What a strange year.
Unlike most years, when I find myself all over the place musically, this year found me focused on a small collection of albums that repeatedly drifted into my ears. I'm not like this - I'm not one of those people that sits back and says, "What a crappy year for music this has been," but when I look back on 2007 for truly notable music, I simply come back to a small handful of my very favorite releases where most years find me struggling to pick which ones were my favorites. Not so this year - it's pretty cut and dried.
Are they artistically important? In some cases, yes, but does it really matter? What matters most to me, at least, is that the albums are ones that I'm going to be coming back to year after year. If they're not groundbreaking, earth-shattering redefining examples of music, so be it. This list, in a way, is a prediction of sorts - I am attempting to predict the albums that are going to have staying power with me, at the very least. And, who knows, maybe in a few years we can look back and these albums will have withstood the test of time for many others. I'm pretty confident they will, in fact.
Rock/pop
Wilco - Sky Blue Sky: Opening with the gentle guitar of "Either Way," a film begins to unreel in my mind. The black screen, the titles, and then Jeff Tweedy's soft, scratchy voice crackles out "Maybe the sun will shine today" just as a scene of the open road is revealed. That's what Sky Blue Sky is to me – road music, an escape, transportation away from the everyday nothingness that often drives us insane. And, more than any other piece of music, escape is exactly what I did with this album since it came out earlier this year.
Wilco may have taken a quiet and calming turn here, but there's so much more going on. The music is subtle, revealing layers of intricate, thoughtful, and sometimes downright weird stuff going on underneath the top coating of amiable, easy-going tunes. Listen close and it's impossible to ignore jazz guitarist Nels Cline's contributions, or the unusual drumming that Glenn Kotche lays down behind the band. These elements take Sky Blue Sky from simply being a good album to being something that needs to be listened to again and again. It's an instant modern classic rock album – a rarity these days.
Crowded House - Time On Earth: Sometimes you just can't hear things right. Or maybe it's just me. I don't know - whatever the case, that happened here. Time On Earth eluded me for months after its release. As expected, given my love for Neil Finn's songwriting, a few songs grabbed me quickly, and that's exactly the problem with the album. Some of these songs were so good that they eclipsed all the others. In their brilliant light the album as a whole slipped away from me. I fell into a bad rut. I heard it in chunks - "this" little group of songs was great, "that" little group of songs was good, and others, well, I just didn't care for. The whole didn't jell - and this was unusual for me. I usually love an album or I don't. Something was wrong here, and I began to think it wasn't the music.
Article comments
1 - Glen Boyd
...and were happy to have you on board Mr. Johnson. Just try to remember, brevity my man, brevity... ;>p
-Glen
2 - Pico
Good job, TJ, it looks like a well-thought out list and you stated your case well. And not just because 4 or 5 of those albums are on my list, too ;&)
Hope we get to see your handiwork more again before too long.
3 - Glen Boyd
Me too Pico.
-Glen
P.S. In the meantime, I'm all bout gettin' me some PT, Blackfield, Adams, and Wilco...
4 - Tom Johnson
Glen: what, this isn't brief enough? ;-)
Pico: this has been sitting in my queue on my site for well over a month. I've been adding bits to it as they came to me. It's literally been slaved-over. I try to just write and publish - the queue is a black hole. Many things disappear into my queue, but not so many survive. This one is lucky.
5 - JC Mosquito
I thought the Crowded House was good as it was, so I'm curious to hear those b sides you mentioned - where could I find them?
Silent House - an allusion to Paul Hester, I'd guess. A sad, yet beautiful song.
6 - Tom Johnson
They're on this version of the "Don't Stop Now" single. The songs are "Stare Me Out" and "Lost Island" - both are good enough to have been on the album. I think they made a mistake not putting them on and just making an epic out of this album - they fit perfectly.
To make the vinyl tracklisting, this is the order:
Disc One
1. Nobody Wants To
2. Don't Stop Now
3. She Called Up
4. Say That Again
5. Pour Le Monde
6. Even A Child
7. Heaven That I'm Making
8. Stare Me Out*
9. A Sigh
10. Silent House
11. English Trees
12. Lost Island*
13. Walked Her Way Down
14. Transit Lounge
15. You Are The One To Make Me Cry
16. People Are Like Suns
There's also a single out for "She Called Up" with another non-album track, "So Dramatic," but I haven't heard it yet (just placed my order, in fact.)
7 - Mat Brewster
Man, I've got to check out that Prezens thing. It is on too many lists to not give it a chance.
8 - MauRiCe
The Rush CD was disapointing. I have been their long term fan, but it was worth the purchase. My girlfriend is all ga-ga about Teddy Brent and his CD so she wants me to purchase that too next week...im gonna be poor due to music purchases
-poor but happy music lovr
9 - Joh
"Pat Metheny and Brad Mehldau - Quartet" was awesome. Pat always puts out good music.
Maurice, dont feel bad bro. I live in Detroit and there is only store you can get it at (for Teddy Brent's CD). Anyhow they were sold out when we got there...spent an hour n the ice and cold exc and exc...
10 - Andy723
Maurice and Joh...i got the Fashionable CD on Itunes today after hearing it played over and over and over...how many times can they play 'Vanity' before you hate the song???
11 - Shelly In Burbs
Josh...i waited in line in Ann Arbor for two hours to get a CD and they are all out....
12 - Angela Johnson
Pat Metheny *sigh*. I love that man. I will pick up that Teddy Brent one this week...I heard about it this week from a friend.
13 - Tom Johnson
I think we just got spammed about this TB (no spelling - I don't want it coming up in search engines) guy. Four comments in 20 minutes about some dude I've never even heard of, one of which claims they stood in line for two hours to buy a CD that turned out to be sold out? Uh-huh.