Best of 2007: Special Categories
This is my last best-of-2007 list for BT. (If you’ve just got to see more of my commentary on 2007 releases, my classical-music list is here on CultureCatch.com, with jazz, soul, and post-punk to follow gradually over the rest of the month.) The 1-10 numbering doesn’t mean anything, it’s just part of the template.
Best instrumental rock album: Explosions in the Sky – All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone (Temporary Residence)
Explosions’ fourth full-length captures their chiming guitars with both clarity and ambience. They are more consistently offering shimmering, slow-building pieces that don’t switch gears as abruptly as some of their earlier ones did, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty of variety in textures and dynamics (and mood), both from one track to the next and within a single piece. The little tintinnabulating guitar patterns act as melodies/hooks; the droning washes of sound under them keep it all from sounding like a music box. This CD is so good that EITS now officially passes Lanterna as my favorite instrumental indie-rock band.
Best 2007 import that hasn’t been released in the U.S. yet: The Mary Onettes – The Mary Onettes (Labrador)
This Swedish band is derivative as hell on its first full-length, but anyone with a fondness for the ‘80s and the poppy sides of New Order and The Cure should enjoy this cheesy yet lovable disc. (BTW, Pitchfork announced a December 11 release, but that date came and went without Sound Fix’s one-stop distributor listing a domestic release for this album.)
Best cover: Petra Haden – “Don’t Stop Believin’” from Guilt by Association (Engine Room)
This comes from an all-covers album. As on her rendition of The Who Sell Out, Haden (that dog, Spain, The Rentals) renders all parts with her vocals, recreating Journey’s arrangement with uncanny accuracy. In person, with her vocal group The Sellouts, this song sounds even better, more engaged and joyful. They’re scheduled to play the Knitting Factory on February 28.
Best tribute album: 8-bit Operators: A Tribute to the Music of Kraftwerk (Astralwerks)
Working with video games, ancient PCs, etc., a bunch of people I’ve never heard of before lovingly craft new versions of classic Kraftwerk songs. The funny thing is, I often like the sound of these covers better than the originals.
Best Chinese punk song: Caffe-In – “Mario and Peaches” from Look Directly into the Sun: China Pop 2007
Martin Atkins (P.I.L., Pigface, Killing Joke) curated this compilation, which bounces from style to style and is wildly inconsistent in quality as well. This is one of the high points. Imagine (warning: ethnically inapt comparison) Shonen Knife playing with the energy of 5.6.7.8’s, plus a mosh section.
Best soul reissue: The Four Mints – Gently Down Your Stream (Asterisk)
Like most people, I first encountered the Four Mints (the black ‘70s soul band, not the ‘50s white vocal group) on Numero’s great Eccentric Soul series compilation of releases on the Ohio label Capsoul. Now we can hear the band’s entire 1973 LP plus bonus tracks. It’s all very charming, even the low production values.
Best soul compilation: Eccentric Soul: Twinight’s Lunar Rotation (Numero)
Forty tracks of Chicago soul and funk from the Twinight label, including three previously unreleased items. As usual, it’s not only good listening but good reading, with a fascinating label history and a contextualization of the wonderful obscurities we hear. The hits of Syl Johnson (not included here – too well known!) funded a flow of 45 releases that missed the national charts in 1967-72 but sound great now. There are a few names you’ll recognize lurking here and there; for instance, Donny Hathaway’s playing on Josephine Taylor’s “I’ve Made Up My Mind.” There are a lot of styles heard here, not only soul and early funk but also a little blues, some harmony groups, and more.
Best post-punk compilation: Messthetics #103: D.I.Y. and (Very) Indie Post-Punk from the Midlands ‘77-’81, Part 1 (Hyped 2 Death)
Mixing the famous (Swell Maps), the one-offs of the famous (The Newts had Felt’s Lawrence Hayward), the semi-famous (Spizzoil), the beginnings of the famous (three members of Hardware became 3/5 of Pigbag, which “Face the Flag” certainly anticipates), cult favorites (The Prefects, The Shapes, The Cravats), Messthetics favorites (Digital Dinosaurs), and the just plain obscure (021, Famous Explorers, many more). Twenty bands (from Birmingham, Cheltenham, Solihull, etc), 22 tracks, not one of which I’d heard before, but pretty much all of which are at least charming, and many of which I now love.
Best jazz reissue: Andrew Hill – Compulsion (Blue Note)
This October 3, 1965 session is both more complex and freer than much of Hill’s work. The frontline of Freddie Hubbard (trumpet, flugelhorn) and John Gilmore (tenor sax and bass clarinet) is excellent, and Joe Chambers, the secret ingredient in so many of Blue Note’s more avant-garde sessions, is on drums along with two percussionists, while bassist Cecil McBee is joined on one of these four lengthy tracks by Richard Davis to thicken the foundation. Hill stretches out and delivers some of his most active performances.
Best electronic reissue: Bruce Haack – The Electric Lucifer (Omni)
One of the great outsider creations finally made it to CD! Near the end of a decade of music-making mostly devoted to crafting commercial jingles and albums of songs for children, Haack channeled his knack for electronics and his newfound love for psychedelic rock into one of the most far-out LPs ever issued by Columbia Records. Read my review here.
