I’m sitting here, combing through my iTunes playlist — really working hard, man — trying to figure out which albums of 2007 I not only loved, but also might care about in 2008, and maybe even 20 years from now.
I found five.
Now, I won’t rank these records; it just seems wrong to do that. Calling Lily Allen better or worse than the Arcade Fire is like saying Mountain Dew tops bourbon. Each serves its purpose. So, in no particular order, here we go:
Lily Allen, “Alright, Still” (Capitol): Never underestimate a pop singer that makes you grin.
During “Knock ‘Em Out,” Allen comes up with a cheat sheet to avoid bad pick-up artists in the clubs. “My house is on fire,” she says, laughing. “I’ve got, I’ve got herpes. Errr, no, syphilis.”
Sure, her sly and bitter kiss off, “Smile,” pushed her onto the charts, but she’s worth remembering for her entire MySpace-friendly package.
While her British accent is rarely in hiding, it’s easy to pick out every phrase as Allen rips on a coke-addled acquaintance over a reggae beat during “Friend of Mine,” asks her stoner brother to stop pulling her hair during the carnival sounds of “Alfie” and walks through one of the more engaging love-gone-wrong ballads in recent memory on “Littlest Things.”
Her London snapshots are pasted over buttery guitars, sparkling pianos and flatulent horns, for a witty — albeit at times profane — bit of fun.
The New Pornographers, “Challengers” (Matador): Some critics treated “Challengers,” the fourth album from this indie rock supergroup, like a misstep.
Oh, those sad sorry sacks; how history will prove them wrong.
“Unguided,” one of several anthems here led by Carl Newman, takes nearly two minutes to hit its layered vocal chorus, but it’s worth the wait. Neko Case, who has a solo country career, adds a sensuous drip to love songs such as “Go Places.” And Dan Bejar, sounding a bit like David Bowie, delivers one of the best pop songs of the year with “Myriad Harbour.”
The tempo might be slower than on previous albums, but the New Pornographers come off as exultant, again balancing inward-looking awkwardness with something sized for a coliseum.
Okkervil River, “The Stage Names” (Jagjaguwar): Rough and tumble stuff, this.
There’s a song about a parent who reads a daughter’s diary, learning dark secrets the parent didn’t really want to know. There’s an ode to John Allyn Berryman, the suicidal poet. Will Sheff, who emotes like a man in collapse, sings the dark stories.
Still, somehow, this isn’t a black album.
“It was your heart hurting, but not for too long, kid,” Sheff sings on “Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe.” And that’s appropriate enough. I don’t walk away from this looking for a razor or a noose. Instead, I feel ready to pull a train up a hill.
In large part, that’s because of an upward-looking tempo and a full sound that crams in myriad instruments: guitars, mandolin, wood blocks, a pump organ, a piano. It’s rock distilled to full potency. On close inspection, it might be a bit damaging, but right up front it leaves a powerful rush.
Band of Horses, “Cease to Begin” (Sub Pop): Does anyone really doubt that Ben Bridwell is one of the best singers in rock?
On “Cease to Begin,” he manages to give an earnest hopefulness to even the most depressed and autumnal of songs, like “Is There a Ghost.” For that one, he takes a grand total of 14 words — “I could sleep when I lived alone. Is there a ghost in my house?” — and turns them into a paranoid fit that, somehow, leaves me elated.
Credit some of that emotive power to the rest of the band. The drums push the songs forward and the guitars, at times, seem to always be building in power.
During the barroom clap-along “The General Specific,” Bridwell says he might “find a little way to your heart.” And, with these songs, yeah, he probably will.
Arcade Fire, “Neon Bible” (Merge): “Neon Bible” is an album of anticipation and adrenaline.
Time and again, Arcade Fire heightens the drama, be it through the use of groaning church organ, a building horn line, the steady run of drums or Win Butler’s theatrical and haunted vocals. It’s odd to think of this as indie rock; it seems too set for a massive liftoff — and mass appeal — to be defined that narrowly.
Songs like “Neon Bible” and “My Body Is a Cage” come off as desperate neo-spirituals, heavy with doubt, while “(Antichrist Television Blues)” and “Keep the Car Running” have earned apt comparisons to Bruce Springsteen for their propulsive beat. The Boss even covered the latter track during a show with members of Arcade Fire.
In the end, these songs feel fitted to a rebellion. It’s rock music gone global, laced with concerns about World War III and the price of celebrity. And it’s very, very good.
Writer Andy Rathbun: 425-339-3455 or arathbun@ heraldnet.com.
Hear Andy’s top 10
To listen to Andy Rathbun’s top 10 songs of 2007, including tracks from Modest Mouse, Rihanna and Spoon, visit his blog at www.heraldnet.com/section/BLOG21.
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