87. Kanye West - Graduation (2007)

Kanye West. Who gives a shit about Kanye West? I don't, except for his music, of course--which is certainly the only thing about him that anyone probably should give a shit about. This album came off the massive success of Late Registration, and was viewed as kind of a step down, but now I think it can be seen as a proto-My Dark Twisted Fantasy--a lot of the stuff that was fully successful there can be seen here in embryo. There's a lot of crap on here, though--"Good Life" is a generic party-rap track more suited to T.I. than Kanye, "Big Brother" is unmemorable and the collaboration with Chris Martin sucks about as much as his collaboration with the Maroon 500 guy on Late Registration ruled (a lot). But Kanye definitely tries to open things up here--there's Daft Punk samples, a Moby-ish choral backing on "Can't Tell Me Nothing" (great track) and the stunning "Drunk and Hot Girls", a song that seemingly everyone hates but me. I think it's fantastic, and the intentionally-ugly backing and West's lazy vocals perfectly convey the song's subject. The reason I'm mentioning individual songs here is that there isn't much of a coherent sound--West is just messing around, trying different things, and while it's certainly not awful it does feel rote compared to what came before and what came after.

MY RATING: 6.7

Kanye West - "Champion"

99. Lil Wayne - Da Drought 3 (2007)

First off: Lil Wayne is some kind of a genius. There is nobody else in hip-hop with his ability to conjure up bizarre images from nothing--his skill in wordplay is unmatched. The problem, like with many geniuses, is he seemingly has no ability to distinguish between quality and subpar work: he just lets it all flow out of him as it comes and the rest of us have to try to pick out the good stuff from the bad. This mixtape is a nearly two hour-long tribute to Weezy's genius and madness, and you're just as likely to be amazed as you are to be bored. There are tracks so tight they could have fit on a regular album ("Walk It Out") and Wayne ranting for ten minutes over a minimalistic beat ("Outro"). If you're the type who likes his albums to be immaculate objects without flaw, then stay far away, but if you don't mind sitting through some boredom, then this won't seem too bad. Me I'm not really the type to sit through stuff like Self-Portrait and Sandanista! even though I'm a big fan of both Bob Dylan and the Clash, so this album's appeal is fairly limited for me. But if you like Wayne, this is nothing less than his brain torn out and spread out over two hours of music. Beware.

MY RATING: 5.6

Lil Wayne - "Swizzy (Remix)"

105. Battles - Mirrored (2007)

I've yet to wander much into the somewhat frightening (and terribly-named) world that is "math-rock"; it seems to be more about technical prowess than emotion and I don't like that kind of stuff. Battles vary the palette with adding weird, processed vocals and when it's all put together this stuff sounds like battle (aha!) music for some kind of possessed chipmunk army. One thing to be said: the musicianship on this record is almost wholly perfect and the production is fantastic. "Race:In" performs the neat trick of making it sound like the performers are going at it right in your own room, and "Bad Trails" is repetitive but produces a frightening little atmosphere (and was memorably used in the underrated film Big Fan). The problem with albums that carve out a distinct sonic atmosphere for themselves (and this one certainly does) is that if the resulting album is not sufficiently emotionally convincing it can sound like novelty music, a one-off. Two other famous "singular-sounding" albums--My Bloody Valentine's Loveless and Slint's Spiderland--moved beyond their oddness through transcendence in the first case and power and terror in the second, and this album really has neither of those. It's a nifty little curio, and since this band seems to be all but broken up right now, never to release a followup, that's probably what it will remain.

MY RATING: 7.4

Battles - "Atlas"

107. Justice - † (2007)

It was inevitable that after Daft Punk would come the Daft Punk copyists--even moreso since it seems that the original duo don't seem much interested in making new music anymore. The band is still coasting off of Discovery, now nine years old, and it only makes sense that other groups would jump in to fill the super-bassy French house void Daft Punk have left behind them. So how does this fare? The entire thing is basically constructed around the gigantic single "D.A.N.C.E.", a song I've never really liked, mainly because the playground-chant chorus isn't nearly as good as the band seems to think it is and there isn't enough else interesting in the track to make up for it. The rest of the tracks somewhat resemble that single except with the catchy choruses removed, as though Justice only decided to copy the middle, slightly less good section of Discovery and forget the rest. All is not lost, though: "Newjack" and "DVNO" are both great dance tracks, the latter with its expertly sampled vocals almost worthy of the great ones themselves (it's as good as "Face to Face", anyway). But the whole thing is kind of neutered and faceless, as if sheer loudness were enough to overcome the essential emptiness at this album's center. It isn't, and it doesn't.

MY RATING: 5.9

Justice - "Let There Be Light"

110, The National - Boxer (2007)

The National are a band I like and respect, despite the fact that they've only released one album that I like without reservation, and this isn't it. One could almost say the idea of the National is more promising than the National themselves--dour, gloomy, moody music, written and produced with an exactness so complete that it borders on the obsessive. The most noticeable thing about these guys at first is Matt Berninger's vocals--he's a baritone, and he's got the kind of voice that seems to embody pain and suffering without being excessive about it. The problem with this album in particular is that it's too much of a slow-burner--music this emotionally fraught needs a few moments of release (like the four tracks "Secret Meeting", "Friend of Mine", "Abel" and "Mr. November" from Alligator, each of which were placed perfectly to relieve the tension). There just isn't any of that here. It's all slow and dark and ponderous. The sheer weight of the style sucks all the power out of what would otherwise be great tracks ("Slow Show" and "Apartment Story"). Only the opening track, "Fake Empire", really works--there's a lightness in the opening piano line that is missing from the rest of the album and since it's encountered first the style seems invigorating instead of depressing, as it does near the end. I don't want to impugn this album too much because the National do what they do better than anyone else and this really is a mostly gorgeous, well-written record; it's just too much of the same thing.

MY RATING: 6.9

The National - "Squalor Victoria"

112. Feist - The Reminder (2007)

This album edges dangerously close to the dreaded adult contemporary--the kind of music you listen to while drinking wine and considering art with your yuppie friends in a Whit Stillman-esque panorama of decadent wealth. The album cover doesn't do much to alter this conception. Feist's vocals throughout are kind of emotionless and pretty and the arrangements are simple, unobtrusive and--sigh--tasteful. I find this kind of record as pointless to hate as it it to love--only by using the most tortured Marxist criteria could you call the thing "bad", but it's not going to change anybody's life, either. The whole thing is just too cold and distant to be a classic--compare this record with Cat Power's far more spotty but much more emotionally tortured You Are Free. Several of these songs are so "atmospheric" and without melody that they pass by without any memory of even having existed at all ("The Park", "The Water") and "Sealion" is an annoying kids' track that should have been cut. But even I have to admit that the melody to the infamous "1234" is something special and "Honey Honey" is effectively austere and chilling. The result is a record that seeks to be professional above all things--how far you're able to stand that kind of thing is exactly how much you're going to like it.

MY RATING: 6.5

Feist - "My Moon My Man"

136. No Age - Weirdo Rippers (2007)

This is weird. Punk and ambient music? How the hell could this work? Well, it doesn't, not really; what this album ends up being is a bunch of catchy punk tracks interspersed with noodly ambient passages, and the whole thing is over in a half hour. It doesn't gel together perfectly (or really at all), but that doesn't mean I don't like it. I admire this thing, mostly because it has the guts to go for such a weird-ass idea full-tilt without caring much if it makes sense or fits together or whatever. These are two styles at complete opposite ends of the musical spectrum, in terms of energy--hardcore punk, and Aphex Twin circa Selected Ambient Works Vol.II ambient stuff. "Every Artist Needs a Tragedy" is probably the highlight here, with its minute or two of white noise and feedback followed up by a massive guitar riff and yelling and static. Most of the other tracks follow the same pattern, although the majority of the songs are shorter and do much the same thing as the first track in even less time. "Boy Void" is super-catchy punk rock, "Loosen This Job" is scratchy noises and indistinct vocals. This album exists in a weird little cul-de-sac into which few other bands are probably going to want to venture (and for good reason--it really doesn't make any sense) but I like it anyway.

MY RATING: 7.7

No Age - "Neck Escaper"

149. The Tough Alliance - A New Chance (2007)

I figured it wouldn't be long until the nostalgia factory that is modern indie music got around to early 90s dance pop--stuff like Dee-Lite, Haddaway, Real McCoy, etc. Granted this album doesn't exactly copy those (there aren't any rap bridges performed by deep-voiced bald men, for example) but it's pretty close. The operative word here on this record is fun--everything's uptempo, upbeat, and happy. The group tosses in a reggae groove ("Looking for Gold") and a minimalistic dance number ("Miami") but this is happy European pop music, not so far removed from something like Eiffel 65. The best thing about this album is that it's short--not that it's bad, but too many groups seem to feel like they're required to pump out at least 40 minutes or it isn't a proper record. This album is 30 minutes exactly--not a minute too short or too long. It won't change the world, and I'm a little confused as to why it's on such a list, but it isn't bad at all, and if, like me, you have a soft spot for Londonbeat or Bizarre Inc., this is more of the same.

MY RATING: 7.6

The Tough Alliance - "The Last Dance"

153. Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala (2007)

First thing: this is one of the most repulsive-sounding albums I've ever heard in my life. I tried to think of a nicer word, but I couldn't. There's something about the combination of Lekman's smooth, Vegasy voice, the maudlin orchestration and electronic beats that makes me feel ill. It's like some sort of terrible inversion of Tindersticks' music--but the gulf in quality between these two artists' music is so vast I won't comment any more on it. As the first track came on my first thought was: is this a joke? It sounds like a Ween parody of showtune music, except there's no parody here: it's done straight. And it's no good. It's as though this music, which is so awful nobody would question its being sold for twenty-five cents in a used bin had it been released in 1972, is supposed to suddenly become good when it's being done by an attractive, Pitchfork-approved singer-songwriter. There is exactly one good track on this album and that's "A Postcard to Nina"; the lyrics are clever (if a bit annoying when coming out of Lekman's mouth) and the chorus is actually well-written and catchy. The production is just as bad as the rest of the album, sucking every bit of life and spontaneity out of the music, but a good song is a good song. The rest is terrible. This album is like a dentist's drill to me, like nails on a chalkboard, like a cat being strangled, etc. Maybe it's me. And I liked "Black Cab"! Why do so many artists, on attempting to emulate Scott Walker, choose to emulate the first half of his career and not the latter half?

MY RATING: 0.8

Jens Lekman - "And I Remember Every Kiss"

160. Deerhunter - Cryptograms (2007)

Disclosure: Deerhunter are, IMO, the best new American band to come along in the last five years, so take into consideration that this review is written by someone who loves the band, loves their sound, and would likely love anything they do. So. Deerhunter's second album is a head-on collision between ambient feedback tones and poppy shoegaze music, and what makes it work as well as it does is the band's unerring sense of how to sequence a record. Nobody today puts albums together as well as Deerhunter does; each song expertly gains power by its placement in the whole, and I do not envy the task of whoever, ten years from now, is given the job of extracting tracks from their albums to put together a compilation. I suppose one reference point is Sonic Youth, but I feel like Deerhunter are even better at combining their pop influences and their avantgarde influences; the band, through amazing production and the aforementioned sequencing, makes a straight-up pop track like "Spring Hall Convert" fit in perfectly with a weird piece of avantgarde disco like "Octet". The band would get even more poppy and outsized than this later, with the compressed masterpiece Microcastle and the gorgeous pop record Halcyon Digest, but this is easily the equal of those.

MY RATING: 9.2

Deerhunter - "Spring Hall Convert"

197. Yeasayer - All Hour Cymbals (2007)

I first heard this album the same day I first viewed Terrence Malick's classic film Days of Heaven, so there will probably always be a connection in my mind between the alternately bucolic and apocalyptic vision of the film and the gorgeous, psychedelic sound of this album's best tracks. The album's marriage between pop and psychedelia brings to mind most readily stuff on Nuggets II, but since this is an indie album made by New Yorkers in the 2000s, there's a strong dance element. It sounds like a new-century update of the Eastern-style stuff everyone was doing in the 60s, mixed with elements of the kind of campfire-singalong thing that Animal Collective was trying to do on Sung Tongs, except more successful (not that Animal Collective didn't immediately redeem themselves with their next record). The first four tracks set a standard that the rest of the album can't reach, however, and there's a noticeable drop-off in quality after the creepy lyrics and wheezy accordion of "Germs". The second half is basically the same as the first half minus the good melodies, so at least you've got an interesting enough atmosphere to groove on, if nothing else. Still, the first four tracks are glorious, almost revelatory, and about as good as pop music got this decade. Definitely worth hearing, and it's nice to see this band get some commercial success with their follow-up.

MY RATING: 8.0

Yeasayer - "Sunrise"