The 12 CDs of Christmas:
Best of 2007 Year in Music Review
January 1, 2008

Introduction

2007 has been a terrific year for music. Newcomers, old favorites, radical surprises, and musical re-awakenings have made this year one of my favorite years of the decade for new music. So good was 2007 from top to bottom that I wasn’t sure who would have the #1 album of the year until the last possible moment. Even then, because of the plethora of good music exploding out of my speakers it was almost a shame merely picking one. In the end, however, tradition ruled and one album reigned supreme separating itself from the pack.

In addition to this year’s surprise #1, there has been a plethora of excellent and diverse albums. From rock to rap, soul to pop, country to old standards revisited, numerous genres and unorthodox acts have tickled the fancy of the musical landscape. Longstanding opening acts have taken their long-awaited and rightful place as headliners while established superstars have emerged reborn. Acts who had seemingly vanished from the popular landscape forever have exploded back to the spotlight and newcomers never before heard of have arrived with gusto and bling. And that’s not even the half of it.

From every corner of the globe, 2007 has seen all manner of international flavor penetrate American popular music. Outrageous singles have arrived from the pacific islands, lessons in true indie genius from Europe, and a young rapper with a drunken pottie mouth from the UK. In 2007, anything was possible and the music scene was that much better for it.

Now, without further adieu, I present The 12 CDs of Christmas, my choices for the best music of 2007.

The Top 12 CDs of 2007

#12 They Live By Night – Art and Wealth

Swedish garage rockers (but they sing in English) They Live By Night are so obscure in The U.S. that in order to buy their latest album, Art and Wealth, it will cost you $32 over The Interent. Going directly to the band’s record label will allow full album download for about $11, a much fairer price, but that’s the only place you’ll find it. Asking around at any record store will get you nowhere and will surely be received with a blank stare. Yes, these guys are that difficult to get your hands on but doing so is definitely worth the effort. Their music is excellent.

They Live By Night first crossed my radar with their dynamite 2005 EP release, Truth or Dare. Featuring a lead single of the same name, that song impressed me so much that it earned Single of the Year honors in my 12 CDs of 2005 Awards. Remixed for the band’s latest, their first full-length effort, the tune once again brings me goose bumps with its brilliant lyrics (“If I don’t have my one true love then I can’t lose it”) and electric musicianship. Surrounded by ten other tracks that rock, pop, and glimmer, Art and Wealth picks up the pieces from Franz Ferdinand and The Bravery, whose own sophomore efforts stalled their seemingly unstoppable momentum from a couple of years ago. Fitting nicely alongside British Sea Power, another wonderful Euro new wave/post-punk act, They Live By Night should be lighting up indie blogs everywhere but for whatever reason haven’t yet caught on.

Art and Wealth features more “bop-bop-bops” and male harmonizing (the best coming from Truth or Dare, Factory, and Dear Mother) than almost anything else out there, and that’s a good thing. The album also gets its kicks from otherworldly organ strains (The Phantom, Coast to Coast), catchy, swelling choruses (Boxing Day), and an array of other nifty tricks including clever wordplay, fascinating lyrics, and Johnny Marr-style guitar picking. The whole thing adds up to one of the best albums of the year.

Best Songs: Truth or Dare, Factory, Boxing Day, Dear Mother

#11 Peter Bjorn & John – Writer’s Block

What started as merely a catchy whistle hook on a nifty pop song soon took the television world by storm featuring in commercials, sit-com adverts, and just about anywhere else one might find herself flicking through the channels on a weekday evening. The culprits: Sweden’s Peter Bjorn and John and their hit single, Young Folks. Sugary sweet male/female harmonizing above a cool whistle, jungle rhythm drumming, and bass grooves paint the picture of thirty-something malaise in perfect beauty. One listen and no doubt you’ll be whistling right along with this quintessential pop gold.

But the catchy indie-pop doesn’t stop with Young Folks. Oh no, P, B, & J (that’s kinda funny!) thrash the feedback on the opening number Detects on My Affection, giving no doubt to the listener that these indies are a far cry from the lo-fi, whispered agony of what passes for independent these days. With a mere two songs it is obvious: this disc rules and the further one delves into the album the more clear it becomes that this is not merely a great indie-rock album, but a near encyclopedia of indie styles.

The greatest triumph of all happens smack dab in the middle of the album as the Swedes go New Order hip on the understated Up Against the Wall, a seven-minute ode to the dance hall greats. The tune is a triumph of the highest order that true 80s aficionados can’t help but worship. No whistling here but plenty to make you wonder how these dudes can jump genres and still keep the whole thing together as a most tasty soufflé. And tasty is it ever!

Speaking of whistles, what is with the Swedes and whistling (think Roxette’s Joyride)? Whatever the reason, it matters not: Peter Bjorn and John’s coming out party, Writer’s Block, is hands down one of the great CDs of 2007.

Best Songs: Young Folks, Up Against the Wall, Paris 2004, Detects on My Affection

#10 The Severely Departed – The Severely Departed

Discovered by MySpace musical pioneer Shane sometime in early 2007, The Severely Departed is the most unknown band on this year’s countdown but just as deserving as every other entry. No matter their notoriety, The Severely Departed’s self-titled debut is excellent contemplative space rock that dispenses with lyrics entirely focusing instead on moody journeys into the soul. A combination of early ‘90s shoegazers such as Ride and that ubiquitous holiday juggernaut, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, The Severely Departed is indie rock Christmas Eve Sarajevo, sort of.

At once brooding, contemplative, and uplifting The Severely Departed’s self-titled debut is big sound, back to the audience style textured music minus the schmaltz. It channels heavy metal, indie rock, classical, guitar soloing giants, and surely a few other tidbits bringing nearly every track on the disc to a fevered boil. Most of the tunes work extremely well, with a handful sort of meandering and never arriving at a destination. However, when the music works best it is exceptional and unlike anything getting play on modern pop music radio. It’s a shame, really, as even metal giants such as System of a Down could pick up a trick or two from this two piece Buffalo, New York outfit.

If there is a fault to the tunes on The Severely Departed, it is a common one for two-piece bands: the songs are a bit same sounding throughout. It is one thing to have a distinctive sound but when that sound doesn’t receive enough permutations then it can make an album feel a little more boring than it should be. No matter, The Severely Departed’s first fired shot is a very good one and I do hope to hear from these guys again in the future. There is magic lingering in their work and their debut is a certified winner.

Best Songs: To a Friend, Closer to Home, Thaw, In the Coming Days

#09 Jamie T. – Panic Prevention

The second best rap album of 2007 comes from the unlikely city of London, England. The product of twenty-year-old wunderkind Jamie T. this is not, by any means, your older brother’s hip-hop. Like a drunk Beck slappin’ cockney catchphrases over junk culture beats from an urban UK landscape, this is Brit pop cultural majesty of the highest order.

Slurring and warbling without a care in the world, save perhaps when he’s getting his next drink, Jamie T. does precisely what the best rappers through the ages have done: weaves tales of urban drudgery with hope, realism, and a hometown taste. At once mature beyond his years and juvenile as the early Beastie Boys, Jamie T. gets a surprising amount of mileage out of his minimalist approach. Whether celebrating with choral backing whales over his Brand New Bass Guitar, lamenting the eventual end of a drunken night you’d like to keep going forever on the brilliant Calm Down Dearest, or showing his sensitive side on the genius So Lonely Was The Ballad, this kid has mad rap skills, clever word play, and a keen eye for observational, conversational heartbreak after the fast times. Simply put, this is punk rap at its finest.

If Sid Vicious had the smarts, talent, and will to become a rapper, Jamie T. is exactly who he would have become. Now if that doesn’t say it all, I don’t know what might.

Best Songs: So Lonely Was the Ballad, Calm Down Dearest, If You Got the Money, Sheila, Salvador

#08 Joseph Arthur – Let’s Just Be

Last year Joseph Arthur released the best album of his career, Nuclear Daydream, and walked away with the #1 Best Album of the Year Award on our 12 CDs of Christmas Best of 2006 list. This year, Arthur returns with his most eclectic, frenzied, and no holds barred album yet, Let’s Just Be.

Part crooning folk, part Rolling Stones bluesy rock, and all space cadet weirdo it is easy to see that Arthur’s latest is Arthur doing whatever he wants, whenever he wants on this, his especially long and winding sixth full length release. But then again, that scenario of unbridled experimentation is generally how things play out when an artist gets his own studio, his own record label, and is as musically savantish as the great man from Ohio.

Working with a full rock band for the first time, the shambling Let’s Just Be is all over the map. Following The Stone’s Exile on Main Street blueprint with its vast array of influences and schutzpah, Let’s Just Be hits many exceptional notes but also reeks of pretension and overindulgence. Still, when Arthur hits, he hits big and amongst the handful of goofy throw-aways are some amazing pieces of work that are every bit as excellent as Joseph Arthur at his best; I’m talking the best folk-rock music being made today, by a long shot. Most importantly, the lyrical wit and genius that has defined Arthur throughout his career is retained with this release proving without a shadow of a doubt that J.A. is one of the best lyricists of his generation.

Joseph Arthur has made better albums than Let’s Just Be, but this is still a worthy release and a fascinating entry in this true musical pioneer’s repertoire.

Best Songs: Lack a Vision, Chicago, Spacemen, Lonely Astronaut, Star Song

#07 Tegan and Sara – The Con

Tegan and Sara shocked the hell out of me in 2004 when out of nowhere they dropped their folk meets new wave masterpiece So Jealous right on top of my head. Like a house plummeting atop an evil witch I had no choice but pay attention. And boy, was I glad I did. That album rocks. With their latest, The Con, the lasses’ musical progression continues, and that same nagging question that originally passed through my mind in ’04 has returned: are these really the same ladies who kept the Lilith Fair faithful of ’98 enchanted with their plucked guitars and Ani DiFranco chitter chatter? Indeed, but these ladies are no fly-by-night flukes. This is real deal pop splendor.

While not as shockingly different from their previous work as So Jealous was when it was released, The Con is nevertheless just as polished, more cohesive, and nearly as enjoyable. Lyrically, the ladies stick to their previous efforts focusing on relationships and longing, but here their word play is more interesting and less like diary entries than it has ever been. They’ve never been shy to cut a song to under three minutes and this time one of their best is even less than that (Hop a Plane clocks under 2!). Key here is that the songs feel finished and never do we undermine anything on the album as incomplete or lacking, precisely the effect of the best albums: lead us in, smack us around, and keep us wanting more.

The biggest key to Tegan and Sara’s continued success is that the more you listen to their last two albums the more of their songs you’ll call favorites. Tegan and Sara have never made amazing songs but with The Con they prove once again that making a slew of really good ones is par for the course. It’s no wonder they continue to grow in popularity, with pop songs this good how could they not?

Best Songs: Call It Off, Hop a Plane, Relief Next to Me, Dark Come Soon, Back In Your Head, The Con

#06 Wyclef Jean – Carnival Vol. II – Memoirs of an Immigrant

Amazing. Yet another modern artist name drops Guns ‘N Roses in a song (‘Clef does it on this album’s Slow Down) and still no Chinese Democracy. Come on, Axl, for the love of all that is corn fed and holy, give us what we want! But I digress…

Wyclef’s sixth studio album, and the proper follow-up to his debut, The Carnival, Carnival Vol. II: Memoirs of an Immigrant is an awesome mix of genres, collaborations, and modern hip-hop production. Piling on the participants and swiping instrumentation from around the globe, ‘Clef creates an authentic carnival feel unlike other supposed “all-star” albums. By respecting his collaborators and using his own quirks to fill in the blanks, Wyclef manages to make hip-hop one of the most flexible genres out there.

Memoirs as a whole flows well and none of the songs feel like throw-aways. The best are the most exotic and different of the bunch, but that doesn’t mean the more typical hip-hop tracks are inferior. On the contrary, What About the Baby with Mary J. Blige, in particular, is probably the most lyrically sound track on the album albeit the most typical. However, the more listens you give it the more you will find yourself wrapped up in its message of deadbeat dads, angry moms, and sad children. Nooks and crannies to explore that become better and better the more spins they get? Seems like we’ve finally got another winner on our hands from Wyclef, and considering the current hip-hop scene, it couldn’t have come soon enough.

Best Songs: Riot, Fast Car, Sweetest Girl, Touch Your Button Carnival Jam, Hollywood to Bollywood

#05 Amy Winehouse – Back to Black

Despite her abundance of crazy off stage antics, Amy Winehouse is a genuinely tremendous musical artist. The gal’s got pipes, plain and simple, and her ability to write timeless, catchy, and evocative lounge soul pop tunes is second to none. With a voice and soul well beyond her years (she’s in her early twenties), Winehouse is a natural musician who seems born for the role she has assumed as torchlight UK siren.

Back in Black, Winehouse’s second album, features an array of catchy, radio-friendly tracks. From dance worthy bad girl bitchin’ (Rehab) to toe-tappin’, head shakin’ love lorn laments (You Know I’m No Good), throw-back big band crooning (Me and Mr. Jones) to ominously brooding potty-mouthed R.E.S.P.E.C.T. (Back to Black), Winehouse is an original all the way. Though the best tracks are so good others feel weaker in comparison, the entire album is still a wonderful play at any party, on any radio station, and no doubt anyone who hears it will wonder, “who is this?” The answer is clear: this is Amy Winehouse, and she don’t mess around, no way, no how, no thanks mister.

Best Songs: You Know I’m No Good, Me and Mr. Jones, Back to Black, Rehab

#04 Brandi Carlile – The Story

Listening to Brandi Carlile’s, The Story, I get the feeling the twenty-five year old singer extraordinaire is as clever as she is talented. Like a not yet jaded Melissa Etheridge, Carlyle is like The Lilith Fair without the pretension, a commanding voice coming to terms with her musical life right before our eyes. And that voice, oh, that voice, what a sound to behold.

On The Story, Brandi takes each song and makes it her own, twisting tales of loneliness and heartache into monumental mini-epics of life and loss. Whether whaling away on The Story until her voice cracks and bends or sweetly moaning and serenading on Turpentine, this is a singer 1000 times more powerful than anyone you’ll ever see on American Idol. And at only twenty-five she has already found the power to write songs as powerful as her voice. Very impressive, indeed.

Carlile’s emoting is so perfectly engaging throughout The Story I dare say she would be my #1 draft pick if I was ever to put together a super-band. Forget former #1 crooner Neko Case, Brandi Carlile is the true vixen without compare and the ruling voice of modern female rock. Whether or not she can continue expanding her sound in the future, we will have to wait and see, but in The Story she has found a perfect home for the present.

Best Songs: The Story, Turpentine, My Song, Late Morning Lullaby, Wasted

#03 Albert Hammond Jr. – Yours to Keep

I know it’s not cool to like The Strokes anymore, probably hasn’t been for the past 5 years. But I say “fuck that,” if a band is good than they are good, no matter their overexposure, changed directions, or musical pandering. Last year I made that opinion known granting The Strokes’ third album, First Impressions of Earth, a #8 spot on my Best of 2006. Though First Impressions was indeed a good album, I admitted it was also the first major chink in the band’s armor. Featuring a number of seemingly half-finished tunes and a strange modern update of what seemed like Barry Manilow’s Mandy (think The Strokes’ Razor Blade), it was nonetheless a very good effort though hardly great. Enter Strokes’ guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. and his solo project Yours to Keep busting through the door in early 2007. Now this is a great album!

Rather than rely on the chugging and mumbling template of The Strokes’ best material, Hammond ventures into parts unknown with his solo debut. Yours to Keep is a gentle album, filled with lament and hope enunciated directly from artist to listener. Where The Strokes seemed to be above their audience, Hammond seems more comfortable sitting in his audience’s living room and telling his tales face to face. It is a brilliant move by Hammond, and one that lends an heir of sincerity and warmth to perhaps the most interesting member of one of the millennium’s most influential bands.

As far as the individual tracks go, they are a curious mix. Scared, In Transit, and Holiday are energetic tunes that housewives and hipsters could hum along to in unison. Hard to Live in the City and Cartoon Music for Superheroes are Hammond’s most risky efforts and pay off in spades. Hammond’s precise use of lullaby crooning and horns, respectively, make these cuts the most memorable on the album. Everyone Gets a Star and 101, the most Strokes-like tunes of the bunch, are very effective Strokes-light that fit in with the others because of their singer’s distinctive crooning. With Hammond at the mic Everyone Gets… and 101 feel more poppy than the Lou Reed-esque mumbles Julian Casablancas would have delivered and the smoothed down edges don’t hurt the tracks in the least. In the context of the entire album, all these elements combine to form a surprisingly mellow rock and roll experience, something we surprisingly don’t hear very often these days.

Surely Albert Hammond Jr. has something to prove by releasing a solo album in the midst of The Strokes success, but happily it never feels that way. By keeping his nose to the grindstone and churning out songs that he obviously enjoys playing but perhaps never had a chance to with his “other band,” Hammond has given us a pop-rock gem that gets more enjoyable the more spins it receives.

Best Songs: Hard to Live in the City, Scared, In Transit

#02 The National – Boxer

How does a group transform from the opening act at nearly every concert I’ve attended the past five years to head-lining multiple sell-out dates at bigger venues than their former top-billed mates? If I were a betting man I‘d say it is because The National feature the most exciting rhythm section around, recently released one of the most complete albums of the year, and put together so many interesting arrangements that any indie rock band worth its salt will drop their jaw and listen in awe. Yes, this is the strange case of The National and their phenomenal breakthrough album Boxer.

Littered with a smorgasbord of heart wrenching ballads that dip and swell, jostle and caress, Boxer is Bruce Springsteen meets the best indie rock out there minus the enormous ego. It also features the most exciting rhythm section I have heard in quite some time. This is music to study to, to mark the important moments in life, and the measuring stick for all bands toiling away at small music clubs around the country. With Boxer, you’ll smile, you’ll cry, you’ll lament, and you’ll feel uplifted, sometimes all in the same song. That is what makes for the very best music and The National’s Boxer is precisely that: amazing.

Best Songs: Fake Empire, Guest Room, Slow Show, Apartment Song

#01 The Polyphonic Spree – The Fragile Army

Laugh at them if you will. Mock them as goofy cult-looking hippies if you must. But for the love of all that is good and precious, judge them not by the gimmick when the music has so much to offer.

I am writing, of course, of The Polyphonic Spree, the brainchild of bizzaro front man Tim DeLaughter, he of the former Tripping Daisy, that ‘90s band whose lone hit I Got a Girl still makes me shudder. But this outrageous experiment is no Tripping Daisy. On the contrary, The Polyphonic Spree is perfectly calculated pop music of the highest order.

Beyond their stunning pop sensibilities, The Spree separates from the pop music pack by putting together thirty some musicians, a smorgasbord of instruments, and a full blown chorus to create their unique sound. Jam sessions be damned, however, as this is a very well orchestrated music Experience, with a capital “E”. Featuring surprisingly mature lyrics about faith, relationships, break-ups, and maturation The Fragile Army is a spicy concoction, indeed, and exceptionally clever in choosing that lyrical path. Suddenly, the sunny happening of The Polyphonic Spree becomes much more than ice cream and puppy dogs. Like an onion, the more layers one peels of The Polyphonic Spree the more intricate designs one finds underneath. Genius.

The Polyphonic Spree aren’t for everyone, however, and many will never, ever be able to get over the whole chorus/pseudo-cult thing. Those who can will be rewarded as they discover beyond the robes and funny pseudo-military outfits, there is a very serious bandleader who is not only out of his time but ahead of it as well. With repeated listens The Fragile Army gets better and better until the listener is forced to realize one definite thing above all others: this is the best album of 2007.

I know, I can’t believe it myself but it is true so I will write it one more time: The Fragile Army is the best album of 2007. No album released this year sounds anything like it and it is doubtful too many musicians could pull off what DeLaughter does with his strange musical outfit. In spite of itself, his concept works and the resulting music is excellent.

Music critics the world over will surely call me insane, unknowledgable, or just plain idiotic for my selection of The Polyphonic Spree’s The Fragile Army as Album of the Year, but that’s a shame. They may not like this type of music but to deny its greatness is a travesty. No matter, loud and proud I give my congratulations: “Well done, Tim DeLaughter. It wasn’t easy, and I was resistant, but in the end you’ve made a believer out of me.”

Best Songs: Get Up and Go, The Fragile Army, We Crawl, Watch Us Explode

Here are my other awards for the musical scene in 2007:

EP of the Year:
The Rentals – Last Little Life

The purpose of musical EPs (which stands for Extra Play) is to serve as a stop-gap between an artist’s albums. Generally consisting of tracks that didn’t make it onto the previous album, remixes, live cuts, and anything else a band might have lying around that is capable of keeping their name in the consumer’s mind and whetting their appetite for the next release, EPs are known primarily as fan only affairs. Once in a blue moon, however, an EP hits record stores that is so stunningly fantastic that it rivals not only the band’s best work but also the best albums of the entire year. Past examples of EP greatness include The Digital Underground’s This is an EP Release (1991) and Oasis’s Whatever (1994). Now you can add The Rentals’ Last Little Life to that list as one of the best EPs I have ever heard.

Containing three brand new tracks and one remix, this album is probably the most joyous 18 musical minutes of the year. Matt Sharpe is in fine form gathering up some of his old Rentals pals and adding a few new ones to create a classic ‘80s sound mixed with modern templating. Sharpe’s music is precision pop without the pretension and as thoughtful as ever featuring some of the best lyrics of the year.

With a new full-length Rental’s album scheduled to drop in 2008, there is no doubt which band is pre-season #1 for next year’s Best Of List.

Best Songs: All of them! But if I must choose just one… Life Without a Brain

Soundtrack of the Year:
Across the Universe

Beatles cover albums have been done before but only Across the Universe is bold enough to turn those songs into a movie first. Rather than fill their compilation album with famous artists they instead enlist all the actors in the film to take a stab at a potpourri of some of the most famous Beatles hits. Surprisingly, it works and gives new meaning to a majority of songs you’ll surely come into with preconceived notions.

Better than the I Am Sam soundtrack, this album’s closest and most recent comparison (Moulin Rouge would be the other), Across the Universe has a bundle of gems amongst a slew of OK tracks. The youthful kick and unusual arrangements are key to the good performances with I Want to Hold Your Hand, Let It Be, Hey Jude, Something, Happiness is a Warm Gun, and All My Loving breaking the mold of anything we could have ever conceived of the original versions. I’m not saying these performances are better than the original Beatles renditions, but I am saying if you are at all familiar with them (or not) these will definitely have you rethinking them completely. I Want to Hold Your Hand as a slow motion coming out party? Let It Be as gospel? All My Loving with an a cappella opening? It’s all true though you probably have to hear it with your own ears to truly believe it.

Best Songs: Hey Jude, Let It Be, I Want to Hold Your Hand, Something, Happiness is a Warm Gun, All My Loving

Single of the Year:
Flight of the Conchords – Business Time

Go ahead and tell me that Business Time has been out for years, decades, or millennia if you see fit. Whenever you first heard the song the fact is New Zealand band Flight of the Conchords were the surprise hit of the year in The U.S. and unquestionably Business Time is the biggest reason. The song, while impossibly simple, is hilarious and catchy as Hell. Between Bret McKenzie’s relentlessly gyration worthy guitar strumming and Jemaine Clement’s idiotically brilliant lyrics about sexing up a very unresponsive significant other you’ve got pure pop and comedy gold. Team building exercise ’99 forever!

Best Lyric: “I’m not surprised but I am quite sleepy.”

Runner Up:

The Rentals – Life Without a Brain

References to a previous Rentals’ song, name checking “philosophy,” incredibly passionate and clever lyrics, a horn section, synthesizers, and a relentless new wave flare, Life Without a Brain is easily the best single no one heard this year. And if not for this year’s Flight of the Conchords phenomenon, The Rentals return masterpiece single would be the best song of the year. In all fairness, it probably still is the best, but then again comparing the two is like comparing apples and kiwi fruits. And in the end, who wants to disagree with a Kiwi juggernaut?

Best Lyric: “I’ve got a problem with my education.”

Sample of the Year:
Kanye West – Stronger (from Daft Punk’s Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger)

I don’t particularly like Kanye West nor do I enjoy much of his music, but his use of a Daft Punk sample from their 2001 tune Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger isn’t too bad at all. Taking the best part of that song and making it pretty much the entire basis for his cut, Stronger, and the look on his latest album, Graduation was a clever move on his part (or was it super-producer Timbaland?). Whatever the case, other than West’s rather generic rapping one fact is very clear: Stronger squeezes the very best out of Daft Punk and proves once again that Timbaland is the daddy mac of contemporary pop production.

Best Concert of 2007:
Joseph Arthur and The Lonely Astronauts @ The Middle East Downstairs, April 18, 2007, Cambridge, MA

I waited a long time to see Joseph Arthur live and in 2007 I finally had my opportunity. So inspired was I by the performance not only did I immediately purchase a double live disc of the show but I wrote a glowing review of the performance the next day. Here it is:

Commanding the stage like a petty tyrant genius savant, Joseph Arthur stormed The Middle East Downstairs Wednesday night with a marathon session of tunes leaving the crowd of around 300 spellbound. Flanked by his band The Lonely Astronauts, Arthur materialized onstage just after 10pm like an astronaut falling from the sky. With tight jeans, white tinted shades, a troubadour hat, and brown blazer with lapel fully lined in white buttons, Arthur appeared a strange cross between Marilyn Manson and Santino from Project Runway (the latter certainly could have designed his ensemble). But looks be damned, Arthur and crew meticulously fired from the hip churning out no less than 18 songs in under two hours with near half of them appearing in the encore. It was an unconventional performance that was as beautiful as it was strange and exhilarating.

Arthur began the night with Spacemen, a tune from his latest release Let’s Just Be. “Here come the spaaaaacemen… out of the sky,” Arthur grumbled as the band filled in behind him with otherworldly whooshes and swirls. Spacemen, indeed, and an awesomely engaging opening number that set the tone for the otherworldly musical adventure that was to follow. Without pause, Arthur and band launched into a rapid fire onslaught of song after song, some soft and delicate (Lack a Vision), others raucous and spine tingling (Chicago, Diamond Ring), and still others just plain weird (Lonely Astronaut) or uplifting (Enough to Get Away). Banter was kept to a minimum with only Arthur’s relentless insistence that the soundman adjust this or that breaking the unyielding sonic assault. It was a folk-country new age shuffle as distinctive, varied, and polished as any you’ll likely experience in a venue of this size and as memorable as the most inventive stadium performance. Arthur may not be a god, but between his religious tinted lyrics and ability to hold his band and the crowd in his brilliantly iron-fisted grip, you just might think he’s at least closely related to one.

I had waited a long time to see Joseph Arthur live and when I heard he’d be performing this tour with a full band (he generally performs solo) and on the heals of last year’s masterpiece, Nuclear Daydream, my favorite album of the year, I couldn’t resist. The addition of two gals (Sibyl Buck and Jennifer Turner) and two guys (Kraig Jarret Johnson and Greg Wieczorek) to the mix added a fuller, looser sound to the proceedings and allowed Arthur’s music to soar to at least the same heights as his dense records. The diverse newcomers, who, tattoos aside, seemed like regular Joes and Janes, served as interesting foil to Arthur’s folksy Mick Jagger with a shyness problem and filled out the sound perfectly. Yet, even with the support, Arthur managed to perform a handful of exquisite solo numbers to begin the nearly hour long encore (including a song which featured an array of loops and delays that stretched the limit of the one man band) putting to rest the notion that anyone besides Arthur, himself, was calling the shots.

In all, Joseph Arthur and The Lonely Astronauts was a wonderful evening that resembled the best country-rock vaudeville act in outer space you could ever imagine. And as I walked out of The Middle East with a fresh CD of the performance I’d just witnessed for a mere 15 bucks, I was unquestionably convinced that even if no one else seems to know who Joseph Arthur is, I will continue to support this fascinating artistic minstrel for years to come.

Greatest Disappointment of 2007:
Interpol – Our Love to Admire

God damnit. Why can’t Interpol give us an album that haunts, rocks, grooves, and confuses with obtuse lyrics, angular riffs, and memorable hooks like they did in 2003? Instead, they give us a mish-mash of tunes with perverse titles and typical arrangements. Not very sporting of them, I must sadly admit, and very disappointing indeed.

A handful of decent though unmemorable tracks is not the definition of an excellent album though it does fit Our Love to Admire. No I in Threesome is decent enough but Fire It Up is just plain embarrassing. Only Wrecking Ball captures the band at their best proving in no uncertain terms why Interpol was by far the biggest deal of 2003. As for the rest of the album, let’s just say it all kind of sounds the same, very unmemorable, not particularly fun, and wholly unlikely to make it onto any mix CD for any mood you’ll ever be in. The tunes on Our Love to Admire aren’t throw-aways so much as walk-aways and after a listen or two you’ll be dismissing nearly all of them like a blind date you’ll never speak with again. Not good coming from the band who once brought you Obstacle 1, PDA, and Leif Erikson.

I tried to embrace Our Love to Admire, I really did, but in the end I shouldn’t have to try that hard. Interpol has the ability to wow us; that is indisputable. They proved that with their debut Turn On the Bright Lights. Even their second album, Antics, which traded their Joy Division fascination for a little bit of the old pop machinations (just a little bit I said!) was much more enjoyable than this. So while it may have been my hope that Interpol would put the two discs together, meld the Joy with the pop, and return to top form this third time out of the gate unfortunately it wasn’t to be. And alas, instead of appearing on my list of The Best of 2007 they have proven instead The Greatest Disappointment. Woe is thee.

Me Versus… Award 2007:
Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

Every time Spoon comes out with a new album I get an onslaught of people telling me I need to check out their latest masterpiece ASAP. And with each new release I give Spoon a fair shake and ingest their latest album numerous times over. Inevitably, with each passing album I reach the same conclusion: when it comes to Spoon it’s all build up and no pay-off. Ever.

Spoon, while always a decent band, is far from a good one. Take for example The Ghost of You Lingers, the second track on the newest album. The song begins and ends with escalation but never goes anywhere. It’s a cool trick how they work the repetitive keyboard riff through the entire song but it’s a huge letdown when they never follow it up with anything at all. For another example of stimulation without the climax try the Billy Joel sound-a-like The Underdog. This particular tune swings and grooves in all the right ways but where Joel would at least give us what we want in either a memorable chorus, an insightful and heartbreaking couple of lines, or even a little rockin’ out, Spoon just sort of fade out like a bad ‘80s production minus any sort of peak whatsoever. Again, it’s all build-up for a climax that never comes, especially disappointing when we realize The Underdog really is a poor-man’s Billy Joel rip-off.

In conclusion, the next time you or anyone you know hears the new Spoon album and think I absolutely must give it a listen, forget about it. Spoon doesn’t rock, they never have, and they never will. The sooner we all realize that, the better.

Theme Song of the Year:
Benefit – Proceed With Caution

One of the best branding decisions a company can make is pairing their product with a thoughtful, catchy, and appropriate theme song. In the 1980s those songs often materialized in the form of 30-second jingles that stuck with you for years. Think Full House, Charles in Charge, Cheers, and on and on. Today, it is more commonplace for companies to pair their product with bits and pieces of popular artist’s tracks rather than concoct an entirely new and distinct theme. This often results in the bastardizing of some of our favorite songs with products that don’t seem to fit. However, when a match works we generally lap it up with joy and gusto. This year’s perfect union occurs in the form of Benefit’s Proceed With Caution teamed with the HBO documentary mini-series Mayweather-Hatton 24/7.

A cross between The Sopranos theme (Alabama 3’s Woke Up This Morning) and Coolio’s Gangsta’s Paradise, Proceed With Caution is the perfect slow build theme for a boxing promotion. Paired with the distinctive combatants, blood and guts warrior Ricky Hatton and loud-mouthed master of technique and confidence, Floyd Mayweather, the song is simply perfect accompaniment. Sure, it sounds an awful lot like Fort Minor’s Remember the Name but who cares!? The song is derivative in all ways, mind you, but definitely the catchiest, most appropriate and electrifying theme song of the year.

No Cost Music at a Price Award:
Radiohead – Rainbows

Wow. A big money band releases their new album to the public over The Internet and lets the down loaders choose any price they desire in order to obtain the tunes… now that’s what I call gracious! But, like all the best things in life, if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. So is the case of Radiohead’s great coo of 2007: get their latest album Rainbows for free but provide a shitload of personal information in order to do it. To download or not to download, that is the question.

While I’m down with the free or low cost download, something reeks mighty suspicious here. I appreciate the gesture but like shaking the hand of your enemy there’s always a chance he might spit on it first. Maybe it’s just Bush administration paranoia kicking in but whatever the true price I can’t shake the feeling that something is rotten in Denmark, uhhh, I mean Oxford.

In the end, I couldn’t shake my paranoia and never downloaded Rainbows. I did listen to it a few times but the ghosts of that damn Recording Industry Association of America have beaten me once again. Damn you, RIAA!!

Best Musical Television Performance of 2007:
The Rentals – Last Romantic Day @ 89.3 The Current

I love radio studios performances and this is one of the best I’ve seen in a while. Awesome!

Last Romantic Day LIVE

“Hey Ya” Award for Song You Heard EVERYWHERE in 2007:
Justin Timberlake – What Goes Around… Comes Around

This Timberlake guy seems to own the world these days. Between his My Love and Sexy Back, which aggravated me in 2006 as much as Usher’s Yeah! did in 2004, and the fact that I had to listen to his songs on the dance floor at almost every wedding I attended last year, by the middle of 2007 I was sure of one thing: enough is enough, no more JT. As soon as I made the proclamation Timberlake’s third single, What Goes Around… Comes Around hit the radio waves. Tipping the scales at 8 minutes in length, this epic of boringness was played in its entirety every time I heard it on the radio. Add to this the fact that women the world over love this song, and needless to say I surely heard this tune at least 200 this year. This all leads to my next award…

Love Hate Relationship of the Year:
Me Vs. Justin Timberlake

I don’t what it is about JT that gets the girls all hot and bothered, the guys worshiping his dick in a box Saturday Night Live performance, and everyone and their mother rushing to the dance floor each time his tunes are spun at every wedding I’ve attended the last couple of years. I just don’t get it. His HBO live special aired about ten thousand times late this year and every time I caught a glimpse of it he seemed to be really stinking up the joint. So what is it with this guy? Michael Jackson, he ain’t, but if he keeps up his popularity for another 5 years or so he might actually become one of the faces of the generation. Bizarre, and I’m not sure how to feel about it. Maybe one of you can E-mail me and fill me in because I’m perplexed.

Real Hype of the Year:
The National – Boxer

I never would have imagined that the band who has opened for damn near every group I have seen live over the past 7 years would sell-out 1000 seat venue, The Middle East Downstairs, two nights in a row as a headliner in 2007. But that is exactly what happened this year as The National broke out of the opening act role to claim a bigger piece of the indie rock pie all for themselves. It’s not that The National 2007 is all that different from their previous incarnations, instead it is that the band tweaked their sound just enough to finally earn the accolades that hung just out of their reach. And truth be told: they deserve it. No question, Boxer is one of the best albums of 2007 and is deserving of even more hype than it received.

Fake Hype of the Year:
M.I.A. – Kala

Every time The Arcade Fire or Radiohead release an album I could easily write that their effort isn’t nearly as good as you’ve heard because, well, it isn’t. However, instead of doing that again this year I will instead call out M.I.A. and her sophomore release, Kala as 2007’s Fake Hype of the Year.

An electronic album that gets the Internet music keyboard warriors into a frenzy, Kala isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Sure, the lady who does the work here, Maya Arulpragasm, gets her name tossed around like a modern musical god by the music press, but New Order she ain’t. Her personal story is certainly unique and fascinating, jumping around from artistic photography for Elastica’s second album to political rebellions as a youth in Sri Lanka, but that doesn’t ensure that her worldly experiences will translate to her albums with the same interesting slant. For an example on how to incorporate similar influences into an eclectic carnival-like album, see Wyclef’s Carnival II: Memoirs of an Immigrant. That album demonstrates how to transform numerous influences into a catchy and noticeable musical experience; M.I.A.’s Kala does not. I don’t care what Pitchforkmedia.com or The Boston Phoenix tell you, Kala is not the best, second best or even tenth best album of 2007. And if you do happen to never hear one tune from Kala, you won’t be missing out in the least.

Awkward Lyric of the Year:
Tori Amos – Big Wheel

Tori Amos writing a song I actually enjoy? Almost. The first single, Big Wheel, from her scizophrenic new album, American Doll House Posse, is unlike anything she has previously recorded. Twangy, fun, and even rockin’, at first blush Big Wheel is nearly pure pop bliss. Where is the anger? Where is the rationalizing? Is this really just a jolt of down home countrified rock without any strings attached? Not quite…

During the final third of Big Wheel Amos explodes with the most uncomfortable lyric of the year: “I am an M.I.L.F.” And not only does Amos enunciate every syllable of that dreadful expression, but she sings it letter for letter more than once! True statement, I suppose, but why ruin a perfectly good song with a childish acronym? It’s a mystery to me and unquestionably the most bizarre and awkward lyric of the year by an always bizarre and awkward artist. Now that’s saying something!

“Take the Power Back” Movement of the Year:
Radio Station Streaming

Yes, I know, radio stations have been streaming over the Internet for years. However, it seems in 2007 almost everyone jumped onto the Internet and started serving their customers through cyberspace rather than merely over the airwaves. This is a good thing, no doubt, and means that silly pay satellite radio is going to perish sooner rather than later just as I predicted when Howard Stern signed his lifetime Sirius contract. I know the whole not governed by the F.C.C. thing certainly has its privileges, and I can see why some love their satellite radio, but paying for radio? Come on, what is the world going to make us pay for next, going to sleep? No matter, now that radio stations everywhere can be heard for free on the Internet the world is a better place.

Most Hilarious Man of All-Time Award:
Given Yearly to the One and Only, Scott Stapp

I love to laugh at former Creed lead singer Scott Stapp. Don’t get me wrong: I don’t hate him. Actually, I very much enjoy him and his earnest, shirtless crooning and pandering to who, I don’t know, makes him a very enjoyable presence in the music world. Knowing he will be around for at least another decade, every year I make it a point to check up on his status and exploits over the pervious year to gain a few laughs as Stapp bides his time before the music of the ‘90s makes it certain come back.

This year’s Stapp revelation doesn’t involve shirtless mug shots, carrying his child around on-stage singing With Arms Wide Open, or even an absurd performance on the top of a building with fireworks and a paid audience. This year’s great Stapp moment is very subtle but nonetheless amazingly hilarious. On Stapp’s MySpace page he takes full advantage of the little quote you can put next to your profile picture with this comment: “The rock revolution has begun!” What revolution he is referring to, I have no idea and whether or not he is a part of that musical upswell, I can only wonder. Regardless, the quote is just another example of Stapp being Stapp in a way only he can. And I love it.

VH1 Celebreality of the Year:
I Love New York

Though she has nothing to do with music, nothing to do with celebrity, nothing to do with talent, and nothing to do with anything other than her own egomaniacle absurdity, I Love New York. Yes, that buxom behemoth of pseudo-celebrity reality television who was slighted by Flavor Flav twice on his dating show, Flavor of Love broke through with her own dating show in 2007 and took the mindless television world by storm. Yes, the show is dumb. Yes, the show is ridiculous. And yes, I love to watch it every chance I get. Season 2 isn’t quite as good as the first but that her suitors almost walked off the show in a sign of unity because she is a jerk made for some very mindlessly entertaining viewing.

VH1 Celebreality of the Year Runner-Up:
The Pick-Up Artist

OK, I admit it: I am a celebreality expert. I don’t watch every show of this niche-within-a-niche genre of crappy television, but I do know quite a bit. And what I know most assuredly is that The Pick-Up Artist, which featured “Mystery,” a Canadian Tommy-Lee look-alike with the most hilarious pick-up jargon this side of “what’s your sign?” was hilarious and uplifting in its ludicrous stupidity. In having Mystery tutor a group of eight “lovable losers” on the art of dating there was surprisingly much good information to uncover. Laugh if you must, shake your head as you will, but this show proved tremendously more entertaining and informative than it had any right to be.

2008 Crystal Ball Predictions

Last year I joked that 2007 would be the year Michael Jackson makes a huge comeback, Guns N’ Roses releases Chinese Democracy, and Lars Ulrich goes reality television sulking on his psychiatrist’s chair by proclaiming Internet down loaders are costing him a fortune and ruining his life. Instead of seeing my dreams come to reality, M.J. hid on his private island in the Caribbean, Sebastian Bach informed that he recorded vocals for Chinese Democracy but still no album release, and Lars disappeared from public view entirely. Oh well, at least that twit Lars was kept away from the public conscience for an entire year. Now that’s a good thing!

Perusing the current pop music landscape, it appears Justin Timberlake and Beyonce are the biggest pop stars around, N.O.W. music compilations continue to feature highly on Billboard charts, and boring pop hybrid artists such as Rascal Flatts (country) and Fergie (R&B) are getting more exposure than they deserve, none of which are good things. However, looking into my crystal ball I get the feeling 2008 is going to be a little more tightly packed with superstars than these less than stellar performers.

I see a big year for rap materializing in 2008. Hip-hop has hit a bit of funk lately as it becomes increasingly saturated with silly feuds, nonsense lyrics, and typical production. Between overrated Kanye West, phony retirement Jay-Z, and all those cookie cutter gangsta wanna be types I believe someone will emerge to spank those clowns in 2008. The writing is on the wall for a new rap artist to emerge and this is the time for it to happen. Who will emerge and grab the mantle? I’m not sure yet, but I look forward to finding out. What I do foresee is Wyclef emerging very popular midway through the year with his Carnival II album. From there The Fugees will reform and drop a long awaited release that will shake up the hip-hop world big time. Critics as well the general public will lap up Fugee singles through the end of the year into 2009 and at last we will see rap embracing the ‘80s as rock and pop already have. And that, as much as purists of all stripes will roll their eyes, is a very, very good thing. The ‘80s may have been disposable, but the best rap either comes from that decade or was directly inspired by it. We’ll eventually see how it all plays out, and I can’t wait.

Please direct all hate mail and/or proposals for marriage to the following:

scottmarlowe@undependentmedia.com