urgency to bleed

Alright, from this point on, I am going to attempt to post my end of the year listage over the course of the next week - though I don't know if that will actually happen as I don't actually have it completely ready. But I'm going to try. Anyway, to start things off, I've been thinking a lot about my list last year and how if I did it again now, it would really be very different. I still like a lot of those albums but some not as much anymore, some even more, and a couple have kind of worn off of me completely. I don't really have the patience to completely redo my list at this point - and I would probably need more than the ten slots I initially filled - but I do want to mention a few albums that if I had liked them so much then would definitely have had a bigger chance of making it. A few of these I did list as honorable mentions but I've grown to like them even more since then so I feel like they deserve a bit more. Others are artists that I didn't really discover until this year so they weren't on my radar at all at the time. And since I already have to upload a shitload of stuff for my '08 list, a lot of these songs are just copied and pasted links from previous posts, unless I hadn't posted much from that band previously. So you probably already have a lot of these but, oh well, here they are in case you don't - and of course, there are still a good amount of songs I've never posted before.

( read more... )

Now that we've got all that top ten craziness out of the way, there were obviously tons of other awesome releases this year. And then a few that might not be so awesome overall, but have that one amazing song. So, here are some of my favorite songs of the year (excluding any from the top ten, obviously; I think I've got them well covered). Also, album title = purchase link.

• 1997 - Curse or Cure (from A Better View of the Rising Moon)
• Agent Ribbons - That's Not Edgar's Heart (from And the Star-Crossed Doppleganger 7")
• Art in Manila - I Thought I Was Free (from Set the Woods on Fire)
• The Bird and the Bee - I Hate Camera (from The Bird and the Bee)
• Bishop Allen - Flight 180 (from The Broken String)
• Bright Eyes - No One Would Riot for Less (from Cassadaga)
• Carina Round - Down Slow (from Slow Motion Addict)
• CocoRosie - Werewolf (from The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn)
• Dntel - Roll On feat. Jenny Lewis (from Dumb Luck)
• Georgie James - Cake Parade (from Places)
• Grand Ole Party - INSANE (from Humanimals - I'm not sure if the physical CD is "officially" out yet since I got it straight from them at the Rilo Kiley show, but that's the Amazon page for it anyway, with a few third-party sellers.)

And because I'm weird like that and want to stretch this out to last the whole week, the rest of the songs tomorrow!

Alright, finally, a 2007 wrap-up. I was getting nowhere with trying to make a cohesive mix, so I've decided to go about this a bit differently. Basically, this whole week is going to be "2007" week and I'm going to try to post something everyday - the first two days will be my top ten albums, the next two will be songs from other good albums, and the third will be sort of an "anticipated in 2008" post. I've posted quite a few of these songs in the past, but it gives you the chance to realize that these are my very favorites and if you haven't tried them by now, I definitely recommend you to! There are still some albums I haven't listened to properly but I realized that if I kept trying to listen to everything, this wouldn't be done until the end of 2008, so I decided that none of those would probably make it into my top ten anyway and settled on this list. I'm pretty happy with it; the only spot that doesn't feel completely static is #10, which was occupied by quite a few different albums until I decided on what's there now. So, without further ado, the latter half of my top ten, complete with reviews, purchase links, and Youtube videos!

10. Emma Pollock - Watch The Fireworks (purchase)


Watch the Fireworks, in many ways, picks up where Emma's previous band the Delgados' final album, Universal Audio, left off. It's full of catchy, slightly quirky indie pop tunes sprinkled with well-written lyrics and Emma's distinguishable raspy yet sweet vocals. The album opens with "New Land", which could be a pretty generic singer-songwriter track if not for the carnival-esque melodies and persistent drumbeat propelling it. This is true of most of the tracks; they don't tread any new territory, but Emma knows how to make them memorable and instantly lovable. "Acid Test" is a bit edgier and more rock-oriented while singles like "Paper and Glue" and "Adrenaline" are poppy without being completely vapid. All of the catchiness is interspersed with more folky simple songs like "Limbs", "Fortune", and "The Optimist" which are soft and pretty but Emma's slightly raw voice keeps them from sounding bland. Her music is probably most reminiscent of female artists like Anna Nalick and Nerina Pallot, but her years of experience with the Delgados allows her songs to be more meaningful, impactful, and durable than others with a similar style who haven't been active for as long. Her delivery sounds both youthful and wise at the same time and her songs fit nicely as one unit but never blend together until you don't know which is which. I used to listen almost exclusively to artists of the "female singer-songwriter" ilk but I've grown a bit tired of that these past couple of years, so it takes a lot to capture my attention in that category anymore. For that reason, Emma definitely deserves to be on this list. From the moment I first heard Watch the Fireworks I knew I was in love and even if her chosen style of music isn't terribly unique, she definitely stands out as one of the most talented women in that group right now.

• Acid Test
• Paper and Glue
• The Optimist

( See #9-6. )

#5-1 tomorrow! (Unless you know the one other place I've posted this. In that case, you're lucky.)