Time is slowly trundling 2008-wards, which usually means, among other things, scads of link-bait "Best of 2007" lists. Everyone from Google to Random Blogger #1290485093 (yours truly included, of course) will be throwing together zeitgeists with varying levels of success in an effort to drive a little bit more traffic to pre-archive content.
There are a handful of these that I look forward to though: Popmatters‘ "Best Music" list is usually really good (see their 2006 picks here), as is Rotten Tomatoes‘ "Annual Golden Tomato Awards" (2006 was their 8th year running). The coolest one for me though, is the fan-powered Gummy Awards, sponsored by music-blog extraordinaire Stereogum, which I just submitted my votes to this morning. Indie fans plug in their top 3 albums of the year, and optionally, their favorite music video, favorite live act, etc. People who are interested in the indie music scene will already know what the favorites to win are. This year has had some incredible contributions, but a handful of albums have really stood head-and-shoulders above the rest. I’ll be writing a lengthier entry about this within the next two weeks as I finalize my own "Best of 2007" list, but the short list of finest albums includes:
- Radiohead’s "In Rainbows"
- Band of Horses’ "Cease to Begin"
- Klaxons’ "Myths of the Near Future"
- Sunset Rubdown’s "Random Spirit Lover"
- The Shins’ "Wincing the Night Away"
- Animal Collective’s "Strawberry Jam"
- Blonde Redhead’s "23"
- Miracle Fortress’ "Five Roses"
- Modest Mouse’s "We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank"
- The National’s "Boxer"
- Besnard Lakes’ "The Besnard Lakes are the Dark Horse"
- Menomena’s "Friend and Foe"
- Feist’s "The Reminder"
- Beirut’s "The Flying Club Cup"
- Battles’ "Mirrored"
The first 4 are the albums that I listened to the most this year, and each one has their own unique charm about them. Radiohead’s electro-rock sound is majestic and minimal at the same time, Band of Horses is folk-rock if folk-rock could grow Wolverine claws and stab you in the heart with each song, Klaxons is the triumphant rebirth of unapologetic new wave/rave, and Sunset Rubdown is, quite simply, what insanity sounds like.
After some consideration, I decided to vote for Radiohead, Band of Horses and Sunset Rubdown at the Gummy page. I skipped the other optional voting fields, but did pick "Spencer Krug" as Mr. Indie Hottie 2007 and "Leslie Fiest" as Ms. Indie Hottie 2007. (My first instinct was to go with Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley, but their album wasn’t quite as good as Feist’s. Chan Marshall is still hotter than both of them put together though; if only she had actually released something this year.)