Album of the Year

Back in 2003, Spencer Krug was an up and coming Canadian musician who was tabbed by Arcade Fire to appear on their Us Kids Know tour (back when they were still relatively unknown), so he called up fellow Canadian guitarist Dan Boeckner (of Atlas Strategic) and they wrote a bunch of songs in three weeks to become Wolf Parade.  Hadji Bakara joined in 2004, and Dante DeCaro brought in percussions in 2005, and in September, this new band would release its first full-length, Apologies to the Queen Mary, which would become my #2 favorite album of the year.  While recording for Wolf Parade, Spencer spent time working on a solo side project under the moniker Sunset Rubdown, and after a series of self-released EPs, Camilla Wynn Ingr and others were added to the now-full fledged band to record their first full length, Shut Up I Am Dreaming, released in the summer of 2006, which would become my #2 favorite album of that year.  Spencer then recorded another side project with friend and Frog Eyes-frontman Carey Mercer, along with Destroyer and New Pornographer Dan Bejar, for a band they called Swan Lake, which released my #8 favorite song of 2006 "Are You Swimming in Her Pools?"  His Sunset Rubdown performance of "Winged / Wicked Things" for the Daytrotter website became my #4 favorite song of the year. 

In 2007, never one to slow down, Spencer recorded a cover version of Xiu Xiu's "Apistat Commander" for their Remixed & Covered album, which would end up as my #2 favorite song of the year.  He was also part of the Frog Eyes release in the spring that appears later on this list.  And bandmate Boeckner, not content to allow Spencer be the only obsessively overworked member of Wolf Parade, released his own debut side project album, Handsome Furs' Plague Park, which is my #2 favorite album of the year.  Which leads us all to August, 2007, when Sunset Rubdown's follow-up to Shut Up I Am Dreaming was leaked to the Internet, I downloaded it, plugged it into my iPod and took a drive while listening to it and thought - at very first glance - it wasn't that great.  But by the 2nd or 3rd listen, I realized that I was not only mistaken, but this was a true work of staggering genius.  By the 10th and 20th listen, I realized this was one of the greatest albums I'd ever heard.  The first track, "The Mending of the Gown" would go on to be my #1 favorite song of the year.  "Up On Your Leopard, Upon the End of Your Feral Days", the third track, ended up at #3.  "For the Pier (and Dead Shimmering)" reached #17.  And fully four other tracks (7 total of the 11 on the record) made my top 100 songs of 2007.  So yes, it's not really a surprise, but after two straight years at #2, Spencer Krug now has the #1 album of the year.  A more impressive three-year run at the top of the indie rock game has not been seen in a long, long time, if ever.

1. Sunset Rubdown - Random Spirit Lover

• Download Sunset Rubdown - "Trumpet, Trumpet, Toot! Toot!".mp3

(From "The Mending of the Gown")...

It was the tender mending of this slender gown that brought me bending to the ground.
Now you'll wear any old thing, oh you'll wear any old thing.
So she wrapped herself in swallowing up the fever to the air of a broken wing
It's an act, I think she's just pretending.
It's an act, I think she's just pretending!
If you burn the virgin flags, then I will shake (shake!)
As the heat waves in the sand.
This one's for Maggie (this one's for Maggie), this one's for Sam (this one's for Sam)
This one's for Maggie (this one's for Maggie), this one's for Sam (this one's for Sam)
Oh any other random spirit lover busted, I have lusted after you...
The way bloodsuckers do.  The way bloodsuckers do.  The way bloodsuckers do!

#2.  Handsome Furs - Plague Park

• Dan Boeckner has taken a backseat to Spencer in the years since Wolf Parade's debut album, but this album has put him back onto close to equal footing, reminding us listeners of his own genius and getting us filled with anticipation for the Wolf Parade follow-up, rumored to be completed (but when is it coming out?  anyone know?  I cannot wait).
• Download Handsome Furs - "The Radio's Hot Sun (Live)".mp3

#3.  Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank

• As a longtime Mouse fan, I can admit that the new album doesn't reach the heights of Lonesome Crowded West or This is a Long Drive For Someone with Nothing to Think About, but for latter-day Mouse antics, this is definitely far superior to their last release, and includes so many moments of brilliance, particularly on the 2nd half of the album, that I can forgive the pop aspirations of a "Dashboard" or a "Fire It Up" when the utter majesty of "Spitting Venom" and "Parting of the Sensory" is taken into account.  A pretty great return to form by the modern legends.
• Download Modest Mouse - "Little Motel".mp3

#4.  Explosions in the Sky - All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone

• This was a really difficult decision, in that any of the next 4 or 5 albums could easily move into this position, but I went with the one that's been out the longest (since February), that still has songs I listen to regularly, all these months later.  Not a great leap forward for the band, but staying as good as previous masterpieces is pretty much all I can ask.
• Download Explosions in the Sky - "So Long, Lonesome (Eluvium mix)".mp3

#5.  Kevin Drew - Broken Social Scene Presents Spirit If...

• "Fucked Up Kid" is in my opinion the greatest thing Drew has ever written, which is saying a lot for the leader of the brilliant Canadian collective BSS, but this pseudo solo effort has wonderful music throughout and actually had 3 songs make #1 of the week this fall ("Backed Out on the..." and "Farewell to the Pressure Kids" along with "Fucked Up Kid"), a feat not even reached by Sunset Rubdown.  Just a wonderful, wonderful album.
• Download Kevin Drew - "Safety Bricks".mp3

#6.  Okkervil River - The Stage Names

• Somehow both disappointing and surprisingly good, this mild departure from Will Sheff's earlier work includes some notable gems ("Unless It's Kicks", "John Allyn Smith Sails") and a couple head-scratchingly dull dirges, but overall, it works on so many wonderful levels and after so many listens, I can't help but slide it close to my top 5 of the year.
• Download Okkervil River - "Unless It's Kicks (solo demo)".mp3

#7.  Do Make Say Think - You, You're a History in Rust

• Both a great leap forward and a comeback of sorts for this Canadian band of instrumentalists, there are so many surges and shifts on this album that it really needs to be listened to in its entirety to grasp its brilliance, but songs like "In Mind", "The Universe!", and "A Tender History in Rust" stand out amongst all the great music.
• Download Do Make Say Think - "You, You're Awesome".mp3

#8.  Arcade Fire - Neon Bible

• My top 8 includes 5 Canadian bands (go Canada!) and this grandaddy of them all, the one who basically brought wonderful Canadian indie rock into American's consciousness, is the lowest ranked.  But that doesn't mean this wasn't a great album.  It was just a little too bombastic, a little too Springsteen-tinged, and the quiet moments of brilliance on Funeral are missing here.  It's still one of the best albums of the year.
• Download Arcade Fire - "Windowsill".mp3

#9.  Panda Bear - Person Pitch

• Talk about an album that snuck up on me... everyone and their brother was raving about this release back in the spring, but I couldn't get into it.  And yet I found myself listening every once in a while, and slowly but surely, I looked past the Beach Boys comparisons (which I don't quite get) and found a little piece of brilliance in the way the tracks generate such life and energy out of such simple movements.  Strikingly original, devastatingly personal, this second solo effort by a non-lead member of Animal Collective is awfully wonderful.  I just can't believe it took me so long to realize it.
• Download Panda Bear - "Ponytail".mp3

#10.  The New Pornographers - Challengers

• Perhaps because I just wanted a 6th! Canadian band in the top 10, but this diverse affair from this diverse band kind of plays it too safe in some places and the Dan Bejar tracks were surprisingly not standouts for me (they usually are), but I think the AC Newman songs are some of his best, with the closing moments of "Adventures in Solitude" some of their greatest moments ever on record.

#11.  Mum - Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy

#12.  The National - Boxer

#13. Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha

#14.  Bright Eyes - Cassadaga

#15.  The Octopus Project - Hello Avalanche

#16.  Frog Eyes - Tears of the Valedictorian

#17.  Radiohead - In Rainbows

#18.  Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam

#19.  Sigur Ros - Hvarf / Heim

#20.  Thurston Moore - Trees Outside the Academy

#21.  Stars - In Our Bedroom After the War

#22.  Beirut - The Flying Club Cup

#23.  Caspian - The Four Trees

#24.  Low - Drums and Guns

#25.  LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver

Comments

[wayne]

Despite getting positive and glowing reviews almost everywhere Random Spirit Lover seems to be an omission on many end of year lists. I don't understand why, it is clearly the best album of 2007. Great list btw, I could really only add Spoon's wonderful album to it. Btw, by all accounts the new Wolf Parade is finished but Subpop have pushed back its release till June. I hope this is wrong and that they give it an earlier release.

[Bill Elenbark]

June?? I don't know if I can wait that long. Why, SubPop, why? Well, I guess the band members have put out enough good music in '07 to make it worth the wait.