Review of 2007- Music

I'm not really sure what constitutes a great year for music, I suppose it depends on your personal tastes to a large extent. It's been a good year for album releases, the year began, just as the old one had ended, with Amy Winehouse shifting copies of her Back to Black album by the lorry load. Amy had so many personal ups and downs throughout the year that she slipped in the public mind from being one of the best singers we have produced in the last thirty years to being a mainstay of the tabloids front pages, she was there whenever Pete Doherty wasn't available. I've indulged myself here, it's my blog after all, my listing the albums that caught my ears during the year and within that highlighting my personal Top Ten.

The year kicked off for me with the release of what I have chosen as my album of the year, The Shins:Wincing The Night Away. I wrote a full album review on these pages back in January so I won't go back over old ground again, suffice to say the enjoyment first felt upon my initial hearing of it remains undiminished ten months later. Arcade Fire released Neon Bible six weeks after The Shins and it was met with a mixture of excitement and disappointment. To be honest the disappointment was entirely due to the fact that the album couldn't live up to its predecessor Funeral, had Neon Bible have been released by any other band it would have been clasped warmly to the bosom, or ear, of its listener and regarded as an instant classic.

March 2007 also saw the release of three albums that were so different in every respect possible and yet each could be regarded as breakthrough albums for the artists concerned: Andrew Bird released Armchair Apocrypha, an album of absolutely delicious melodies and strange soundscapes that it defies categorisation. Modest Mouse released We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank and saw it go gold almost immediately, not bad for a band whose only other appearance in the general consciousness of the British public was their work with Johnny Marr. The third of the three albums is one that became an instant classic and has made the lists of almost every music critic who has been asked to name their albums of the year: LCD Soundsystem's Sound of Silver - essentially a dance album it is one of those rare records, it reveals something new on each hearing.

Beyonce released B'Day in April, the title was chosen because it was released on her birthday and despite having a title which apparently put a lot of people off, since when have titles mattered?, it was the 20th biggest selling album in the world this year. I mention it not because it has made my top 20 but just to show that if you want to call an album after a bathroom fitting it doesn't matter a hoot providing you have good tunes and decent videos to back it up. Kings Of Leon released their third album: Because Of The Times during the spring and it seemed to mark a change of direction, the band began getting more airplay on the music channels to coincide with their new 'friendlier' sound.

At number 4 of best albums is 23 by Blonde Redhead. Again, as with Andrew Bird, it's difficult to categorise. The title track opens the album and listening to it on pair of headphones whilst travelling up the Thames from Greenwich to St.Katharines during my Easter break is one of my favourite memories of the year. An album guaranteed to make you smile.

Wilco are fifth on the list with Sky Blue Sky an album which saw the band's fans breathing a huge sigh of relief as it marked a return to the brilliant song writing, melodies and harmonies that its predecessor had lacked. Pink Martini have been huge in Europe for ages and finally, thanks to some airplay on Radio Two, the word is spreading in the U.K that they are a band to be listened to, they released Hey Eugene! in the late Spring and whilst it may not have been as bountiful, in terms of memorable tunes, as some of the bands other work it still showed immense originality and an ear for a good tune and sample. Rhianna and her single Umbrella were everywhere this summer and the songs ubiquitousness meant that her album Good Girl Gone Bad was written off before it was really given a chance. The Sugarbabes continued their policy this year of 'one out one in and more hits' and whilst Mutya Buena's solo debut Real Girl may not have set the world on fire it did contain one cracker of a tune: Song 4 Mutya which was co-written and co-performed with/by Groove Armada.

Bruce Springsteen released two albums this year, first up was the Live in Dublin recording, this was basically the Seeger Sessions done live. The second release from 'The Boss' was called Magic and it was and sits at number six on my list of Top Ten. It's the best album I've heard from him since Born In The USA and as I said at the time I doubt any of its sentiments will be misconstrued in the 2008 Presidential Elections in the same way that BITU was during the Reagan years.

2007 also saw a dearth (or should that be death) of albums by people you thought (or hoped) had given up their day jobs to become Elk farmers in Norway: Ted Nugent Paul McCartney, The Police, Bon Jovi, Deep Purple, Ozzy Osborne and The Beastie Boys all clogged up the arteries of musical advancement at some point during the year. The year also saw re-releases of material from Tom Petty and Led Zeppelin both great artists but I couldn't help asking the question why?

Caribou and their second album Andorra are seventh on the list. Caribou aren't really a proper band, they are the creation of one Daniel V Snaith, who comes from Ontario in Canada . Daniel produces sonic soundscapes that put you in the mind of Joe Meek, early Hawkwind and those wonderful West Coast harmonies of the sixties. Melody Day, the opening track from the album, is quite possibly the most fun you can have in four minutes with your clothes on - it's music with the kitchen sink thrown in.

For sheer lyrical poetry the album of the year would be Under The Blacklight by Rilo Kiley if it wasn't for The Shins. The bands fourth album finally saw them make the breakthrough in the U.K and the opening track Silver Lining made it to Number 27 on the Rolling Stones Top 100 tracks of 2007. The band released tracks from the album via their My Space site and it's my eighth album of the year.

In September 50 Cent and Kanye West fought for the title of biggest cock in black music and Kanye West won when Graduation beat Curtis to he Number One spot. Neither album makes my list but an honorary mention goes to the Kanye West single Stronger which, with help from a sample of Daft Punk's 'Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger', is my single of the year.

October 23 2007 was a red letter day from the followers of both rock and country music. It was the day that my ninth choice of album of the year was released. The big question was how would one of the great voices of British, nay World, rock sound when combined with one of country/bluegrasses most iconic voices. The answer was beautiful. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss released Raising Sand to critical acclaim and huge sales. The only disappointment came in the British media treatment of Alison Krauss who had to endure the ignorance of 5Live presenters who insisted on directing all the musical questions at Percy and restricting their questionning of Alison to the 'what does is feel like to be working with a legend?' level of banality. The album sold almost 200,000 copies in the first two weeks after release.

A living musical legend with some bloke from the West Midlands

At number ten on my list is Hvarf-Heim by Sigur Ros. Strictly speaking this wasn't a release of new material but even the leftovers from the Icelandic group are better than most peoples offerings. A double CD featuring tracks not previously released on one CD whilst the second CD featured reworkings of tracks previously released on the bands four studio albums. The album's release coincided with release of their DVD Heima. Heima must be the best fifteen pounds I have ever spent, the first CD lasts 94 minutes whilst the second clocks in at just under three hours.

Other album releases which I enjoyed in 2007 were from: The View, The Good, The Bad and The Queen, Klaxons (which won the Mercury Prize), Norah Jones, Lily Allen (yes honestly), Bloc Party, Grinderman, Air, Charlotte Hatherley, Neil Young, Bright Eyes, Bjork, Rufus Wainwright, The Go Team!, Siouxsie Sioux.

2007 also saw Live Earth. A series of concerts at which a number of artists got together at various venues to tell us mere mortals that the planet is in danger and we should all be conserving the earths resources. Laudable I agree, thing is that preachy pop and rock stars travelling around the world on their expensive private jets to tell us how we should live took a bit of stomaching. Mind you it did remind the record buying public that Duran Duran, Linkin Park and Lenny Kravitz were still alive and in possession of back catalogues that needed investigating - or is that too cynical.

Oh and finally I must thank Shy Talk for making me green with envy this year as he made available some of his own compositions via his blog. They were beautiful pieces of music, evocative and magical. I look forward to being green again in 2008!