2007 Albums: 16-20

20. !!! - Myth Takes

What I love about Myth Takes is its kind of amateurish vibe. He can't really sing very well, for one. And the band doesn't seem all that good about realizing when they've got a good hook on their hands--they often throw one away when they should be basing a whole song around it. Instead, the tracks are crowded with too many ideas, too many new beats and directions, not enough focus. But that's also the reason I like it--all this adds up to exuberance, and if not exuberance, an infectious ADD. Horns duetting with retro-sounding synths over a disco beat? The album pulses with life. But then they do stupid things like spend 8 minutes on "Bend over Beethoven," a relatively uninteresting bit of music, and chop off the next track, "Break in Case of Anything," at 4 minutes, when it should have been built into an epic event. Ah well.


19. Black Kids - Wizard of Ahhs EP

Create a flawless four-song EP with ridiculous potential, and make it exceedingly fun--that’s an immediate place on my list. These guys are apparently blogworld darlings, going from nothing to hype in no time flat, but I don’t read that many music blogs. I don’t remember how I ended up with it, but I’ve listened to all four songs too many times and can’t wait for their album. I’ll admit that they’re a half-formed thing at best, but there’s something in the freewheeling spirit that is really exciting. Kind of like a Clap Your Hands Say Yeah that you can understand. Maybe they’ll put out a good album and then utterly fail like that other conspicuously hyped band. But for now, take really great pop songs, make things a bit fuzzy with echo, add caffeine, and throw in 80s synths. Imagine a yelp like the Cure's Robert Smith, without the whine. That’s this EP.

18. M.I.A. - Kala

It’s hard to say it better than Mike did: M.I.A.’s music is amazing for relatively obvious reasons. She incredibly fun to listen to, her beats are inventive, and you feel like your horizons are expanding. The music is radical and political far beyond anything else I listen to. But the reasons that I find her original and intriguing are also the reasons I can never really connect. Her politics are mysterious. She’s like this crazy figure that’s really fun but I don’t actually understand. Not that that should be a prerogative for enjoying an artist, but it's more acute here. Seeing her in concert, for example, was enough to skyrocket her first album high on my list in 2005, but while Kala was as good or perhaps even better than Arular, I find myself less interested in returning to it as much. Maybe that’ll change and I’ll suddenly start wearing bright colors and sunglasses, but until then, this album remains more of a novelty for me. Though it's a damn good one.

17. Iron & Wine

The moment I put this album on I knew I would like it. The first few bars are all quiet, muted, and sound like Sam Beam's early bedroom folk, beautiful and ghostly. Then, "clap," and the song jumps into full-blooded flesh, drums, bass, and Beam's breathy, harmonized voice voice. I think it's a subtle nod to his past while reminding us that his music loses little and gains much with a band behind him. None of the intimacy is lost. Throughout the album the instrumentation complements his natural hush, and even the watery vocal effect on "Carousel" works beautifully. He's not afraid of sonic ambition as a folk artist and singer-songwriter, which makes him consistently interesting, and probably the only artist of that type that I listen to. And his literary talent on songs like Resurrection Fern allows him to write perhaps the most heartbreaking song of the year.

16. Yeasayer - All Hour Cymbal

I swear the first time I heard this, I thought it was a lost Talk Talk album. That blend of high-pitched vocals, frail and yet full of lung power, the spaciousness, the indescribable communal feeling that you also get when listening to Animal Collective, especially Sung Tongs. Then "2080" came on, the third track, and my mouth dropped. The verse carried on by a persistent bass drum and tinny guitar, and then all of a sudden the chorus, "Its a new year I'm glad to be here," and the song has become achingly beautiful. THEN, at 2:50, everything gets even bigger, and they band starts to sound like they're singing around a campfire, and other people are hearing the music and joining the anthem. There's this whole gospel element to it. And just when you think it can't get any larger and more joyous, a group of children start singing, and the song ends in this quiet denouement.

I know this is more a review of that song that anything else, and it's certainly the highlight of the album, but if you're a fan at all of Talk Talk, Peter Gabriel, and like songs that possess a stunning melodicism with some tribal sounds and overall utter originality, please listen to this.