Some Music from 2007! A non-authoritative list

Ok so I was gonna copy others (won’t name who) and do: My favorite albums of 2007.

But since I have a baby and is broke, I revised it to: The only albums I bought in 2007.

But having recently reloaded my PC, it turned out more difficult to check “dated added” than I thought, so we further revised to: Albums I remember buying this year.

And since this list is both horribly inaccurate, I will supplement afterwards with: Addendum; Songs I bought on iTunes because I couldn’t justify spending on the whole album when there was only one track I was sure of, and I didn’t want the rest of the album enough to wait for the one track until I bought it.

Got all that?

Ok, without further ado, and in as close to an order as I can recall…

• Vega 4 [You and Others] ~ Saw them live.. I think at the Fineline. Opening for somebody good. I really, really like them and expect them to be widely ignored in the musical world. This points out that my accolades are a Scarlet Letter a band would wish to avoid. However short, all tracks are fantastic!
• Brandi Carlile [The Story] ~ Saw her live in 2006. Opening for somebody good.. Train I think. Liked her debut better. Still a nice album, and did better commercially. I saw her sign autographs. Got the impression she was not a person I wanted to know. But talented girl none the less.
• MuteMath [Self titled] ~ Wow, perhaps find of the year. Yeah I know they broke just before 2006 ended, but I got around to them in 1 Qtr. Can’t wait to see them open for Matchbox in Feb! They are absolutely fantastic.
• Mario Spinetti (aka Aiden Eve and the Innocents) ~ No album yet. Bought any online track I could. So that counts. This kid is may still be a teenager. Kind of a Jeff Buckley style, with out the guitar playing. Most lush and decadent sound I’ve ever heard. Amazing use of layered looping. Beats Imogen Heap’s solo work! Can’t wait for him to get a full album finished!
• Arcade Fire [Neon Bible] ~ Very nice. But unremarkably so. Everyone else thinks this is one of the best albums of the year. I can't disagree. But sure leaves me little to say other than, "yeah it's good" too.
  
• Sarah Bareilles [Little Voice] ~ Best Singer songwriter to come out in years. Bought on a whim after hearing “Love song” once like 6 months ago. Song (and Sarah) is just now catching on big time. Lots of great tracks.
• 89.3 The Current [Live Current Vol 1.] ~ Finally flinched and dropped a pile of money on the Current member drive again to get all three Live discs. They were giving out the last of the Live Vol. 1, and this is the one that I wanted. This one has a great Halloween Alaska track, and starts with my favorite Dan Wilson, "Free Life". All in all, a great comp.
• 89.3 The Current [Live Current Vol 2.] ~ This one is also great. I don't have it with me for a track list. A little more urban sound. Still some great stuff.
  
• 89.3 The Current [Live Current Vol 3.] ~My least favorite of the three. Starts with a Frank Black song. I must be missing something. Why is he so popular? Is it because everyone thinks he is under appreciated so they over appreciate him? I gotta get that kinda gig.
  
• Matchbox 20 [Exile on Mainstream] ~ Gift from Sarah, with tickets to show. Good stuff. Only 6 new songs though. Still I dig the single.
• Pat Monahan [Last of Seven] ~ Bought for Sarah for Xmas. Still nice stuff. Pat did good. No tracks stand out though.

Now iTunes Singles:

• Bob Dylan “Someday Baby” ~ For the blues band. Great track though.
• Paolo Nutini “New Shoes” ~ Sarah wanted BFF to cover. Nice track.
• Feist “1234” ~ Heard on Apple commercial once. Good enough for me. Though now I hear the rest of the album is great too, should have bought it.
• Flaming Lips “The Wand” ~ Again, Apple commercial. Backfiring advertising? I’m buying the music not the product?
• Paul Van Dyk “Time of Our Lives” ~ Vega lead singer solo track. Heard it on a Jeep commercial. Notice a pattern yet?
• Catherine Wheel “Black Metallic” ~ iTunes is nice for grabbing deep category tracks you missed when they came out. This one is apparently a classic. Heard it on the Current and had to have.
• Jason Isbell “Dress Blues” ~ Single of the year for me. An amazingly powerful war related song from the lead signer of Drive By Truckers. Should be a favorite of both Soldiers and war protesters.
• Steve Earle “Oxycontin Blues” ~ Most current and relevant blues song I’ve ever heard. Makes blues accessible to modern life.
• Damien Marley “Welcome to Jamrock” ~ Too catchy. Too damn catchy. Now if I just understood the lyrics…
• Ryan Adams “Everybody Knows” and “Wonderwall” ~ Will probably get around to buying Easy Tiger. But I wasn’t sure. Couple of great tracks on there. And I just really liked his Oasis cover. Don’t tell Warfy.
• Prince “Guitar” ~ First Prince buy in.. twenty years? Love the track. Fun, lighthearted. Oh and ripping guitar. His guitar playing is amazing, and he should go down as one of the greatest players to have lived. If people could just not get distracted by his “Brand”-ness.

Well that’s it. How the mighty have fallen. Used to by several albums a month, and I thought that was showing restraint. Responsible parent. That’s me.

Still on my want list:

Trash Can Sinatras Weightlifting, Happy Pocket, Snow, and Fez A few old albums from a band I love.

Okkervil River The Stage Names

Spoon Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

Regina Spektor Being to Hope

Jem Finally Woken

The New Pornographers Challengers

Band Of Horses Cease to Begin

The National Boxer

Sigor Ros Hwarf/Heim

Iron and Wine Sheppards Dog

Kinda pitiful huh? There's more, but that's what I felt like putting down.

Oh well thanks for making it this far.
~Nato

Hmm sounds risky..

Been waxing [un]poetically on friends blogs on this site for awhile.. filling their comments boxes with my own useless drivel. Rather selfishly too I might add.

So after surrendering to my internal lament for not having a place to log my own random thoughts, I finally take the step to setup a blog of my own.

For the most part, I would consider this to be far too risky. And setting this up was a matter of shortsighted optimism, and indulgent denial. For the most part, bloggers I know blog fairly lighthearted stuff. It seems that what I need to vent is far heavier and less acceptable. Philosophy, religion, politics, these are things polite conversation has long considered taboo. And with good reason. These can be too divisive, and inflammatory, even between the closest of lovers, let alone families or strangers. But since I occasionally feel our collective car is getting closer to the cliff, why not look out the window as we go?

Why risky you might still think? Well, I feel that this internet thing is still mighty young. And often following great bursts liberal expansion, society can revolve, and retighten it's expectations of behavior. I do not think my own thoughts worthy of being targeted, but never the less, I have little interest in being under the boot-heel of reflexive repression. [Consider Americans who were curious about this new well-meaning, equality-based, utopian vision of government that popped up in the middle of the last century. Even if Communism was a doomed theory of government, the witch-hunts against it cared not how it affected those it investigated. Lives were destroyed, for even being suspected of attending an information session. And this was just 50 years ago in the land of the free. I don't want to end up in a extra-national prison camp ala Gitmo.]

Plus I still kinda harbor an interest in running for political office, and it would be foolish to torpedo my future for the sake of a little intellectual diarrhea now.. not that I can stop.. look how long this post already is. Mark my words. Salmon Rushdie will not be the last to have reason to fear for how easy it is to be condemned from afar with this new world order.

Thanks for visiting! =-) Have a nice day!