Wednesday, May. 07, 2008

2007 was a good year for music - you just had to find it

By Jeremy Dutton

So here it is -- my top 10. We’re not one of those mega mags that get shipped every release under the sun, so there’s still much out there that I’ll have to claim ignorance to. What follows are the albums I purchased this year that have found a steady place to stay at home in my CD player and/or iPod. Some surprises maybe, but regardless, these picks won’t disappoint.

1. Spoon | Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga: With their best album to date, Spoon take their indie cred and combine it with highly listenable tunes and great songwriting. I listened to this album more than anything else this year, and it still hasn’t gotten old. Standout tracks include Ya Got Yr. Cherry Bomb and The Underdog.

2. Barenaked Ladies | Are Me/Are Men: In what should have been a double album, Are Me and Are Men puts out what every BNL fan has beckoned for since Born on a Pirate Ship -- musical substance beyond their ability to meld comedy with poignant lyrics. Released in late 2006 and early 2007, these two albums together rival anything else they’ve done ... it’s almost a crime how little energy was put into publicizing them.

3. Bruce Springsteen | Magic: Though it didn’t seem like it would return after Springsteen’s long departure into folk and Americana in The Ghost of Tom Joad, Devils and Dust and We Shall Overcome, Magic steps back into vintage Boss. You’ll hear a lot of Born in the U.S.A. swagger in the songs and the E Street Band lifts each song with its patented mix of raucous guitar and blaring horns. Listen to Radio Nowhere and Livin’ in the Future Age and prepare for a time warp.

4. Josh Ritter | The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter: There’s not much this Moscow, Idaho, wunderkind can’t do lyrically, so it’s nice to hear this songwriter finally step up to the plate musically. Borrowing a lot of the sonic tricks Wilco pioneered in Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Ritter’s latest turns up the amp ... and while a little of the poetry has faded from his previous The Animal Years, with tracks like The Temptation of Adam about love in the nuclear age, it’s easy to see he’s got a lot to give in the future.

5. Jason Isbell | Sirens of the Ditch: After departing from the Drive-by Truckers, Isbell turns down the squeal of Southern guitar squall and also shows how much the band will miss him. If you’re a Truckers fan, you’ll be blown away over how many songs you failed to realize carry his stamp.

6. Avett Brothers | Emotionalism: These Carolina boys pioneered their own self-described genre -- punkgrass. With just a guitar, banjo, bass and kick drum, it’s hard to believe how much they get out of so little. The battling, guttural vocals in songs like Paranoia in B flat Major will leave you clamoring for more. You won’t find it around here, so scout it out online.

7. Iron and Wine | Shepherd’s Dog: Florida’s Sam Beam turns up the noise slightly on Shepherd’s Dog, but the songwriting still carries the album. He hasn’t released a throwaway album yet, and while he quietly amasses an amazing body of work, no matter how loud he plays, he still won’t be heard by many.

8. Son Volt | The Search: Jay Farrar has one of the most distinctive voices in all of music, but his backroad blend of Americana and roots music often fails to blend with it. That is until now. Turns out all he had to do was focus on the music and he’s hit paydirt. Casted in horns and roaring electric guitar with a new backing band, The Search combines themes of protest and everyday comedy and tragedy to craft one of his best yet.

9. Kanye West | Graduation: Kanye’s self-hype machine makes it easy to be a hater, but top to bottom, Graduation passes the test.

10. Wilco | Sky Blue Sky: OK, it lacked the forward thinking of Foxtrot or A Ghost is Born, but sometimes you have to take a step back to see how far you’ve gone. And while there’s no standout sing-along, it’s actually a pleasure to sit back and just listen to one of the greatest songwriters of a generation (Jeff Tweedy) just doing what he does.

Honorable mentions: New Pornographers, Challengers; Dinosaur Jr., Beyond; Feist, The Reminder; Tegan and Sara, The Con; Foo Fighters, Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace.

- Jeremy Dutton: 582-1525; jdutton@tricityherald.com