Best of 2007: The Music

[pogokat]

i wish i could delete kevin barnes from my outback commercials...i cringe every time......

 

still can't believe of montreal is so popular...they'd open for the whigs in their own hometown

 

edit: not to say i don't like the band...just thinkg it's weird because no one paid them any attention for a decade and now they are universally loved

[valpocrewsader]

I'll throw a vote out there for Scorpions' "Humanity: Hour I". Glad no one said Nightwish's "Dark Passion Play".

[brettac1]

1. Of Montreal- "The Past is a Grotesque Aninmal"

 

Yep.

 

It was number one from the first time I heard it a little more than a year ago and it was never even threatened. It's one of my very favorite songs ever.

[jordanmuehl]

I'll just do my five favorite songs of the year:

 

1) Ryan Adams, "Everybody Knows"

2) Arcade Fire, "No Cars Go"

3) The National, "Ada"

4) Wilco, "Hate It Here"

5) Spoon, "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb"

[TooLiveBrew]

Any time one of these music threads pops up, I feel like I'm one of the tiny few who actually listens to hip-hop. I never know any of the stuff listed - but I'm willing to check a lot of it out, since many albums get multiple gushing reviews. I really don't do a very good job of staying on top of new music coming out, so I don't have a list, but...

 

Lupe Fiasco's The Cool is, quite simply, a genius hip-hop album. One way you can tell is that it gets better every time you listen to it. This is not crap-hop like you'll hear on the radio and see on MTV Jams (*puke!!!!*). Fiasco's writing style is incredibly human & down-to-earth. Additionally, the disc (and his sound in general) has a Neptunes feel to it, but more like their project N.E.R.D. than the glitzy bling-tacks they've produced for guys like Jay-Z, Clipse, Ludacris, & Mystikal (and I like all four of those acts).

 

While reading the 'you like yours & I'll like mine' exchange, I was reminded of this line from Jay-Z's "Heart of the City": "Youngins ice-grillin' me, oh - you not feelin' me? / Fine, it costs you nothing - pay me no mind"

 

http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

 

EDIT: Man I hate this Mac w/Safari as the browser. Hooray having to html code for what the 'Enter' key should do on its own!

[jordanmuehl]

I really liked Food & Liquor, but I haven't gotten a chance to listen to The Cool yet. One of my roommates has it, so I'll have to check it out. I must say that from the few songs I've heard off of it so far, they've all been endearing -- I'm just not sure I love them.

[pogokat]

Thought I'd pop in to say that Emotionalism - Avett Brothers Is really fantastic...that is all

[brettac1]

No doubt.

[sveumrules]

i wish i could delete kevin barnes from my outback commercials...i cringe every time......

 

still can't believe of montreal is so popular...they'd open for the whigs in their own hometown

 

edit: not to say i don't like the band...just thinkg it's weird because no one paid them any attention for a decade and now they are universally loved

maybe because they're the last really active band with elephant 6ix ties? probably not, but i know that always carried a lot of weight around athens it seemed.

 

they probably just hired a better publicist.

[LouisEly]

Bang Tango - From The Hip

 

Bang Tango??? They're still around? I remember them back from like 1989.

 

I knew that as soon as I saw this thread it would be dominated by lists about singer/songwriters and thought about blindly putting up a Vegas line as to who would be mentioned more in this thread - Wilco, Ryan Adams, or Elliot Smith. There's quite the following of that genre on this board, but I'll look at those lists as some suggestions of things to look into. I agree whole heartedly that you can't rely on mainstream radio to deliver everything (or anything) good in music; it is mostly vomit, a payola force-feeding of what labels have what deals with what conglomerate media companies and what promoters do the best job of having "potted plants" submit fake requests to radio stations for the "artists" they work for (read: Fall Out Boy). Personally I am not an album person; it's rare that I can stand more than half of what is on an album, and for the most part the only albums I can listen to beginning to end are limited to early works by REM (Out of Time and earlier), U2 (Rattle and Hum and earlier), Midnight Oil (Diesel and Dust and earlier), and Beastie Boys' License to Ill. Because of that I am a track/single person. (By the way, I tried to listen to a Ryan Adams album and it bored me to tears.)

 

I think Brian may be the only one who might recognize most of what I list as my favorites from the past year or so. My apologies if some were technically released in late 2006, but here goes:

 

Clearly #1, and perhaps the best single of this decade: Matt Darey - "Beautiful Day"

 

#2) (actually, a somewhat close #2 and probably a top 10 for this decade) Filo & Peri feat. Lumiere - "Anthem"

 

The rest in no particular order:

 

Chris Lake feat. Emma Hewitt - "Carry Me Away"

Dogzilla - "Frozen"

Paul van Dyk - "Let Go"

Ronski Speed feat. Julie Scott - "Love All The Pain Away"

Sharam - "Party All The Time"

Stonebridge - "Close to Heaven" (Chris Kaeser Remix)

Talla 2xlc - "No In-between"

The Bravery - "Time Won't Let Me Go" (Album version as well as Tall Paul Remix) (this year pretty much sucked for alternative/modern rock)

The Editors - "An End Has A Start" (see comments for The Bravery)

The Killers - "Read My Mind" (Gabriel & Dresden Remix)

Timbaland - "The Way I Are" (I'm hoping this is the track that swings Hip-Hop towards more of a dance floor influence)

[And That]

I knew that as soon as I saw this thread it would be dominated by lists about singer/songwriters and thought about blindly putting up a Vegas line as to who would be mentioned more in this thread - Wilco, Ryan Adams, or Elliot Smith.

 

I think Brian may be the only one who might recognize most of what I list as my favorites from the past year or so. My apologies if some were technically released in late 2006, but here goes:

It's possible many people listen to Elliott (note the two t's at the end) Smith, Wilco and Ryan Adams because it fits in nicely with the slightly-off culture intellectual theme of the board. It's also possible many people listen to those guys because it is really good music (well, Elliott and Wilco anyway).

And FWIW, I am positive I have heard and could ID all but one or two of the songs you listed, and it's quite possible I've heard all of them at one time or another. Off hand I'll remark that I think The Killers are a terrible band, Editors have underachieved on both of their albums, and that Timbaland's shtick is getting old. I used to love him, but now I can point out a Timbaland-produced track from a mile away. That's not a good thing.

 

Isn't the Darey track you're referring to just called "Beautiful" or is "Beautiful Day" something else and unfortunately titled in light of the previous single he had? If it's the same track and just a different name, I guess I don't hear the remarkableness.

[LouisEly]

Off hand I'll remark that I think The Killers are a terrible band, Editors have underachieved on both of their albums, and that Timbaland's shtick is getting old. I used to love him, but now I can point out a Timbaland-produced track from a mile away. That's not a good thing.

 

Isn't the Darey track you're referring to just called "Beautiful" or is "Beautiful Day" something else and unfortunately titled in light of the previous single he had? If it's the same track and just a different name, I guess I don't hear the remarkableness.

 

Note how I said that I am a track person, not an album person. Also note how I did not list the album version of the Killers track, just the Gabriel & Dresden remix. Most of the Killers album tracks don't impress me either, but G&D did a great job on the remix and Jacque Lu Cont did an excellent job on the Thin White Duke remix of "When You Were Young" (but that was 2006), so technically G&D would be the artist there not The Killers. And while I think what you say about Timbaland is mostly true, note my comment about how I hope that track influences the rest of Hip Hop; I think Hip Hop has strayed away from the dance floor influences that vaulted it to the forefront of the music scene in the mid-90's and most of Hip Hop, like you say about Timbaland, is not a good thing anymore.

 

The Matt Darey track is "Beautiful Day". Hop on your favorite music download site/program and look for the "Sunburst Mix". "Sunburst Mixshow Edit" is good too as is "BPM Slice Edit". It can be purchased through Sony's Connect music service as well as iTunes.

 

(Oh, and I listened to the tracks on Elliott Smith's iTunes Essentials, and they bored me to tears also. Was he the guy singing on the stairs in Animal House? http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif )

[And That]

The Matt Darey track is "Beautiful Day". Hop on your favorite music download site/program and look for the "Sunburst Mix". "Sunburst Mixshow Edit" is good too as is "BPM Slice Edit". It can be purchased through Sony's Connect music service as well as iTunes.

But what album is it on? http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

 

I used to be pretty big into trance, went to raves and all that. The genre's just gotten stale to me... I don't know if it's the constrictions placed on music that wants to be called "trance" or whatever. At risk of sounding like someone who has never appreciated the style of music, it's all begun to sound the same to me. Electronic music definitely can still be exciting - for me it's usually more the outside-the-box stuff that you can't define as "trance" or "microhouse" or "IDM" and on and on.