A Closer Look at the Top 10

Another year over.

Due to overwhelming demand, I'm posting a few of the top tracks from 2007's top 100 songs. The plan is to resume regularly scheduled programming next week.

No. 10
LCD Soundsystem, "All My Friends"

Many folks had this as their number 1 or 2 song of the year, and it's hard to disagree with the sheer awesomeness of the song. Still, if you know me, you know that any song longer than 4:30 starts to make me twitch. This is one of the rare exceptions where I can actually handle the length (not to mention the repetition) and still come out loving the song. A top 10 placement for a song this long is like my voting for a Republican. Sure, I knew it'd happen someday, but it would have to take something out of this world to get me to do it. "All My Friends" qualifies, with its incredible lyrics that hits everyone going through the quarter-life crisis as hard as a best friend's wedding (the wedding, not the movie).


No. 7
Iron & Wine, "Flightless Bird, American Mouth"

It's not a surprise that Sam Beam put out another great album. This track is one of the prettiest songs he's ever written, and it puts a beautiful cap on what came to be one of my favorite albums of the year.

No. 6
Patrick Wolf, "The Magic Position"

The magic in Patrick Wolf's 2007 release started to wear off a bit by the end of the year, I think in part due to the rise of Andrew Bird's album starting to win me over. Something about the two of them remind me of each other and so it's hard not to compare. But "The Magic Position" is one of the year's best tracks hands down, and I've never wavered on that. Right down to the happy ringing note at the end, it borders on perfection. Love songs this catchy or well written don't come around very often anymore, and I'm glad to see so many people take note when one did.

No. 5
Spoon - "The Underdog" - The only Jon Brion-produced song on Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, this song is directly responsible for my picking this album up. I've always enjoyed watching Spoon from afar, but something about "The Underdog" got me excited, probably because I have this problem where I view everything I do in an underdog-versus-establishment paradigm.

No. 2
Band of Horses - "The General Specific"

Band of Horses made the best album of the year in 2007, and it wasn't hard to pick my favorite song from the bunch (picking among the other songs was MUCH harder). This song has the whole kaboodle here - great harmonies, a melody that fucking soars, an simple, yet driving instrumentation and a little humor to boot. Only the Arcade Fire hit me harder last year with their No. 1 song, "Keep the Car Running."

The Best of 2007: Songs 100 to 1

OK, finally. It's a little late, but I made it extra good to make up for it. That said, there are no links until next week. If you'd like to see a particular song posted, let me know and I'll get on it.

100 >> Tunng, "Take"
99 >> Okkervil River, "Plus Ones"
98 >> The National Lights, "Midwest Town"
97 >> Deerhoof, "The Perfect Me"
96 >> Windmill, "Plastic Pre-Flight Seats"
95 >> Rihanna, "Umbrella (feat. Jay-Z)"
94 >> The New Pornographers, "Myriad Harbour"
93 >> Dntel, "Roll On (feat. Jenny Lewis)"
92 >> They Might Be Giants, "The Mesopotamians"
91 >> St. Vincent, "Now Now"
90 >> Kanye West, "Stronger"
89 >> Jens Lekman, "The Opposite of Hallelujah"
88 >> Of Montreal, "A Sentence of Sorts in Kongsvinger"
87 >> Pelle Carlberg, "I Love You, You Imbecile"
86 >> Chromeo, "Fancy Footwork"
85 >> The National, "Fake Empire"
84 >> The Shins, "Australia"
83 >> Voxtrot, "Introduction"
82 >> Broken Social Scene Presents Kevin Drew, "TBTF"
81 >> The High Llamas, "The Old Spring Town"
80 >> Nina Nastasia & Jim White, "In the Evening"
79 >> Black Lips, "O Katrina!"
78 >> Iron & Wine, "Carousel"
77 >> Andrew Bird, "Fiery Crash"
76 >> Immaculate Machine, "Jarhand"
75 >> Bruce Springsteen, "Radio Nowhere"
74 >> Blonde Redhead, "23"
73 >> Basia Bulat, "The Pilgriming Vine"
72 >> Super Furry Animals, "Run-Away"
71 >> Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, "Sons of Cain"
70 >> Matt Pond PA, "Wild Girl"
69 >> New Buffalo, "Cheer Me Up Thank You"
68 >> The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir, "Aspidistra"
67 >> Band of Horses, "No One's Gonna Love You"
66 >> Deer Tick, "Dirty Dishes"
65 >> Aqueduct, "As You Wish"
64 >> Bon Iver, "Re: Stacks"
63 >> Christine Fellows, "Nevertheless"
62 >> Beirut, "Elephant Gun"
61 >> The Fratellis, "Whistle for the Choir"
60 >> Wilco, "What Light"
59 >> Dinosaur Jr., "We're Not Alone"
58 >> Ryan Adams, "Everybody Knows"
57 >> Field Music, "In Context"
56 >> Maria Taylor, "Lost Time"
55 >> Patrick Wolf, "Bluebells"
54 >> Son Volt, "The Picture"
53 >> The 1900s, "When I Say Go"
52 >> The Shins, "Turn On Me"
51 >> Arctic Monkeys, "Flourescent Adolescent"
50 >> Southeast Engine, "Ostrich"
49 >> Dear and the Headlights, "It's Gettin' Easy"
48 >> Modest Mouse, "Dashboard"
47 >> The Sheds, "Reflection of the Sun"
46 >> The Thrills, "The Midnight Choir"
45 >> Okkervil River, "Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe"
44 >> Let's French, "Genevese"
43 >> Justice, "D.A.N.C.E."
42 >> Moonbabies, "Take Me to the Ballroom"
41 >> LCD Soundsystem, "Watch the Tapes"
40 >> The National, "Start a War"
39 >> The Weakerthans, "Tournament of Hearts"
38 >> M.I.A., "Paper Planes"
37 >> Stars, "The Night Starts Here"
36 >> Immaculate Machine, "Dear Confessor"
35 >> Of Montreal, "Suffer for Fashion"
34 >> The Innocence Mission, "Into Brooklyn, Early in the Morning"
33 >> John Vanderslice, "White Dove"
32 >> The New Pornographers, "My Rights Versus Yours"
31 >> The Polyphonic Spree, "Section 22 (Running Away)"
30 >> Blitzen Trapper, "Wild Mountain Nation"
29 >> Kings of Leon, "Fans"
28 >> Seabear, "I Sing, I Swim"
27 >> Jens Lekman, "Friday Night at the Drive-In Bingo"
26 >> Arcade Fire, "Intervention"
25 >> Beirut, "The Penalty"
24 >> Tegan and Sara, "Dark Come Soon"
23 >> Deer Tick, "Diamond Rings 2007"
22 >> MGMT, "Time to Pretend"
21 >> The Broken West, "Down in the Valley"
20 >> Band of Horses, "Is There a Ghost"
19 >> The National, "Mistaken for Strangers"
18 >> Bishop Allen, "Rain"
17 >> Feist, "1234"
16 >> Bowerbirds, "In Our Talons"
15 >> Art Brut, "Pump Up the Volume"
14 >> Tunng, "Bullets"
13 >> Andrew Bird, "Heretics"
12 >> Of Montreal, "Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse"
11 >> The Weakerthans, "Virtute the Cat Explains Her Departure"
10 >> LCD Soundsystem, "All My Friends"
09 >> The Fratellis, "Flathead"
08 >> The Shins, "Phantom Limb"
07 >> Iron & Wine, "Flightless Bird, American Mouth"
06 >> Patrick Wolf, "The Magic Position"
05 >> Spoon, "The Underdog"
04 >> The New Pornographers, "Challengers"
03 >> Christine Fellows, "The Spinster's Almanac"
02 >> Band of Horses, "The General Specific"
01 >> Arcade Fire, "Keep the Car Running"

Top Songs Snowed Out

Dear readers,

A fitting end to 2007, I must say. The top 100 songs list is complete, but it is not where I am. I am snowed in at an apartment in Cleveland; it is in a house in a nearby suburb.

I promise to find a way to post the list tomorrow.

-Mr. T

10 Records You Should Buy With the Gift Card You Just Got

Oh what fun it is to laugh and sing a Slayer song tonight.

Continuing in the year-end goodness, the Toaster Talks brings you on this lovely national holiday the first of its two lists. It's the lesser, to be sure. This one takes about an hour or so to crank out, whereas next week's Top 100 songs of the year list kicks my damn ass...still a dozen or so hours to go on that front. Until then, enjoy your Xmas and your Boxing Day (all you crazy Canadiens!) and I'll see you on the 1st.

A little on the methodology here: These are my ten favorite records of the year. It isn't necessarily the best or the most deserving of awards, although I'd like to think they are. There are no soundtracks, no reissues, no cover albums, no tributes and no box sets. And, due to a lost bet 17 years ago, I'm not allowed to include any Jethro Tull. It gets tougher every year...

MY TOP TEN ALBUMS OF 2007

10. Southeast Engine – A Wheel Within a Wheel

For me, this is the biggest surprise of the year. And I’m sure it is for you, because I’m pretty sure 95% of you have never heard of these guys. Well, they’re from Athens, Ohio, and I wrote a little a few weeks back. I am biased here, as I’m very familiar with their work. The more I listen to Wheel Within a Wheel, though, the more I’m convinced it stands up to the best albums of the year pretty well. Its two closest competitors in their genre – Ryan Adams and Wilco – pale in comparison to this refreshingly honest material from a truly gifted songwriter and a bunch of guys who could have easily been just support. Instead, the arrangements are inventive and interesting. All in all, it’s a record that hasn’t stopped growing on me. Compared to the rest of the list, these guys might be obscure, but I have a feeling they won’t be for long.

9. LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver

I was pretty much sold completely on my first listen to “North American Scum” and haven’t looked back. Some of the longer numbers – “All My Friends” and “Someone Great,” in particular, are making me reconsider my general distaste for what I deem to be unnecessarily long songs. For others, this could easily be the best album of the year, but considering most of what LCD Soundsystem does isn’t really up my alley, a No. 9 spot says a lot about how good this one is.

8. Arcade Fire – Neon Bible

Funeral probably changed how I will view modern music. So in my eyes, at least, Arcade Fire were destined to disappoint. Neon Bible is a somewhat hodgepodge collection of dark, vaguely seditious songs that doesn’t resonate with me the way it intends to (or the way it does for so many others who have them topping out their lists). Still, upon revisiting the record, I still find it very, very good – a follow-up effort that just shouldn’t be compared to its predecessor. (It’d be like panning Magical Mystery Tour because it’s not as complete and life-changing as Sergeant Peppper…).

7. Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

I’ll admit that I resisted this one and its critical acclaim. I just didn’t think Spoon had this in them. Sure, I enjoyed “The Underdog,” but something about the bandwagon that sped off from the starting gate irked me – not to mention the misspelled song titles or the album name itself. But I kept popping it in my car stereo on many of the long drives that filled my fall and winter. I realized the change in me in September when I found myself really enjoying “The Ghost of You Lingers” and the stereo dynamic that is almost breathtaking in the car (I initially hated it in my headphones.). There’s no question – Spoon has made a fantastic album with this one.

6. The New Pornographers – Challengers

Many of us – myself included – were really counting on the New Pornographers to give the summer’s pop scene a kick in the mouth. You know, more smart power-pop from the folks who have done it so well since Mass Romantic.

What we got instead was much more an indication that The New Pornographers had outgrown their nascent sound and frontman Carl Newman was trying hard to branch out. There are new lead singers (Immaculate Machine’s Kathryn Calder) and a seemingly conscious conservation of Dan Bejar and Neko Case (the latter gets only two leads on the album).

As a whole, Challengers feels disjointed, a mix of would-be solo Newman songs, a few new Pornographers standards and a third batch of songs that almost deserve to be assigned to a third nom de plume. (The best example of this is the 6-minute “Unguided,” which is probably one of the most intelligently crafted songs of 2007.) Still, the album proved itself to be the grower of the year, due to Newman’s pop sensibilities and the raw talent that this band has on hand.

5. Iron & Wine – The Shepherd’s Dog

Much like Challengers, The Shepherd’s Dog is an evolutionary album. Sam Beam finally gave in to the full-band sound, and what a relief! Before The Shepherd’s Dog, I had never been able to listen to a full-length Iron & Wine release without taking a break.

It had to be done. Since teaming up with Calexico in 2005 to make In the Reins, the intimate vocals and sparse (but secretly complex) arrangements that had come to characterize the Iron & Wine catalog no longer satisfied as it used to. It’s hard not to think that it would have been far easier for Beam to continue down the path toward Nick Drake-like mystique. But the urge to play around with his sound clearly got the best of him.

This couldn’t be more evident than on “Carousel,” a disarming track that puts Beam’s vocal through what sounds something like a Leslie Cabinet. In the end, the experimentation is refreshing but it’s the sheer beauty of moments like “Flightless Bird, American Mouth” that make this album a must-own.

4. Jens Lekman – Night Falls Over Kortedala

At the very least, this album deserves credit for finally settling the nagging pronunciation issue. It’s Yens. Thank you.

This album is baroque pop at its ripest. Lekman steps up to the plate with his cute, clever Swedish singer-songwriter shtick and hits an absolute home run. Songs like “Postcard to Nina” and “Your Arms Around Me” show that he is one of the best indie storytellers out there. Night Falls Over Kortedala is the kind of album that is good and consistent enough that the listener never really thinks that Lekman could be capable of producing anything less. It’s why it’s one of the last albums I remember when trying to piece together my “Best of” list; it doesn’t play like a masterpiece, perhaps because it doesn’t need to.

3. Of Montreal – Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?

I’ve never been a huge Of Montreal fan, but they certainly have my attention now.

Hissing Fauna…? isn’t just a great album, it’s also managed to get mentioned in the same breaths as stunning concept albums that have left the rock world struggling to figure out what the fuck just happened. Perhaps the best comparison is Nine Inch Nails’ The Downward Spiral, which saw a respectable and risky artist put everything on the line in the name of making a strong statement. Hissing Fauna…? is a bit more subtle (how could it not be?) and perhaps a little lighter on the self-hatred in its tales of drug use, depression and longing. And while this album isn’t an instant classic, due mostly to a slight weakness in its later tracks, its ambition is hard to deny.

For me, I always got hung up on the 12-minute “The Past Is a Grotesque Animal,” finding its repetition and length a bit obnoxious. Then one day this fall it clicked. And all of a sudden the song stuck, finally landing (at least in my mind) the triple axel it attempts.

And then it was decided – “This is a fucking fantastic record.” Because I apparently am the decider.

2. The National – Boxer

This was my far-and-away front-runner favorite album released this year up until about two months ago (not long after Cease to Begin was released, and I finally turned the corner on the Of Montreal album). In a way its greatness was due to its role as a utility infielder for my soundtracking needs. I could throw Boxer on no matter the situation. I first discovered this in the car, realizing it was a great driving record. Then I put it on in the apartment on one night before a party and found it had night-starting qualities too.

Bryan Devendorf’s drumwork drives this album. Sure, the songwriting has merits of its own, but the lyrics take on a necessary subtlety under the stark, popping rhythms. Matt Berninger’s signature drone puts his vocals into a much different category (something more along the lines of Crash Test Dummies, perhaps) without the dark-city-on-a-late-night backing arrangement. But without Berninger’s songstylings, the result would uninviting – an exercise in depicting cold isolation, perhaps. Instead, we get an album that, if you let it, will pump your blood for you.

1. Band of Horses – Cease to Begin

While last year’s Everything All the Time catapulted Band of Horses straight into indie hearts everywhere, I always found the album to be a bit uneven. Don’t get me wrong – it’s a great album (and an outstanding debut at that) but it didn’t sound like a complete work to me the way that Best Albums of the Year do.

Cease to Begin does. And it’s evidenced by the fact that there aren’t any masterpiece tracks like last year’s “Funeral” and “Great Salt Lake” on this album. And yet each track takes me in and propels itself along in a way that doesn’t just make the album feel whole; it makes it feel brief. For a band that put me in a trance that could have lasted hours in concert, this is no small feat.

There’s no question Cease to Begin gets an A on the Toaster grading scale. Still, I’m always nervous when there is no heir apparent album of the year. And I’m left for weeks second-thinking my choice. This year will be one of those years, I’m afraid, as the #2 and #3 albums could both have easily stolen the throne.