·:[ Smiling Politely ]:·
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It’s about that time of year again. 2007 is just about over, and it is time for me to make my now-annual tradition of the Personal Year’s Best Mix CD Compilation Of Hits!

I remember last year thinking that 2006 was a bit of a disappointing year for music, at least the music that I happened to listen to. Looking back at my mix for that year, though, I’m kind of thinking I overreacted. Not one to learn from my mistakes, I am still going to go ahead and decree 2007 a disappointment. It was not really a bad year, per se, but there were a lot of “highly anticipated” releases that didn’t really live up to my hopes for them.

In any case, the mix below is presented as usual, with links to audio and/or video when available (read: something pops up within 5 minutes of searching on Google.) As before, I restricted myself to songs I’ve personally purchased in 2007, which means the later releases unfortunately get underrepresented. This is especially the case this year, since I’ve curtailed spending for the past few months. I call this “Wolf Parade syndrome”, where I only come to realize what the best music of one year was halfway into the next. C’est la vie. Also, only one song per artist.

The only other restriction is the “Mix CD” format: no more than 80 minutes worth total. I followed my usual methodology: make an iTunes smart playlist of 5 star songs released in 2007, pull out a track or two from each band in that smart list into the draft list. Make up my mind on which song to include for each artist. Then trim the draft down until it fits in 80 minutes. Finally, sequence the tracks in some order that makes sense to me at the time.

And now, the list:

1. 23 - Blonde Redhead (AMG) - 5:19 - Video
   23 Seconds/All things we love will die
   Moment of glory: 1:49, Na na na na na na na

   I’d been meaning to pick up a Blonde Redhead CD for a while, since I heard them on CHSR some time ago, and finally got around to it with their 2007 release, 23. This is the title track, the opening track, and probably my favourite song of the year. It is a dreamy song with a great melody, and it sounds like Deerhoof covering My Bloody Valentine. The entire album has this sort of feel to it, and it’s on my short list for Album of the Year.

2. Black Mirror - Arcade Fire (AMG) - 4:13 - MP3
   Un, deux, trois/Des mirroires noires
   Moment of glory: 2:17, when the above lyric kicks in

   This track is from Neon Bible, the followup to That Album, the big debut of 2005. As such, it was pretty much my biggest disappointment of the year. It’s not a bad album, really, and they were probably wise to try something a bit different… It’s just so darn… boring in comparison. It lacks passion! In any case, Black Mirror was the lead single, and is pretty representative of the strongest quality of the album: atmosphere. No Cars Go was also under consideration, but I preferred the original version so it does not get the nod.

3. Mama, Won’t You Keep Those Castles In The Air & Burning - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (AMG) - 4:27 - Fan made video
   Like sacred cow/without a tongue
   Moment of glory: 2:20, the shift from “part one” to “part two”

   The other big debut of 2005 was from these guys, and this followup kind of fell flat with me at first. Unlike Neon Bible, though, Some Loud Thunder really grew on me and I now feel it surpasses their self-titled debut. This one is also on the short list for Album of the Year, and I had a hard time choosing a track to put on this mix. This song eventually one out, mainly because I like the shift from the pleasant and atmospheric opening to the jaunty second half, ending with one of those indecipherable yelps that this band does so well.

4. Old Flame - Immaculate Machine (AMG) - 4:33 - I got nothin’
   Here you are, old flame/Your tongues all twisted with words you can’t say
   Moment of glory: 2:14, cue the kick-ass organ

   Not a whole lot to say about this track. Good old Canadian power pop. There were a few tracks from this album that could fit here, but but the last two minutes of the song are just too fun to pass up.

5. Unless It’s Kicks - Okkervil River (AMG) - 4:39 - Video (sort of)
   What breaks this heart the most is the ghost of some rock and roll fan
   Moment of glory: 3:35, woaaaaaaaaah climax.

   I picked up Okkervil’s previous release, Black Sheep Boy, because of the constant comparisons to Neutral Milk Hotel that I kept hearing. I think that those comparisons are kind of wishful thinking, but really their heart is in the right place and the CD was good enough that I picked up their latest one a few months ago. It’s a pretty darn good album, and this is one of the simpler but catchier songs, built around the simple, jaunty guitar riff in the whole “keep adding instruments and elements, one at a time” vein.

6. Pump Up The Volume - Art Brut (AMG) - 2:54 - Stream
   I know I shouldn’t and it’s possibly wrong/To break from your kiss/To turn up a pop song
   Moment of glory: The whole song is the same, so no particular moment

   Some British guy speak-sings amusing lyrics about rushed and awkward lovemaking? Yeah, OK. Fun song.

7. Dashboard - Modest Mouse (AMG) - 4:06 - Nautical Video
   Well it would have been, could have been worse than you would ever know
   Moment of glory: 2:44, break it down!

   I’d said long ago that Modest Mouse was one of the last bands that I would have expected to become a mainstream success, but they certainly deserved it. When this song came out it certainly sounded like a “selling out” was taking place, because apart from the lyrics it was a very atypical Modest Mouse song. But the darn thing still rocks, and while the album (We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank) is like a tamer version of Good News For People Who Love Bad News it is still pretty good and not at all a “sellout” style record. While I wish they would head back to the subdued nature of The Moon & Antartica, I can’t begrudge them this.

8. The Perfect Me - Deerhoof (AMG) - 2:41 - Video
   Meet me/Meet me/Meet the perfect me
   Moment of glory: 0:50, Cry out, cry oooouuuut

   I maintain my position that anyone who doesn’t like this band is missing a little bit of their soul. Listen to those drums!

9. In Context - Field Music (AMG) - 3:37 - Video
   And you take away the context/And our lives weren’t the same since
   Moment of glory: 0:34, the guitar stings

   This song grabbed a hold on me, but the album never really stuck for some reason. It is a very finely crafted set of songs, and intellectually I can appreciate the fact that it is quite good, but it just never really flicked that switch that gives me the kind of passion that I can get for other music. Still, this is a pretty fun song, with its jogging guitars and meandering bass line.

10. All The Old Showstoppers - The New Pornographers (AMG) - 4:08 - Stream
    Princess of the paupers/And all the old showstoppers/’Til this moment still unknown
    Moment of glory: 3:20, cue background oohs

    Challengers, the fourth album from this amazing collection of musicians, is the first that I’ve had mixed feelings about, though I still rate it positively overall. The CD is rather front loaded, with an incredibly strong handful of tracks to start with, and a forgettable second half. It was hard to choose a particular track for this mix, you may wish to look at All Of The Things That Go To Make Heaven And Earth for a more traditional New Pornographers choice.

11. 7 Stars - The Apples In Stereo (AMG) - 3:47 - Stream
    And you don’t even know my name/And I know every constellation
    Moment of glory: 1:27, the best damn chorus of the year

    New Magnetic Wonder is a really great collection of songs. Surprisingly great. Amazing, really. If it weren’t for all of the filler tucked between the incredibly catchy pop songs, this would be my album of the year for sure. It’s definitely the catchiest album of the year, that’s for sure. I never saw this coming, I figured these guys were past their prime.

12. Make It Wit Chu - Queens Of The Stone Age (AMG) - 4:30 (cutting out the outro) - (Not really a) Video
    Not here to break ya/Just see how far it will bend
    Moment of glory: The whole thing, really

    I really wanted to put Misfit Love here instead, but that song takes 4 minutes to get to the awesome, where this one just chills at a lower level of awesome for a longer time.

13. You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb - Spoon (AMG) - 3:09 - Stream
    Brush your teeth for bed/Blow out that cherry bomb
    Moment of glory: 0:23, enter the saxophones

    I bought this CD entirely on a whim, when Eric at Backstreet said it was good. This was a very good decision on my part.

14. Snakes On The Ladder - Handsome Furs (AMG) - 4:30 - Stream
    I’ll write it down/Under bridges into town/And watch it rusting your father’s crown
    Moment of glory: 3:17, everything coming to a head

    Dan Boeckner’s band. (One of the guys from Wolf Parade.) A slow tempo number, this whole album is a bit more subdued and synth happy than Wolf Parade has been. Since discovering Wolf Parade, this whole Montreal murky-indie-rock-craziness scene has pretty much infatuated me. This track and the next reflects that, and a Frog Eyes track just barely missed the cut.

15. Winged/Wicked Things - Sunset Rubdown (AMG) - 4:46 - Stream
    So I say it’s the white hair of Poseidon/Ebbing in the tide in some dead sea
    Moment of glory: 0:40, when the drums start marching, the guitars start scaling and the song starts stomping.

    Spencer Krug’s band. (The other guy from Wolf Parade.) Krug seems a bit more prolific, and I gotta give the edge to his record when it comes to comparing it with the Handsome Furs. Of course, it’s not really fair to compare the two. I just wish, so very desperately, that they’d get together and record another Wolf Parade record already. In any case, I feel compelled to quote AMG on the topic of the album from which this song is drawn: “Like Frog Eyes, Krug weaves fractured, complex, cacophonous pop songs glued together by a distinct love for melody, but where Frog Eyes wants to violate every part of your body, Sunset Rubdown wants you to stick around and watch the carnage, not be a part of it.”

16. North American Scum - LCD Soundsystem (AMG) - 5:26 - Video
    Far from North America/Where the buildings are old and you might have lots of mines
    Moment of glory: 1:20, c’mon North Americaaaaaaaaaans!

    Taken from the second album from LCD Soundsytem, the band that taught me that it’s OK for me to just shut the hell up and enjoy some fine dance music. Sound of Silver is a bit more polished and less gritty than their debut, and it maybe takes itself a bit more seriously, but it’s still a mighty fine listen. This song was the lead single, and is a perfect combination of the catchy tunes and snarky lyrics that make this band so much fun.

17. “city aggr 2″ - Jon Sonnenburg/Travelogue (Official) - 6:58
    Moment of glory: 3:11, when the main hook bursts out from the Morse code breakdown

    This is my very non-standard choice that I could not resist. This is a track ripped from the soundtrack to Deadly Rooms of Death: The City Beneath, the third installment of the DROD series, released this year. Why is it here? Well, let’s just say that since this game came out I have played it for more hours than I would care to count, the same handful of tracks are looped throughout, and yet I still felt compelled to hunt down a utility to rip the tracks from the game’s package and convert them to MP3 so that I could listen to them outside of the game. The music is mostly based on songs by the band Travelogue, but instrumentalized, and I’m intending to buy the originals One Of These Days. This track is based on the song Conversation, a clip of which you can hear here, and a live rendition can be seen here. I was torn between this track and another, which is a slower-tempo and more minimalist rendition of Reflections, video here.

    Hope you weren’t expecting some other overrated song from an overrated game here.

18. Ex-Guru - The Fiery Furnaces (AMG) - 2:42 - Video
    She means nothing to me now/I tell myself that every day
    Moment of glory: 1:28, Eastern-tinged breakdown!

    Three years running with a Fiery Furnaces track making my list. I haven’t really had enough time to let Widow City settle with me yet, but first impressions are a lot of OK songs but not many of the real gems that their last few releases have had. It is kind of interesting to listen to an album that feels like it was run through a 70s filter before it was finished. (Check out that album art!) In any case, this is about as accessible as a Furnaces song gets and it’s pretty catchy!

19. Irene - Caribou (AMG) - 3:38 - Stream
    Irene, I know it’s hard to stay away
    Moment of glory: Just a soothing sensation throughout

    The final track, continuing the vaguely electronic theme that the last few songs have had. This is a catchy, soothing little pop song, a perfect way to close the album as you listen to those chimes rise higher and higher.

That’s it. Final running length is 79 minutes and 55 seconds by my iTunes count, though I had to cheat on the QOTSA song because of the little filler between tracks taking up space. Overall, the mix has a very subdued feel to it, fitting with my subdued opinion on the year’s music. I’m sure next year I’ll look back on this mix and go “Wow, that was actually a great year,” just like I do now with 2006, but until then, meh.