My Favorite Albums of 2007

Welp, end of the year and all that. These are some of my favorite albums from 2007. They may or may not be considered “the best”, but they are the ones I’ve enjoyed the most.

The Stooges’ The Weirdness | Let it be known, I am a massive fan of the Stooges. These are the guys that invented punk rock. Their album Raw Power was just that. And after Raw Power came out, they didn’t release any studio albums until this year. That’s four albums in 38 years. The Beastie Boys wish they could have that kind of release scarcity. In the interim, Iggy Pop went on to release loads of solo albums, be crazy, and just the type of person you would expect to have been the progenitor of punk. He even played Nona’s dad on The Adventures of Pete and Pete. Meanwhile, the Asheton brothers were in a number of bands, including the New Order. No, not that New Order, the American one. But they came back with The Weirdness, which is an excellent album, released just months after Iggy’s 60th birthday. Good work for sure for the old man. A damn fine album I say, which is why I enjoyed it much this year. | iTMS Link | Amazon MP3 Link

Cafe Tacvba’s Sino | Cafe Tacvba is hands down, one of the best bands to come out of the Rock en Español scene. Their sixth studio album, Sino, is a return to a more vintage rock sound. Definitely far from the genre-spanning Re, and the very experimental Reves/Yo Soy. This album features lots of jangly guitars, slippery bass lines, quirky synths, and live drumming (for their first four albums almost all of the drumming was done with a drum machine; Cuatro Caminos was the first album to feature live drums). 53100 almost sounds like a tribute to the intro on The Who’s “Won’t get Fooled Again”, with its squeaky synth and blasts of guitar windmills. Tengo Todo lyrically tessellates as Emmanuel sings one chorus over Nrü singing a second chorus. The Outsider slinks with a vintage Casio drum beat and guitars lurking in the shadows. An excellent album to pick up if you’re looking to expand your horizons. | iTMS Link

Hiromi Uehara’s Sonic Bloom: Time Control | Hiromi is an incredibly talented 28 year old Japanese jazz composer and pianist. She began learning classical piano at age 8. At age 17 she played with Chick Corea. By the time she had graduated from Berklee she had been mentored by Ahmad Jamal and had signed with a label. Sonic Bloom: Time Control, her fourth album, is a fantastic blend of jazz, fusion, progressive, and funk. Her immense talent really shines through on this album, as does that of her backing band. I don’t often admit to listening to prog-type stuff (that’s the sort of thing that should be done alone, with the curtains drawn, so nobody can see you enjoying prog), but this album I will definitely cop to. It’s frenetic and beautiful at the same time. | iTMS Link

Omar Rodriguez-Lopez’s Se Dice Bisonte, No Bufalo | Omar Rodriguez-Lopez is the guitarist for The Mars Volta. While I never really got into their stuff, I did happen upon Se Dice Bisonte, No Bufalo in iTunes once and I love it. Recorded over two years ago in Amsterdam, the album is a blend of very experimental jazz, rock, and Latin rhythms. Rodriguez-Lopez is well known for his numerous guitar pedals, the combining of which leads to the number of bizarre sounds that he squeezes out of his guitar on this album. | iTMS Link | Amazon MP3 Link

Album Leaf’s Green Tour EP | Album Leaf is the side project of Tristeza guitarist Jimmy LaValle. It started about a decade ago when another guitarist recorded him improvising on a Rhodes Piano to a vintage Roland drum machine. The Green Tour EP is a lushly orchestrated collection instrumental pieces. The sort of stuff you might hear in a poignant scene in a movie, or a commercial for a diamond producer. It’s all very mellow, low-key rainy day type stuff. Definitely worth a good listen when you’re in that kind of mood. iTMS Link

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