A Complete Explanation Of Everything

Guess I don't listen to enough music anymore in a traditional format to pick up on things at the right or appropriate time to provide any form of definitive listing. In fact, I was going to put in The Hold Steady - "Boys & Girls in America" in here but I've just realised that record is actually 2006.

So in order of enjoyment...

5 - Wilco - "Sky Blue Sky"

A good record in all respects, I'm not a fan of one or two tunes on it, I might not even be a fan of the return to some of the old directions and the guitar heaviness of this record. It's got a certain prog rock aspect lashed in with folkier sounds but all in all, I'll keep listening.

4 - Ryan Adams - "Easy Tiger"

John Allison (see scarygoround in the sidebar) put this in his top 20 of the year and he listens to alot more ubertrendy music than me so consider your nerdish goatee stroked, actually he put Wilco in there too. Anyhoo, what I take umbrage at was that he descibed the intervening records since Adam's solo debut as patchy or worse. I reckon some of the Cardinals stuff was his best ever, this has some nice tunes but it's a little flat in terms of the edge that has been writ large over those records.

3 - Paramore - "Riot"

Albums I enjoyed, remember. This is not going to come into anybody's top twenty over 25 and European most likely but hell, I gotta a real kick out of this record all year long. Perfect for in the car, it didn't leave it for a long time. Great production, catchy tunes, powerhouse drumming and the singer is cute as all hell too. It's lightweight, it's bubblegum but it has an enduring charm...

2 - Rilo Kiley - "Under the blacklight"

Time to step up and believe the hype. I had steered clear for quite some time, for much the same reasons I refused to entertain Death Cab for Cutie for so long. Pointless snobbery, in any case, if you're not involved in the world of Rilo Kiley yet this seems like a great record to do it. It's danceable even, which is tough when you have country overtones...

1 - Feist - "The Reminder"

Yep. This didn't make it into Allison's top 20 strangely but how and ever, if I'm to pick one record out I kept returning to during 2007, it's definitely this opus. It's got great variety, the lilting ballads, the dancier numbers and even the up tempo pop of the stand out track: "I feel it all"... Which about sums up this record, it feels it all...

Top gigs this year included a majestical Feist in Tripod and a pretty damn good rock show from Wilco in Vicar Street.

Not a vintage year for music was 2007, at least not for me.

We'll see what 2008 brings...