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."