Considering there's not much left this year in terms of worthwhile album releases, it might as well be time for another subjective look at the top ten best albums of 2007.
End of year lists are always a bit shady. After all, there's always that one album you wish would just go away despite every music publication hyping it up to no end (my "most hyped" award for 2007 goes to Elliott Smith's New Moon. If I hear one more rave review about it, I'm gonna scream). I've noticed a lot of varying opinions on this year's best albums, and once again, I offer you readers another varied opinion on 2007's best.
You may not like my choices. I don't really care. I don't really like your choices either. But that's alright, because I think we can all agree that this was an excellent year for music.
2007 ended up being the year I actually purchased a decent amount of new CDs. In the past, I've always found a handful of new albums and supplemented my music purchasing habits with older albums in an attempt to fill in the gaps in my growing CD collection. But this year, almost every album I bought was a new release that I'd been anticipating for months, and I've ended up with over 50 albums, released this year, that were good enough to be nominated for this year's best.
Somehow, I managed to whittle down these 50 plus albums into a nice top ten list, for all of you to read and enjoy. Here's the list, in descending order (to build the anticipation, of course):
10. John Fogerty - Revival: John Fogerty is finally back with an album that is his best since his days with Creedence Clearwater Revival. Revival is supposed to be a comeback album, and it's actually a worthwhile one at that. Songs like "Creedence Song" make it obvious that Fogerty has come to terms with his past and is ready to bring back rock and roll, and songs like "I Can't Take It No More" and "It Ain't Right" show that Fogerty's lyrics are as sharp as ever. Fogerty sees the world in the same way he did, and takes George W. Bush and his war to task. It might not be "Bad Moon Rising," but Revival shows that Fogerty still has something special.
Article comments
1 - Tom Johnson
I definitely like the Iron & Wine album, but I've found that as the year has worn on, I'm not looking for it as much. I don't know exactly why, either, because it has all of the elements that made the EP with Calexico work so well for me. I can only guess that it's simply that my year has been overwhelmed by a handful of discs, unlike most years when I couldn't focus on any one thing too long. I had my list at least partially prepared in my head quite a while ago, which is unusual. Now I just have to actually sit down and write it out . . .
2 - handyguy
Neon Bible is an amazing album, and the Arcade Fire put on a great live show as well.
3 - Glen Boyd
Nice list Kevin. I noticed a lot of matches with my list for one thing, but also a lot of albums I would have included if I could've gone to fifteen (Iron & Wine and especially Arcade Fire). People like Leslie Bohn will be a lot happier with this then she was with mine I'm sure. Anyway, good stuff.
-Glen
4 - Kevin Eagan
Thanks to everyone who read and commented on this top ten list!
Tom -- I can totally see what you mean, this year was an excellent year for music, to a completely overwhelming extent. I know I had a hard time narrowing down this list, and there are other albums that almost made the top ten. Iron & Wine's album is better than his acoustic/solo stuff. I hope to see a Ryan Adams-esque backing band spawn from his recent stuff and take the road. Iron & Wine and The [fill in band name], anyone?
Handyguy -- Yes, Neon Bible is amazing. I just bought it on Vinyl for kicks, and it continues to amaze me.
Glen -- I agreed with a few of the ones on your previous list, and some of the ones you included made my "Top 20." It's just so hard to narrow down this year's best of. I didn't expect "Magic" to make the top ten list, but over the past month, it's really grown on me, and I had to include it (I can thank Blogcritics, in part, for that. You guys convinced me that the Boss is still alive and well).
5 - Josh Hathaway
Kevin, you've got some great choices here. I didn't like the Ryan Adams album, as a whole, as much as some of his others but like several songs from it.
Springsteen is going to come in second on my list this year, I'm quite certain. The Radiohead is good although I'm not sure where it slots in terms of their other records.