Alistair’s Best of 2007
Being an old-fashioned cove, I still think in terms of singles (ok, let’s call ‘em ‘tracks’ if you’re not conversant with the ‘s’ word) being the life-blood of pop rather than albums. So my list is comprised of items of a single-type persuasion. I couldn’t boil it down to 10 so here’s my top 20 of 2007. They are not in any particular order.
1. I’m from Barcelona – I’m from Barcelona <
Mark alerted me to this and he would like you to know that it was 100% his discovery. They’re Swedish really. They are more of a circle of friends who happen to sing songs together than a ‘group’. And although you might not be sold on the idea of a cheery communal singalong, in practice it is gloriously fresh and uplifting. Was this one from 2007 actually, or the previous year? Whatever, it’s brilliant in any year.
2. Fluorescent Adolescent – Arctic Monkeys <
This is the finest song to date of a very fine band. It has a blinding tune, humour and pathos and, which isn’t commented on nearly often enough, his voice is fantastic and in its winsome textual dexterity worth approximately a squillion Liam Gallaghers.
3. About You Now –
Sugababes
<
Pop is bright yellow and transports you to a better place, leaving a smile on your face. About You Now is the purest essence of Pop. Robbing Avril Lavigne of any half decent idea she has ever had, and doing them all a squillion times better, About You Now is the finest #1 of the Babes’ career.
4. Our Velocity – Maxїmo Park <
‘It’s hard to gauge temperature when you tend to travel at such speed’ actually teaches you a bit about physics as the song is playing, and, bizarrely, their albums are full of educational moments too, all disguised as metaphor. And just when you think it’s just a fab jerky geeky thing along comes the enormous ‘I’ve got no-one to call, in the middle of the night anymore’ and tears the roof off. I love this band.
5. Over It – Katherine McPhee <
This is in the grand tradition of Excellent Popsongs With Not One But Two Chorus-y Bits. It sounds curiously slightly out of date, like something from Billie Piper’s pop era, but is no less loveable for that. Fantastic.
6. Save Room – John Legend <
Achingly classy pop-soul in a deceptively simple song. Like nipping into a secret cupboard and furtively rewarding yourself with a piece of the most marvellous chocolate.
7. One More Time – Alison Moyet <
Now fully in touch with her inner chanson-smouldering French lady, Alison Moyet made a darned fine album in ‘The Turn’ by anyone’s standards. This first single was the subject of intense debate amongst Real PD, as Mark thought it unbearably weak and I was blown away by its tremulous majesty. Her Bowie-ish delivery of the word ‘sorrow’ is a joy to hear and worth the entry price alone.
8. Knocked Up - Kings of Leon <
No one squawks in the manner of a brooding farmyard rooster quite like Caleb Followill. Except, probably, a genuine farmyard rooster. But then noone ever began a song with ‘Aaaah dowen cay-uh whut eeenybawdeh saaayyy/ we gonna have a baaybee’ either. This is a consistently inventive band who pack a punch with every song they deliver.
9. With Every Heartbeat – Robyn feat Kleerup <
A more than passing resemblance to Real PD’s own ‘South Riding’ could be forgiven – Robyn was back with swoonsomely contemporary asymmetrical hair, and the best musically minimalistic #1 since Whigfield. And who exactly is Kleerup? He sounds like an absorbent, and possibly three-ply kitchen towel. But this is of no concern when the music is this ace.
10. Fantastic 6 – Alphabeat <
Joyous, full-bodied insinuating ensemble pop on a debut single that suggests this band are going to be ruddy brilliant.
11. Catch You - Sophie Ellis Bextor <
In 2007 the gorgeous Sophie came back! Hoorah! And promptly released all the wrong songs as singles from her rather good album, disappearing from the public eye in the process, and threatening to fall off the pop radar into obscurity. Boo! But this first release was completely on the money… new wavey and thrillingly shiny/ gritty, it may actually have kickstarted the spring.
12. Etched Headplate – Burial <
Rarely off my music player at the (wintery) mo, Mr Burial (or whatever his name is) has made two fantastic albums of spooked Dubsteppy brilliance. It sounds like riding on a tube train late at night through the city. Like streetlamps shimmering off puddles in forgotten urban backalleys. This non-song is the emotional centrepiece of new album ‘Untrue’ and has a rather thrilling propulsive quality to its subbass. Weird but affecting.
13. We Won’t Break - Zoot Woman <
Mr Woman (Zoot to his friends?) has perfected his Phil Oakey impression, and married it to a most pleasing burbling and gasping electropop track which should propel this great band to stardom (but won’t, probably) and is better than anything Stuart Price (for ‘tis he a-tinkling behind the scenes) ever did for Madonna.
14. Sirens - Dizzee Rascal <
Amazing. Just how darned exciting can a record get?! I can hear the sirens comin'...
15. Sub Island – Skream <
Another Dubstep thing, this time by someone called Ollie Jones (who prefers to go by the name of Skream) and a highlight on the Box of Dub compilation which got a lot of airplay at washing-up time in our household. This very addictive track is more Dub than Step, really. Like a lot of Dubstep tracks it manages to sound appealingly crisp and yet a little mysterious at the same time. Recommended.
16. Into a Swan – Siouxsie <
Dark and seductive, and infernally catchy, Siouxsie nailed the perfect comeback single. From a songwriting p.o.v. I like the way she keeps the title metaphor back until the end of the lyric: it requires courage to do that, and makes the pay-off all the better.
17. Hercules and Love Affair – Classique # 2 <
Fine old-school Detroit type Techno of a classy Derrick May-ish bent and with a thoroughly modern experimental undertow.
18. Here (In My Arms) – Hello Goodbye <
When faux-emo met ‘doing a Cher’ on the ole vocoder, it was aceness itself. On subsequent singles they revealed themselves to be a gruesome sub-Savage Garden proposition in disguise. But no matter, the summer was brighter for the existence of this record.
19. Love Made Visible – Delays <
Wow – an indie band who get excited by epic production and who are clearly in thrall to Brian Wilson, but not in an obvious, derivative way, Delays just get better and better. This is an enthralling, euphoric slice of powerpop carried aloft on a sea of huge angelic harmonies. Very lovely.
20. Shine – Joni Mitchell <
My favourite artist ever returned with her bleakest and most sombre album ever, full of ecological warnings and protest. This song pleads with the listener to reflect upon human weaknesses and hopes and, like Ms Mitchell herself, has both a beautiful fragility and a beguiling inner strength.
And now for a handful of my non-favourites…Less than groovy – or ‘thanks, but no thanks’
Stinkers of 2007!
1. Hot Stuff (Let’s Dance) – Craig David =
Ewww, what’s with the whole faux-American accent thing? And leave the Bowie samples to the likes of Samantha Mumba, there’s a good lad. And while you’re at it, can you re-re-wind to the days when you made thrilling and utterly original pop records like Fill Me In and Seven Days? Aaah, thought not.
2. Bleeding Love - Leona Lewis =
Isn’t this a bit, erm… well… menstrual? (Nice drumbox though).
3. We’ll Live and Die in These Towns (single) - The Enemy =
‘The toilet smells of desperation.’ Well, that’s as maybe, but I doubt it whiffs as much as the creative poverty of your lyrics and your third-hand Paul Weller knock-off music, Mister Enemy, sir.
4. She’s So Lovely – Scouting for Girls =
Big Blouses for Girls, more like. She may well be a sight luvverlier than your diction. It has TWO SYLLABLES, right? Love. Ly. Got that? Thanks. Now move along.
5. Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors – Editors =
I have such bitter feelings of betrayal towards this record partly because its verse is so absolutely wonderful and its title so evocative and peak-period Manic Street Preachers-ish, and then the chorus is a thing of towering Snow-Patrolish hideousness.
6. In Rainbows - Radiohead (entire album) =
Pass the razorblades: don’t know about an ‘honesty box’, it should have come with a mental health warning.
7. What a Wonderful World – Katie Melua and Eva Cassidy =
Never in the history of recorded music have the names of the performing artists on a record so effectively cancelled any meaning in the song’s title.
8. Headlines – Spice Girls =
Actually, the most disappointing thing about this was that it failed to chart higher. I am impressed by any piece of greatest-hits mammon-hoovering which has the gall to announce portentously in its opening lines ‘The time is now or never to fit the missing piece’ (translation: ‘if we wait any longer we’ll be so far down the U-bend that no one will remember us’). The girls then vow to ‘take this song together, to make me feel complete’ (translation: ‘by singing this, we will make a bit more cash, innit?’). In a deft and postmodern textual perspective-shift, the song then self-observes solemnly ‘and so it comes to pass’, as if the Spice Girls’ reunion has not only been whispered about in Heat Magazine but is a summation of scriptural prophesy of old, and brimful of cosmological significance. That a message of such earth-shattering importance is best delivered in one’s skimpiest undergarments is open to question.