Post by GeordieLass on Dec 3, 2007 9:17:59 GMT -5
Since we're into December now (time's gone so quickly!) and there aren't all that many new albums due out I was just wondering what everyone's top 10 albums of 2007 were?
I'm not feeling great and trying to put off actually working on my assignment so here's my top 10:
10: Foo Fighters - Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace
Not as great as their 2005 album (In Your Honor) but still a great album to play loudly. The first single, "The Pretender", was easily one of the best songs of the year in my books.
9: Nickelback - All The Right Reasons
I know lots of people hate them but I like them. This is a good album to just chill out too. Favourite song on the album has to be "If Everyone Cared".
8: Our Earthly Pleasures - Maximo Park
How can I not support a local band?!?!?! Love this album - especially "Our Velocity". I can't think of much else to say about this one other then it's worth a listen if you haven't heard it already.
7: Chris Cornell - Carry On
I was really looking forward to this one after hearing "You Know My Name" and for the most part I wasn't let down. The album gets off to a great energetic start with "No Such Thing" which also sounds like it could have been a Bond theme. There are plenty of slow songs too when you want a break from singing along loudly including an brilliant cover of "Billy Jean".
6: Scouting For Girls - Scouting For Girls
The first I head of this band was when I was doing a music survey and was asked to rate 5 of their songs. At the end of the survey they don't tell you the artist which was a shame because I liked what I heard. A while later I heard "She's So Lovely" on the radio and finally find out who the band were. OK, so "She's So Lovely" has a fairly naff chorus (loooots of repetition) but the album is a sort of cheery pop you can't help but like! The bonus song on the album, "Michaela Strachan", is funny and lyrics will give anyone who knows who she is a laugh.
5: The Hoosiers - The Trick Of Life
The TV adverts for this album have the band saying that everyone knows their 2 (top 5 in the UK) singles (the fabulous "Worried About Ray" and "Goodbye Mr A") but nobody knows who they are. That does seem to be true in the most part which is a shame because this is a great debut album by a great band. It's quite a pop/rock album - think The Feeling - and is an album that you can listen to all the way through.
4: Black Lab - Passion Leaves A Trace
First heard this band when they had a song used in Buffy and I've been following them ever since. Often when I tell people their name they think I'm talking about a metal band but they aren't. They're more similar to The Fray and Gomez. This isn't an album to listen to if you want to cheer yourself up though - "This Night" (my favourite track on the album) has to be one of the most depressing songs every written! There are plenty of more upbeat songs but they haven't quite managed to equal their "See The Sun" album in my books.
3: Duran Duran - Red Carpet Massacre
I like it. I do. No really. Well, most of it anyway. I assume most people have heard the album by now so I don't need to describe it in any great detail. The reason it's only number 3 in my list is it's lack of consistency. The start of the album is brilliant but as soon as you get past "Tricked Out" (the only DD instrumental I don't reach for the skip button on) it all goes downhill and almost sounds like a different album (I'd just got used to the Timbaland style "thump thump thump". Still, it's got some real gems on it and hasn't deserved to do as badly as it has in the UK charts.
2: Mark Ronson - Version
I wasn't actually expecting to like this album when I first heard it due to my extreme dislike of Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse who are on the album and whose album's Ronson produced. I have to say though this album is absolutely outstanding!!! It's essentially a cover album with various modern and classic songs getting reworked by Ronson (with plenty of horns!) and with a new take on the vocals. If you live in the UK it's been hard to miss "Valerie" (I do prefer the original by The Zutons) but even I have to admit Lily does a good job of "Oh My God", originally by Kaiser Chiefs.
What else is covered? Maximo Park's singer sings a new version of his own song "Apply Some Pressure", there a a cover of Britney's "Toxic" which is rather odd and has a rap, Coldplays "God Put A Smile Upon Your face", "Stop Me" by The Smiths, "Just" by Radiohead, Kasabian's "L.S.F." and loads more.
All in all a brilliant summery album everyone should own!
1: Kaiser Chiefs - Yours Truly, Angry Mob
If you haven't heard this band then you're really missing out on something special. Yours Truly, Angry Mob is the follow-up to the fabulous Employment album in 2005 and has the same energy and style that made the first album work so well. It starts off with "Ruby" which has an amazing chorus that you can't help but sing along too really loudly and then the album goes on to do a spot of social commentary with "The Angry Mob" (a favourite of mine about how fickle people and journalists are), "Heat Dies Down" (about being famous and recognised), "Thank You Very Much" (a message from the band to the fans - bless!), "My Kind Of Guy" (fabulous lyrics and very amusing! The basic idea of the song is that nice guys always finish last), "Everything is Average Nowadays" (title says it all!).
One of the standout tracks on the album is an "Ordinary World" style ballad called "Loves Not A Competition (But I'm Winning)" which I actually saw described somewhere as "more Duran Duran then Duran Duran"!
The only problem I have with KC is deciding which album I like best and should listen too. Go and buy it if you don't have it already - or at the very least give it a listen.
I'm not feeling great and trying to put off actually working on my assignment so here's my top 10:
10: Foo Fighters - Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace
Not as great as their 2005 album (In Your Honor) but still a great album to play loudly. The first single, "The Pretender", was easily one of the best songs of the year in my books.
9: Nickelback - All The Right Reasons
I know lots of people hate them but I like them. This is a good album to just chill out too. Favourite song on the album has to be "If Everyone Cared".
8: Our Earthly Pleasures - Maximo Park
How can I not support a local band?!?!?! Love this album - especially "Our Velocity". I can't think of much else to say about this one other then it's worth a listen if you haven't heard it already.
7: Chris Cornell - Carry On
I was really looking forward to this one after hearing "You Know My Name" and for the most part I wasn't let down. The album gets off to a great energetic start with "No Such Thing" which also sounds like it could have been a Bond theme. There are plenty of slow songs too when you want a break from singing along loudly including an brilliant cover of "Billy Jean".
6: Scouting For Girls - Scouting For Girls
The first I head of this band was when I was doing a music survey and was asked to rate 5 of their songs. At the end of the survey they don't tell you the artist which was a shame because I liked what I heard. A while later I heard "She's So Lovely" on the radio and finally find out who the band were. OK, so "She's So Lovely" has a fairly naff chorus (loooots of repetition) but the album is a sort of cheery pop you can't help but like! The bonus song on the album, "Michaela Strachan", is funny and lyrics will give anyone who knows who she is a laugh.
5: The Hoosiers - The Trick Of Life
The TV adverts for this album have the band saying that everyone knows their 2 (top 5 in the UK) singles (the fabulous "Worried About Ray" and "Goodbye Mr A") but nobody knows who they are. That does seem to be true in the most part which is a shame because this is a great debut album by a great band. It's quite a pop/rock album - think The Feeling - and is an album that you can listen to all the way through.
4: Black Lab - Passion Leaves A Trace
First heard this band when they had a song used in Buffy and I've been following them ever since. Often when I tell people their name they think I'm talking about a metal band but they aren't. They're more similar to The Fray and Gomez. This isn't an album to listen to if you want to cheer yourself up though - "This Night" (my favourite track on the album) has to be one of the most depressing songs every written! There are plenty of more upbeat songs but they haven't quite managed to equal their "See The Sun" album in my books.
3: Duran Duran - Red Carpet Massacre
I like it. I do. No really. Well, most of it anyway. I assume most people have heard the album by now so I don't need to describe it in any great detail. The reason it's only number 3 in my list is it's lack of consistency. The start of the album is brilliant but as soon as you get past "Tricked Out" (the only DD instrumental I don't reach for the skip button on) it all goes downhill and almost sounds like a different album (I'd just got used to the Timbaland style "thump thump thump". Still, it's got some real gems on it and hasn't deserved to do as badly as it has in the UK charts.
2: Mark Ronson - Version
I wasn't actually expecting to like this album when I first heard it due to my extreme dislike of Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse who are on the album and whose album's Ronson produced. I have to say though this album is absolutely outstanding!!! It's essentially a cover album with various modern and classic songs getting reworked by Ronson (with plenty of horns!) and with a new take on the vocals. If you live in the UK it's been hard to miss "Valerie" (I do prefer the original by The Zutons) but even I have to admit Lily does a good job of "Oh My God", originally by Kaiser Chiefs.
What else is covered? Maximo Park's singer sings a new version of his own song "Apply Some Pressure", there a a cover of Britney's "Toxic" which is rather odd and has a rap, Coldplays "God Put A Smile Upon Your face", "Stop Me" by The Smiths, "Just" by Radiohead, Kasabian's "L.S.F." and loads more.
All in all a brilliant summery album everyone should own!
1: Kaiser Chiefs - Yours Truly, Angry Mob
If you haven't heard this band then you're really missing out on something special. Yours Truly, Angry Mob is the follow-up to the fabulous Employment album in 2005 and has the same energy and style that made the first album work so well. It starts off with "Ruby" which has an amazing chorus that you can't help but sing along too really loudly and then the album goes on to do a spot of social commentary with "The Angry Mob" (a favourite of mine about how fickle people and journalists are), "Heat Dies Down" (about being famous and recognised), "Thank You Very Much" (a message from the band to the fans - bless!), "My Kind Of Guy" (fabulous lyrics and very amusing! The basic idea of the song is that nice guys always finish last), "Everything is Average Nowadays" (title says it all!).
One of the standout tracks on the album is an "Ordinary World" style ballad called "Loves Not A Competition (But I'm Winning)" which I actually saw described somewhere as "more Duran Duran then Duran Duran"!
The only problem I have with KC is deciding which album I like best and should listen too. Go and buy it if you don't have it already - or at the very least give it a listen.