Everybody bitchin' there's nothin' on the radio

It's that time again - The time where I tell you my favorite albums of the year. As always, the list is limited to music that was released in 2007, not good stuff that was released earlier but I just got around to picking up (e.g., Muse - Black Holes and Revelations; Silversun Pickups - Carnavas). Also excluded are albums with music that is supposed to be good, but I haven't gotten around to listening to the CDs in their entirety yet (sorry LCD Soundsystem, Against Me!, and The Shins). There are also a few albums that probably should have made the list, but didn't because they didn't live up to my expectations. Sure, that might not seem fair because expectations can be unrealistic, but it's my list, I'll do what I want.

Here are the albums that fell short:

Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger
I was introduced to Ryan Adams while I was getting on an elevator following a phylogenetic systematics lab when I was working on my master's degree. A friend of mine told me that he thought I'd like the recently released album Gold (which coincidentally is playing on my itunes as I type this). I gave it a listen and really liked what I heard. I picked up Heartbreaker and Demolition right away, and liked them both as well. Since then I've purchased every album that Ryan Adams has released, and they all have some brilliant stuff, but somehow in his rush to release three albums a year, the filter's been lost. If the good stuff off each album was combined onto one, and the rest just left as B-sides, every album would still be brilliant. As it is now, they're mediocre. Of all his albums, Heartbreaker remains my favorite, followed closely by Gold. I'm sad to say it, but I think Ryan Adams' best work is behind him. Now let's just hope he doesn't call me up and bitch me out for my opinion.

The White Stripes - Icky Thump
This album also had some good stuff on it, but I lost interest after the first three tracks. I especially like the songs Icky Thump and You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You're Told)(tracks 1 and 2 respectively), but then I hate some of the other songs on this CD. Conquest, although a cover, is one of the worst songs I've ever heard in my life. Same goes for Rag & Bone. You don't get to make the favorites list if your album includes stinkers like those. Sorry Jack, that's just the way it is.

Bloc Party - A Weekend In The City
I really liked this band's first album, Silent Alarm. I've been excited for this CD to come out since I saw them in concert a year and a half ago and they played a couple songs from it. Again, there's some good stuff here, like Hunting For Witches which sounds great, but this album is no Silent Alarm. I'm hoping that this is the typical sophomore slump and that their future releases will be better. Time will tell.

Radiohead - In Rainbows
Radiohead should get bonus points for the unique way in which they "released" this one (For those who don't know, they made it available on their website a few months before its official release, and let fans pay whatever they felt like paying. However, they took it down a short while before it was released in stores, so I don't think the offer still stands.), but even those wouldn't be enough to put them on the list. It's that expectations thing. I thought it would be better. My favorite track is House of Cards (a song which my friend Silent Kid called trite, but I just can't help it, it must speak to me). Again, I probably set my expectations too high for this one. While I doubt the band will ever produce anything as good as OK Computer (their best album by far), I'd still like to see something a little closer to that, The Bends or Pablo Honey than to Kid A or Hail to the Thief. I probably bought into the hype a little too much when people were saying this was about the same as OK Computer. It's not. I agree that it went in that direction a little, but not enough for my liking. Hence, it didn't live up to my expectations. There was an ongoing joke with one of the other grad students in my department who said he didn't like it as much as some of the others. Everybody else kept telling him that he "just didn't understand." Even though I was one of the people telling him that, I actually agree with him on this. It just took me a few more listens to realize it. Oh, did I mention this album didn't live up to my expectations?

Ok, enough complaining about what wasn't good enough to put on the list, and on to what was. I realize that most people that do end of year lists usually do lists of ten, but I'm with Silent Kid on this one. I'm only putting nine on mine. Nonconformists unite!

My favorite albums of 2007:

9) Iron & Wine - The Shepherd's Dog
It sucks to admit this, but I'd never heard of Iron & Wine until the rest of the world did. That is, when the movie Garden State came out. Oh well, better late than never, right? My favorite Iron & Wine album is still In The Reins (the collaboration he did with Calexico), but this one has some really good stuff on it as well. My favorite song on this album is The Devil Never Sleeps (from which the title to this post was taken). That said, the album as a whole just made it on the list by the skin of its non-existent teeth, simply for the reason that it didn't stay in the CD player in my car as long as the rest of the CDs on the list did. A little thing I like to call the car CD player test - It's perfect for ranking things like these.

8) Rogue Wave - Asleep at Heaven's Gate
I just found out about this band this year when a friend of mine mailed me two of their CDs. I received it just in time for my British Columbia trip, so that music and Canada will always be linked in my mind. Shortly after I returned I saw that this new one had been released, so I picked it up. I liked what I heard. Later I felt validated when I heard one of the songs off the album in a movie preview. Not that I need that kind of validation to know that I listen to good music, but someone else obviously felt the same way, even if it was just some marketing executive who was trying to appeal to young hipsters (not that I would call myself a young hipster, or anything remotely close to that).

7) Band of Horses - Cease to Begin
I know I'm cool because this band is one of my myspace friends. I was one of the first to hear the single Is There A Ghost because they sent it out as a bulletin. I love myspace. It makes me feel cool. Anyway, I liked it immediately. This is a band whose music appears in commercials (more on this later). The reason this CD didn't get ranked higher is that even though I really like their music, I rarely find myself saying "I'm really in the mood for hearing some Band of Horses right now." Instead it's more like, "Well, I haven't listened to that CD for a while, and I don't want to hear anything else instead so I guess I'll put it in." When I do that, I'm always reminded how good it is, but never before it gets to that point. I don't know exactly why that is. Still, it's worth giving a listen. I played it while I was in the shower this morning, so now you can listen to it and picture me lathering up my scrotum. Tell me that's not a ringing endorsement.

6) Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero
I'm not entirely sure that I should list this album as high as I have. It suffers from the same phenomenon where I forget how much I like it until after I start playing it, but I'm giving it a boost because it's Nine Inch Nails. The album gets a little too political for my liking, but since I, too, hate George W. Bush, I agree with what's being said. I just wonder about this album's staying power once he leaves office. Again, this didn't live up to the quality of past albums (Pretty Hate Machine is still my favorite), but it's pretty solid. Plus, I have to include it so that people won't think I've lost my edge, even if Trent Reznor seems to be losing his.

5) They Might Be Giants - The Else
It hurts to have to list one of my two favorite bands so low on the list, but the simple fact of the matter is, I couldn't justify putting this album any higher. Not even with the bonus disc that contained 32 songs from the band's podcasts (which I lost somewhere - Boo!). That's not to say I didn't like this CD, because I enjoyed it immensely. Just not as much as the ones higher on the list. There are some really fun songs on here, like The Mesopotamian's (about a fictional band that nobody's ever heard of), The Shadow Government (seriously, where is the shadow government when you need it?), or Take Out The Trash (dedicated to my sister, and her ex-fiance). This is the best They Might Be Giants album to come out since Mink Car in 2001.

4) Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
I first heard Spoon on a cross country road trip with my ex-girlfriend. She was a huge fan and I heard three albums of theirs on the way to Durham, NC from Las Vegas. Not that I'm complaining. I'd like to pick up a few more since I only have two: Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga and Gimme Fiction. This one definitely passes the car CD player test. Once I put it in, I don't ever seem to want to take it out (Is that a euphemism? Probably.). It doesn't hurt that this one came with a bonus disc as well: Get Nice! which contained an extra 12 tracks. Apparently I'm a sucker for getting as many songs as possible for my $13. I wish more bands did this.

3) Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
If you've seen a Volkswagen commercial within the past year, you've heard a song off this album. If you've seen multiple Volkswagen commercials, you've heard multiple songs. One of my friends joked that he thought Wilco sold out. I just think they did what every other band tries to do, and that is to get paid for making music. Wilco is the other of my favorite bands (I can't ever seem to choose between them and They Might Be Giants, so they both get the nod: They're co-favorites). Sky Blue Sky is a lot more mellow than previous albums, but that's not a bad thing in this case. Although, my favorite song from these sessions was The Thanks I Get, which wasn't included on the album itself, but was released as an itunes exclusive. I asked for this CD for my birthday, but it wasn't released for another few weeks, so nobody got it for me (they wanted to me to get stuff that I could use right away instead. Jerks). So, I bought it for myself, along with a cool t-shirt. One way to ensure that you get what you want is to buy it yourself. That's my motto.

2) Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Baby 81
I was lucky enough to see these guys on tour, even though it was a few days after my car broke down and I had no transportation. A friend of mine introduced me to this band when they found out I was such a big Wilco fan. She said they reminded her a lot of Wilco. However, I'd have to go with another friend's opinion, that they sound like The Jesus and Mary Chain, but better. He went to the concert with me, and even though it was in an arcade because the original venue went bankrupt or something, it was a lot of fun. This album rocks from start to finish, but my favorite tracks would have to be Berlin, Need Some Air and All You Do Is Talk (and it was hard narrowing it down to just those three). Plus, the band has a cool name. They also have a skull and crossbones logo, so you know they're tough. Except the crossbones are really motorcycle pistons. Still tough.

1) Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank
Once I bought this CD I don't think I listened to anything else for weeks. It gained the ultra rare status of being carried with me from the stereo in my bedroom, to the car, to the office (before I loaded it into my itunes there). There's the catchy (and perhaps overly optimistic) track Dashboard that you can't help but tap your toes to, but my favorite song off this CD is Missed the Boat. I know some people who think this album is too poppy, and not enough like their old stuff. I disagree. It's not as poppy as Good News For People Who Love Bad News, which launched them into the mainstream with hits like The Ocean Breathes Salty and Float On. This one brings back some of the "screaming voice" for lack of a better term, but is much better than any of the band's older stuff. This is my favorite Modest Mouse album by far.

So, there you have it. If you're looking for some new music, and didn't know which direction you should go, those are my suggestions.