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January 01, 2008
Quarterly Report: 4th Quarter of 2007 Podcast
In reviewing the contenders for the cream of the last three months, I was afraid that I'd be pulverizing the same ex-horse that our year end lists have been gang kicking for weeks now. So, I was surprised and relieved to find almost zero overlap with the songs that we chose as 2007's defining pick-a-mix. Perhaps these 20 odd treats just haven't sunk in? So feast on these succulent children of neglect, you monsters, and digest just how good 2007 was for new music when taken in a few messy heaps at a time.
Album of the Quarter : Sunset Rubdown - Random Spirit Lover
Runners up: Radiohead - In Rainbows, Glass Candy - Beatbox, the Fiery Furnaces - Widow City
"Merry Swankster Fourth Quarter Podcast 2007"
Tracklisting :
01: Chromatics - "I'm on Fire" (from Studio Sketches, Bruce Springsteen cover)
It's only fitting that this year capping set, of a very Boss colored 365, should start with a Springsteen tune. Ruth Radalet sighs some sensuality back into Bruce's humid lust fest, and Johnny Jewel's restrained synth swells go down way too easy to ever earn the ol' "anthemic" epithet. Quite an impressive little gaggle of hip female singers (Electrelane and Bat for Lashes among them) have tried to appropriate this tune, but this feels definitively slinky.
02: Glass Candy - "Digital Versicolor" (from Beatbox)
But even better are Jewel's euro disco floodlights at full beam, able to daze even the strongest doe or buck.
03: Holy Ghost! - "Hold On" (DFA single)
More disco but in a different flavor. Less Italian sex club than Manhattan loft party. So a bit less erotically charged and attractive maybe, but it compensates with a slightly more cerebral touch.
04: Die Regenbogen Jugend - "Frosted Cupcake" (from Mit Schlag)
You can claim nepotism if you like, but my Portland pals' synth-sprinkled confection still hasn't gone stale for me yet. I hide my defensiveness in abominable puns, you see, as I'd hate to let DRJ's long-standing chum status to yours truly, or their song's inherent Germanic goofiness, discount what an intrinsically swell little krautpop gem it is.
05: Future of the Left - "Manchasm" (from Curses)
I've spilled a well of digital ink on this track already, so I'll just take a quick moment to brand those who dislike a bunch of Colins.
06: Old Time Relijun - "Indestructible Life!" (from Catharsis in Crisis)
There are still wonders to be found in obsessively parsing year end lists after all. This Pitchfork acknowledged wrecking ball escaped my attention all year before transfixing me with wild abandon before that belated first spin was even half over. The K Records veterans' No Wave saxophone and gusto drenched delivery moves them past primal and straight on to elemental.
07: Arcade Fire - "Poupee de Cire, Poupee de Son" (France Gall/Serge Gainsbourg cover, from tour only split 7" with LCD Soundsystem)
God, why can't they just sound this recklessly exciting and enchantingly nuanced all the time and not just when dusting off an old francophone classic?
08: Sunset Rubdown - "The Taming of the Hands That Came Back to Life" (from Random Spirit Lover)
Maybe my favorite single bit of Random Spirit Lover is in this track when Krug seems to poke fun at his own gift of making the oddest non sequitur sound deeply earnest and autobiographically important. "It's the taming of the hands that came back to life/ when she synchronize swam on the ice in '03/ Oh, but enough about me..." I just love that.
09: Sonic Youth - "I'm Not There" (from I'm Not There Original Soundtrack, Bob Dylan cover)
I feel like Thurston couldn't have covered this track with such conviction in his early career; there would have been too much irony leaking from his sideways grin. In the mid tempo waltz mode that's provided so many late period Youth highlights, these old lyrics take on a kind of magic grace.
10: Grizzly Bear - "Alligator (Choir Version)" (from Friend EP)
Beirut's Zach Condon and a mess of Dirty Projectors pitch in to turn an old song sketch into the sort of amorphous melody cloud that the band's growing rep was founded on. There's a bit of welcome thunder in this cumulonimbus as well.
11: Deerhunter - "Calvary Scars" (Daytrotter Session)
Bradford Cox is to 2007 as Spencer Krug was to 2006, i.e, the only man who spanned all four 'casts. With the Atlas Sound LP looming, Deerhunter's Cryptograms follow up in the works, and the blog posted tracks never ending, an '08 repeat isn't at all out of the question. In the present, this probable Microcastle inclusion bodes well for a Deerhunter pivot towards quietly spooked from their sweetly fuzzed or darkly distorted poles.
12: Of Montreal- "Feminine Effects" (from Minnesota Public Radio session)
I'll go on record as saying that I wouldn't want Kevin Barnes and Co. to completely transition into the sexually cocky funk band hinted at by his live show. This October track, recorded on Minnesota Public radio, gives me confidence that the 2008 scheduled Skeletal Lamping album will still be full of the guts splayed lyrical vulnerability that made Hissing Fauna... the year's best. Plus it kind of sounds like a song from Goodbye Yellowbrick Road, in an awesome way.
13: Radiohead - "Nude" (from In Rainbows)
The only one of these songs to crack or '07 top fifty, with good reason. When Radiohead spends a decade trying to perfect a song, that song gets perfected.
14: the Fiery Furnaces - "Restorative Beer" (from Widow City)
As always it took some attentive decoding for me to de-thorn the Furnaces' newest so it could be safely stowed in my chest, but this track was always easily lovable. Even if Eleanor's deadpan doesn't move you (and your opinion is objectively wrong there, by the way) listen to the way the synth tones and guitar slides practically weep in unison. Also, it's about the medicinal qualities of beer, which is some dorm room logic you can't ignore.
15: David Byrne - "For You" (from Worried Noodles compilation)
As with all lengthy multiple artist compilations the two disc Worried Noodles set, based on the lyrics and drawings of sardonic artist David Shrigley, is a hit or miss affair. But head Heads man David Byrne has too strong a sense of self for his interpretation to sound like anything but his own laid back, slightly tropical steez. I admit to being less than up on his present day doings, but this sounds surprisingly swell.
16: High Places - "New Grace" (from Mistletonia X-Mas compilation)
My frequent evangelism for the Brooklyn duo has begun to pay dividends in annoyed comments, so I'll just reservedly note that this Carribean indie pop banger is the best they've yet sounded.
17: Fuck Buttons - "Bright Tomorrow" (Single, edit)
For a noise band with such a middle finger of a monicker, it's weird how blissed out this sounds. Even that pterodactyl screech comes in towards the end can't swing it to the wrong side of abrasive.
18: Kylie Minogue - "2 Hearts" (Single)
Sometimes, when you look back at footage of Roxy Music just completely freaking out on the BBC airwaves, it can seeming baffling that glam rock ever had such strong popular support. But listening to the universal kicks drawn from Kylie's stomping drums and vamping piano, it seems astounding that the genre isn't dominant still.
19: YACHT - "I Saw You" (from Worried Noodles compilation)
Another worried noodle that loses none of Shrigley's humor in it's propulsive chug.
20: Cass McCombs - "That's That" (from Dropping the Writ)
It's title is a nice summation of a year's track sifting toil, but Cass McCombs modest little pop number isn't even very concerned with giving a comprehensive account of the ill-fated relationship it details. But it's sweet, funny, and self deprecating to boot. Traits to admire no matter the calendar digit.
On with the newness now, promise.
Posted by Jeff Klingman at January 1, 2008 11:30 PM
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Comments
Podcast...new Texas focus, no rest for the weary in 2008! Our final best of countdown up tomorrow folks..
Posted by: Sebastian at January 2, 2008 01:07 AM
It's funny seeing "modest" and "cass" in the same sentences, but I I get your point, musically speaking. Oh and who was griping about High Places? I saw that one maniac who decided that somehow he was angered by sincere, non-pretentious, beautifully-crafted, wided-eyed, psych-pop (with an unexpected Miami Bass bump-a-bility), but it's your blog, and you can write about who-ever you want! I's not like you are the Wall St. Journal or something! Don't get bullied by a socio-path!
Posted by: hank at January 2, 2008 11:15 AM
I didn't feel bullied exactly, but it did sort of make me realize that getting really excited everytime I found another song of theirs might not be wildly interesting for everyone. But I'll take heart in the support of hank I guess.
Posted by: Jeff K at January 2, 2008 11:41 AM
Jeff: On the Subset Rubdown track (8): I like that part too. Something about his tone right after '03 through the end of the lyric that is just perfect. RSL is littered with such things.
Posted by: Sebastian at January 3, 2008 08:04 PM
