The top 30, part two.

Before I dig into the second half of my list - allow me to respond to some...responses to my first. Why didn't Clipse make it? Because I haven't heard the record, nor have I tried to. What I did hear was derivative and boring, so I didn't make the effort. C'est la vie. I do acknowledge that there is a serious lack of hip-hop on my list, but I also don't feel like there were many UBER-quality releases this year - Dabrye's follow-up Two-Three was too MC-heavy, DJ Shadow's The Outsider tried too hard to be too many things all at once. Quantic is on there. Hu Vibrational is a hip-hop project...kinda. Deal with it. This all said, here's the rest of the best - the pop/rock/punk/metal/dub/what-have-you section...enjoy.

15. Professor Murder - Professor Murder Rides The Subway - Canine Records
My friend Greg likes to say, "there is much to said for brevity", which IS funny - but here on this record, it's real. Yes, it's an EP, but I think I also mean brevity of ideas, brevity of...daringness. This is dancey dub-rock, leaning heavily on the NY post-punk klingklang (not unlike The Jai-Alai Savant or even early Police) with a hip hop attitude that's unbeatable. "The Mountain" might be my favorite track on the disc...it's got that soaring reggae melodica over their cowbell-driven hot hot pop shuffle. Sure, the effort might be, well, brief, but it's taste of more awesome to come.



14. Chad VanGaalen - Skelliconnection - Flemish Eye/Sub Pop
Oh Chad, yr so fucking weird sometimes. You lure us in with your charming falsettos and spaced out, glitch heavy oddities...then slap us around with three-chord powerpop ear-fucks about riding bikes into the lake and telling on-stage (and off-color) jokes about the legendary 'hobo dildo' (frozen poop in a condom. gross, dude). I wonder if people watching Andy Kaufman for the first time thought what people do when they watch Chad play- like they're witnessing a slice of uncomfortable, ill-fitting genius. I wonder.




13. Fucked Up - Hidden World - Jade Tree
Punk's not dead, it just moved to Toronto. And not just the sound, but it brought its old forgotten friends, LYRICS THAT MATTER and COOL NAMES FOR YOURSELVES; Vocals by Pink Eyes. Guitars by 10,000 Marbles and Concentration Camp. Bass by Mustard Gas. Drums by Mr. Jo. How fucking cool is that? This is the best punk album of the last 5 years, hands down. The comparisons to Black Flag come just a little too easily, so I'd prefer to think of it in terms of what they are NOT: cheesy, fake, stupid, untalented, shouty. This band will matter MUCH more than they already do. Pay attention.



12. Califone - Roots & Crowns - Thrill Jockey
I had nearly forgotten about Califone. They were one of those bands that fights for your attention as a campus radio DJ (as I was for almost 10 years), consistently putting out solid releases, but this one perhaps takes the cake. Moody, densely produced but not hiding anything persay, Roots & Crowns is really a showcase for the SONG part of music - y'know, the kind with intros, outros, choruses and proper bridges. Makeout music, perhaps. Considering that this is only their second non-instrumental record, the vocals come through in hushed, yet confident tones - warm, trustable, kind. It's a winner, all around.



11. Brightblack Morning Light - Brightblack Morning Light - Matador
This album is like the all-time best-of soundtrack to every massive bong hit, ever. Slow, tripped-out echo bass, spooky whispered vocals and long, winding progressive guitar harmonies breathe life (and little spots of death) all over this brilliant, colorful record. Nathan Shineywater and Rachael Hughes live in tents in Northern California, which seems overly appropriate for music that sounds like it was made by the kind of people who chain themselves to trees. And take acid. And *feel* the colors, maaaaan.





10. Our Mercury - From Below - Smallman Records
I was lucky enough to get demos of this record before it was mastered, and I knew then that the O.M. boys had unlocked a crate of gold. Never before has punk rock sounded so HONEST, so SOULFUL, so eager to sex you up...it's drenched in organs, and bleeding the catchiest riffs this side of U2's Boy; the relentlessly precise drumming and the bass...ooh, that bass. It sinks into your skin and shakes you right to your toes. Twitch twitch boogie boogie.





9. Erase Errata - Night Life - Kill Rock Stars
Speaking of twitch n' boogie, Erase Errata dropped THE best dancerock album of the year. It's for the kind of dancing best done drunk. The bass is thicker, the voice more confident; Jenny shouts, plays trumpet, shouts some more - "they've got a law in the desert/they've got a law t'protek yo'children! I love it. I wish The Rapture put out a just-as-good third record...but they didn't. San Fran rules, New York.

Eat it.




8. Destroyer - Rubies - Merge
7. M. Ward - Post-War - Merge
These records are un-fucking-real. I chose to group them because they are both the evidence of two great songwriters at a peak of their own creative genius. Dan Bejar's longtime solo project just gets better and better, sacrificing nothing for accessibility, which is what makes this so appealing - it speaks to your senses about what YOU like to hear...Ted Bois shines on the keys all over the disc, giving a jazzy backing shuffle to Bejar's awkwardly-toned phrasing. Whatever fans he lost in releasing the bizarre, synth-heavy Your Blues, he's won back with Rubies' priceless pop gems, huge orchestrations and cynical-slash- romantic lyricism: "I couldn't stand a chance/ I couldn't stand at all/ You looked OK with the other"

Releasing the best album of his still-short and promising career, M(att) Ward has assembled one of the finest bands in the country, who play so loosely and naturally they sound...gifted. Fronting it with a throaty falsetto, he spins questions and answers about the countryside, the government, family and what it means to be American in this millennium. He is already an important artist, but I have a feeling M. Ward is en route to 'legend songwriter' status'. It's almost now a certainty, since Bruce Springsteen and R.E.M. have both requested his support on recent tours. I got a chance to see him play a mesmerizing solo set in Calgary over the summer, and if his talents aren't enough, it turns out that he's a really really nice dude. Vote Bejar/Ward in '08!

6. Mates of State - Bring it Back - Barsuk
1 cup keyboards.
3 heaping tablespoons drums.
1/2 cup harmonies to make your heart melt.
Bake at 325 for 10 minutes.
I've spent too long in other blogs yakking about how Mates of State have written what is perhaps the recipe for a perfect pop record. Production-wise, this release is miles ahead of where they were in the chaotic, treble-heavy Team Boo days; fuller sounds, choice uses of stereo and gorgeous Queen-style harmony layers of voice on voice all contribute to the overall...flavor of the disc. And it doesn't need salt.

5. Converge - No Heroes - Epitaph
A stark contrast from most other releases on this list, Converge's SIXTH full-length shows them at the very top of their metal game. I really do contend that Ben Koller is one of the best drummers in modern music - the guy is just so...sharp. What could have been a more 'natural' progression into more hard, fast chug-heavy hardcore, the band has a wee flash of revisionism, and starts to sound a bit like...themselves, 10 years ago. Still malevolent and brutal as always, Jacob Bannon howls pure poetry on the stunning opener "Heartache": "Every word that you pray makes another slave/ every idol that you build brings another plague/ every cross that you bear grows another grave" Whoah. Chilling.

4. Yo La Tengo - I am not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass - Matador
How fitting that Yo La Tengo's violently-titled music sounds nothing like Converge. Ira Kaplan & Crew join the many on this list who have made the best albums of their careers (so far) with a disc that hits it's stride on "Mr Tough" and keeps rolling. From the first, 11-minute opus to the last string strummed, Yo La Tengo charms us nearly to death on this near-perfect album. After 26 years as band seeking the inner paradigms of pop music (and The Velvet Underground, for that matter), at the end of the day they make music that will make you seek out something warm to drink and someone cuddle with.



3. TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain - 4AD
I can't say anything here that hasn't been said on a billion other blogs. Indie rock has rediscovered its' soul, praise jebus.










2. Pink Mountaintops - Axis of Evol - Jagjaguar
Also chock full o'soul was this sophmore release from Vancouver's gospel-choir-on-acid, led by the devastatingly talented Stephen McBean. Spooky diatribes about sex, drugs and uh, sex are strung together through a mish-mash of whisky-soaked Americana, Miami booty bass and psychedelic rock. A short album overall, it packs a punch while getting you all hot n'bothered. Nothing wrong with that, now is there?





1. The Golden Dogs - Big Eye Little Eye - True North
I had never heard of this band two months ago, and somehow they've captured my mind and my heart and my feet and my ears, holding them all hostage to their completely addictive and ridiculously catchy pop n' rock n ' roll. Check "Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five", perhaps the standout track on the disc, with it's spiraling psychedelia and gorgeous harmonies, shouting with earnestness that almost makes your heart sing. There is a true craft to constructing the perfect pop song, and The Golden Dogs have an album brimming with effort towards that very end. On one hand, their exuberance reminds me of early Supergrass, but with an honesty that's 100% Canadian. Lets all raise our glass to unexpected brillance.

Honorable mentions:
-Sonic Youth: Rather Ripped
-Belle & Sebastien: The Life Pursuit
-Islands: Return to the Sea
-Justin Rutledge: The Devil on a Bench in Stanley Park
-Andre Ethier: Pickles & Price
-From Fiction: Bloodwork


And that's that. What I've heard from the first sneak peeks of 2007 are stunners in their own right. Run, don't walk to buy the new Of Montreal, LCD Soundsystem & Bloc Party (when they come out). All are sure to make you love your fuckin' life.