[ | | | 10 interested person(s) ]

Here it goes...the most self-indulgent time of the season when bloggers and would be music people a mass their objective year-end-lists. I am hoping to get a best tracks, best remixes and best albums list going. Lets kick it off with the best 25 albums I've listened to in 2007.

25. Chromeo: Fancy Footwork
24. Tobias Thomas: Please Please Please
23. Black Milk: Popular Demand
22. Wu-Tang Clan: 8 Diagrams
21. Buck 65: Situation
20. Blockhead: Uncle Tony's Coloring Book
19. Blue Scholars: Bayani
18. Jay Z: American Gangstar
17. Jazzanova: Computer Incarnations for World Peace
16. Jose Gonzalez: In Our Nature
15. Simian Mobile Disco: Attack Decay Sustain Release
14. Aesop Rock: None Shall Pass
13. El-P: I'll Sleep When You're Dead
12. Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings: 100 Days, 100 Nights
11. Heliocentrics: Out There

10. Feist: The Reminder
One of the few indie records I listened to this year. Love her voice and this thing is simply a really cool record to listen to. Such a sweet voice.

Video: Feist - "1,2,3,4"

9. Daft Punk: Alive 2007
Best live record every assembled. Almost did their live sets that I saw in Chicago and Vegas justice. This showcased Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo's first hometown show in 10 years in front of a capacity crowd. Unbelievable stuff.

Video: Daft Punk - "Too Long" (Live Lollapalooza 2007)

8. Justice: †
Most hyped album out there and maybe deservedly so. Every hipster's favorite electronic album. I have to admit its starts great and crushes all the way through. Dance record of the year and one of the best. I wanted to hate it because of the hype but just couldn't.

7. Oh No: Dr. No's Oxperiment
All chopped up and sounding like a million bucks, Oh No puts out the best hip hop instrumental album of the year. 30 beats deep and I found nothing boring. Raw and rare psych from Turkey, Lebanon, Greece and Italy served hot on a silver platter.

6. Pharoahe Monch: Desire
No Kanye and this is the best hip hop record of the year in my opinion. It was way overdue, but it finally dropped and with tracks like "Body Baby," "Let's Go" and "Desire" it was worth the wait. No Internal Affairs, butdamn good.

Video: Pharoahe Monch - "Body Baby"

5. LCD Soundsystem: Sound of Silver
Most years this is the best album of the year, however I just seemed to play the other three more. This record was no joke and I found it a lot better than the first one which is no easy task. "All My Friends" might be my favorite song of the year and 4 of the first 5 songs on this record are all singles material which in today's world rarely happens.

Video: LCD Soundsystem - "All My Friends"
Video: LCD Sounsystem - "Someone Great"

4. Kanye West: Graduation
His ego is too much for some, but his music is undeniable in my ears. "Stronger" was a bit weak(too similar to Daft Punk's and Kanye should stay out of French house...video was nice though), but "Can't Tell Me Nothing" and "Good Life" are two of the best songs of the year.

Video: Kanye West feat. T-Pain - "Good Life"
Video: Kanye West - "Can't Tell Me Nothing"
Video: Kanye West - "Stronger"

3. Burial: Untrue
I guess dubstep has finally gone mainstream. This record was fantastic and an improvement on what I thought was un-improvable self-entitled debut. Record is all over the charts of bloggers and deservedly so.

2. MIA: Kala
Loved Galang and Kala came close to eclipsing it. Tracks like "Jimmy" and "Bird Flu" were on constant rotation when the record came out. Serious production on "Bird Flu" by Switch. Nice political bent and message. Tracks still are not the heavy hitters that "Sunshowers" and "Galang" were but it was a big bar to measure up to.

Video: MIA - "Jimmy"
Video: MIA - "Bird Flu"

1. Radiohead: In Rainbows
Best work since Kid A and at times better. Great music, great concept and a great message to the overbearing record industry.

10 interested person(s)

Silent K said... @ 12/20/2007 09:18:00 AM

**Applause** Good list!

Accurate calls on Chromeo, Blockhead, Oh No, Justice, Daft Punk, Burial & (of course) Radiohead.

In all honesty however, I can not tolerate any more Kanye - Perhaps if he stuck with production alone - I'd love to hear him do a DJ set or put together a LateNightTales/Back to Mine style mix. Just so long as he seals those lips of his.

dj dead serious said... @ 12/20/2007 05:26:00 PM

thumbs up on Kala and Pharoahe Monch..

http://deadserious.info

Jack Lord said... @ 12/21/2007 04:41:00 AM

Great choices. M.I.A album was brilliant - and all the remixes floating around kept it fresh, especially the 'guns up buraka' mix of bird flu. 'Boyz' was the best video of the year too.

Passion of the Weiss said... @ 12/22/2007 01:25:00 PM

Great great list K. Especially the hip-hop choices. On the money.

K said... @ 12/23/2007 11:59:00 AM

thanks dudes. means alot coming from music critics like yourselves. looking forward to 2008 in music!

Tom said... @ 12/27/2007 02:26:00 AM

great list lads, love the blog.

Any chance you can add us to your blog list at all? Check us out first and let us know if it's something you want to do and I will add you to ours.

http://uglytalented.blogspot.com

Cheers

Tom

Nate. said... @ 12/27/2007 06:30:00 AM

great list k.

but, no lupe though?

who-loves-tsismis said... @ 12/30/2007 10:13:00 PM

Great list... I like that you added Oh No's album... but... LCD Soundsystem!? :S

K said... @ 1/01/2008 09:02:00 AM

nate to be honest i havent even gotten a chance to give LUPE a spin. embarassing I know. will definately get on that.

tsismis no LCD sounsystem? thought the record was a slam dunk for everyone.

Carl said... @ 6/23/2008 06:50:00 AM

Hi K,

Really enjoyed this list. Thanks for turning me onto some great records that might have passed me by had I not come across it. And what a bonus... there's no Arcade Fire!! Ha ha!

How's the list for 2008 shaping up? I have a contender for you anyway. Dieter Schöön's album Lablaza. It's being given a release this year outside of Sweden which is where Dieter is from. I am totally overwhelmed by it and thought you might enjoy it too.

Here's the link to his myspace:

www.myspace.com/dieterschoon

Let me know what you think & if you want a link to the album.

All the best, Carl

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