2007 Albums: 6-10

10. Okkervil River - The Stage Names

Unlike Mike and Austin, I didn't love Black Sheep Boy, despite its supposed positive qualities like wrenching heartbreak and authentic depression. Both Nick and I tried to get into it, but the only song we seemed to like was the opening track, a quiet little ditty that the band didn't even write. Maybe it was the exuberance of living in New York, where depression doesn't manifest itself quietly, but in loud, self-destructive behavior, Walkmen's "The Rat" style. The album just seemed dusty and distant. So it was a relief when the opening cut on The Stage Names began with the sound of palm-muted guitar strings keeping a quick beat, which gives way to loud, raucous singing and the occasional "woo hoo!" The second song doesn't slow down either, and suddenly Okkervil River is a confident band with gusto, without losing any of the literary qualities--there are characters and personas all over the album. Generally the idea of a literary songwriter bugs me--it comes off pretentious and fake and just hackneyed, but I really don't feel that way about Okkervil River. It's honest rather than pretentious, while maintaining the mystery of storytelling which is the reason we're drawn to it in the first place.

9. Liars - Liars

The Liars convinced me of their greatness with their last album, Drum's Not Dead, an experience of sheer power. It still gives me chills. Shapeless and unformed, it was nonetheless acutely emotional and wrenching. I loved it for its abstract qualities, its hugeness and its violence. If a band can go from sprawling abstractness to straightforward rock song structures, as they do with this year's release, Liars, without losing any of their power, it's a serious achievement. The probably dared each other to write regular songs and see what happened. This happened. The first track is loud and angry, incredibly good, but a fairly normal song, though made to sound powerful and desolate by the nature of the band playing it. But then "Houseclouds," the second track? It's a pop song. Who is this, Beck? Nevetheless, this two-punch is among the best moments on an album in 2007. Throughout, the songs are pretty paced, and they don't indulge in long instrumental sections, staying true to some variation of punk, garage, or pop rock form. But the fact that it's the Liars performing them makes all the difference. They can't help but do it better than anyone else.


8. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible

It wasn't really possible for them to live up to the expectation. What album by any band possibly could? The depths of childhood and personal tragedy had already been mined; how many times can a band do that? Funeral meant something different to all of us because it was such a personal album, and we all took it personally. Neon Bible found them going in the opposite direction, into larger themes and sweeping ideas, and trying to sound like The Boss. It's a noble goal, oft-failed, and "Antichrist Television Blues" was perhaps the most emotionally powerful song of 2007 that was at the same time universal--what a work of art should do, represent the large in the small. That was the highlight of the album, along with "Intervention," at least lyrically. I think they have a lot that's interesting to say about religion in America (or Canada, I suppose), things that need to be said and explored, and they have the gusto and musical power to do so. Other parts of the album were musically exciting--but overall it's not a cohesive album. Maybe they got too big, too ambitious, too risking of melodrama. They could only make it work on half the songs. But those highlights are enough to carry it well into the ten best of the year.

7. The National - Boxer

People always say that the first time you listen to The National, it's just a really boring experience. A sleepy baritone singer slurs his lyrics out over quiet, mid-tempo piano songs, and it just makes you want to fall asleep. But I had the opposite thing happen: the gorgeous first track, "Fake Empire," sound like it's lit from within. A textbook piano riff gets a sleepy sheen as Matt Berninger sings about being half-awake and spiking his lemonade with some mysterious lover to go apple picking. The song--and the whole album--remind me of that hour of day when the night is ending and the morning is beginning, halfway between two worlds, the late-night revelers and the morning commuters. Things are half-lit, nostalgic, boozy, with a slight headache creeping in. I also just happen to think it's one of the most beautiful things released this year.


6. LCD Soundsystem - Sounds of Silver

"I'm not charismatic or particularly talented...I'm not Bowie. I'm not Eno. I'm not Lou Reed reinventing rock. I'm just a fucking dude with a band, but I fucking take it seriously. ...Don't play a show with us and then bring your fucking B-game and phone it in and pose and pull a bunch of rock bullshit moves and emote and shit like that because I'll punch you in the fucking face. That's bullshit. When I see bands, they just roll over and think it's OK, like, "You go, man! You guys are crazy!" And then they go and they play, and I'm just like, "Holy shit, dude, seriously look at yourself! You're a fucking burlap sack full of somebody else's gestures!"

Two years ago I almost broke my ankle falling down the stairs on the way to see James Murphy DJ, because I was so drunk and excited. But I feel like that small physical ailment is only a fraction of the physical and emotional martyrdom that James Murphy puts into LCD Soundsystem. I read this interview with James Murphy while listening to the first three songs of Sound of Silver--especially that long building opening to "Get Innocuous"--and I was pretty sure nobody was going to come out with a better album this year. James Murphy is a huge, bear-like badass, is a fast-talking nutcase, and he makes immediately fantastic, danceable music--not aping but inhabiting and reimagining entire past eras of music. There's this whole other side of Sound of Silver that was nowhere on his earlier stuff--affecting emotion. He's stopped ad-libbing lyrics on the fly and started writing them, and it makes the music more meaningful. Not that the getting-old thing on "All My Friends" makes much personal sense to me, but you can feel the weight to the songs, and that wobbly, repeated one-handed piano part is stunning. He just manages to create a basically perfect album without a single bad moment. I'm sure when I'm 35 this will all make more sense to me.