Thanks to Largehearted Boy for linking to the first part! This might also be the time to explain what did not make the list and why. Some awesome albums were just a bit too old, Fleetwood Mac’s “Tusk” (1979, reissue: 2004), and John Cale’s beautiful “Paris 1919″ (1973, reissue: 2006), which came to my attention through gorgeous covers by Final Fantasy and Cadence Weapon as well as by #16 below, and The Long Blondes “Someone to Drive You Home” (2006, ouch!). Others were too new, like Daft Punk’s rocking “Alive 2007″ and Sam Amidon’s “All is Well”, which will be released in February. Then there are the albums that might not have gotten into my head fully, dear audience pleasers like Justice, Feist, or the “Once” soundtrack. The specific songs from these albums that did gain repeat-rinse-repeat status ended up on my list of ‘40favorite songs not on any of my top 25 albums’ (I know, just an excuse to extend this list to 65, but still). Anyway, without more record nerdy ado, here’s the second part of my toppest of 2007 album list.
16. Miracle Fortress – Five Roses
Montreal’s best kept secret, a warm and poppy bath of sound that releases its rich and rosy fragrance only after a few sleepy listens. I heard the quietly ebullient “Little Trees” first, and suggest you do too, if only to be surreptitiously transported to a sleepy, romantic Quebecois street corner where the smell of fresh bagels is gently wafting your way from the 24-hour bakery further on up the street.
17. The Go Find – Stars on the wall
What adorably Belgian postmen would sound like if they were raised on the Postal Service album and the Sofia Coppola soundtracks (see my old post here).
18. Band of Horses – Cease To Begin
Unabashedly grand in that ‘storming the gates of heaven’ kind of way – listen to “Is there a Ghost?” to hear the ethereal extent of Band’s north-western rock aspirations – this sophomore album is actually as good as everybody said last year’s My Morning Jacket was.
19. !!! – Myth Takes
The triple exclamation marks definitively heart your dancing shoes (“Yadnus” was a live favorite of mine), but please do wear sturdy ones, because this cocky deconstruction-disco-rock will disco you until the disco deconstructs itself into a steaming pile of cowbell.
20. Rosie Thomas – These Friends of Mine
The only concession to my Sufjanmania – though he also plays piano on #4 – this short set of slightly too cute Brooklyn coffeeshop ballads (it comes with a Fleetwood Mac cover! And it’s “Songbird”!) still boasts more than just a few Suf-appearances (on a straight cover of R.E.M.’s “The One I Love” for ef’s sake, see what I mean by cute?), Thomas’ originals, like “All the Way to New York City” and “Say Hello,” manage to earnestly portray bittersweet regret.
Wasn’t “Someone To Drive You Home” released domestically in ‘07? I’m pretty anal about dates when I’m making my lists too, but I tend to make exceptions for records released overseas one year and here the next.
Then again, I also go by when I really listened to it. I had worn out Amy Winehouse by last December, so I put that record on my list last year and won’t this year. Same goes for the Roisin Murphy record this year, which won’t end up on my list next year for the same reason.
I’m such a nerd.
You’re totally right, but since I got the album overseas (aka here) in ‘06, then wore it out completely by March this year, I figured it would be a bit out of place here.
As for the Roisins and Amys, I only got into them this year and both ended up on the songs list…
I say embrace the inner nerd and buy him a box set of something obscure this Christmas.