The most innovative electronic act to come out of France since Daft Punk and the hottest act right now on Paris's scorching label Ed Banger Records.
essential track: Phantom Pt. II
24. The Rakes - Ten New Messages
London boys come good on follow up to 2005's Capture/Release with a tight, polished indie-rock set that squeezes in all the hooks it can with dark, ironic humour a-plenty.
essential track: We Danced Together
23. Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - 100 Days, 100 Nights
The lady who was once told that she didn't have "the right image" for funk and soul now IS the image for the best booty wiggling, love making music goin' round.
essential track: Tell Me
22. Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank
Turning every indie boy's wet-dream into a beautiful reality, the Mouse added guitar legend and ex-Smiths member Johnny Marr to their line-up bringing new-found edge and energy to their unique, kooky, pop goodness.
essential track: Dashboard
21. Tegan And Sara - The Con
With producer Chris Walla (Death Cab For Cutie) T&S skipped up a few steps on the indie ladder with their 2007 offering adding gorgeous melody to their dark, emotive lyrics. Emo rock how it should have been: sincere and intelligent.
essential track: Floorplan
20. Kaiser Chiefs - Yours Truly, Angry Mob
The boys from Leeds followed up their brilliant debut Employment in typical tongue-bursting-through-cheek form, delivering a set full of sing-along songs for every man in a pub punching their fists in the air.
essential track: Ruby
19. Kings of Leon - Because of the Times
The only band since Lynyrd Skynyrd that pull off 'the hillbilly look' and still make it look sexy continue on their way to becoming one of the biggest bands of this generation winning over more fans to their cult with this polished third album.
essential track: On Call
18. The Shins - Wincing the Night Away
Princes of the alternative world, 'the garden state band' at their intriguing best with melodies that are sweeter than the first cherries of summer. This star just keeps getting higher...
essential track: Sea Legs
17. Interpol - Our Love to Admire
Fuck The Editors, the war has been won. Interpol returned with their most accessible LP to date tip-toeing the fine line between hook-filled pop and dark, sombre introspection. Breaking new ground with space and atmospheric beauty, all snide remarks gone with people starting to wonder if Interpol should still be compared to Joy Division, or maybe it should be the other way around?
essential track: No I in Threesome
16. Midnight Juggernauts - Dystopia
With more hype than Leonardo DiCaprio, was this album ever going to live up to the expectations of the electro-kids in the alley-way nightclubs? Now a corner-stone of Modular Records - the Juggers finally released their debut album and you know what? it was okay. But maybe not the ground-breaking Endtroducing-esque masterpiece we were all told to expect.
essential track: Into the Galaxy
15. Okkervil River - The Stage Names
Outta Left-Field? Hell Yeh! Shockingly Good? You know it. Okkervil surprising listeners with one of the most kick-ass horn sections in any pop band and everyone knows the air trumpet is way cooler than the air guitar.
essential track: A Girl in Port
14. Bright Eyes - Cassadaga
"the next Bob Dylan?" Okay everyone let's not go too far with the hyperbole, but i think we can all agree our Conor is damn talented. After I'm Wide Awake... and Digital Ash he could have gone one of two ways, and thank Christ he went this way. A sweeping, poetic piece of literature, Mr. Oberst's lyrics however dense they may be, are rapturous and socially aware.
essential track: Four Winds
13. Digitalism - Idealism
It seems Daft Punk-ism is a class also taught in Germany. Fun, happy dance music for the glow-stick inclined, it is hard to resist the catchy (repetitive) one-liners and clap-your-hands beats that make up the debut LP from these boys. With this release, Click Click Nightclub had their 2007 soundtrack.
essential track: Pogo
12. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Baby 81
Bluesy, Gritty, Leather-Jacket wearin' rockers return with their fourth album, and randomly enough, it's their best. Not many bands hit a career high on numero 4 but this cd makes you feel as if you were on a lonely highway, top down, doing 120 km/h with a cigarette hangin' outta your mouth. Fuck Yeh.
essential track: Weapon of Choice
11. Feist - The Reminder
The glory-girl of 2007, Ms. Leslie Feist, a member of the Broken Social Scene released the sleeper hit of last year to only mild critical praise. Four syllables changed this: one two three four. Apple picking up on her sultry voice, hip-shaking talents and annoyingly catchy lyrics for an iPod ad and the rest is commercial pop history...
essential track: My Moon My Man
10. Bloc Party - A Weekend In The City
Darker and harder with hints of electro - Kele and the crew survive the pressure of the second album, brilliantly creating their disenchanted ode to London. From the conformity of youth (Uniform) to the growing race segregation of London (Hunting For Witches) Kele unleashes his obvious anger with the power of the band's angular guitars. Yet it is with his softer more delicate moments he kills us, balance has never sounded so conflicted as Kele proves that he's not afraid to show us his wounds.
essential track: I Still Remember
9. Kanye West - Graduation
It is only with an album like this that Kanye gets away with being such a blatant tosser. Proving himself with Late Registration and continuing to enlarge his own head for the following three years, Mr. West returned with proof he was the best Hip-Hop producer in the world. Sampling everyone from Daft Punk to Elton John to Michael Jackson, he showed considerable improvement as a lyricist and silenced his critics, finally earning the praise that he repeatedly gives himself.
essential track: Homecoming (ft Chris Martin)
8. Silverchair - Young Modern
The boys are back in town...after an extended hiatus and cringe-worthy side-project from Daniel Johns, the original trio from Newcastle got back together and went Talking Heads on our unexpecting asses. Never one to dwell on the same sound, Johns used his ego to his advantage pushing the boundaries of what is considered a pop song and hits all the right notes.
essential track: Mind Reader
7. Memories & Dust - Josh Pyke
Don't you just love it when artists take their time to release an album after a good EP and come out with something incredibly mind-blowing? Boom! Josh Pyke has landed, after his 2005 mini-album Feeding the Wolves, the man who makes Australian folk cool arrives with a contagious, intelligent and down-right heart-warming debut. Not since Damien Rice's O has a folk-pop debut sounded so mature and accomplished.
essential track: Memories & Dust
6. LCD Soundsystem - Sounds of Silver
James Murphy should be given a genre of his own, possibly called 'intelligent electronic music'. After his scattered self-titled debut, the man's first real long player is close to being a masterpiece, chronicling the realisations of a man who is becoming weary of the scene. Destroying the pretensions of dance music and taking its repetitiveness with it, Mr. New York offers a beautifully honest and uplifting album with the most original beats since Mylo.
essential track - New York, I love you but you're bringing me down
5. Klaxons - Myths of the Near Future
Like nothing you have ever heard before in your life. 3-part harmonies, you're thi
nking Bee Gees. Wrong. Air-raid sirens, you're thinking Zombie Nation. Wrong. This is indie-electro tastiness that makes even Mormons wanna dance and scream like they got a pair. Mercury prize winners and psycho live performers - watch out for these guys if they don't disappear back to Mars or wherever the fuck they came from.
essential track: Atlantis to Interzone
4. Mark Ronson - Versions
If you don't know Mark Ronson, simply take out the inside cover sleeve of your Lily Allen
or Amy Winehouse or Adele album. The best commercial funk producer in the bizz debuts with his name on the front cover with a selection of re-workings and covers. Odd, personal and interesting selections the likes of Radiohead, Coldplay, The Smiths and Britney Spears all get deconstructed and reimagined as swing/soul and funk numbers to varying brilliance. But one thing is constant, this guy knows his shit and when he nails something, it's not a cover but a creation of his own.
essential listen - Stop Me (if you've heard this one before)
3. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
These Canadian orchestral wonders owned 2004. Funeral was a pop masterpiece for the 21st century and not one critic dared to say otherwise, and if they did, they had no taste. 2007 saw the release of their second coming, an apocalyptic warning of sorts with Win Bu
tler, our prophet preaching the dangers of fundamentalist religion and political terror. The complexities of their music add to their intrigue and vibrancy with French horns, mandolins, piano organs and accordions lacing their gospel style anthems. Some were disappointed that it didn't match Funeral yet this reviewer would have been angry with a part two, consider Neon Bible as a god send.
essential track: Keep the Car Running
2. Radiohead - In Rainbows
Pressure? Pfft! These guys have it on toast for breakfast. The most hyped band since Nirvana made headlines
for their business acumen yet the fact they undermined the music industry did not take away from their most perfect work since 97's OK Computer. Walking the tightrope between their indie-rock origins and their electronic fancy, In Rainbows succeeds in its accessibility (not something Radiohead are famous for) and its lyrical depth. Thom Yorke at his cryptic best delivers beautifully delicate vocals over tight harmonic guitar lines. The Brit-Pop Kings still hold the throne.
essential track: Jigsaw Falling Into Place
(drum roll)
1. Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worst Nightmare
A service announcement to all music lovers: Alex Turner is a genius. Child prodigy, whatever label you want to give the kid, he sure does give you something to get excited about. Barely a year since they broke every record in the book and had everyone asking 'who the fuck are the Arctic Monkeys?' with their debut album Whatever People Say I Am, Thats's What I'm Not - the boys return with a louder, faster, harder album that tells the
world one thing, it was no fluke. Angrier and more polished, the Monkeys brought on Simian Mobile Disco to produce, losing the garage twang and coming out with 12 brutally cool songs about the things that happen when you're Britain's hottest band. With a tongue as sharp as Dylan's and a sound Oasis wish they still had, there wouldn't be a single musical soul in Greater Britain right now that wouldn't say these guys are the heirs to Radiohead's throne. Indie-Rock defined in 2007.
essential track: 505
23. Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - 100 Days, 100 Nights
The lady who was once told that she didn't have "the right image" for funk and soul now IS the image for the best booty wiggling, love making music goin' round.
essential track: Tell Me
22. Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank
Turning every indie boy's wet-dream into a beautiful reality, the Mouse added guitar legend and ex-Smiths member Johnny Marr to their line-up bringing new-found edge and energy to their unique, kooky, pop goodness.
essential track: Dashboard
21. Tegan And Sara - The Con
With producer Chris Walla (Death Cab For Cutie) T&S skipped up a few steps on the indie ladder with their 2007 offering adding gorgeous melody to their dark, emotive lyrics. Emo rock how it should have been: sincere and intelligent.
essential track: Floorplan
20. Kaiser Chiefs - Yours Truly, Angry Mob
The boys from Leeds followed up their brilliant debut Employment in typical tongue-bursting-through-cheek form, delivering a set full of sing-along songs for every man in a pub punching their fists in the air.
essential track: Ruby
19. Kings of Leon - Because of the Times
The only band since Lynyrd Skynyrd that pull off 'the hillbilly look' and still make it look sexy continue on their way to becoming one of the biggest bands of this generation winning over more fans to their cult with this polished third album.
essential track: On Call
18. The Shins - Wincing the Night Away
Princes of the alternative world, 'the garden state band' at their intriguing best with melodies that are sweeter than the first cherries of summer. This star just keeps getting higher...
essential track: Sea Legs
17. Interpol - Our Love to Admire
Fuck The Editors, the war has been won. Interpol returned with their most accessible LP to date tip-toeing the fine line between hook-filled pop and dark, sombre introspection. Breaking new ground with space and atmospheric beauty, all snide remarks gone with people starting to wonder if Interpol should still be compared to Joy Division, or maybe it should be the other way around?
essential track: No I in Threesome
16. Midnight Juggernauts - Dystopia
With more hype than Leonardo DiCaprio, was this album ever going to live up to the expectations of the electro-kids in the alley-way nightclubs? Now a corner-stone of Modular Records - the Juggers finally released their debut album and you know what? it was okay. But maybe not the ground-breaking Endtroducing-esque masterpiece we were all told to expect.
essential track: Into the Galaxy
15. Okkervil River - The Stage Names
Outta Left-Field? Hell Yeh! Shockingly Good? You know it. Okkervil surprising listeners with one of the most kick-ass horn sections in any pop band and everyone knows the air trumpet is way cooler than the air guitar.
essential track: A Girl in Port
14. Bright Eyes - Cassadaga
"the next Bob Dylan?" Okay everyone let's not go too far with the hyperbole, but i think we can all agree our Conor is damn talented. After I'm Wide Awake... and Digital Ash he could have gone one of two ways, and thank Christ he went this way. A sweeping, poetic piece of literature, Mr. Oberst's lyrics however dense they may be, are rapturous and socially aware.
essential track: Four Winds
13. Digitalism - Idealism
It seems Daft Punk-ism is a class also taught in Germany. Fun, happy dance music for the glow-stick inclined, it is hard to resist the catchy (repetitive) one-liners and clap-your-hands beats that make up the debut LP from these boys. With this release, Click Click Nightclub had their 2007 soundtrack.
essential track: Pogo
12. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Baby 81
Bluesy, Gritty, Leather-Jacket wearin' rockers return with their fourth album, and randomly enough, it's their best. Not many bands hit a career high on numero 4 but this cd makes you feel as if you were on a lonely highway, top down, doing 120 km/h with a cigarette hangin' outta your mouth. Fuck Yeh.
essential track: Weapon of Choice
11. Feist - The Reminder
The glory-girl of 2007, Ms. Leslie Feist, a member of the Broken Social Scene released the sleeper hit of last year to only mild critical praise. Four syllables changed this: one two three four. Apple picking up on her sultry voice, hip-shaking talents and annoyingly catchy lyrics for an iPod ad and the rest is commercial pop history...
essential track: My Moon My Man
10. Bloc Party - A Weekend In The City
Darker and harder with hints of electro - Kele and the crew survive the pressure of the second album, brilliantly creating their disenchanted ode to London. From the conformity of youth (Uniform) to the growing race segregation of London (Hunting For Witches) Kele unleashes his obvious anger with the power of the band's angular guitars. Yet it is with his softer more delicate moments he kills us, balance has never sounded so conflicted as Kele proves that he's not afraid to show us his wounds.
essential track: I Still Remember
9. Kanye West - Graduation
It is only with an album like this that Kanye gets away with being such a blatant tosser. Proving himself with Late Registration and continuing to enlarge his own head for the following three years, Mr. West returned with proof he was the best Hip-Hop producer in the world. Sampling everyone from Daft Punk to Elton John to Michael Jackson, he showed considerable improvement as a lyricist and silenced his critics, finally earning the praise that he repeatedly gives himself.
essential track: Homecoming (ft Chris Martin)
8. Silverchair - Young Modern
The boys are back in town...after an extended hiatus and cringe-worthy side-project from Daniel Johns, the original trio from Newcastle got back together and went Talking Heads on our unexpecting asses. Never one to dwell on the same sound, Johns used his ego to his advantage pushing the boundaries of what is considered a pop song and hits all the right notes.
essential track: Mind Reader
7. Memories & Dust - Josh Pyke
Don't you just love it when artists take their time to release an album after a good EP and come out with something incredibly mind-blowing? Boom! Josh Pyke has landed, after his 2005 mini-album Feeding the Wolves, the man who makes Australian folk cool arrives with a contagious, intelligent and down-right heart-warming debut. Not since Damien Rice's O has a folk-pop debut sounded so mature and accomplished.
essential track: Memories & Dust
6. LCD Soundsystem - Sounds of Silver
James Murphy should be given a genre of his own, possibly called 'intelligent electronic music'. After his scattered self-titled debut, the man's first real long player is close to being a masterpiece, chronicling the realisations of a man who is becoming weary of the scene. Destroying the pretensions of dance music and taking its repetitiveness with it, Mr. New York offers a beautifully honest and uplifting album with the most original beats since Mylo.
essential track - New York, I love you but you're bringing me down
5. Klaxons - Myths of the Near Future
Like nothing you have ever heard before in your life. 3-part harmonies, you're thi
nking Bee Gees. Wrong. Air-raid sirens, you're thinking Zombie Nation. Wrong. This is indie-electro tastiness that makes even Mormons wanna dance and scream like they got a pair. Mercury prize winners and psycho live performers - watch out for these guys if they don't disappear back to Mars or wherever the fuck they came from.essential track: Atlantis to Interzone
4. Mark Ronson - Versions
If you don't know Mark Ronson, simply take out the inside cover sleeve of your Lily Allen
or Amy Winehouse or Adele album. The best commercial funk producer in the bizz debuts with his name on the front cover with a selection of re-workings and covers. Odd, personal and interesting selections the likes of Radiohead, Coldplay, The Smiths and Britney Spears all get deconstructed and reimagined as swing/soul and funk numbers to varying brilliance. But one thing is constant, this guy knows his shit and when he nails something, it's not a cover but a creation of his own.essential listen - Stop Me (if you've heard this one before)
3. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
These Canadian orchestral wonders owned 2004. Funeral was a pop masterpiece for the 21st century and not one critic dared to say otherwise, and if they did, they had no taste. 2007 saw the release of their second coming, an apocalyptic warning of sorts with Win Bu
tler, our prophet preaching the dangers of fundamentalist religion and political terror. The complexities of their music add to their intrigue and vibrancy with French horns, mandolins, piano organs and accordions lacing their gospel style anthems. Some were disappointed that it didn't match Funeral yet this reviewer would have been angry with a part two, consider Neon Bible as a god send.essential track: Keep the Car Running
2. Radiohead - In Rainbows
Pressure? Pfft! These guys have it on toast for breakfast. The most hyped band since Nirvana made headlines
for their business acumen yet the fact they undermined the music industry did not take away from their most perfect work since 97's OK Computer. Walking the tightrope between their indie-rock origins and their electronic fancy, In Rainbows succeeds in its accessibility (not something Radiohead are famous for) and its lyrical depth. Thom Yorke at his cryptic best delivers beautifully delicate vocals over tight harmonic guitar lines. The Brit-Pop Kings still hold the throne.essential track: Jigsaw Falling Into Place
(drum roll)
1. Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worst Nightmare
A service announcement to all music lovers: Alex Turner is a genius. Child prodigy, whatever label you want to give the kid, he sure does give you something to get excited about. Barely a year since they broke every record in the book and had everyone asking 'who the fuck are the Arctic Monkeys?' with their debut album Whatever People Say I Am, Thats's What I'm Not - the boys return with a louder, faster, harder album that tells the
world one thing, it was no fluke. Angrier and more polished, the Monkeys brought on Simian Mobile Disco to produce, losing the garage twang and coming out with 12 brutally cool songs about the things that happen when you're Britain's hottest band. With a tongue as sharp as Dylan's and a sound Oasis wish they still had, there wouldn't be a single musical soul in Greater Britain right now that wouldn't say these guys are the heirs to Radiohead's throne. Indie-Rock defined in 2007.essential track: 505
3 comments:
Incredible. Blown away.
your reviews are classy as hell, chris. keep 'em coming.
p.s. no love for band of horses? i thought you digged those guys! love.
Late response. Very impressive list. Kanye!? Good call. King so low? Alex may just be on of the best. No argument with the No.1 position.
Post a Comment