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SCHOLARS AND ROGUES
Best
CD's of 2007 • January 2008
Dr. Slammy
Launch and Landing
scholarsandrogues.com
The
best CDs of 2007, pt. 2: Platinum LPs
Welcome
back to part two of our annual music wrap-up. Today we award the Platinum
LPs, given for superior achievement. (If you missed part one, click
here to review the Gold LP winners, updated to include three inadvertent
omissions.) These appear in no particular order.
Platinum LP
The Birthday Massacre: Walking with Strangers
Toronto’s The Birthday Massacre is a study in
contradictions. While sometimes labeled a “goth revival” act
(and it’s true that you’ll hear all kinds of ‘80s post-punk
and goth influences), there’s something very contemporary, even
forward-looking, about their sound, which manages to be appropriately
dark and bright to the point of chirpy. Hard, yet, achingly beautiful.
Thematically discomforting, yet not remotely nihilistic. And so on.
This is hands-down my favorite CD of the year to simply listen
to - lush, rich, driving and ambient all at once. The worst thing I can
find to say about Walking with Strangers is that it’s probably
not much better than their previous effort, Violet. Of course,
that was a damned fine effort, too.
Blonde Redhead: 23
A lot of times I’ll fall in love with a dreampop/shoegazer/noisepop
band and it feels like I’m the only one, but this year’s superb
release from NYC-based Blonde Redhead seems to have popped up on a number
of year-end lists. Their debt to My Bloody Valentine is obvious, but they
also bring a haunting sense of melody to their music in ways that MBV
and some of their other followers never managed.
Droning, shimmering, sweeping, dissonant but irresistibly
lovely - 23 is a songwriting tour de force in a genre known a lot more
for its atmospherics than for its tunesmithing. Simply remarkable.
The Clientele: God Save the Clientele
The most delightfully upbeat CD of the year. From top
to bottom, this bright exercise in indie chamberpop feels a carefree stroll
through one sunny park after another, and if I make it sound insubstantial,
you have my apologies. GStC is anything but trivial. One reviewer,
AMG’s
Tim Sendra, calls it “a stunning batch of songs that will break
your heart, pump it back full of life, and send you off to dreamland with
a warm feeling filling your soul.” Not far off the mark, that -
despite the warm, feel-good vibe, there is a lyrical depth here, but even
when things go badly we’re never allowed to forget that the sun
rises again tomorrow and with it comes a fresh burst of hope.
In its best moments - and there are many - The Clientele
reminds me of Luke Haines on a good day. Tonally reflective, musically
rich and warm - wonderful to listen to whether you’re paying very
close attention or not.
The Good, The Bad & The Queen: The Good, The Bad & The Queen
Once upon a time Damon Albarn produced an iconic CD
about life in London, Blur’s classic Parklife. After a
couple insanely innovative outings at the center of Gorillaz, he’s
now looped that aesthetic back into the task of yet another definitive
set of snapshots depicting life in London. This time, though, the mood
and storytelling are considerably bleaker.
Albarn has recruited a noteworthy cast this time
around, and TGtB&tQ feels more like an actual band than Gorillaz ever
did. Guitars are handled by Verve’s Simon Tong, Fela Kuti drummer
Tony Allen and Clash bassist Paul Simonon, and each brings a healthy dose
of what made them famous to the project. Still, the disc feels more like
Demon Days than it does Parklife, Urban Hymns
or London Calling.
Albarn has now produced epic efforts in three different
incarnations, and it’s hard not to number him among the greatest
auteurs in rock music today. In sports terms, he’s an automatic
first-ballot hall of famer even though he’s still in the middle
of his career. Of course, rock doesn’t have a hall of fame…
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss: Raising
Sand
Did you see this one coming? Because I know I didn’t.
Metal legend teams with one of the brightest lights in contemporary bluegrass?
Okay-dokey.
Of course, it’s brilliant, oscillating between
folk, Americana and country, and perhaps thanks to T-Bone Burnett’s
laid-back influence the whole things comes off as really effortless. Warm,
organic, and maybe a little less explosive than I might have expected
(Krauss only plays the fiddle on a couple of tracks), the result is what
happens when legit superstars are willing to subjugate their individual
talents to the requirements of the team.
VAST: April
Over the past decade it’s hard to find a band
or performer that’s been more consistently outstanding than VAST,
aka Jon Crosby. April represents a break from past form, though,
in that it’s a bit more acoustic and also in Crosby’s willingness
to let other people into the studio, a move that helps infuse the CD with
some of the dynamism of the VAST live show, which is simply one of the
hugest sounding things I’ve ever encountered.
April is probably not quite the masterpiece of 2000’s Music
for People, but its suite of haunted, stunningly beautiful songs
of love and loss still prove the merit of a brilliant artist. Even his
second best work is markedly better than the best efforts of most others.
Amy Winehouse: Back To Black
Graham Parker says this is the best thing anyone has
done in a very long time, and I’m very close to agreeing with him.
Winehouse has reached back into the vaults, dragged out soul and R&B,
dusted it off, and made it new again. This isn’t an easy thing to
do - these styles have been done, done some more, and then done to death,
so the vibrancy of Winehouse’s neo-soul sound is nothing short of
remarkable. The songs are stellar and her performance of those songs suggests
a power and experience that you rarely find in a 24 year-old. It’s
a shame her personal soap opera has dominated public conversations about
her - really, it should be all about the music.
P. Hux: Kiss the Monster
Track 5 is called “Come Clean,” and it begins
this way: “I’m gonna tell her everything / I’m going
to say I slept around.” Talk about two short lines that got my attention
- I wanted to jump up, grab a phone and see if it was too late to stop
him. It was: “I heard some feet go pitter-patter / A window on my
pick-up shattered / fucking really fucking matters.” Parthenon Huxley
has been around awhile - is career started in the Carolinas in the ‘80s
- and the experience shows. A lot of power pop seems so constrained by
the form and by the need to touch all the right bases influence-wise that
it never quite establishes a serious depth, but that’s not an issue
for Hux (and hasn’t been for some time, actually). Thoughtful guitar
pop at its best.
The Lost Patrol: Launch and Landing
Damn. Just, wow. Twangy, epic widescreen music for empty
western landscapes at sunset. Somehow TLP conjures the Old West and layers
it with a twinge of goth electronica in a way that’s relentlessly
cinematic. Their sound is defined, in some ways, by the connotive power
of echo and reverb, yet it’s never overpowered by studio tricks.
Instead, the focus never leaves the staggering accomplishment of the songs
themselves, which manage to be as transcendent in impact as they are simple
in structure and conception.
Oh, one more thing - this is a self-release. Somehow
music this masterful isn’t worthy of label attention? You’re
kidding, right? Well, that was the fate of the last Jets Overhead record,
too, and it struck me as being the best release of 2006.
Radiohead: In Rainbows
I’ve always respected Radiohead for their willingness
to explore and innovate. That respect hasn’t always translated into
a high regard for the finished product, though. This year, though, the
band has translated some of their experimentation into actual songs, and
the result is frankly pretty impressive. In fact, I think it’s probably
their best in several years. The commitment to more traditional structures
has infused In Rainbows with a direction and a sense of control that hasn’t
always been evident on the last few discs, and with luck this is the start
of a new phase in the band’s considerable career.
(link)
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