Sat 29 Dec 2007
2007 in lists
top ten mp3s most listened to according to last.fm
1. paul mccartney – letting go
2. cornelius – omstart
3. bachelorette – a lifetime
4. pikelet – bug-in-mouth
5. solo andata – a ballet of hands
6. phillip glass and david bowie – heroes (aphex twin mix)
7. j dilla jay dee – stop
8. the knife – silent shout
9. steely dan – king of the world
10. inxs – burn for you
top five obsessions
- paul mccartney (wings-era and mccartney ii)
- late 70s / early 80s soft rock
-
last.fm
- that dodgy theremin synth sound from ableton that appears on nearly every new faux pas track/remix created in 2007
- dungeons and dragons
top 15 good times and great classic hits
10cc - the things we do for love
christopher cross - ride like the wind
fleetwood mac - big love
foreigner - urgent
icehouse - cant help myself
loverboy - turn me loose
michael jackson - human nature
michael mcdonald - i keep forgettin
prince - i would die for you
robert palmer - looking for clues
simple minds - promised you a miracle
steely dan - rikki dont lose that number
suzi quatro - primitive love
toto - i’ll supply the love
wings - band on the run
top two late night infomercials
- the midnight special
- the soft rock collection
bottom two late night infomercials
- proactiv
- that thing with the ball and nick lachey
top five unlikely places i went to in 2007
- japan
- living in country victoria for three months (the coastal town flooded on my birthday)
- walking around perth in the wee hours of a saturday morning with a microphone wearing a cardboard andrew g mask
- to and fro on rrr program grid
- triple j rotation
top ten albums that won’t be appearing in my top ten list. sorry
- justice
- midnight juggernauts
- animal collective
- panda bear
- lcd soundsystem
- burial
- italians do it better
- battles
- caribou
- m.i.a
everyone liked the same albums this year, which i found boring (the homogeneity, not the albums)… most of the albums this year everyone thought were amazing, i thought were simply great or even just good… to be honest about half of these i haven’t even listened to i’ve been so put off by the hype
top one prevalent over-arching musical trend, as has always been and always will be
- recycling
my top ten overseas
1. black moth super rainbow - dandelion gum
2. the field - from here we go sublime
3. bachelorette - isolation loops
4. oh astro - champions of wonder
5. skeletons & the kings of all cities - lucas
6. james blackshaw - the cloud of unknowing
7. yeasayer - all hour cymbals
8. disasteradio - visions
9. antibalas - security
10. paper - as as
seven more albums i liked from overseas
artanker convoy - cozy endings
bruce haack - the electric lucifer
folk is not a four letter word vol 2
pantha du prince - this bliss
principles of geometry - lazare
tele & the ghost of our lord - beach party blast/quasi immaculate deception
tussle - telescope mind
top three life-changing live shows
- andrew wk at meredith
- andrew wk at meredith
- andrew wk at meredith
top two most misjudged albums
architecture in helsinki - places like this
air - pocket symphony
favourite australians, alphabetically
aih
aleks and the ramps
always
brothersister label
cleptoclectics
curse ov dialect
devastations
nick huggins
pikelet
pretty boy crossover
roam the hello clouds
solo andata
zeal
top three rediscoveries from past headspaces
metallica - ride the lightning
simian (pre mobile disco)
the alan parsons project
new years resolutions
- learn to play ‘big love’ on acoustic guitar
- build a kingdom in that house on the hill
- figure out whether i like space/beardy/italo-disco or not
- become more inaccessible and change my name to ‘major cartologist’ in a cynical move to endear myself to the avant garde hipster set and too-knowing trendoid blogopshere
- become more accessible and buy myself over-sized novelty sunglasses in a cynical move to endear myself to the so-uncool-its-cool indie-disco doorlist jagermeister set
- become more drunk, buy myself tight leather pants, and vomit and/or bleed during live performance and also just general conversation in a cynical move to endear myself to the great unwashed melbourne dont-know-why-i-do-but-i-love-dirty-rock-despite-being-an-accountant massive
- become more theatrical in my descriptions of my character’s movements and give away magic items from my backpack in a cynical move to endear myself to the other PCs in my party
- become more cynical in a cynical attempt to endear myself to you
2008 anticipations
- ween touring australia in march
- new album from max tundra… i hope…?
- jason forrest band tours melbourne (cmon jason, DO IT)
- hot chip
- 19 debut albums by joh-un
- debut of faux pas live show (one man on stage in pyjamas sobbing uncontrollably into a microphone - think the famed commanding onstage presence of nick drake combined with the charisma of daryl somers and the musical talent of a pigeon with one leg and no ears)
- not one but two new faux pas albums
time spent writing these totally well thought out and meaningful end of year lists
- 20 mins
more top top lists:
- amazing, inspiring and obscure top 50 with mp3s, from rad turkish blog
undomondo.com
- great folk-flavoured top lists at
moteldemoka.com
- cool hipster disco lists at
alainfinkielkrautrock
- local acts including always, francis plagne, geoff o’connor (and me) posting lists at
rosequartz.blogspot.com
December 29th, 2007 at 8:25 pm
I prefer Christopher Guest - Break Like the Wind.
December 30th, 2007 at 11:06 am
Best. List. Ever.
Also, proactiv has totally gone mainstream. I’ve been seeing the ad during the day over summer. I really want to know if it still moves units off the shelves or if it only works at night.
December 31st, 2007 at 12:55 pm
High-five for lists!
January 2nd, 2008 at 6:59 am
Ween. Ween ween ween. Oh my god Ween.
January 3rd, 2008 at 8:05 pm
yay. lists! and i totally hear you on the tiresome hype-thing. only, in a year from now or so, will you please sit down and listen to person pitch in a good set of headphones? because my view of the world will not quite be the same if you don’t find that album to be kind of magic. and also, homogeneity is boring by default, but the fact that the albums that “everyone” likes are actually… good. and pretty diy most of the time. how awesome is that? on a scale, it’s somewhere around a lot awesome, i’d say.
January 3rd, 2008 at 8:41 pm
thanks everyone..
hanna: yeah i will do that with person pitch someday, definitely. its a solemn promise, an oath written in the blood of a hundred haircutted hipsters. you know i finally heard daft punk “homework” and “discovery” for the first time this year, having decided that i could only now listen to daft punk without the weight of enormous hype and expectation undermining the experience… just before they entered potentially the most hyped period of their entire career. irony
shannon: a child without an eye made her mother cry. why ask why?
January 3rd, 2008 at 10:20 pm
Oh Tim,
I lived through the soft rock era (and each time Gold FM is on in some newsagent or other shopfront where I read and do not pay) and I’ve happily waved sayonara to each and every whiney, satin panted, badly coiffured guitar strangling one of them. And then late night advertorials have resurrected each heinous image I’d hoped to rub out of my retinal memory…NNNNOOOOOOOOO!
And now it’s in your best of list!?#+%$*?…NNNNOOOOOOOOO!
January 6th, 2008 at 1:02 am
Of those 19 albums only two will be released in 2008 - maybe three - & of those 2 there is a song called “Fretless Roamin’” that starts with a full on homage to Faux Pas - drum beat wise - once you hear it you’ll understand EXACTLY what I mean - but album number 2 is a big hats off to Faux Pas in a lot of ways PERCUSSIVELY - Tema de Cristina is still in my top 2 of Faux Pas songs - but it’s been superceded by Esso - my Official All Time Favourite Tim song - First Victims of the War is number 3 man!
January 7th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
did you hear joakim’s mcartney remixes ?
i hear you on hype, it’s like that every year with the lists, but sometimes the records really justify it. i’m with someone further up, panda bear are worth the buzz. and i’ve flipped for a few more of those records too.
i like your ny’s resolutions, but i think you should randomly combine the elements. like, cynical avant-garde sound textures that miraculously devolve into big-glass sporting electro, before a snarling riff cuts through it all and you vomit on your drummer.
January 7th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
nina-marie: you have moved from stage 1: ignorance is bliss, to stage 2: educated denial. please please, come and join me at stage 3: steely dan.
joh-un: how about you just start by getting one album out?! thanks for the kind words pablo and happy new year
matt: you mean “let me in”? i think i heard it on some grecoroman/hot chip mix. are there more joakim edits? i’ve just discovered joakim in the last month or two actually. france! how about it!
as for panda bear, i’ll get to it. as for cynical avant-garde sound textures that miraculously devolve into big-glass sporting electro, before a snarling riff cuts through it all and you vomit on your drummer… too complicated. next faux pas album is going to be me playing an electric oud and throat singing the lyrics to arcade fire songs in portuguese. did i mention i’m moving to berlin and only releasing my albums on cassette tape from now on? you have to pass a series of elaborate trials in order to join my email list, including slaying the mythic himalayan hydra. then you get a free badge. justice are doing a remix
January 8th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
Steely Dan!?…get thee behind me Satim!
January 10th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
where did all these people come from, pray? not the interwebs? that copper wire sure is doing the trick. this is the best 2007 list i’ve seen anywhere by the way. and i doubt it took 20 mins. i can’t even eat a whole pizza in that time.
January 12th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Sending props to Steely Dan!!!!!
They were AMAZING live at their first ever gigs in Australia last year!! That is, of course, except for the excruciating fact that they didn’t play their two greatest hits OF ALL TIME - “Rikki don’t lose that number” and “Reelin’ in the years”… WHYYYY???!!! (Note: Any hint of residual bitterness is a misconception.)
January 13th, 2008 at 3:24 am
You know, never in my most lurid imaginings or even rare moments of perceived clarity would I have ever thought I’d see ‘Props’ and ‘Steely Dan’ in the same sentence…I’m so letting go of this one. (loosy goosy n-m, just shake it off)
January 13th, 2008 at 10:21 am
Here’s me weighing in late
(Steely Dan FTW. the classic stuff, not their recent schmuck)
Nice to see Yeasayer in a year-end list - I think they got much less acclaim than they deserved… that album is great.
Anyway, taste is subjective and that is good and we all like what we like etc etc etc…
but I was just kinda thinking… Dandelion Gum is pretty great… especially particular tracks… but I’m not sure I would have said it was a brilliant “album” per se. Like, it just doesn’t seem to grab me as a complete album. it strikes me as not being a completely consistent album. which, again, is a subjective opinion so you’ll probably disagree.
I’m also a member of the Person-Pitch-is-pretty-darn-awesome set.
which, by the way, reminds me that I’m not sure everyone liking an album immediately qualifies it as not being worth getting into. I think if someone manages to nail a vibe that resonates with everyone, it’s bound to get recognized. it doesn’t automatically mean they’ve sold out or whatever. sure, popularity doesn’t always equal quality, but then nor is the opposite the case either.
did you get to hear Apparat’s latest? any thoughts?
also, I realise it’s almost too common to the point of being passe, but I’m surprised that Radiohead didn’t make it into either the “albums that won’t be appearing in my top ten list” or “top albums overseas” sections. indifferent?
end ramble.
January 18th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
ahh i really liked these lists. picked up quite a few good things out of it! thanks!
February 15th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
interesting…