Thursday, December 13, 2007

Albums not of the year

I spent Saturday compiling my albums of the year for 2007. Shelley has submitted some very thoughtful reviews this year - she's getting very good at this! Well, very good for someone whose thoughts aren't by any means well organised. Look out for them week of December 24.

But this year I heard a lot of records that I had missed on previous annual trawls. I've put an asterisk next to the ones you can get on emusic.com - take advantage of their 50 free tracks new subscriber deals, it's a very good site if you like music on indie labels.

TOP TEN ALBUMS NOT OF THE YEAR

1. THE GLOW PART 2 - The Microphones *
2. EVERCLEAR - American Music Club *
3. SECAUCUS - The Wrens
4. ADELIE LAND - Handsomeboy Technique *
5. 完全な昼間 - Kabbadi Kabbadi Kabbadi Kabbadi
6. DOG PROBLEMS - The Format *
7. SING THE GREYS - Frightened Rabbit *
8. COSMIC THING - The B-52s
9. MEL - East River Pipe *
10. WAITING FOR THE TIME TO BE RIGHT - The Brother Kite *

Now I realise that number 8 is a bit controversial - there was certainly a point in my life when I thought I'd be physically sick if I ever heard "Love Shack" again. It probably coincided with the period of my life where I had a series of "bad pints". But it's such a pretty, overlooked album and you can get it for a pound almost anywhere. LET'S RE-EVALUATE Y'ALL.

6 comments:

alison said...

"Topaz" is such a brilliant track. Me lovey.

Roman said...

emusic is indeed a valuable source for music. They don't have the selection of iTunes, but they also don't sell you songs that are DRMed into near-unusability either. The only drawback is the subscription model, which locks you in to buying the same number of songs each month. Still, I have so many records saved for later in emusic, I'll probably be a customer of theirs for the next few years at least.

guladana said...

hooray! I look forward to your charts every year and Shelly's commentary makes it even better. I'd safely say I buy or download whatever you've selected & i don't already have based solely on your recommendation. We are just that N'SYNC musically (sorry i couldn't resist).

Salva said...

I searched the Internet for the records in your list, and according to what I found, Like The Linen (Thao Nguyen) is from 2005 !

I feel cheated!! (Although the fact that I seem to like Thao eases the pain)

John A said...

You know, I think you might be right, I have a feeling maybe it was re-released and re-promoted following her signing to Kill Rock Stars in 2007. The 2005 version looks like a self-release. I think I can get away with it!

Steve said...

I would like you (and apparently everyone else) to know that I've purchased Cosmic Thing from a used record store based purely upon your recommendation and my affinity of "love shack". It turns out "roam" is also by the 52's and I was ultimately not disappointed. Thank you John A.