Music from 2007: Best and Worst

It is a brand new year, and with it springs renewed optimism – a cleaning of the slate and with it the hopes of all things fresh and new. But it is also a time of reflection of what has passed, and so I find myself scouring the “music of the year” lists. I am normally a jazz man, and it has been quite a few years since I have paid any real attention to any other genres, so checking out the indie pop, alternative, and electronic lists was like exploring an unknown landscape. Nonetheless, I just dove in, and have been buying albums left, right, and center for the last two weeks. I just love discovering hidden gems – they renew my faith in the creative process and make me want to discover even more bands and great music.

I can recommend the following albums as something special. In short I think they are awesome.

• Animal Collective “Strawberry Jam” (alternative, indie pop)
• Menomena “Friend or Foe” (alternative, indie pop)
• Supersilent “6″ (electronic)
• Inhabitants “self-titled” (alternative jazz)
• Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words “Live in Mimer” (ambient) (free download from Ideal Recordings)

The following albums are pretty decent and are worth checking out:

• Panda Bear “Person Pitch” It is decidedly cool and atmospheric, but its same-sameness and low energy keep it from the A list.
• A Place to Bury Strangers “self-titled” Some songs I just love, but the album is uneven. Definitely a band worth watching though.

And the following albums were a disappointment:

• Justice “Cross”
• Caribou “Angorra”
• Spoon “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga”
• Stars of the Lid “The Tired Sounds of Stars of the Lid”

To play music I think you need to be able to hear it in your head and on that note my muse is mute. However, despite lacking any musical talent myself, I think I can recognize and appreciate a talented performance – this disparity alone makes me perfectly qualified to be a critic . And I probably should state that my bias towards what constitutes awesome or great must include technical mastery in one form or another – either instrumental or compositional. It is an elitist view of the process and maybe leads to an understanding of why I was disappointed with the above. And from that perspective Justice was the biggest disappointment. I am sorry but I fail to observe any talent here, certainly not instrumental or compositional – amateur hour dj tracks. Sorry I just don’t get it.