- Christopher Bahn
- Andy Battaglia
- Aaron Burgess
- Andrew Earles
- Scott Gordon
- Marc Hawthorne
- Jason Heller
- Steven Hyden
- Trevor Kelley
- Genevieve Koski
- Gregg Lagambina
- Michaelangelo Matos
- Chris Mincher
- Josh Modell
- Noel Murray
- Sean O'Neal
- Keith Phipps
- Nathan Rabin
- Kyle Ryan
MICHAELANGELO MATOS
1. James Murphy & Pat Mahoney, FabricLive 36 (15)
It might seem odd to rank a DJ mix so high on a year-end list, especially when only nine of its 24 selections post-date 1993. (The other 15 were released between 1978 and 1983.) But in the hands of LCD Soundsystem leader James Murphy and drummer Pat Mahoney, this stuff sounds absolutely up-to-the-minute, even for those already familiar with it. Outside club-cult gems by Instant Funk, Chic, Was (Not Was), and an LCD B-side, chances are that most people aren't.
2. M.I.A., Kala (14)
3. Spoon, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (13)
What a paradox: a tight-ass who can sing—and arrange—like a soul man when he feels like it.
4. Pantha Du Prince, This Bliss (12)
"Steiner Im Flug" by Pantha du Prince
Often, minimal techno is "moody" by default: Strip anything down enough and it will seem haunted. But this tour de force by Hamburg producer Hendrik Weber simultaneously creeps and soothes. Bell-heavy percussion cracks open a soft-focused low-end glide that glowers but never seems listless; these long songs loom larger as they pass. It's as dark and beautiful as any dance music this decade.
5. LCD Soundsystem, Sound Of Silver (11)
6. John Prine & Mac Wiseman, Standard Songs For Average People (9)
"Old Cape Cod" by John Prince & Mac Wiseman
Two wizened old guys with long memories and great senses of humor gather a group of crack Nashville session cats and go to town on their idea of the Great American Songbook. A friend called it "the most amiable record I think I've ever heard," and he was right. You're sure to fall in love with "Old Cape Cod."
7. The Field, From Here We Go Sublime (8)
"Everyday" by The Field
Download MP3 (right-click and save)
Two years after the monster epic-trance flashback 12-inch "Love vs. Distance," Swedish dance producer Axel Willner settles down a little and crafts an hour-plus of crescendos to cuddle to, transforming everything from the doo-wop Flamingos to the guitar solo of Lionel Richie's "Hello" into gauzy gorgeousness.
8. Lil Wayne, Da Drought 3 (7)
9. Various Artists, Motel Lovers: Southern Soul From The Chitlin' Circuit (6)
Deeply unfashionable (and as crafty as anything else on any year-end list), this is a collection of 18 songs, mostly from this decade, of cheating-centric blues-soul, derived from late-'60s Stax but only on the Lee Fields cut really sounding much like it. Sometimes the arrangements are chintzy—lots of tinny keyboards—but the singing and songwriting is so superb you'll learn to love them.
10. The Pierces, Thirteen Tales Of Love And Revenge (5)
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Les Savy Fav, Let's Stay Friends
Danuel Tate, Pushcard EP
Kenge Kenge, Introducing Kenge Kenge
Various Artists, Hyphy Hitz
Nev Wright, August 2007
Nick Lowe, At My Age
Gogol Bordello, Super Taranta!
Blonde Redhead, 23
Luke Vibert, Chicago, Detroit, Redruth
Kanye West, Graduation
REISSUES
Tabu Ley Rochereau is a sweet-voiced Congolese soukous legend, pure of tone and possessed of uncannily deft phrasing, usually over grooves of stunning beauty. Miles Davis was the dark prince of jazz trumpet, one of the 20th century's great bandleaders and innovators, who in the early '70s didn't so much fuse jazz, rock, funk, and modern classical as ignited them all simultaneously. They didn't have much in common, then, apart from one crucial thing: whenever Rochereau's two-CD The Voice of Lightness: Congo Classics 1961-1977 and Davis's six-CD The Complete On The Corner Sessions were playing, they made me want to swear off all other music for a week.
MU-ZIQ MAKES THE PEOPLE COME TOGETHER
Electronic music saw a number of 2007 trends, both high profile (the ravey, rocking "blog house" of Justice, Simian Mobile Disco, and SebastiAn) and bubbling under (the outrageously lubricious bounce of northern England's "bassline house"). But the most surprising was the quiet resurgence of Planet Mu, the label of IDM icon Mike Paradinas, a.k.a. Mu-Ziq. Paradinas, best known for his silly song titles and squinchy beats, may no longer be in the electronic-pop vanguard, but he's proven one sharp A&R man: 2007 saw strong work by Luke Vibert (Chicago, Detroit, Redruth), Neil Landstrumm (Restaurant Of Assassins), Shitmat (Grooverider) and Mu-Ziq himself (Duntisbourne Abbots Soulmate Devastation Technique—told you about those titles). Best of all was Distance's My Demons, the friendliest (and maybe best) single-artist dubstep album. And the bargain-priced double-CD Planet Mu 200 offered a good, cheap way in.
THOSE WERE THE DAYS
Blame Rod Stewart: 2007 was silly with covers albums, ranging from Barry Manilow covering '70s hits to kids-lullaby renditions of the Nirvana and Cure catalogues, from Babyface's middling Playlist to the pointless soundtrack to Todd Haynes' Bob Dylan flick I'm Not There to Ann Wilson's execrable Hope & Glory. (Her "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall," featuring Rufus Wainwright singing into an echo chamber, is a camp classic in the making.) Maybe it says something that the best albums exploiting the concept consisted of duets. John Prine & Mac Wiseman are detailed above; also wonderful was Robert Plant & Alison Krauss's T-Bone Burnett-produced Raising Sand, which made songs ranging from Gene Clark's "Through The Morning, Through The Night," Doc Watson's "Your Long Journey," and "Please Read The Letter," from Plant's own Walking To Clarksdale (his 1998 album with Jimmy Page), sound like new territory rather than old ground.
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