2007 in a nutshell

So I never made a top five, ten or whatever number list for 2006. I'll just sum it up by saying that I received "Begin To Hope" by Regina Spektor for my birthday last January, and I've listened to it consistently since then, with no sign of slowing down in the future. You can hear samples of her tunes at her website or her MySpace.

Okay, with that out of the way, let's dive into THIS year! Starting with my top songs, and if I'm able, a link to where you can hear them, be it YouTube, MySpace or whatever.

1) Feist - 1234 I'm sure most of you are pretty darn sick of this song already, and I pity the fool who works at Starbucks and gets no break of this, but being without much television access and not an employee at Starbucks, I LOVE this song. And the video. The beginning, WHERE DO ALL THOSE PEOPLE COME FROM? And at the end? WHERE'D THEY GO? And best of all, it's all ONE SINGLE CUT! No edits my friends.

2) M.I.A. - Paper Planes M.I.A. gets credit first for making it onto NPR's All Songs Considered just because I think it's funny to hear Bob Boilen play a song that samples gunshots. But it's a booty-shakin' track with a GREAT sample.

3) Lily Allen - Mr. Blue Sky See my full comments a few entries back, but this song is fabulous and the perfect song to pair with her own "LDN" as a sun-shiny song.

4) Blonde Redhead - Mr. Blue Sky Some songs you know you'll love before you hear them, and when our blogging friends in Germany compared this track to the theme from The Neverending Story, I knew all I needed.

5) Petra Haden - Don't Stop Believin' So to hear this track you'll actually have to click on the song title on her my space page linked above. But, from the "Guilt By Association" collection, a compilation that pairs respectable musicians with entirely disreputable songs. I prefer Pitchfork's argument that anymore one person's piece of crap is another person's masterpiece. I prefer the Petra Haden version.

6) Andrew Bird - Scythian Empire Again, requires a click once you open the page, and this track is technically the version from his live collection "Fingerlings 3" But it's still solid. I love the rhythm of this track, and the fact that it moves by quickly even though it's the same riff over and over again throughout the duration of the song.

7) Panda Bear - Comfy In Nautica So take equal parts Brian Wilson-style harmonies and rhythms, mix it with some looping of acoustic instrumentation and ancient-style rhythms, and you've got Panda Bear's newest album.

8) The Pipettes - Guess Who Ran Off With The Milkman I can't promote The Pipettes enough. They're too good for words, and this song is exactly why. Also the only song of theirs that technically came out this year. Yes, the new album came out in its U.S. form this year (the same album that came out in the U.K. the year prior), but this one is honest to goodness new!

9) Beirut - Nantes I'm a big fan of this blog and NPR-darling Beirut. Take your standard run-of-the-mill indie band, have it mate with the film Amelie, and you get Beirut, their forbidden lovechild. Great stuff.

10) Rosie Thomas - Friends of Mine I couldn't find the actual track online for your legal listening pleasure, but you can hear other music from her album on her MySpace page. This is far and away my favorite track on her last not-well-reviewed album. I'm not sure why exactly it wasn't well reviewed, but I really liked it. Thomas' fairly straight forward, albeit somewhat maudlin, songwriting paired with Sufjan Stevens' backup harmonies made it all for me. This song wrapped everything up nicely, with some nice distorted back-up vocals and Rosie's gorgeous voice.

Okay, that under my belt, time for the FIVE BEST ALBUMS OF THE YEAR as determined by ME, Unauthorized and Uncredible Music Blogger EXTRAORDINAIRE!

5) Beirut - Flying Club Cup I think I said it all up there in that track review. Beautiful stuff. We haven't heard uke playing like this since the Magnetic Fields.




4) Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha So, um, I like Andrew Bird. I don't know if I ever shared that before. It feels good to get it off my chest.




3) Blonde Redhead - 23 The worlds greatest band made up of twins and one of the twin’s wife... or the ONLY band... anyway, I've always had a love-hate relationship with Blonde Redhead. We've gone back and forth, very make-up-break-up, mainly because on the Sonic Youth spectrum of music, I fall more on the Yo La Tengo side, and less on the other side, which is where I previously placed Blonde Redhead, albeit unfairly. This album rules, and changes my entire perspective on the crew.

2) Panda Bear - Person Pitch I was a HUGE fan of his first album "Young Prayer," a stark wordless commemoration to Panda Bear's deceased father. This one goes in a completely different direction, and I have to confess it took me a while to really get into it. What I realized is that the Beach Boys (circa 1966 - 1974) are really an autumn affair for me. No really. Look at the cover of "Pet Sounds." Those are jackets, not swimsuits. Well, for me, I couldn't really appreciate this one until the weather got a little cooler and I started busting out the sweaters. These are the breaks.

1) Feist - The Reminder So we'll add this to the list of evidence proving that I'm Starbucks' target demographic, because despite the unfortunate albums from Paul McCartney and Joni Mitchel via your favorite coffee provider, they still push music on me that I like. Feist is no exception, in fact, she might be prime example number one. The whole album is great.