What Do You Make Of 2007?

[alx5962]

I love the Unkle album; I really hope to see them live one day.

As there's only international artists here, I wish to add a french one:
Zazie "Totem"

Her lyrics are always clever and deep, the music is great too! And for the fisrt time she wrote 3 lyrics in english.

Next week, the new James Blunt album will be out; I liked some of his previous songs so I'll give a hear to this album.

[paul-pgss]

So far I've only bought Siobhan Donaghy's Ghosts. I've downloaded Volta and the new Tori album. I still not fond of both albums [b)]

[aermancer]

I love the Unkle album; I really hope to see them live one day.

As there's only international artists here, I wish to add a french one:
Zazie "Totem"

Her lyrics are always clever and deep, the music is great too! And for the fisrt time she wrote 3 lyrics in english.

I LOOOOOVED Des Rails. I listened to it non-stop for a week in June

[aermancer]

...

[RobB]

so technically i'm just using this as a way to keep track of everything, i know that ADP and Volta and CocoRosie weren't really that great.

Now thats a pity because out of all the artists you've listed,those three would have been the ones I would have gone for.

[aermancer]

Update - Of what i own or have heard so far

1. Pram - The Moving Frontier
2. PJ Harvey - White Chalk
3. The Fiery Furnaces - Widow City
4. The Projects - Voice is Glue
5. ADULT. - Why Bother?
6. Siobhan Donaghy - Ghosts
7. M.I.A - Kala
8. Bat For Lashes - Fur and Gold
9. Electrelane - No Shouts, No Calls
10. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Is Is
11. Sioxsie - Mantaray
12. Blonde Redhead - 23
13. Feist - The Reminder
14. CocoRosie - The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn

not ranked -
Yoko Ono's Yes, I'm A Witch > Veronica Maggio's Vatten & Bröd > Mira Calix's Eyes Set Against The Sun > Björk's Volta > Tori's American Doll Posse > Carina Round's Slow Motion Addict > Sia's Some People Have Real Problems

i have yet to hear Overpowered by Róisín Murphy, Friend Opportunity by Deerhoof, Go Go Smear The Poison Ivy by múm, The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn by CocoRosie

[Franck]

Weird. I think I'm slowly losing interest in discovering new artists*, and becoming harder to please. Also, many artists I follow deceived me (Blonde Redhead, Björk, PJ...) and some others disbanded...

I'm attending to much less concerts I did in the past (2-3 by month at least). Maybe because I'm now living further from my usual venues or concert cities, and cause I'm getting older, more tired and work more, sometimes all week long, weekend included.

Ok sometimes I'm playing (often laptop + accordion / guitar + accordion + live painter) which is great, or doing sound/lights/etc. for shows, but I scarcely choose them... hearing crap - or songs you dislike - is not good for my mental health (cos I'm still very music dependant ).

So 2007 is very poor in musical discovering for me, I'm afraid.

Oh, and I lost a big mp3 collection I got with plenty of great albums with various styles due to a hardrive crash, hope to get them back soon...

*maybe I just don't have time enough anymore.

[d.a.walker]

Well my top 10 for 2007 is firmly standing as:

01. Siobhan Donaghy - Ghosts
02. UNKLE - War Stories
03. Jose Gonzalez - In Our Nature
04. Siouxsie - Mantaray
05. Jane Weaver - Cherlokalate
06. Puressence - Don't Forget To Remember
07. Alison Moyet - The Turn
08. Buck 65 - Situation
09. Gravenhurst - The Western Lands
10. Hooverphonic - The President Of The LSD GOlf Club

I doubt it's gonna change from this now, I'm amazed that in the year PJ, Tori and Bjork all release an album I'm not including any of them in my top 10. PJ was very close at one point. It's a shame I've not managed to grab a copy of Garrison Starr's The Girl That Killed September as I am sure that this would have made the top 10!!

[sound world]

I've been giving this a bit of thought lately.First off let me say that I'm not one of those people for whom a year has any particular meaning,musically.Essentially there's good music and bad music,and I spend a lot of my time seeking the former,regardless of whenever it came onto the market.So this year,for instance,I've bought plenty of CDs,borrowed others,downloaded some,and the vast majority have been from years gone by.And in some cases,literally years-for instance,some of my happiest listening this year has been to 78s made over 50 years ago.But anyway,there HAVE been CDs made in 2007 that have swam into my ken,and among those I'd list the following as being worth an airing:-
Tom Waits-Orphans,brawlers and bastards
Tom goes back to some R'n'R basics in this triple-set,which,despite its length,doesn't show much fat.
Kurt Elling-Nightmoves
Kurt Elling is reinventing the classic nightclub singer tradition with real class and imagination,with a poetic and philosophic slant that's quite unique.I saw him and his trio a week or two back,and it was stunning.His back catalogue is full of great moments,but this album is the pick.
The Necks-Townsville
The Necks also have a strong back catalogue by now,quite a feat for a band who have taken a left-turn in the piano trio tradition and who rely almost exclusively on developing the seeds of an improvised idea with incredible rigour.Great video of them here,to give you an idea-http://youtube.com/watch?v=P0uCGDCNKno
Michel Petrucciani-The complete concert in Germany
The late great pianist recorded solo a decade ago-this reissue adds about three-quarters of an hour of unearthed extra material.The apex of expressive lyricism,and incredible communication.I'd give my right arm to play like this

And here's four or five 2007 releases that I'm looking forward to hearing in some future year

The Bad Plus-Prog
Another left-field piano trio.Anyone who has an interest in music for music's sake should take a peek at their blog-http://thebadplus.typepad.com/dothemath/which is full of provocative,fascinating comment on the music scene-all of it.They're also a great band,always likely to do perverse and stimulating takes on such diverse artists as Bacharach,Kurt Cobain,Rush and Radiohead.And Hey! their drummer has the same name as me!
Miles Davis-The Complete 'On the Corner' sessions
Sony have managed to do something right in the last few years,by finally releasing the various 'complete' sets of Miles recordings.This one should be really interesting-the original '73 album baffled the critics,mixing epigrammatic melodies against a huge armada of percussion funk amid a slew of electronica,sitars etc.Miles' purported influences at the time were Sly Stone,Hendrix and Karlheinz Stockhausen,and it shows.A decade or two later,a whole area of music grew up from this root.If the other 'completes' are anything to go by,this should quadruple the available material.
Robert Wyatt-Comicopera
He hasn't made a duff album yet.
Supersilent 8
Spook,where are you? Anyone who knows Supersilent 6 will know what this band are capable of...
Polar Bear-?
Still unreleased,the band's third album promises to be just as good as the first two if the snippets on their site are anything to go by.Seb Rochford is the best drummer/composer alive now
Joni Mitchell-Shine
Joni has been treading water of late,releasing fulsome,lush albums of old hits with orchestra-but always delivered with unfailing candour and class.She still knocks the opposition out of the ring insofar as musical/poetic ability goes.
Brian Eno-Unreleased works of startling genius
Who can resist such a title?

[aermancer]

My friend recently sent me Joni's song Woodstock (the '78 version) which i think is amazing. The wurly and her vocals go perfectly together.

I recently also started buying vinyl, and have bought
PJ Harvey - When Under Ether 7"
Goldfrapp - Utopia 12"
Tori Amos - God 12" Picture disc
Bat For Lashes - What's A Girl To Do 7"
Tori Amos - Professional Widow 12"

[paul-pgss]

So far I've only bought Siobhan Donaghy's Ghosts. I've downloaded Volta and the new Tori album. I still not fond of both albums [b)]

Nope no Tori and Björk. They're history. The new PJ Harvey: garbage. Really.

Bought the Money for All ep last month and Snow Borne Sorrow in august. Plus I bought all Anja Garbarek albums in Norway.
Still thinking about buying the new Radiohead but haven't heard a single track yet. I have too little time to listen to music nowadays.

Want list:
- all Kings of Convenience albums;
- the Erlend Oye album;
- In Rainbows by Radiohead
- and the last Gossip album

[d.a.walker]

I've bought the Radiohead album, and am a bit perplexed as it sounds too like Thom's solo work.

I love the Erlend Oye album, it's one of my favourites I love the opening track Ghost Trains

Alison Moyet has been bumped from my top ten so I am back down to 9, Hometime this album is not unfortunately

Buck 65 is way near the top now, god I love it, it's fun!!

The dark horse for me has been Hooverphonic!!!! I loved their first two albums, and really didn't like the commercial stuff they descended into when Sony controlled them. This new album is back to their darker roots and it sounds brilliant!!!