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2007 is slipping out the door, so I thought it'd be nice to have a thread where we'd round up what everyone thought the best albums of 2007 were, along with a little description.

In no particular order...

Graduation
Kanye West
While 2006 was a blockbuster year for hiphop, 2007 was a little thin. Graduation isn't as good as West's other albums, but its still got all the things that made his other albums so good. I love the song "Homecoming", and while Kanye is a middling rapper at best, his production is still top-notch.

Back to Black
Amy Winehouse
The song that everyone's heard off this one is "Rehab", but I think that's one of the lesser songs on the album. The title track is absolutely beautiful. I liked the jazzier bent of Amy's first album better, but this is still some god damn soulful stuff.

Kala
M.I.A.
If you haven't heard this album yet you owe it to yourself to find it now, no matter what kind of music you enjoy. This is best described as a world-music pop explosion. M.I.A. is a British-Sri Lankan artist and her album is a crazy kaleidascope of beats, horns, cheers, clucking fowl, quirky lyrics, Pink Floyd's cash registers...it's a lot of fun.

Magic
Bruce Springsteen
I didn't think this was as good as The Pete Seeger Sessions, but it's his best album of original material since his Jersey-oriented stuff, which says a lot, since the Boss hasn't ever put out a bad album that I'm aware of. It's not the best thing he's ever done, and it's not revolutionary, but it's a solid rockin' album.

The Cool
Lupe Fiasco
I said this was a thin year for hiphop, partly because the big anticipated album of the year, Jay-Z's American Gangster, was fairly lackluster- good technically, but all Jay's talking about is still just how fucking awesome he is. If we can't get a Roots album this year, I'll take Lupe's new album, which is a weird sort of artistic prog-rap. I haven't heard his first album, but I enjoyed this one so much I'm going to go check it out. Common's album was also decent but nothing special.


Icky Thump
The White Stripes
Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Spoon
What's the Time, Mr. Wolf?
The Noisettes

I grouped these three together because they're all rock and I couldn't come up with a paragraph for each of them. The first two are solid albums from established rock bands; I'd say Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga is actually Spoon's best album, and clearly shows why it's still one of the bets indie outfits around (Neutral Milk Hotel, go die in a fire). Icky Thump is, along with Get Behind Me Satan, one of the White Stripes' best outings, although it's a very different album sonically- more bluesy, rougher, and no more piano (although there are organs, and bagpipes on at least two tracks).

The Noisettes were described somewhere by someone as "Billy Holiday fronting the White Stripes," and while they're less bluesy and rough-edged than the White Stripes, and while they have a slightly more melodic and surreal lyrical bent, the lead singer would sound right at home on a Billi Holiday record. She has such a powerful, expressive voice, it literally makes each of the songs. Fantastic album.

Gogol Bordello
Super Taranta!
Fucking awesome Ukrainian-immigrant gypsy punk rock. How many punk rock bands have an accordian? Get this album.

Dropkick Murphys
The Meanest of Times
Fucking awesome Irish South Boston punk rock. How many rock bands have bagpipes (well, ok, a lot, but whatever)? I love the Dropkicks, and The Meanest of Times is a thoroughly entertaining album, without some of the filler that usually clutters their albums. "State of Massachussets", best song on the disc.

Costello Music
The Fratellis
There's nothing groundbreaking or even particularly exciting about this album, but it's just cool fun rock. Way better than the Arctic Monkeys.

Because of the Times
Kings of Leon
Probably the most interesting rock album on this list. The previous Kings of Leon outings were hard-driving rockers, but this one slows things down a bit and turns up the introspection. This is my favorite of all the albums on the list, but I'm not even sure how to describe it. Go find it and listen to it. It's superb. It's one of those albums you have to listen to many times over- guitar lines rise briefly out of the sonic haze and then descend again, like Exile on Main Street, or a Junior Kimbrough album, but it's never just noise (Sonic Youth, I'm looking at you...), it's always clearly melodic, rhythmic, fantastic music.

Mother Ship Led Zeppelin

Some of these may be older but they were released here in '07:

The President of the LSD Golf Club - Hooverphonic

Trippy and weird songs that still manage to suck you in. I've been a fan for the last ten years and in that time they haven't disappointed me.

Life in Cartoon Motion - Mika

Insanely happy pop that was unfortunately overplayed on the radio. A CD full of earworms that somehow manages to sound fresh every time you hear it.

Cassadega - Bright Eyes

I can't really say why it's here, except that the songs on it make me dream away to some strange place out of time. It's haunting and comforting at the same time.

The Flying Club Cup - Beirut

Surreal, fairy tale-ish mix of folk and pop. I can't stop listening to Nantes.

Yours Truly, Angry Mob - Kaiser Chiefs

Again, overplayed, but I can't just not like this band.

Little Amber Bottles - Blanche

I absolutely love this band and I'm still kicking myself about missing them live last year. It's very dark, very hopeless country with stinging lyrics and jolly tunes.

Our Earthly Pleasures - Maxïmo Park

Energetic, fun, well-made rock. They're brilliant fun when you see them live.

I'm probably missing a few, might add them as I remember them.

The list of 2007's best heavier offerings for the more discerning listener:

Behemoth - The Apostasy
Nile's buddies return at the same time as Nile with an obviously related musical offering, and a rather peculiar lyrical theme of killing christians in the crusades. Still, pretty awesome offering all around, nothing I can particularly point at being wrong with it except it's not as sinister as some of their previous works. I like the further shift towards solid, tight rhythms, though I think the guitars could be a bit nastier and louder in the mix.

Track to Listen to - Arcana Heriticae, Inner Sanctum

Dethklok - The Dethalbum
The full length full album from the cartoon death metallers on Metalocalypse. Metal as fook, it sounds like one of the best mixtures of full on 80s squealy, octave-rich harmonised cheese and decent middle of the road death metal. Very talented musicians, these guys.

Track to listen to - Go into the water

Devildriver - The Last Kind Words
Better melodic stuff than ever before as well as more trickyl uncoal-chamberesque parts that further distance them from their past. Much, much better to listen to than Trivium, does all their good parts better, and all their worst parts aren't there. I still like Dez's vocals, I don't care what the anti-coal chamber crowd say, better than a million 'core bands.

Track to listen to - These Fighting Words

Dimmu Borgir - In Sorte Diaboli
I'm sure everyone who would care about a review of Dimmu would be familiar enough with the band already, so I'll just say it: good album, the orchestral stuff is probably better than ever before (except potentially the Stormblast re-recording that had the prague philharmonic), as is the guitar riffage. My only complaint is that despite the guitar riffage being awesome, the songs aren't quite as memorable as their previous bests. Maybe that'll change with time.

Track to listen to - The Sinister Awakening

Entombed - Serpent Saints
After the dirge that was Unreal Estate, I wasn't expecting this to be good at all. As it is, it's old-school thrash in death metal tunings, complete with bits where several people join in and sing the line and drumming that doesn't revolve around blasts. It's a worthy addition to their catalogue and just downright fun to listen to. I'm glad someone's still making music like this.

Track to listen to - Ministry

Machine Head - The Blackening
Modern thrash awesomeness that is better than every single Metallica album. I've loved these guys for ages, and while it's obviously more edging towards Iron Maiden style stuff than the ball-breaking Burn My Eyes album, it retains enough heaviness and aggression to be credible enough to buy.

Track to listen to - Halo.

Jesu - Pale sketches
My perfect type of chillout music; really fucking bassy, a cover of a RHPS classic, thick, full new-style doomy guitars and bass, and almost dreamlike rocky industrial dance setting the percussion and leads. I could imagine the ambient dance side of things being in the background of a happy ending on Salad Fingers, if such a thing were possible. Creepy but uplifting and melancholic, just tremendous.

Track to listen to - Don't Dream It

Nile - Ithyphallic
The new Nile, sounds like it continued straight from AotW, outstanding as always. Fast ones, slow ones, all sorts of egyptian sounding interludey bits and Egypt/Lovecraft themes expertly brought forth in the atmosphere and instrumentation.

Song to listen to - Even the Gods Must Die, What May Safely Be Written

Suicide Silence - The Cleansing
I'm generally averse to a lot of metalcore and hardcore punk, I'll say it now, it's not appealling to me for the "yell at parents" shrilly vocals and some of the time signature stuff grates on me, as well as a lot of the guitar tones. That's not to say the genres are devoid of really good bits here and there, but on the whole it's a bit of a turnoff.

This album is heavy as fuck, though. Grooves and aggression and well fucking low-tuned everything blasting out of the ass. This is probably the best deathcore band I've listened to, better than JFAC who are the best known band in the genre. Chuggy and malevolent throughout with cool little techy flutters here and there.

Song to listen to - The Price of Beauty


#1 Anaal Nathrakh - Hell is Empty and all the Devils are Here

I like this album so much I'm going to quote the review from here:

"It’s easy to become jaded as a metalhead. The focus on fastest-loudest-heaviest overstimulation and glut of similar-sounding bands can reduce even the most ardent fan to a sneering elitist (as anyone who’s frequented metal web forums can tell you), and frankly I’m no exception. That’s why I’m thankful as fuck for bands like Anaal Nathrakh. Where the vast majority of groups I come across writing for this site offer little more than temporary satisfaction, these British maniacs are amongst the hallowed few who can make me forget my desensitization to extreme music and compel me to bang my head like I’m fourteen and hearing Slayer for the first time all over again. With Hell Is Empty…And All The Devils Are Here, they’ve done just that for the fourth consecutive time, and are well on their way to cementing themselves as one of the greatest metal acts of our era.

Anaal Nathrakh are most often classified as a black metal band; they were never a particularly traditional example of the style and at this juncture become even less so (this means that you corpsepainted basement-dwelling Darkthrone fellators can get the fuck out now before your delicate sensibilities are offended). Like Eschaton before it, Hell Is Empty… is an even blend of mechanized death metal, bleakly epic melody, and the preposterously violent BM of The Codex Necro. Once again the band benefits immensely from a clear, loud, modern production—no muffled drums or buried ‘grym’ vox here, thankfully. Multi-instrumentalist virtuoso Mick Kenney (Mistress, Frost, Exploder…or should I call him ‘Irrumator?’) has stepped it up again with an even more diverse and surprisingly infectious exhibition of hyper-intense riffing, from the precision grooves of “The Final Absolution” to the grave blastbeaten trem melodies of “Lama Sabachthani,” as well as absolutely nailing some tastefully brief solos on tracks like “Screaming Of the Unborn.”

Talented as Kenney is, though, even he is a little upstaged by the absolutely jaw-dropping performance of Dave Hunt/V.I.T.R.I.O.L.. There is no doubt in my mind that this man is one of the best metal vocalists of all time. In a genre where every singer is trying to sound possessed, Hunt actually does it, and it sounds like all of Hell is erupting out of his lungs every time he opens his mouth here. Hunt’s performance too has grown more diverse, and it seems that he’s learned to generate just about every vocal tone imaginable with his barbed-wire lump of a larynx. From his trademark head-exploding scream to br00tal inward gutturals to a whole arsenal of bellows, growls, grunts, yelps and screeches, the guy can do it all. To top it off, the fucker can still do spot-on Ihsahn (Emperor) cleans, and the four tracks on Hell Is Empty… featuring his epic singing (“Der Hölle Rache Kocht In Meinem Herzen,” “Virus Bomb,” “The Final Absolution,” “Shatter the Empyrean”) are amongst the most fiendishly catchy on the album. Don’t think for a moment that Anaal Nathrakh has abandoned their famed causticity, though. One listen to the impossibly intense blast of hate that is pure-BM closer “Castigation and Betrayal” will bring you right back to the Codex Necro days, and’ll probably leave you wondering whether this band is even human (signs point to ‘shit no,’ says my heavy metal magic 8-ball).

I really can’t say enough good things about this band, and the only real criticism I can think of is that this isn’t quite as much of an evolution past Eschaton as I would’ve liked. Where most black metal bands simply settle for a goofily cliché ‘evil’ persona, Anaal Nathrakh have actually achieved an aesthetic of utter misanthropic hatred. More importantly, they’ve made hatred fucking rock. Remember the first time you heard a blastbeat? This’ll give you that grand old feeling again. When people use the term ‘extreme metal,’ this is what they should be talking about. So I guess what I’m trying to say is, fucking buy this."

Songs to listen to - Virus Bomb, The Final Absolution, Until the World Stops Turning, Sanction Extremis (Kill Them All), Der Holler Rache Kocht In Meinem Herzen

This year, as in many past years was spent filling out the back catalogs of the musicians I like. I only got a handful of 2007 albums.

Feist - The Reminder
You probably know her from the song used on the iPod nano ads, which I think is a fun catchy song, but the rest of the albums is just as good or better. "Sealion" is a real treat, and the way the album flows from one song to the next is real cool.

Cowboy Junkies - At the End of Paths Taken
Continues on from One Soul Now, but more epic with longer songs and more complex arrangements. Margo's vocals are as haunting & expressive as ever and the slower songs are downright chilling.

Cowboy Junkies - Trinity Session Revisited
A revisit of the classic Trinity Session album, recorded in the same church but with guest musicians and a few new tweaks to the songs. Natalie Merchant & Margo's amazing vocals on "Working on a Building" is worth the price of the album. The music has really stood the test of time, and I think it's truly timeless.

havokeff wrote:Mother Ship Led Zeppelin

I'm as big a Zeppelin fan as exists, but I wouldn't count this. It's not really an album, it's a greatest hits compilation. We'll need to wait until next year for the album.

Reunion Tour by The Weakerthans

Although perhaps not quite as consistently good an album as Reconstruction Site, it still had plenty of good tracks. Elegy for Gump Worsely was a miss I thought, but it was still different.

Singularity by Mae

Their major label debut, and although you can tell that there was some toning down for it, it's also had gigantic shoes to fill in The Everglow. On its own, it was pretty darn good.

Alright, Still by Lily Allen
Nice, catchy, and fun in the sun-type stuff. You can't really go wrong with this one.

I pretty much got only older stuff this year, but those few were the standouts of the new stuff I got. You'll notice the glaring lack of boring scream music.

Only things that came out this year worth a damn to me were the BSG season 3 soundtrack, NIN Year Zero, and The Shins Wincing the Night Away.

My votes


Lilly Allen - Alright, Still

Feist - The Reminder

Amy Winehouse - Back to Black

Sara Bareilles - Little Voice

White Stripes - Icky Thump

Static-X - Cannibal

This is easily the second best Static-X album out there, and a very strong case could be made that it's even better than Wisconsin Death Trip. Every song is a beautiful study in "evil disco," and the entire album is thoroughly enjoyable.