Well, it's that time of year again. Time for the list of the best albums of 2007. I have never done any such list. Not for music, nor anything else. So be gentle.
As far as music was concerned, 2007 did not impress me much. I discovered a lot of great music in 2007, but most of it was not made in 2007. So I will exclude those albums for this list. Most of the music released in 2007 that I was looking forward to was really pretty medicore in the grand scheme of things. The things that I did like, were not anything really note-worthy. So this was a tough list to compile. But I digress. Let's just get on to the albums.
Best newly-discovered music:
Wir sind Helden - Soundso
favorite tracks:
Stiller, The Geek (Shall Inherit), Kaputt, Labyrinth
An old high school friend had moved to Germany a few years ago and he was about to come visit Florida for a bit, so we decided to meet up. He told me about Wir sind Helden, and I decided to check them out. They had just released a new album in 2007, so I gave it a listen. And wow. It was pretty damn good. There were a couple songs that I couldn't really get into, but most of the album was very nice and interesing. It was a real mixed bag of different styles, but it did well in each area. They turned out to be a really great band, and Soundso came out of nowhere to become a favorite of last year.
Best unexpected hit:
東京事変 - 娯楽
favorite tracks: OSCA, 黒猫道, 私生活, 復讐, 月極姫
I was actually very surprised at how much I liked this album. I have not really liked Tokyo Jihen that much since they first debuted. Their first two singles were pretty good, but then I kind of lost interest after their first album. That interest came back full force with OSCA, though. That song rocked, and the video rocked even harder. Killer Tune was rather good, but I was worried the album would be more in that big-band, old-sounding vein. Thankfully, the album rocked pretty hard anyway. I did not think I would ever like a Tokyo Jihen album. I was proven wrong with this release. There were still a few songs that I didn't suit my fancy, but the album as a whole was very enjoyable.
And I guess that's about all for last year. Seriously. In my opinion, there was just nothing to get that excited about. But I'll talk a little bit more about a couple of other albums, just for the sake of argument.
Chara - Union
favorite tracks: This is my car, Amai amai
I really liked a few songs of this release. "Amai Amai" and "This is my car" are really great, heart-felt songs. "UNION" and "watashi o mitsumete" were also pretty good overall, but lacked that special something that makes a Chara song a timeless classic. "Crazy for you" and "Sekai" were very fun and nice songs too, but those actually came out in 2006, so they don't really count. So while this album is nice, and is a solid release, it just wasn't anything note-worthy, exciting, ground-breaking, or the like. Whereas, her last two albums, A Scenery Like Me and Something Blue, were just that. And much more. So as a follow up to those two albums, this release just seemed to be a step backwards maybe. Her moving to Universal Music probably had a lot to do with it. Oh, well. Here's hoping her next album is a bit better.
ART-SCHOOL - Flora
favorite tracks: SWAN DIVE, hikari to shintai
This was a really disappointing album. The lead-up released were so good! And there was so much new material! But it didn't really live up to my expectations. There were a couple of good songs, a couple of okay/catchy songs, and a whole lot of "meh" songs.
Sigur Rós - Hvarf
favorite tracks: Salka, Hljómalind
Well, this is the only Sigur Rós music released this year. (Excluding the song "Heima" which was featured in the DVD release of the same name.) It came with another disc titled "Heim" which only had live versions of already released material. So this was esentially a three track single (or four if you count the new version of Von). And the new songs weren't anything spectacular. "Takk..." is one of my most favorite albums ever, so I was really looking forward to a new release from them. While the three "new" songs were actually written years ago (just not recorded or released), I was still expecting a lot from this release. While I really like all three songs, they just aren't all that great. And there's only three of them. It was still a nice release, and I whole-heartedly enjoyed it, but it wasn't anything note-worthy in my opinion.
鬼束ちひろ - LAS VEGAS
favorite tracks: everyhome, Bokura Bara-iro no Hibi, Sweet Rosemary, Angelina
This album is kind of like Chara's UNION. It's pretty good, but it's not that good. Not as good as her other works, and not as good as expected. But "everyhome" is a real classic. It's just an amazing song. "Bokura bara-iro no hibi" was fantastic as well, so that just made the anticipation for this all the higher. But it ended up being kind of folksy and weird in places, and it's just a little awkward all around. It's a mixed bag, but not in a good way. It has some great songs, but also some songs that just feel out of place. None of the songs are that bad really, they're all pretty good, they just don't seem to sound well together.
椎名林檎 - 平成風俗
favorite tracks: ギャンブル
This was an okay album, but there was a lot of old material on it, and a lot of covers, so it just felt like a hodge podge of odds and ends rather than a true album. And I did not really enjoy it that much, but I must say GAMBLE is a truly awesome song. PAPAYA MANGO is pretty good too. But overall, this one was pretty "meh." Suprisingly the Tokyo Jihen album was a lot better than this. Something I could not have foreseen.
And I liked Björk's song Earth Intruders. And that was about it.
So that's my take on 2007. I will end with my last.fm statistics for last year's most played artists, albums, and songs, although the majority of those albums and songs were released long before 2007.
The number at the end represents the number of times I have played songs by the artist, within the album, or the song itself.
* indicates that I first heard of this music in 2007.
+ indicates that the music was released in 2007.
Top 12 listened artists of 2007:
01 Chara 1,529
02 Cocco 1,425
03 Spangle call Lilli line 778
04 Sigur Rós 617
05 Triakel* 592
06 Andrew Summers 479
07 ACO 461
08 The Channels* 430
09 Wir sind Helden*+ 427
10 椎名林檎 424
11 Garmarna* 408
12 Windy Hill* 404
Top 10 listened albums of 2007:
01 Cocco – サングローズ 492
02 The Channels – The Channels* 352
03 Spangle call Lilli line – 68 SCLL 335
04 Radiohead – The Bends 280
05 Triakel – Triakel* 256
06 Windy Hill – 無風* 222
07 少年ナイフ – Let's Knife 205
08 Cocco – ブーゲンビリア 175
09 Harry Belafonte – The Essential Harry Belafonte* 169
10 Sigur Rós – Takk... 159
Top 10 listened songs of 2007:
01 Chara – いっしょに暮らそう 361
02 Windy Hill – Windy Hills* 276
03 Sigur Rós – Olsen Olsen* 190
04 Cocco – 卯月の頃 180
05 The Most Serene Republic –Stay Ups* 157
06 Garmarna – En Gång Ska Han Gråta* 151
07 Feist – 1234+ 148
08 Chara – 甘い甘い+ 139
09 The Channels – couldn't be worse* 127
10 Cocco – アネモネ 115
As far as music was concerned, 2007 did not impress me much. I discovered a lot of great music in 2007, but most of it was not made in 2007. So I will exclude those albums for this list. Most of the music released in 2007 that I was looking forward to was really pretty medicore in the grand scheme of things. The things that I did like, were not anything really note-worthy. So this was a tough list to compile. But I digress. Let's just get on to the albums.
Best newly-discovered music:
Wir sind Helden - Soundso
favorite tracks:
Stiller, The Geek (Shall Inherit), Kaputt, LabyrinthAn old high school friend had moved to Germany a few years ago and he was about to come visit Florida for a bit, so we decided to meet up. He told me about Wir sind Helden, and I decided to check them out. They had just released a new album in 2007, so I gave it a listen. And wow. It was pretty damn good. There were a couple songs that I couldn't really get into, but most of the album was very nice and interesing. It was a real mixed bag of different styles, but it did well in each area. They turned out to be a really great band, and Soundso came out of nowhere to become a favorite of last year.
Best unexpected hit:
東京事変 - 娯楽
favorite tracks: OSCA, 黒猫道, 私生活, 復讐, 月極姫
I was actually very surprised at how much I liked this album. I have not really liked Tokyo Jihen that much since they first debuted. Their first two singles were pretty good, but then I kind of lost interest after their first album. That interest came back full force with OSCA, though. That song rocked, and the video rocked even harder. Killer Tune was rather good, but I was worried the album would be more in that big-band, old-sounding vein. Thankfully, the album rocked pretty hard anyway. I did not think I would ever like a Tokyo Jihen album. I was proven wrong with this release. There were still a few songs that I didn't suit my fancy, but the album as a whole was very enjoyable.
And I guess that's about all for last year. Seriously. In my opinion, there was just nothing to get that excited about. But I'll talk a little bit more about a couple of other albums, just for the sake of argument.
Chara - Union
favorite tracks: This is my car, Amai amai
I really liked a few songs of this release. "Amai Amai" and "This is my car" are really great, heart-felt songs. "UNION" and "watashi o mitsumete" were also pretty good overall, but lacked that special something that makes a Chara song a timeless classic. "Crazy for you" and "Sekai" were very fun and nice songs too, but those actually came out in 2006, so they don't really count. So while this album is nice, and is a solid release, it just wasn't anything note-worthy, exciting, ground-breaking, or the like. Whereas, her last two albums, A Scenery Like Me and Something Blue, were just that. And much more. So as a follow up to those two albums, this release just seemed to be a step backwards maybe. Her moving to Universal Music probably had a lot to do with it. Oh, well. Here's hoping her next album is a bit better.
ART-SCHOOL - Flora
favorite tracks: SWAN DIVE, hikari to shintai
This was a really disappointing album. The lead-up released were so good! And there was so much new material! But it didn't really live up to my expectations. There were a couple of good songs, a couple of okay/catchy songs, and a whole lot of "meh" songs.
Sigur Rós - Hvarf
favorite tracks: Salka, Hljómalind
Well, this is the only Sigur Rós music released this year. (Excluding the song "Heima" which was featured in the DVD release of the same name.) It came with another disc titled "Heim" which only had live versions of already released material. So this was esentially a three track single (or four if you count the new version of Von). And the new songs weren't anything spectacular. "Takk..." is one of my most favorite albums ever, so I was really looking forward to a new release from them. While the three "new" songs were actually written years ago (just not recorded or released), I was still expecting a lot from this release. While I really like all three songs, they just aren't all that great. And there's only three of them. It was still a nice release, and I whole-heartedly enjoyed it, but it wasn't anything note-worthy in my opinion.
鬼束ちひろ - LAS VEGAS
favorite tracks: everyhome, Bokura Bara-iro no Hibi, Sweet Rosemary, Angelina
This album is kind of like Chara's UNION. It's pretty good, but it's not that good. Not as good as her other works, and not as good as expected. But "everyhome" is a real classic. It's just an amazing song. "Bokura bara-iro no hibi" was fantastic as well, so that just made the anticipation for this all the higher. But it ended up being kind of folksy and weird in places, and it's just a little awkward all around. It's a mixed bag, but not in a good way. It has some great songs, but also some songs that just feel out of place. None of the songs are that bad really, they're all pretty good, they just don't seem to sound well together.
椎名林檎 - 平成風俗
favorite tracks: ギャンブル
This was an okay album, but there was a lot of old material on it, and a lot of covers, so it just felt like a hodge podge of odds and ends rather than a true album. And I did not really enjoy it that much, but I must say GAMBLE is a truly awesome song. PAPAYA MANGO is pretty good too. But overall, this one was pretty "meh." Suprisingly the Tokyo Jihen album was a lot better than this. Something I could not have foreseen.
And I liked Björk's song Earth Intruders. And that was about it.
So that's my take on 2007. I will end with my last.fm statistics for last year's most played artists, albums, and songs, although the majority of those albums and songs were released long before 2007.
The number at the end represents the number of times I have played songs by the artist, within the album, or the song itself.
* indicates that I first heard of this music in 2007.
+ indicates that the music was released in 2007.
Top 12 listened artists of 2007:
01 Chara 1,529
02 Cocco 1,425
03 Spangle call Lilli line 778
04 Sigur Rós 617
05 Triakel* 592
06 Andrew Summers 479
07 ACO 461
08 The Channels* 430
09 Wir sind Helden*+ 427
10 椎名林檎 424
11 Garmarna* 408
12 Windy Hill* 404
Top 10 listened albums of 2007:
01 Cocco – サングローズ 492
02 The Channels – The Channels* 352
03 Spangle call Lilli line – 68 SCLL 335
04 Radiohead – The Bends 280
05 Triakel – Triakel* 256
06 Windy Hill – 無風* 222
07 少年ナイフ – Let's Knife 205
08 Cocco – ブーゲンビリア 175
09 Harry Belafonte – The Essential Harry Belafonte* 169
10 Sigur Rós – Takk... 159
Top 10 listened songs of 2007:
01 Chara – いっしょに暮らそう 361
02 Windy Hill – Windy Hills* 276
03 Sigur Rós – Olsen Olsen* 190
04 Cocco – 卯月の頃 180
05 The Most Serene Republic –
Stay Ups* 15706 Garmarna – En Gång Ska Han Gråta* 151
07 Feist – 1234+ 148
08 Chara – 甘い甘い+ 139
09 The Channels – couldn't be worse* 127
10 Cocco – アネモネ 115
