2007 Year-In-Review

2007 was a spiffing good year for British imports. Whilst returns to psychedelic rock and post-punk were most impressive, shoegaze and space rock were (are?) also on the rise. Here I've selected the top 10 albums and top 30 songs of the year. Neither the albums, nor songs were given rankings within their respective groups. It's largely irrelevant, since on any given day, any given mood might shift #30 to #1 and vice versa.

Year end lists will always be sketchy, if only for the fact that there is always something out there the compiler has yet to hear. Consumer-driven publications will dumb down their content enough to attempt to quantify an art form using rational standards, which actually does fill a niche, offering the easily digestible information which most people seem to crave.

For more serious music-devourers, who ingest compulsively, selectively, because it soothes, drives and haunts them: I offer my lists. Unlike most year-end lists, they are not meant to force feed information or spark some 15 second trend, but rather to share experiences, to spark ideas and feeling and, ultimately, to get you closer to God. Alright, maybe not the God thing, but then again you never know . . .

Top 10 Albums

The National: Boxer - Subtly gorgeous orchestration, angsty idealist lyrics in Matt Berninger's seductive baritone. Oh yes, I'll have that.

Mystery Jets: Zootime - Nearly the same album released in the UK last year; this US release still makes the cut.

iLiKETRAiNS: Elegies to Lessons Learnt - You know that sound when noir and Expressionist films melt together and form into massive icebergs whose pieces crack thunderously and crumble in a rush of white foam into the frigid black sea? No? Well, this is that sound.

Beirut: The Flying Club Cup - The best Balkan minstrel rock you'll hear this year. But seriously, it brings to mind Tom Waits' Black Rider masterpiece, which, in my experience, is never a bad thing.

The Horrors: Strange House - Manic, spastic, grisly freak-beat to have an epileptic seizure to . . .

Okkervil River: The Stage Names - Just when you thought Will Sheff had nowhere to go but down . . .

Electricity in Our Homes: The Shareholder’s Meeting EP - Phenomenal debut EP from this stripped-down, stacattoed post-punk band out of southeast London's robust music scene.

Animal Collective: Strawberry Jam - Quirky noises and songs with funny names are usually transparent ruses musicians use to hide their horribly dull and cliched indie rock. This, however, is a smashing success.

Klaxons: Myths of the Near Future - Space Rock, Rave Pop -- who really cares when it's this good?

Dragons of Zynth: Coronation Thieves - Afro-Psych with intelligent lyrics and sounds ranging from delicate melodies to rocked-out fuzzy bliss.




Top 30 Songs

Hatcham Social - 'Til the Dawn http://youtube.com/watch?v=_DUXSHnpkeM

The National - Mistaken For Strangers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgRsYkKb1eI

The Black Lips - Cold Hands http://youtube.com/watch?v=rJojRf6Kf8o

Patrick Wolf (feat. Marianne Faithfull) - Magpie
http://media.putfile.com/Magpie---Patrick-Wolf

Ulrich Schnauss - Medusa http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZ0P7nEh3c0

The Horrors - She Is the New Thing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTgOe9Uda54

Animal Collective - Peacebone http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxvGHQHiY70

Battles - Atlas
http://youtube.com/watch?v=IpGp-22t0lU

Deerhunter - Cryptograms
http://media.putfile.com/Cryptograms---Deerhunter

Blood Red Shoes - I Wish I Were Someone Else http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQ3HV0lRMOo

Editors - Bones
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Vu33zq-HWAE

Maps - It Will Find You
http://youtube.com/watch?v=nEpkouuK6n4

Lightspeed Champion - Midnight Surprise http://youtube.com/watch?v=3rMwc10uNOg

The Draytones - Keep Lovin’ Me http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XQzEM38YEs

Dragons of Zynth - Breaker
www.myspace.com/dragonsofzynth

Klaxons - Golden Skans http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiq_0vEDAbE

iLiKETRAiNS - The Deception http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TwvBsoWpQ8

Interpol - Pioneer to the Falls http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZmLdBOS2aI

Bloc Party - Hunting for Witches http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2EkcT9q28Q

Neils Children - You Didn’t Care http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df_3ca31IZg

Beirut - Nantes
http://media.putfile.com/Nantes---Beirut

Nervous Cabaret - Sleepwalkers http://media.putfile.com/Sleepwalkers---Nervous-Cabaret

Sea Wolf - You’re a Wolf http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBE8gB5JSzU

Spider and the Flies - Metallurge www.myspace.com/spiderandtheflies

Sunset Rubdown - Up On Your Leopard, Upon the End of Your Feral Days
http://media.putfile.com/Up-On-Your-Leopard---Sunset-Rubdown

Andrew Bird - Imitosis http://youtube.com/watch?v=hnXCzFnkxtY

Electricity in Our Homes - We Don’t Need Honesty http://media.putfile.com/Electricity-in-Our-Homes---We-Dont-Need-Honesty

SHITDISCO - Emanator
http://media.putfile.com/Emanator---SHITDISCO

Artefacts for Space Travel - Recoop www.myspace.com/artefactsforspacetravel

Time.Space.Repeat - The End of the World http://media.putfile.com/The-End-of-the-World---TimeSpaceRepeat

Happier with Stage Names (But Not too Happy)

The Stage Names
Okkervil River
Jagjaguwar


It would be an understatement to say that Will Sheff is a man with demons. As lead singer and lyricist for folk rockers Okkervil River, he is seldom at a loss for writing material. Count that as one of the few benefits of demons, because, luckily for Sheff, he was destined to be a rock star. Demons don't synthesize as well with other professions as they do with music. Think about it: would you want an emotionally distraught dentist hacking at your teeth?

Musicians are an exception, though. Actors, writers, sculpters, poets, film makers, entertainers . . . they are all allowed to work with and through their demons. It is accepted that profound insight, in the forms of artistry and creation, can be gained through emotional and mental instability. Whether this is true or not is entirely irrelevant to this review. But it might explain why Sheff chose these people as protagonists in The Stage Names. Perhaps he felt closer to them, was drawn to them in some intangible way.

Still, Sheff seems to be more at ease with himself these days. While 2005's Black Sheep Boy was a wrenching, jangling catharsis, The Stage Names is more comfortable in the pitch of its emotions. There's room to breathe here, to wander freely in one's introspections and emotions – a controlled process as opposed to a roiling, uncontrollable mash of emotions that was Black Sheep Boy.

"Our Life is not a Movie or Maybe" opens the album with head-bopping rhythms intrinsic to Okkervil River. A flourishing melody gives way to an eerily stark instrumental section before regaining control by the end. "Unless it's Kicks" is quite possibly the best song on the album. Lyrics like, "your love isn't lost/my heart is still crossed," would be written off as cloying if played by lesser bands, but the combination of Sheff's melodramatic howls along and Travis Nelson's frenzied drums pulls it off superbly. The energetic track then melts into a sparkling ending that sounds like the musical equivalent of a leisurely summer picnic.

In "A Hand to Take Hold of the Scene," the listener gets the sense Sheff is either winding up to or coming down from a volatile temper flare. But the accompanying music is so utterly bouyant, complete with camp hand-clapping, that it's heedless to worry. In contrast, "Savannah Smiles" is an arresting confessional from the point-of-view of a father reflecting on his relationship, or rather, lack thereof, with his daughter. Like its protagonist, the song is subdued and pensive.

A lyrical triumph more than anything, "Plus Ones" gives an identity to the lost extras throughout musical history. The list includes: Question Mark and the Mysterians' 97th tear, the Zombies' 55th cell, and the Crests' 17th candle. There are plenty more, but half the thrill of "Plus Ones" is in finding them . . .

"A Girl in Port" is a pure melancholic slice of americana. Sheff might have fictionalized this protagonist, but he's channeling Neil Young. It's also here that Sheff's fragile, cracking voice is at its best. And while it's true that there's not a bad song on the album, "You Can't Hold the Hand of a Rock and Roll Man," is the weakest. No doubt it suffers from being sandwiched between two of the best tracks on the album.

Okkervil River are almost perfect on "Title Track," whose subject is The Stage Names, and whose tongue-in-cheek naming ironically negates the possibility of it being, in fact, the title track. But listeners won't be focusing on that. Rarely has bittersweet wistfulness sounded so divine. It's the song that most wholly encompasses the album's lethargic melancholy, and in that sense it truly is the definitive title track.

"John Allyn Smith Sails" is a final salute to stage names as the faint, snaking melody slips into a rollicking pseudo-cover of the Beach Boys' "Sloop John B." Smith was the pen name for mid-century poet John Berryman, whom Sheff has credited with influencing his confessional style of writing. No stranger to writing about death, Sheff spins an affecting take on Berryman's 1972 suicide. It's apt way to end an album about artists, and as the song dies in spasms of "I want to go home " the limit of stage names is decidedly clear: they can shroud identity from others, but demons are forever.

Stylistically, there are no surprises with The Stage Names. Aside from a somewhat airier sound than their last LP, Okkervil River are in familiar waters. The lighter mood makes for a more accessible sound than much of their previous work, but, contrary to what many reviewers would have you think, that isn't necessarily a bad thing. No, the biggest disappointment with The Stage Names is its short running time, ending at just over 41 minutes. Fans will be scrambling to hear more, certainly, but it is a staggering feat that the follow-up to the critical smash Black Sheep Boy is disappointing in just this one aspect.





- L.A. Bryan


Click to listen to "Unless it's Kicks"

www.okkervilriver.com
www.myspace.com/okkervilriver