" (Supernature [2005]) 
• Massive Attack - "Inertia Creeps" (Collected [2006]) 
• Massive Attack - "Dissolved Girl" (Mezzanine [1998]) 
• John Cale - "Hallelujah" (Music from Scrubs [2002]) 
• Fujiya and Miyagi - "Ankle Injuries" [2006]
  
• The Cave Singers - "Seeds of Night" [2007]