1) 10 top artists at the end of 2007 (play based, time based)
2) Top artist and track for each week of the year (in the case of a more than two way tie, whichever one is randomly on top is selected)
3) Albums I bought in 2007 (this list will be long)
4) My thoughts on the music that I heard that was new to 2007.
5) Tracks played as of the moment this entry was finishedMusic I heard that was new to 2007 (not linked as that's done in my album list entry):
The Across the Universe Soundtrack: This had me listening to the beatles for a little while afterwards, and the movie really impressed me. I will definitely get my hands on it when it comes out on DVD.
Santa And The Insatiable Eggs: a band that resides on Vancouver Island, who 'released' an album independantly this year. (Aka, they burned it and made the case out of cardboard). I don't really listen to any of their songs other than "I Like Eat", which I find hilarious. Given how much I like that song, you'd think I'd bother to give the rest of their catalogue a look...perhaps later I shall.
Swimfail - Self Centered Tales From The Project That Failed: One of my friends released this one, but I find it to be a quite enjoyable listen. I would never have found it if it hadn't been made by a friend, but I would have liked it either way after I found it. Especially "compromise", "Johnny perogy", "AFM", and "Injected Insight".
Kim Mitchell - Ain't Life Amazing - This album went completely overlooked by everyone. I saw MusicWorld with about 5 copies left the other day, despite the sale going on there. Despite that, it is chock full of great songs - including the title track, Space, Dreamthieves, and Killer's Name. It also has "Fill Your Head With Rock" tacked on as a bonus track, which is nice for me because I never got the collection it's originally from.
Neil Young - Chrome Dreams II - I haven't properly listened to this one yet, but the one time I did go through it, I liked the first song but had stopped noticing it by the end.
Curt Smith - Halfway Pleased - Being the Tears for Fears fan that I am, when I saw this in stores and realised I hadn't been following the progress of Curts solo album for over a year, I was highly disappointed with myself. I was initially not overly impressed with the album, agreeing with the common notion that Roland was the driving force behind Tears for Fears. However, I slowly grew attached to it, one song at a time...first, it was Aeroplane, and then Addict. I really fell in love with Perfect Day after that, and listened to the album a fair amount because of that song, also falling in love with On Ira Tous Au Paradis and Seven of Sundays (especially the duet version). It still has some songs that don't stand out, and Who You Are is better in the Tears for Fears version, but it's still, in my mind, better than Roland's solo CD.
Radiohead - In Rainbows - Honest truth is I only downloaded this because I heard it was free, and I never even finished listening to it once. I like OK Computer ok, but this one just doesn't have enough to keep me interested. Which is unusual. Perhaps later, if I go through the album again, I'll like it more.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Is Is - This is a nice little EP. I've only known the Yeah Yeah Yeahs for a little over a year despite how long they've actually been around, and I love their sound, even though most people I know don't really. Rockers To Swallow and Kiss Kiss are both really great, although I don't remember the other tracks on this as well. I like it better than Show Your Bones, for sure, although I think Fever to Tell is better still. I'm excited to see what else this band can do.
The Payola$ - Langford Part 1 - I heard about this album two years ago, although it was supposed to be out that year originally. The wait was worth it, as this EP has six awesome songs on it. They are among some of the best songs I've heard by these guys, and have really great lyrics too. Having heard Paul Hydes solo material, the evolution between their '80s heyday, and now when they finally release a new album about 20 years after that ended is a little less jarring to me. However, I loathe the jam-up at the end, and I was a little disappointed that after waiting two years longer than I'd expected, it was only a six song album. I'm eagerly awaiting 'part 2', if it ever comes.
Mika - Live In Cartoon Motion - Poppier than most things I listen to, I must admit that if this guy released another album, I would probably buy it. The album definitely has a fair amount of filler, but it has enough good songs to justify being an album and not an EP or a bunch of singles. Most notable are Grace Kelly, the hit that everyone fell in love with, and Love Today, which I really like, even more than Grace Kelly by now I think. Ring Ring has neat lyrics ("I was sitting on the fence, and I thought that I would kiss you..."), but the weird lady talking about losing her eyes and not getting married just seems out of place and strange on the album. I think he just put it on to see who was paying attention. While I don't really like the last song (happy ending), I do like the 'bonus track' hidden at the end of it, even though it's more along the lines of mellow background music than anything else. However, you can't listen to this album too much or it will quickly lose it's sheen...it's pure bubble pop.
Neil Young - Live At Massey Hall 1971 - Okay, so the name suggest that this isn't a 2007 release, but it is, it's just an old recording released now. There's not too much I have to say about it - I really like it, especially the A Man Needs A Maid/Heart of Gold Suite, but I haven't heard most of Neils stuff in the first place and am not his hugest fan, so to me it mostly sounds like harvest plus a few other songs I haven't heard before. And yes, I know that that is not the case (Although a lot of the material did end up on harvest)
Yes - Live at Montreux 2003 - This one also suggests that the album wasn't released in 2007, but once again, it was. I love this album, it sounds really great, and it really is Yes at the top of their game, even after all these years. Very impressive. However, I only got it recently, so I can't point out any specific highlights.
Paul McCartney - Memory Almost Full - It's great to see that this guy is still writing music, and even greater to see that he still has good stuff in him! Dance Tonight is immediately likable and a nice, simple pop/rock song. The album doesn't have any other universally great songs, although I really like Mr. Bellamy and House of Wax as well. That was Me is a cool track as well, although Only Mama Knows is a song that I can't seem to figure out, and that's stopping me from loving it. I do find, however, that by the end of the album I'm not paying as much attentino.
Devin Townsend - Present: Ziltoid the Omniscient - I bought this CD because I read the story on wikipedia and it sounded hilarious. I like the sound of it, but I really haven't listened to it a lot. I still laugh at the voice of the omnidimensional creator though.
Rush - Snakes and Arrows - I've listened to this one less than enough to really know it, but I like the sound of it, and especially Far Cry and Malignant Narcissism. Actually, Working Them Angels is pretty sweet too. Still needs some more listening for me to have anything more to say about it. I got it the same day I got Halfway Pleased, as well as about seven other albums, so it did get less attention that perhaps it should have.
Dashboard Confessional - The Shade of Poison Trees - I only have this one because my girlfriend got it. She collects DC and really loves his stuff, although she prefers the earlier stuff. Ironically, this is one of the best albums of his I've heard so far, having catchier guitars and what I perceive as nicer-sounding song structures. I wouldn't really listen to it, other than The Rush, without berni however.
Kaiser Chiefs - Yours Truly Angry Mob - I really fell in love with these guys. Ruby made them stars, but it really isn't the best track off of this album. There are a lot of good songs, and while this album isn't as good as Employment, it is still pretty good. I would say their my favorite band out of this decade so far. Highlights on this album include: Loves Not a Competition (But I'm Winning), Boxing Champ/Learnt My Lesson Well, Highroyds, Retirement, Heat Dies Down, and Ruby. Well it doesn't really have many songs that reach the level of Oh My God, Born To Be A Dancer, I Predict A Riot, Everyday I Love You Less and Less, and Caroline, Yes from their first album (only Boxing Champ/Learnt My Lesson Well, Loves Not a Competition, and Retirement come close, as far as I'm concerned), it also has few songs that I don't like at least as much as Time Honoured Tradition from Employment. My only worry is that, since Ruby was such a success, they're gong to rely on love songs to stay successful commercially, and their music that isn't pure cheese is the best stuff.
The Smashing Pumpkins - Zeitgeist - I like the sound of this album. By the end of it, I usually have lost interest, but until that point, I enjoy the album enough. Bring The Light and Starz are personal favorites, although Tarantula and Bleeding the Orchard are good as well. However, there really are no standout songs on this album to the level of what they (or should I say, he) has released in the past, and the album outlasts my enjoyment of the sound of it. I do get nice and excited during United States when he keeps on repeating "Revolution", however.
The Doors - Digital Remasters/Releases
The only Doors album I'd heard before they were all digitally remastered and re-released this year was The Soft Parade. I really liked that album, and when I saw The Doors and L.A. Woman on sale at HMV, not knowing they were new versions, I picked 'em up. (Cost me about $10, amazingly). I later discovered that MusicWorld was selling Strange Days and The Soft Parade for about $6 a pop, and by that point, I had listened to both L.A. Woman and The Doors enough to really like them. I got Strange Days first, and listened to it about 8 times, not really getting a whole lot from it nonetheless other than People are Strange, which I already knew, before I decided to buy The Soft Parade too. My girlfriend then finished my collection by getting me Waiting For The Sun and Morrison Hotel for my bday, although I found that Morrison Hotel had WAY too many versions of Roadhouse Blues, and as such I haven't really given it a lot of spins, out of not wanting to listen to the same song for that long. Waiting For the Sun also suffered as a result, although I fell in love with Hello, I love You pretty quickly.
Comparing them to the original albums, I can't say I noticed much difference between the old version of the Soft Parade and the new version. The title track has an extra minute to it, but I haven't quite figured out what that extra minute contains - unhelpfully, I haven't really listened to the original since I got the remaster. The bonus material didn't really add much to the album, unlike in The Doors and L.A. Woman. In fact, with multiple versions of the same songs on most of them, I find the bonus material to be sometimes offputting. You can always skip it, of course.
Genesis - Digital Remasters w/ DVD - I can't really say a lot about this. They are much more expensive than The Doors, and as such, I've only gotten one so far - Duke. I didn't own the original album, so I can't compare the sound quality. The DVD is a nice addition, although perhaps a different version without the DVD would be nice. (Then again, those existed before, did they not?). I haven't watched all the content on the DVD, but it's nice to get Music Videos with the CD (although if you owned a Music Video DVD, they wouldn't add much of value to your collectoin). I have yet to watch the other features. I do find listening to music on it less convenient than using the CD, because you have to actually load the DVD, and select 'play audio' out of the menu, instead of just inserting the disc and hitting play.
Travelling Wilburys - Rerelease - I got this one based on the reputation of the band, who I learned about while researching Electric Light Orchestra. The DVD was really great, and I enjoyed the music videos and the documentary. The music was really good, although the second album really lacked without Roy Orbison, how sad that he had to die. The first album had some really great tunes, especially Handle With Care and End of the Line, although Margarita, Tweeter and the Monkey Man, and Last Night are other standouts.
The bonus material is really nice, as I happen to like all of the bonus tracks. The cover of Del Shannon's Runaway was appropriate, I thought, considering they had originally wanted Del Shannon to replace Roy Orbison. The packaging is neat too, although I didn't pay the extra money for the deluxe edition. The booklet is good and informative, although it could have perhaps used lyrics to more songs than just the Wilbury Twist.
PLAY COUNT: 29, 541
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