My top 10 albums of 2007

10WilcoSky Blue Sky

Wilco has always been a mixed bag for me - when trying to get into Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, I loved “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart,” but couldn’t stand other tracks like “War on War.” Well, peace has been declared, because Sky Blue Sky is an excellent, low key, gorgeously simple and melodic album.

Best tracks: “Either Way”, “On and On and On”

9Of MontrealHissing Fauna, You Are the Destroyer

It was the year of truly getting into the Elephant 6 Collective for me - Of Montreal, The Apples in Stereo, Neutral Milk Hotel. The amount of range displayed on Hissing Fauna is impressive, even though I didn’t necessarily catch onto concept album angle of it.

Best tracks: “A Sentence Of Sorts In Kongsvinger”, “The Past is a Grotesque Animal”

8The White StripesIcky Thump

Another solid effort from the Stripes, another album on this list showing a ton of range. “You Don’t Know What Love Is” is a classic country song, “Icky Thump” is a screeching Jack White howl, and “Conquest”… well, I don’t know what “Conquest” is exactly, but it’s damn good. Still waiting for the killer video off this album, though…

Best tracks:“A Martyr for my Love for You”, “I’m Slowly Turning Into You”

7The Apples in StereoNew Magnetic Wonder

As lead singer Robert Schneider asks in the opening track, “Can You Feel It?” Slickly produced (there are reportedly hundreds of tracks going at once in ProTools), the Apples are at their best, alternating between some of the happiest rock you’ve heard in a while and some pretty far out psychedelic vibes. It’s disappointing that Hilarie Sidney split with the band afterwards, because her vocals add the same sort of texture that the New Pornographers benefit so much from, and the Sidney-led “Sunndal Song” might be my favorite track. No worries, however, because if their live show is anything to go by, the all male Apples still manage to be pretty good.

Best tracks: “Skyway”, “Sunndal Song”, “Open Eyes”, “Beautiful Machine Pts 3-4″

6Kanye WestGraduation

Nobody in the game has better samples than Kanye West. Period. Though this album is slightly deficient lyrically from past efforts, the production and great sample choice makes up for it.

Best tracks: “The Glory”, “Stronger”

5The New PornographersChallengers

As far as I’m concerned, The New Pornographers’ previous three albums might as well be a triple album. Sure, the sound is a bit more refined by Twin Cinema, but where’s the variation? Answer: inside Challengers. The band ditches some of the manic, occasionally strained energy that characterizes their previous work in favor of more relaxed, stripped down melodies.

Best tracks: “Go Places”, “All the Old Showstoppers”

4The Arcade FireNeon Bible

An optimist would say that this album is “thematically focused”, a pessimist would say it’s “repetitive”. I fall somewhere in the middle, while thoroughly enjoying the entire ride. Neon Bible is angsty yet determined, carefully and lovingly orchestrated, and a definite evolution for the band.

Best tracks: “Intervention”, “My Body is a Cage”

3Daft PunkAlive 2007

Generally speaking, I wouldn’t include a live album on a list like this, but Alive 2007 is a crowning achievement for a big year for Daft Punk. The French duo spends almost 90 minutes mixing and remixing their three albums together, and in doing so take not only the iconic tracks to a new level, but even make sense out of Human After All. It’s like hearing these songs for the first time again, and has only gotten better for me on every listen.

Best tracks:“Television Rules the Nation” / “Crescendolls”, “Around the World / Harder Better Faster Stronger”, “One More Time / Aerodynamic”

2Jay-ZAmerican Gangster

The opening lines of “Ignorant Shit” really gets down to the point, with Jay talking directly to the critics of last year’s mediocre Kingdom Come: “Y’all hail me as the greatest writer of the 21st Century / I make some thought-provoking shit / Y’all question whether he falling off”. Well, your boy is back: American Gangster is part concept album, part rediscovering his Brooklyn roots, all set against a collection of great 70’s samples. “No Hook” is raw, “Ignorant Shit” is timely and hard hitting, “Roc Boys” and “Success” are upbeat celebrations of wealth and excess, and “Fallin” deals with the inevitable decline. Great guest spots as well - Nas steals the show on “Success”, and Lil’ Wayne lays down the foundation for “Hello Brooklyn 2.0″. And much like with The Black Album, let the remixing begin - American Zeppelin is almost as much fun as The Grey Album.

Best tracks: “Ignorant Shit”, “Success”, “Fallin”

1RadioheadIn Rainbows

It’s the album I’ve been waiting for for years, and it’s just that good. Musically, take Kid A, sprinkle with a little of Thom Yorke’s solo album, and fix it all up with super tight performances and production. The patient care that went into this is entirely evident. When an album’s disc of B-sides could probably make the year’s top ten, you know there’s something good going on. No matter what you paid, you underpaid.

Best tracks: “Bodysnatchers”, “Nude”, “Reckoner”, “Jigsaw Falling Into Place”, “Videotape”, “Down is the New Up”, “Last Flowers”, “4 Minute Warning”

Honorary Mentions

The Polyphonic Spree - The Fragile Army, Interpol - Our Love to Admire, Wu Tang Clan - 8 Diagrams, Saul Williams - The Rise and Inevitable Decline of Niggy Tardust

New Toy Review: iPod Touch

I decided I deserved a present, so I bought into the hype/Apple Tax and ordered a 16 GB iPod Touch. It only arrived yesterday, but I’m already completely enamored with this little sucker, who’s been named, at least temporarily, Cha Cha. Some quick thoughts (many of which will be redundant and unoriginal after months of iPhone coverage):

• 16 GB certainly won’t hold my entire mp3 library, but that’s still a lot of music - and for me, it’s an upgrade from my 20 GB 4th generation iPod (which replaced my 10 GB 2nd generation iPod). But between being able to stream mp3s found on the net and listening to full songs simply uploaded to YouTube, the need for any onboard storage is going to be eliminated.
• Flash support in the browser is, of course, key to these devices really taking the next step.
• No support for the annoying Cisco flavor of VPN Boston University uses.
• The included hunk of plastic that Apple calls a “stand” is pretty funny - it does its job when in sideways video mode, but its unusable in the vertical listening mode because the base of the headphone cord protrudes.
• I can tell already that the lack of physical buttons - especially for volume - is going to be annoying, though I can see myself being able to guess even when the Touch is in my pocket.
• I hate hate hate Cover Flow in iTunes (and I’m sure I’ll hate it in Leopard), but it is nothing short of amazing on the Touch. The emphasis on cover art throughout the music sections is really just great.
• The number of YouTube videos available is impressive, though certainly not complete (which its supposed to be “this fall“).
• The onscreen keyboard really does work a lot better if you don’t try to outthink it - it’s hard to describe, but whenever I type on it naturally instead of trying to figure out how to best hit the keys, it works better. Still inferior to a Blackberry keyboard.
• The Touch is loud. Much louder than my 4th generation iPod. I’ve been pleased with the audio quality so far.
• Word on the street is that the Touch’s battery life doesn’t live up to promises - too early for me to be able to comment.
• I don’t understand why the Touch has to have the black corner for the WiFi antenna, yet the iPhone doesn’t. Whatever. (edit: It has been pointed out to me that the bottom of the back of the iPhone is a black strip. Whoops.) I’d also prefer the brushed metal casing to the shiny metal, but again, minor quibble.

I’ll do a roundup soon of the sites I’ve been using on Safari, as well as some thoughts on web development for the mobile Safari environment.Photo courtesy of Apple. I saw Macy Gray open for David Bowie once, and you know what? Not half bad. Actually, probably right about half bad.

Zodiac: Great, though not traditionally Fincheriffic

Just got back from the Zodiac matinee this afternoon - it’s a great film, though it is pretty long. It combines Fincher’s incredibly methodical style of shooting with the diligence of a documentarian. The film is most similar not to Se7en, Fincher’s earlier serial killer masterpiece, but rather to All the President’s Men - the careful pursuit of a hidden enemy. (I can’t claim credit for the initial comparison to President’s Men - the A.V. Club had it first.) Much like All the President’s Men, it can seem rather long at times, but it is worth the wait.

Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, and Jake Gyllenhaal are all excellent in their performances as a San Francisco Chornicle reporter, a SFPD detective, and a Chronicle cartoonist.  It is odd seeing John Carroll Lynch, a.k.a. TV Drew Carey’s cross dressing brother, as a main Zodiac Killer suspect. Brian Cox has a memorable few scenes as San Francisco attorney Melvin Belli, and the always great character actor Philip Baker Hall plays a handwriting expert.

It’s great seeing Fincher lavish over 70’s era San Francisco, and seeing the Embarcadero highway in all of it’s “glory.” The couple of Herb Caen references also hit the spot. Since the film makes several time leaps due to the extended nature of the investigation, Fincher makes extensive use of onscreen text, though occasionally you get a great transition sequence, like when we see the Transamerica Pyramid emerge from the ground, floor by floor, window by window. Apparently, there was a musical montage that covered a four year gap in the film, but Fincher was forced to replace it with a mere caption because of time restraints.

If you grew to love Fincher because of his flashy gimmicks, then you might be a bit disappointed here, though when they show up, it’s to great effect. Though most of the film is shot in a straightforward fashion, there’s a scene in the Chronicle newsroom where Fincher revisits the faux-Ikea “Furni” scene from Fight Club, where characters walk through zodiac symbols and Chronicle articles seen hovering in midair. It’s great, and it reminds you that Fincher hasn’t forgotten to have fun, he’s just exercising some restraint.

Go see Zodiac. It’s a crying shame it’s going to be slaughtered by Wild Hogs.