Acclaimed Music Top 30 Albums from 2007 poll

i think this was my first full year on ILX, memories.

poor lj

In Rainbows.

Animal Collective can fuck off, as usual.

this list is pretty dire

between kanye, spoon and jens for me

So many good records here:

Radiohead - In Rainbows
LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
Burial - Untrue
M.I.A. - Kala
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
Panda Bear - Person Pitch
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?
Battles - Mirrored
Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
The Field - From Here We Go Sublime

Voted Person Pitch, because the production on Strawberry Jam still bothers me. So, so dry. Like a radio session. Same problem with In Rainbows. Both have wonderful songs, but the production is just dead. Hissing Fauna is easily the best of Montreal record, ditto Battles with Atlas and The Field with Here We Go Sublime. Impossible for me to listen to For Emma, Forever Ago for a while because of how overexposed it/he became, and the whole aesthetic that record spawned. Still, great songs. Neon Bible is just as good as Funeral. Great year.

oh yeah burial, i liked that when it came out but i haven't heard it in at least 5 years

Gonna have to go with Sound of Silver here. Not only my favorite on the list but also a really important album to me - I remember getting to "Someone Great" and messaging a bunch of my friends saying "you have to hear this now". Drove to Chicago with several of those guys a few months later to catch 'em live and it was one of the best days of my life. On my 21st birthday, no less! (I got to see Cornelius the day after, which was almost even better)

That said I haven't heard it in a while so who knows how it holds up. I'll tell you one great 07 record that's held up amazingly - Oblivion With Bells by Underworld

Kala

Kala

Again, my thoughts on the stuff that was on my radar. . .

1 89 Radiohead - In Rainbows
Very underwhelmed with this initially, but it has become probably my most listened to Radiohead album. The years have revealed it to be probably the band's best synthesis of their art rock streak with their stunning sense of melody. The layers in these songs are just so well thought out and executed. On some days, I'd argue it's their best work.

3 146 Burial - Untrue
Comparing with his first album, Untrue feels like the transition from black and white to color in the Wizard of Oz. It's like, hey that was totally new and groundbreaking, now we're taking it to a whole new level right before your ears. Just completely and totally an improvement and unification of his sounds and influences, making something wholly unique. Wonderful.

5 284 Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
So fucking amateur-sounding. Totally stock music without anything even remotely resembling an ambition to do something original. Abysmal.

14 777 Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Really strong album, even if it was basically just Spoon-by-numbers. The consistency continued with this one.

15 875 Kanye West - Graduation
More aural manure from one of the most offensive human beings in existence.

16 976 Feist - The Reminder
Good! But not great. Was nice to hear a more guitar-based sound from her. It became to be overplayed as hell, but that's no fault of its own. Had some very resonating songs.

18 1132 Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worst Nightmare
I actually liked this album for a bit, as it had more of a classic rock vibe. I heard 'Fluorescent Adolescent' the other day for the first time years and really enjoyed it. Certainly nothing to get excited about, but a few quirky melodies for sure.

20 1230 PJ Harvey - White Chalk
I loved it, even though "girl at piano" stuff is not my thing. Leave it to PJ to take that setting and do something really dramatic and resonating with it. Didn't have much staying power, as I haven't played it in years. But it was definitely a good album and unexpected turn for PJ.

21 1355 Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
Hated it with a passion. Thought it was a cynical attempt by the band to abandon all the new fans gained by Yankee Hotel Foxtrot/A Ghost is Born by going soft rock. I was put off by what I perceived as a bland and "safe" sounding album. It would not have been a very uncommon thing for me to say that Wilco was my favorite band in the expectations leading up this album. When it was finally released, it just sounded so anti-climactic and faceless. It was one of the most disappointing things I remember feeling as a music fan. Over the years, though, I did give it another chance and now I find it to be melodically fantastic, sublimely moody and probably the band's most personal work. It now stands as a personal classic and my favorite Wilco album.

Albums from 2007 that I loved, but which are not on this list:
Andrew Bird — Armchair Apocrypha
Crowded House — Time on Earth
The Durutti Column — Idiot Savants
Stephen Fretwell — Man on the Roof
Future Conditional — We Don't Just Disappear
Kristin Hersh — Learn to Sing Like A Star
Midsummer — Inside the Trees
Thurston Moore — Trees Outside the Academy
The Sea and Cake — Everybody
The Sea and Cake — Anybody EP
Sigur Rós — Hvarf/Heim
Tracey Thorn — Out of the Woods
Travis — The Boy With No Name
Trembling Blue Stars — The Last Holy Writer

Tough choice between In Rainbows and Sky Blue Sky.

Went with Burial. This record and the previous gave me hope for electronic listening music breaking new ground and led me to getting into a ton of new artists

Also holy shit it's almost ten years since that's been released?! Oh my

http://pixel.nymag.com/imgs/daily/vulture/2016/08/03/03-home-loans-bojack.nocrop.w529.h373.jpg

Kala

Such awful, awful, awful music

Of Montreal by a zillion miles, need to hear the Wyatt again too before voting, iirc it's lovely

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaZzAGR0VNk

nearly saw this live in portland at the doug fir, but I made the mistake of showing up the day of, of course it was sold out.

if you've never been to the doug fir in portland, it is an intimate, beautiful live music venue with a killer sound system and people running it that know what they're doing

one of the bigger regrets in my life missing out on that show

ergo, vis a vis, concordantly, gotta vote battles

Yeah I agree that this is basically the worst music year, or possibly tied with 2008.

It's hard to tell from that list from 2007 was great

Voted Spoon. I like this list much better than the 2006 list.

some great stuff on here, but it was 'Hissing Fauna' that impressed me the most at the time. It's the pinnacle of Of Montreal's career by far.

Maybe Of Montreal. But I've only heard like 2 or 3 of these because I am an old who is also an out of touch.

Something about the music of this decade needing to be reassessed yaddayadda etc.

I mean, there was some good music released in 2007, but this list (as are most of the '00s lists) is terrible.

Voting for Person Pitch, contender for my favourite album of the whole decade. I also really love these:

Radiohead - In Rainbows
Burial - Untrue
Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Kanye West - Graduation
PJ Harvey - White Chalk

Biggest disappointment: Hissing Fauna

Should be on the list instead of Bon Iver or whatever:
Baroness - Red Album
The-Dream - Love/Hate
Studio - West Coast
The Shins - Wincing the Night Away
Jesu - Conqueror

Where the fuck is Da Drought 3

Mirrored is still brilliant. Can't believe I've been listening to it for almost a decade :(((

Mirrored is still brilliant. Can't believe I've been listening to it for almost a decade

Preferred that comment with with the sad smiley tbh

Jens Lekman by an absolute mile. One of my favourite albums of all time. Love that guy so much we named our cat after him.

Plenty of other good albums on the list (Kala, In Rainbows, Sound of Silver, Ga Ga Ga Ga, Graduation, White Chalk, From Here We Go Sublime) but loads of omissions as usual. Britney, Electrelane, Roisin Murphy, Amerie, Glass Candy, Sally Shapiro, Tracey Thorn, Pantha Du Prince, Charlotte Hatherley and The-Dream should all be on there.

Kala without question, but I like these as well:

2 120 LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
5 284 Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
11 633 Battles - Mirrored
15 875 Kanye West - Graduation

The first half of that MGMT album was good. Really good. They were going to be massive!

I often make weird mistakes like that when I'm trying to surreptitiously post things at work xxxp

The first half of that MGMT album was good. Really good. They were going to be massive!

― TARANTINO! (dog latin)

The second album is so much better.

I voted for Graduation because Austin called it "manure." Also, it's probably the Kanye record I have the most emotional attachment to, and the last one before he became the fame monster he is today.

C R A Z Y

E X

G I R L F R I E N D

^^^

This stuff seems better than 05 and 06.

The Field for me, though at the time I would have chosen Of Montreal.

1 89 Radiohead - In Rainbows
2 120 LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
3 146 Burial - Untrue
5 284 Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
6 310 The National - Boxer
28 1718 Okkervil River - The Stage Names
^^all classics

voting Okkervil

also cld we maybe somehow enough w the "waaaw these records peopel love are so shite"

but those records you love

those records

they do not please me

would've voted for mirrored but prefer the earlier stuff on the eps (lol)

voted person pitch, although it's pretty (actually very )frontloaded.

I have listened to in rainbows multiple times and can't remember anything about it.

strawberry jam is a very bad ac record

xp I'm cool w you not liking those records and I know that "oh those records are so shite" means "I don't like them" just feel like perhaps it's not the best way of discussing

ya i was really into battles at the time of its release but their eps were just way better -- tonto!

person pitch is another decent one

there's actually quite a few decent releases here

voted radiohead tho

voted the field over miranda

i like kanye i was just singling that quote out for its awfulness

I see.

brimstead, you're a smart guy, what the hell are you doing defending Kanye?

i like his music? what a strange question!

you like his music? well, it seems austin was mistaken, he thought you were a smart guy! you see, only stupid people like the music of kanye west.

sorry brimstead, don't kill the messenger, but you must be some kind of stupid guy.

if you'd like to try to be a smart guy, please try to wrap your mind around the sea and cake. it will be hard at first, but you may get there eventually, I'll be pulling for you

the funny thing is aural manure is actually a real good thing, so is being offensive. so considering that kaney is deservedly Acclaimed

hating kanye is such a challenging and idiosyncratic position

ga ga ga ga ga

here my garbage dump of riveting opinions

1 89 Radiohead - In Rainbows - good album, last few songs are the best iirc
2 120 LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver - i can get down with this, a couple songs excepted. much prefer 45:33.
3 146 Burial - Untrue - i can get down with this too! better than the first one
4 223 M.I.A. - Kala - never heard this album which is absurd because i <3 paper planes very much
7 349 Panda Bear - Person Pitch - i like this a lot
8 414 Arcade Fire - Neon Bible - the singing is really really bad. but these guys were rad on SNL at the time, iirc, it was like dexys or something
9 503 MGMT - Oracular Spectacular - "electric feel" is p dope
10 597 Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? - this is pretty epic, iirc. respect.
11 633 Battles - Mirrored - great chops, bad vocals iirc (or maybe they're instrumental? idk something just didn't sit right)
12 670 Justice - † - "waters of nazareth" is dope, not feeling the rest of this. ed banger sucks, mostly.
15 875 Kanye West - Graduation - it pleases meh
16 976 Feist - The Reminder - the bee gees cover owns
19 1170 The Field - From Here We Go Sublime - prefer the earlier eps (yeah yeah).. too much filler here. love track three and the one that samples fleetwood mac.
21 1355 Wilco - Sky Blue Sky - nels kline is a boss! he sounds like john cipolina on this album! it's kinda boring but does have some fun guitar stuff.

16 976 Feist - The Reminder - the bee gees cover owns

Isn't that on her previous album?

re: feist, i've had the privilege of watching a shit-ton of sesame street the last couple years, if you haven't tuned in lately or at all, popular musicians will often come round to cover their own songs, twisting the lyrics 'round for the toddler set (goo goo doll's "slide" becomes "pride", it's about elmo feeling good about himself for tying his shoes, among other things) anyway feist's re-imagining of "1 2 3 4" is the only instance I can think of where the artist actually managed to improve their own song, for the children

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ9WiuJPnNA

probably should have voted feist over battles, ah well

I won't clutter this thread further with a youtube embed of the goo goo dolls but "pride" is fantastic, well worth seeking out, it starts out:

elmo whisper in my ear
I really want to hear
the things you did today
that satisfied you

and then elmo takes over! it's a duet.

just occurred to me that elmo does not whisper the next, or any verse, wasted opportunity

voted the field

Just got off the toilet, yet another lyst that gave me dysentery. Maybe a mild case of Beri Beri too.

Hissing Fauna.

Ha, yeah go ahead and make fun of my picks. I've just always figured Kanye was music for thirteen year olds and his longevity has always confounded me. So, yes, you could say I'm a bit upset about the whole thing.

Voted In Rainbows.

Kala. Other good stuff not on this list: Ulver "Shadows of the Sun", Nellie McKay "Obligatory Villagers", Mihaly Dresch Quartet "Argyelus" (just listened to it yesterday), Fiery Furnaces "Widow City", and Kevin Ayers "The Unfairground".

Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga is going to get my vote in this one. Good list, much better than the last few.

also agree with all the Sky Blue Sky love, it happens to be my favorite by them. defended that album a lot on this board.

To be fair, I've yet to hear anything by Wilco that's made me sit up and go "ah, so this is what the fuss is about!"

I've never heard of any of these bands. Are they good?

Person Pitch, or Untrue. Probably the latter for the impact it had on me at the time, even though far more likely to listen to Person Pitch.

Is there going to be a 'quite National' vote? I loved Boxer at the time, but it seems the 'oldest' on that list, somehow.

had to give it to jens

xp - I meant 'quiet National' vote, as in like 'quiet Tories' or whatever the appellation was at the last election in the UK. Yes, I am comparing the National to the Tory party.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Almost forgot to vote. Of Montreal of course.

glad I read all the choices, was poised to vote In Rainbows til I saw Miranda.

Went with MGMT cause that's the only one I remember listening to more than once. Totally missed that Of Montreal album, I assume it's good but not one of their best.

it actually is the best, by a long shot

The Mary Onettes

between kanye, spoon and jens for me

― you think Lou Bega gave up after Mambo Number One??? (voodoo chili), Wednesday, August 10, 2016 8:47 PM (5 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ok, there are a few more albums that are pretty great on the list that don't quite reach the heights of those three:

In Rainbows
Kala
Feist
Okkervil
Of Montreal

I even like that Beirut album--Nantes holds up

Frobisher, that one is, by far, their best.

you'd think Strawberry Jam and Person Pitch would split the AC vote, but i'll bet Person Pitch is in the top three. I can't wait for the biography/oral history of AC to be written so I can know what it was like within the band when Person Pitch placed higher on every year end list in 2007.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

poor Arcade Fire

Neon Bible might be the most disliked album they made so no big surprises there?

really? i know people prefer funeral but neon bible is better than reflektor and the suburbs, yea?

I think they're all crud.

I think they got worse with each album. There's some good stuff on Neon Bible but it was a big step down from Funeral. The latest two albums were so dull I can barely remember anything about them.

High five to the other three Jens voters.

'No Cars Go' is probably the only Arcade Fire song I ever liked.

the title track is one of my favorites by them. i think it's a strong album, and it's more fun to go back to it now because Funeral has been overplayed and overexposed rotten.

High five to the zero Bon Iver voters, thank god.

poor Arcade Fire

Eh, it has their best song ("Antichrist Television Blues") but otherwise its pretty dull.

you'd think Strawberry Jam and Person Pitch would split the AC vote, but i'll bet Person Pitch is in the top three. I can't wait for the biography/oral history of AC to be written so I can know what it was like within the band when Person Pitch placed higher on every year end list in 2007.

― flappy bird, Monday, August 15, 2016 6:14 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I always wonder if bands care about year end list placings.

I'm sure there was a lot of tense noodling going on

Acclaimed Music Top 30 Albums from 2008 poll