Much Delayed Best of 2007
Well, it's been ready for a couple weeks now, but I haven't been able to simply get it written up. Every years, it seems like I fiddle around with it, wondering if this truly is it. This year though, it hasn't been from second guessing myself; I just haven't found the time to really write it up.
A lot of the albums listed this year are albums I've raved about earlier in the year. My god, there really has been some good stuff come out. And a lot of it didn't even make it on my own Best of.
I make up my Best of list based off the albums I keep going back to despite some other brilliant find I come across. For example, Amp Fiddler's “Afro Strut” could have been on here. Same goes for The Smashing Pumpkin's “Zeitgeist” or even Alicia Keys newest effort “As I Am,” but for one reason or another, the albums refused to stick around on my mp3 player.
I'll be honest and say I was having a Progressive Rock kind of year where I was discovering new band and gobbling them up on nearly a monthly basis. I think this year's list reflects that.
I'm just going to write about my top three rather than go into an album by album talk this year. Most of these I've written about at length, or talked about at length with one person or another.
Even thought it will be officially released to stores on the first of January, Radiohead's “In Rainbows” has become one of my favorite albums by them. I honestly think it's second only to OK Computer. Meera might dispute that, but it truly is another masterpiece.
Blackfield's “Blackfield II” gets a top nod just by being that brilliant and for exposing me to the first album as well (And the DVD they released later in the year.) I don't know why this made it in the top three and not Porcupine Tree's “Fear of a Blank Planet.” Thematically, they're very similar, but Blackfield spoke to me just a bit more. I think it might have been Aviv Geffen's contributions that tipped it over the edge. Really, Steve Wilson is at his best when he's collaborating with someone, and that combination with the Isreali mindset is brilliant.
It's also Porcupine Tree-lite, which would be good for getting people into the greater body of Steve Wilson's work. (I honestly think I've had something with his involvement every year since I started doing these things.)
Finally, my top three is rounded out by Maynard James Keenan's latest side/solo project Puscifer. This is the decadence both Tool and A Perfect Circle sometimes hint at, but never truly go for since the Opiate EP. When asked to compare to the two, I can only come up with it being a mish-mash along with something special that seemed to crawl out of Maynard's brain.
For the first Underworld soundtrack there was a song included that has since been given a different backing track and seriously fixed. It is seriously my favorite track on the album.
Now, here's the mix with te songs only arranged in an order of best fit. Though I will say that Norah's album was the first I decided would be on the list way back when it came out. I felt the same about Neon Bible too.
Best of 2007
1. Norah Jones - "Wish I Could" from Not Too Late
2. Stanley Clarke - "Châteauvallon 1972 (Dedicated To Tony Williams)" from Toys of Men
3. Blackfield - "Christenings" from Blackfield II
4. Stephen Marley - "You're Gonna Leave" from Mind Control
5. Radiohead - "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi" from In Rainbows
6. The White Stripes - "A Martyr for My Love for You" from Icky Thump
7. Rasputina - "The Pruning" from Oh Perilous World
8. The Arcade Fire - "Black Mirror" from Neon Bible
9. Little Atlas - "Contumacious" from Hollow
10. Puscifer - "Vagina mine" from V is for Vagina
11. Christian Scott - "Katrina's Eyes" from Anthem
12. A Fine Frenzy - "Last Of Days" from One Cell in the Sea
13. Porcupine Tree - "Sentimental" from Fear of a Blank Planet
A lot of the albums listed this year are albums I've raved about earlier in the year. My god, there really has been some good stuff come out. And a lot of it didn't even make it on my own Best of.
I make up my Best of list based off the albums I keep going back to despite some other brilliant find I come across. For example, Amp Fiddler's “Afro Strut” could have been on here. Same goes for The Smashing Pumpkin's “Zeitgeist” or even Alicia Keys newest effort “As I Am,” but for one reason or another, the albums refused to stick around on my mp3 player.
I'll be honest and say I was having a Progressive Rock kind of year where I was discovering new band and gobbling them up on nearly a monthly basis. I think this year's list reflects that.
I'm just going to write about my top three rather than go into an album by album talk this year. Most of these I've written about at length, or talked about at length with one person or another.
Even thought it will be officially released to stores on the first of January, Radiohead's “In Rainbows” has become one of my favorite albums by them. I honestly think it's second only to OK Computer. Meera might dispute that, but it truly is another masterpiece.
Blackfield's “Blackfield II” gets a top nod just by being that brilliant and for exposing me to the first album as well (And the DVD they released later in the year.) I don't know why this made it in the top three and not Porcupine Tree's “Fear of a Blank Planet.” Thematically, they're very similar, but Blackfield spoke to me just a bit more. I think it might have been Aviv Geffen's contributions that tipped it over the edge. Really, Steve Wilson is at his best when he's collaborating with someone, and that combination with the Isreali mindset is brilliant.
It's also Porcupine Tree-lite, which would be good for getting people into the greater body of Steve Wilson's work. (I honestly think I've had something with his involvement every year since I started doing these things.)
Finally, my top three is rounded out by Maynard James Keenan's latest side/solo project Puscifer. This is the decadence both Tool and A Perfect Circle sometimes hint at, but never truly go for since the Opiate EP. When asked to compare to the two, I can only come up with it being a mish-mash along with something special that seemed to crawl out of Maynard's brain.
For the first Underworld soundtrack there was a song included that has since been given a different backing track and seriously fixed. It is seriously my favorite track on the album.
Now, here's the mix with te songs only arranged in an order of best fit. Though I will say that Norah's album was the first I decided would be on the list way back when it came out. I felt the same about Neon Bible too.
Best of 2007
1. Norah Jones - "Wish I Could" from Not Too Late
2. Stanley Clarke - "Châteauvallon 1972 (Dedicated To Tony Williams)" from Toys of Men
3. Blackfield - "Christenings" from Blackfield II
4. Stephen Marley - "You're Gonna Leave" from Mind Control
5. Radiohead - "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi" from In Rainbows
6. The White Stripes - "A Martyr for My Love for You" from Icky Thump
7. Rasputina - "The Pruning" from Oh Perilous World
8. The Arcade Fire - "Black Mirror" from Neon Bible
9. Little Atlas - "Contumacious" from Hollow
10. Puscifer - "Vagina mine" from V is for Vagina
11. Christian Scott - "Katrina's Eyes" from Anthem
12. A Fine Frenzy - "Last Of Days" from One Cell in the Sea
13. Porcupine Tree - "Sentimental" from Fear of a Blank Planet
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