the music end-year review

[rone]

This is all the music that i bought this year, so it is, by default, what i considered the best this year.

Released in 2007:

• Battles, Mirrored  Noisy in a good way, top-quality creative musicianship anchored by a drumming god, a well-constructed album. Best of the year.
• Kristin Hersh, Learn to Sing Like a Star + In Shock (single)  Hersh just gets better with every release.
• The Arcade Fire, Neon Bible  Didn't have the highs or the lows that Funeral did.  The track arrangement is suspect; it should definitely kick off with "Intervention" so the pipe organ opens and closes the album.  "Ocean of Noise" is one of the best songs of the year.
• The Polyphonic Spree, The Fragile Army  Their best release.  Fun, happy, joyous... you get the picture.
• Annie Lennox, Songs of Mass Destruction  Birthday gift from amywithani and palecur, thanks guys!  Much better than Bare, and despite being a Glen Ballard production, does not suffer from an overabundance of Studio Magic.
• The McCarricks, [untitled] (EP)  Saw them open for Kristin Hersh in Santa Cruz.  Violin and cello plus electronics and visual aids == good music.
• EveryLasThing, Burning Garden (EP)  Caught "Psycles" on XM.  Grungy.

Released in 2006:

• Rodrigo y Gabriela, [untitled]  Superb.  Shredding acoustic guitars.
• Wolfmother, [untitled]  Three young Australians listened well to the rock of the `60s and `70s and show off their influences and chops.  Some of the songs are a little callow, but that's a minor complaint.
• Gustavo Cerati, Ahí Vamos Soda Stereo's frontman's latest solo effort.  Solid.
• Burden Brothers, Mercy  Uneven.  I've fallen off the bandwagon.
• Battles, EP C/B EP  A lot of sketches on two EPs that led to the much more rounded and fulfilling Mirrored.
• The Polyphonic Spree, Wait  Appetizer for The Fragile Army.  Nothing special.

Released before 2006:

• Cirque du Soleil, O  Kim and i saw the "O" show during our latest trip to Vegas.  Awesome show, great music.
• Rodrigo y Gabriela, Re-Foc  Their first album, with guest musicians.
• Rodrigo y Gabriela, Live Manchester and Dublin  Not bad for a completely improvised collection of live tracks.
• Fiona Apple, Extraordinary Machine  Need to give this more of a listen, but i liked what i heard a lot.
• Los Toreros Muertos, 30 Años de Éxitos  I had to get this for "Mi Agüita Amarilla", a tale about the journey that the vocalist imagines his pee taking after it exits his body.  Ah, the `80s.
• The Arcade Fire, Arcade Fire  It shows some early promise, but also a lot of musical wankery.

Lastly, via thequietquiet, a video of the Boredoms playing the opening of "77Boadrum", if you're into a lot of people drumming at the same time.

Comments

[peglegpete.livejournal.com]

So, Battles... I absolutely loved Atlas. Will the rest of the album give me the love? More importantly, will it be sweet, sweet love down by the fire?

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

You will need a new pair of pants. In a good way. Scout's honor.

[peglegpete.livejournal.com]

Sold! Danke.

Well,

[notr.livejournal.com]

that was confusing! The first time I watched it, the video was overlaid with a small text ad for The Poughkeepsie Tapes near the beginning and I wondered when I had missed such an event in Waryas Park, and one glimpse of the buildings up above looked just enough like the Grand Hotel and the former housing project to fool me, but then with the nearby buildings and the southern view of the bridge I was trying to figure out if there's some part of Kaal Rock Park that I didn't realize still existed, until finally at the very end you see the bridge support and it's obviously far too massive and close to shore and those skyscrapers across the river definitely aren't Highland. So where is that really?

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

In the Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park in Brooklyn, at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge. (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/09/arts/music/09bore.html?_r=1&oref=slogin)

Oh!

[notr.livejournal.com]

That actually was the only bridge I could think of with stone supports that huge, but I looked at Google's aerial images and didn't think I saw a park that big there.