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Underground > Radio & Music >

Top Songs of 2007

  
  

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Pingle!Pop
19:26 / 03.12.07
It's that time of the year again. For lists, yes, but obviously not lists-which-are-just-lists; usual rules apply as to having to actually write something about the songs you love, or why you love them. This is the thread for those singles which have brought you JOY in 2007. Or non-single songs, if you prefer, though anyone wanting to write about albums can go make their own thread.

So.

My first three places, while I'm not sure I'd necessarily give them all top three in themselves, have to go to the three bands this year who I've found consistently really exciting, the ones who have made me jump around like a foo' every time I've seen them...

1. Los Campesinos! - The International Tweexcore Underground
The international tweexcore underground will save us all...

Los Campesinos! came out of nowhere this year to become my Exciting Band of the Moment. Before June this year, they were just a band I sometimes heard and liked in my favourite club. At the beginning of June, I tried downloading and listening to a bit more, and discovered that they're actually really, really good. And then in mid-June, I saw them at Glastonbury and everything fell into place: their performance was constructed from pure joyful energy, and was easily the most enduring memory of the weekend.
Los Campesinos! have everything I want in a band: as per the title of the single I'm nominating, they possess both twee - an endearing earnestness, a love for the melodic, excellent cardigans - and (hard)core - in their case, interpreted as a need to make lots and lots of noise with lots and lots of energy. Their music follows the ethos of Bis and Kenickie, creating pure pop songs meant for absolute maximum enjoyment, with a bit of extra loudness and the boy-girl vocals thing I'm such a sucker for thrown in for good measure.
Not all of this can be expressed in record form - it only entirely makes sense when it's heard live - but as far as any record can capture it, I think Tweexcore does pretty well. Conceived as a "concept single" (the b-sides consist of covers of two songs thought to exemplify the "genres" involved - Heavenly's C is the Heavenly Option and Black Flag's Police Story), the song is supposed to be about the antagonism between people of the subcultures of twee and hardcore - "I never cared about Henry Rollins / Amelia Fletcher never meant anything to me...". The lyrics are fun but fairly inconsequential, but the music is everything Los Campesinos! packed into three minutes: boy-girl-loud-quiet-melodic-shouty-energy-energy-joy!
Yay.

2. Johnny Foreigner - Sometimes in the Bullring
I might be drunk but at least I'm standing up...

I have a bit of a sentimental attachment to Johnny Foreigner, partly in an "I found them first!" way, a couple of years before they suddenly seem to be mini-huge with 10/10 and 6/5 reviews in Drowned in Sound and The Fly respectively (for a mini-album/EP which HMV still haven't sent me, bah).
Anyway, Johnny Foreigner are - I think self-described as - spazz-pop. They're a bit more rooted in rocky and what could be described as "original emo" sounds than Los Campesinos!, but still specialise in songs whose main feature seems to be lots of energy and making you wanna jump around. It's all stop-start-shout-SHOUT!-girl-boy-girl&boy-fast-faster goodness, full of cynical lyrics which as far as I can tell mostly focus on the never-ending patterns of going out, getting trashed, going to gigs and playing music that pretty much constitute everything there is to do in Birmingham. This, their debut single released sometime early this year, is a particularly good example: simultaneous boy and girl vocals, a sudden halt to yell I might be drunk but at least I'm standing up, or crossing the same lines since nineteen ninety nine, while guitars go all over the place yet simultaneously retain some kind of memorable tune.
Bring me my EP, darnit.

3. Help She Can't Swim - Hospital Drama
We went to the party spelled P-I-T-Y...

I'm afraid with dedicating my third slot to Help She Can't Swim, I might be starting to sound a bit repetitive. Help She Can't Swim, then, are all shouty and girl-boy vocally and dancey and melodic and energetic and exciting, but I promise they'll be the last in my list to fit that particular kind of mould.
Help She Can't Swim, though, have been round a bit longer and released rather more than either Los Campesinos! and Johnny Foreigner, and have already reached the point of calling their second album The Death of Nightlife. Despite generally sounding a bit more complex and less straightforwardly jump-aroundy, though, they still maintain the same energy and much of the focus is still pretty similar to the first album - ranting about all the stupid rubbish that seems to come with the indie scene (presumably in London).
Even though this single may sound like it's in the same vein from the odd line, it's about the utterly depressing affair of watching over the prolonged deaths of relatives in hospital beds. It's rather sad if you're paying attention, actually. Despite that, it still contains loads of energy and shouting and Leesey's vaguely bored drawl and a certain amount of vitriol, and is really fun to dance to. And the video for it is full of zombies.

4. PJ Harvey - When Under Ether
Disappears in the ether, this world to the next...

See? It's not all shouty indiekids. I touched on this song briefly in the PJ thread when it appeared as the first proper recording from White Chalk, and by now it's firmly cemented its place as one of the best songs of the year.

Characteristically completely different from her previous album and pretty different from anything she's ever done, stripped back to nothing but a sparse piano, vocals and hints of a flute and beat. It somehow feels simultaneously heartrendingly personal and yet hauntingly disconnected from reality, celebratory yet tragic, creating an impression which just kind of floats in your consciousness while never taking a solid shape. Needless to say, it's utterly beautiful, and is undoubtedly one of the high points of PJ's career, which is no mean feat.

5. Hush the Many - Song of a Page
Overflowing letters, a landscape, and mind the sprawl of ink over paper...

I find Hush the Many extremely... gratifying. They possess a certain grandiose glam sharpness, without straying into Muse-esque realms of the utterly ridiculous. Song of a Page is all swooping guitars reminiscent of Bends-era Radiohead (and not just in the way that any old guitar band does), impressionistic lyrics and snarling vocals, and feels somehow all-encompassing. Live it works twice as well - I caught them at the End of the Road festival and they were able to create a sound that was absolutely huge, delivered with an utterly captivating magical touch which made me grin widely.

6. The Twilight Sad - That Summer, At Home I Had Become the

Invisible Boy
A strong father figure, and with a heart of gold, a loving mother...

That Summer... starts with a dark undercurrent of guitars and pounding of drums, with a hollow voice intoning recollections of childhood in a broad Scottish accent: "I'm fourteen and you know, that I'm looking the wrong way...". Over the course of the song, the guitars build to a Jesus and Mary Chain-esque wall of sound, while the vocals become first snarling and bitter, and then raise to an enraged yell, incensed by a tale of neglect and spiteful, shadowy parent figures. Eventually, the vocals desolately moan The kids are on fire in the bedroom one last time and the music subsides to a drawn out wasteland of guitar, slowly dwindling into emptiness.

7. Let's Go Sailing - Sideways
I've been looking at you, sideways...

In contrast to the unrelenting harshness of The Twilight Sad, Let's Go Sailing are almost saccharine. Sideways is a beautifully simple slice of dream-pop, a delicate crush-song delivered in a voice that makes Isobel Campbell sound almost Lanegan-esque. It's fully of pretty violins and gentle piano melodies, and is simply utterly *lovely*, in the vein of Maria Taylor or Rose Melberg.

8. Malcolm Middleton - Fight Like the Night
Weakness is my guide, my wrongs show me what's right...

Malcy (of Arab Strap fame) is going to be releasing another single from his third album in a couple of weeks, a bid to make the Xmas number one spot with the cheerily-sung We're All Going to Die. Apparently the odds have been slashed from 1000/1 to 20/1 in the last couple of weeks, putting him just ahead of Amy Winehouse.
Much as I'd love to cheer that song on in its quest to be broadcast into the Christmassy hearths of the nation, though, my personal favourite off the album is the second single, Fight Like the Night. It's surprisingly earnest for Middleton, an anthem for the resistance of two people (he's drafted in the fairly impressive voice of Jenny Reeve to turn it into a duet) against... er, something. The world in general, I suppose. Anyone who's heard Arab Strap live will know that they were capable of being shockingly brilliant musically, and as the architect behind all that, this song is a pretty strong showcase of his abilities in that area. It's urgent and powerful, driven by fast guitars, electronic bleeps and insistent drumming, while still remaining highly foot-tappy.

9. Camera Obscura - Tears for Affairs
Is it true what they say? Will it make us go blind?

How good do you think Camera Obscura are? Well, whatever you think, they're better than that. Always better than you expect.
Tears for Affairs is the 78th or so single from Camera Obscura's latest album, but it doesn't really matter because you could pick pretty much any song for a single and it'd be brilliant. In this case, the song in question is a simple sentimental reflection on the inevitable heartbreak of affairs, Tracyanne's melancholy vocals floating over a perfectly pretty tune. It's probably been lifted straight from some old motown record, but all the better for it.

10. Super Furry Animals - Show Your Hand
You're keeping your cards all to yourself...

Finally, the Super Furries made what I'd consider to be something of a comeback this year, after the previous album Love Kraft turned out to be a bit unexciting. Show Your Hand was the lead single off Hey Venus!, and both album and single are reminiscent of the utterly brilliant pop of Radiator. It's a pure summer single; lots of quasi-psychedelia, Gruff Rhys' strangely captivating lilt, sunnily optimistic but fairly meaningless lyrics and sing-song chorus. That'll do nicely, really.

I'm sticking with ten; it's been such a fantastic year for music that I could list countless more. One artist I'd really like to have included in the above is Jeffrey Lewis, as he released an inspired collection of Crass covers reworked from fingernails-on-blackboard type hardcore punk into quintessentially Jeffrey folky tunes, but I'd rather stick to singles and unfortunately he didn't release a single song off it.

Would anyone else like to have a go now?
 
 
Spaniel
09:25 / 04.12.07
I'm askin', are singles really the way to go? We live in a day and age where the concept of the single is beginning to lose its meaning. I know I for one have paid next to attention to the charts this year - pretty much all my exposure to new music has come from downloading the odd track off an album or a blog, or following a link from Hype Machine.

So I'm thinking, shouldn't we just have a best tunes thread?
 
 
Jack Fear
09:28 / 04.12.07
I, for one, would certainly feel more encouraged to participate were that the case; in fact I've got a list of favorite songs ready to go.

Just in case you needed a good laugh, like.
 
 
Spaniel
09:42 / 04.12.07
I... would certainly feel more encouraged to participate were that the case

I don't think I could participate if it weren't.
 
 
rizla mission
10:07 / 04.12.07
This year, I have listened to a grand total of eight singles, about half of which were given to me for free, and about half of which I bought at random because I liked the covers.

I'm currently in the process of writing them all up for a weblog post, funnily enough.

Oh, and there is/was a 7" from the Jeffrey Lewis Crass album - think it was a limited edition one with 'End Result' on the a-side and a non-album track (another Crass one) on the b? Credited to Jeffrey Lewis & Helen Shriner, as is their want. It's one of my favourite albums of the year anyway - really, really astonishing; I'm enjoying it a hell of a lot more than I thought I would when I heard the initial concept. I've been meaning to start a thread about it, partly to see what Barbelith's resident Crass fans think of the whole business, but, y'know... lack of time and the continuing dead-ness of the music forum have worked against me doing that.
 
 
Pingle!Pop
11:01 / 04.12.07
Sorry; "I'd rather stick to singles" was just for me, not a diktat; as I said at the start, feel free to go with songs in general instead. I've put in a request to have the title changed so it doesn't seem so restrictive. My preference to write about singles myself was largely due to there being just too many songs, and narrowing it down gave me a bit more focus.

There *was* a 7"? I'd really like that; I've been regularly looking at Jeffrey's myspace and website and never saw anything and Amazon didn't come up with anything. I don't have time to write about it at least until later, but End Result is a brilliant song. Actually, the whole album makes me very happy.
 
 
Jack Fear
11:04 / 04.12.07
Oh, I hear you on that, Riz. But do for the Crass article what I'm gonna do for the Top Ten: just write it up for the blog and paste it over here...
 
 
Spaniel
12:52 / 04.12.07
Excellent, I'll be posting then.

Burial - Raver

Well, we should all know who Burial is by now, 'eh, we've gone on about him enough.

I fucking love this tune. It hasn't stood the test of time, granted. It's my tune of moment, and yeah I'm caught up in that first rush of desire, but I simply cannot imagine wanting to make mad passionate love to it a year, two years, a CENTURY from now. This is exactly the kind of sound that Burial teased on his first album: that inimitable, haunting Burial vibe, but with added dancefloor oomph.
Okay, so it's not an obvious floorfiller, and it would undoubtedly be at home on your headphones, or in your living room, and, like the best of everything Burial does, it can't help but sound exactly like a journey back from the nightclub through the rain and the city streets. In this case though, it also manages to feel like the distillation of all those nameless, utterly forgotten tunes that had me rushing and dripping sweat in the small hours of the morning. Not the anthems, not any of the stuff that you remember, the ones fill the space between all that, the time which we lose in the dark, in the repetition of the beat.

It's interesting, AG in the Burial thread mentioned that he was surprised at how familiar the Burial sound actually is, that he was expecting something a little more leftfield. It's a comment I've heard before, and one I'd like to address. To begin with it's worth noting that Burial's influences aren't just Dubstep and Speed Garage, Jungle and Hardcore are most definitely in there too, and they're worth trying to pull out, because that's where all this talk of the ghost of rave comes from - the way his sound manages to encapsulate 17 years of music echoing around the post party head. Also, one of the things that I can't help but love about Burial is his desire to produce music for the underground. A space that emphasises virtues other than innovation, progressiveness and novelty (although I think there are undoubtedly progressive, novel and innovative elements in Burial's work), such as the beauty of the genre in which he's working, a beauty that can only be got at by observing its rules.

I'll post up another tune later.
 
 
All Acting Regiment
14:56 / 04.12.07
Gosh, I've a few. Will post when I sort out my stick - my USB stick.
 
 
grant
17:56 / 04.12.07
Los Campesinos!

I'd never heard of them. Everyone must know!

That Pavement cover ROCKS!
 
 
Pingle!Pop
20:36 / 04.12.07
Yes! Everyone must know because Los Campesinos! bring nothing but joy! And yet at the same time, they must remain small enough that I can see them at my local pub-slash-gig-venue place.

Jeffrey Lewis, then. End Result, from his album of covers from the quaint old punk band Crass, and apparently released as a 7" sometime this year.

I'm... er, not a big fan of Crass. A minute ago I tried playing a downloaded version of the original End Result that I'd downloaded, and I couldn't make it through the song. I might sound terribly ignorant of the nuances of hardcore punk bands in saying so, but I literally can't find a single thing to hang onto that makes me want to keep listening. There's an awful lot of gruff vitriolic shouting and tuneless noise, and to my ears very little else.

What, then, could be retained from this which would not only make it listenable to me, but make me fall completely in love? Somehow Jeffrey Lewis managed to tease a tune out of the Crass song - whether it's hidden somewhere in the original or has been carefully constructed from scratch I'm not quite sure - and underlying the whole cover is a gentle, highly hummable repetitive plucking of guitars, accompanied by occasional snatches of harmonica and a tinkling of xylophone. Over this Jeffrey half-sings, half-rambles what was once a vicious rant, "I hate the living dead and their work in factories, they go like sheep to their production lines," as though it were a series of pleasant thoughts just occurring to him over the few minutes of the song. It's all so unassuming and even almost-cheerful that, as with so many of his songs, it just sounds utterly endearing. Crass are just about as far from Jeffrey Lewis' usual sound as I could possibly imagine, and yet this and the other covers on the album are some of the most quintessentially him songs I've ever heard. Which obviously makes them utterly fantastic.
 
 
Haus of Mystery
21:23 / 04.12.07
I'm going to see him (again) on the 15th. Happy Christmas, me!
 
 
The Natural Way
06:50 / 05.12.07
Do you know, I've never listened to Burial before now. There's too much good stuff out there and all that. But that was fucking gorgeous. Yeah, really in the vein of those witching-hour garage tracks of yore. It's quarter to nine in the morning, but in my mind's eye I can see the car stereo display glowing in the darkness. Or something.

Great. Thanks.

Will post something when I get home. By the way, does anyone know how I can link to stuff I've got on cd? I'm shit at computer stuff. I'm presuming I have to set up my own (very basic) web-site or something. I'm not sure that's something I'm able to do, to be honest.
 
 
The Natural Way
06:52 / 05.12.07
There were 5 'somethings' in that sentence. One day I will learn to check my posts before I stick them on the message board.

NnnGg!
 
 
Spaniel
07:44 / 05.12.07
You could set up a site or a blog to host your tunes but that probably wouldn't be particularly legal. The easiest thing is to set yourself up a yousendit account and bung 'em up there, then link to 'em from this thread.

Or so I'm told. Having never done it I really couldn't say.
 
 
lord nuneaton savage
08:43 / 05.12.07
So sorry, but there's only been one single released this year, and it's 'Atlas' by Battles.

Battles annoy the fuck out of me, actually. That constant whining sound as they protest "But we're NOT math rock. We have Feeeelings, and fun, and everything that normal humans do!" Silence! whinging tossers.

Their album is a fairly dry and joyless affair. Full of 'interesting' grooves, arid guitars and glossy with perfectionist sheen.

But 'Atlas'...

...oh 'Atlas.'

If, in THE FUCHER!, our goverments were to be overthrown, our world overtaken, by a massive army of heavily armed Nazi Smurfs then 'Atlas' would be their marching song. Their 'Tommorow Belongs to Me.' It's that stentorian, that fucking horrid. It throbs along, on its glitter-band beat, rubbing into you like an unwelcome dog's erection and insisting on you throwing shapes like a drama teacher.

The vocals are a horrid helium whine, like a fart being squeezed through a drinking straw, while the beat is the stupidest thing this side of Prince Phillip. When the snare comes in, after the first verse, it's like watching Cliff Richard circa 'Devil Woman' having a triple coronary. It's that much of a vile good time.

Okay, so it goes shittily Post-rock in the middle section. But this really is a case of a bit-that-sucks-being-there so-the-bit-that-rocks-rocks-more kinda thing, 'cos when it comes back in it's tropical disease time! Woof!

It's playing while Our smurf overlords stick heads on spikes overlooking the Thames. Brown, Victoria, Robbie Williams and Gargamel. All grinning shit eating dead grins as a big floppy white boot grinds into the face of humanity. Forever.
 
 
lord nuneaton savage
08:44 / 05.12.07
I like it, BTW.
 
 
Spaniel
09:47 / 05.12.07
As do I.

And here it is: Battles - Atlas
 
 
lord nuneaton savage
10:14 / 05.12.07
Cheers, brother.
 
 
Liger Null
00:54 / 06.12.07
Burn it All Down by VHS or Beta

This is easily my favorite single of 2007. Every time this song comes on I am compelled to drop everything and hop around the room like some kind of deranged Easter bunny.
 
 
Spaniel
07:48 / 06.12.07
But not expand on your reasoning. Oh no, that would be wrong.

No fucking lists
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
08:03 / 06.12.07
Start the banning thread, Boboss!

Or not. "Every time this song comes on I am compelled to drop everything and hop around the room like some kind of deranged Easter bunny" seems like a pretty good description of why someone likes a song to me. As I keep saying of late: spirit of the law, not the letter; the wood, not the trees. Or do you want a formal investigation into whether "As do I" is a sufficient expansion of your reasoning, m'lud?
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
08:13 / 06.12.07
Anyway, back on topic, I'll start off with singles and see how many I can do without resorting to non-singles...

Avril Lavigne - 'Girlfriend'

To say Avril Lavigne's output has always been something of a mixed bag is to put it mildly. Too try-hard serious to be pop, too pop to be anything else, she's never really managed to strike the right annoying/catchy balance that might 'Complicated' a keeper since then. But 'Girlfriend' hits it out of the park: one of those songs that makes you entirely re-evaluate someone. It reminds me of the line from the Doctor Who Children In Need special about how you can stop being so serious once you get a bit older... It has that "surely I've heard this before" immediacy, that earworm effect... So throwaway that it deserves to be immortalised. Yes, it draws on things like 'Hey Mickey', but the former is flat and emotionless in comparison. 'Girlfriend' is (for want of a better phrase) about real life: an unpolished, ethically challenged human constant. You're with someone. I don't like them. I think you should be with me instead. "She's like... so whatever... And you could do... so much better..." The kind of ineloquence that says it all.
 
 
Spaniel
10:23 / 06.12.07
(Sorry for getting overly stroppy, Liger. Would like to see more, though)
 
 
Spaniel
10:25 / 06.12.07
As do I

Already gone on about that particular tune in the 'tune of the moment' thread. Didn't want to get all redundant.
 
 
Liger Null
11:39 / 06.12.07
(Sorry for getting overly stroppy, Liger. Would like to see more, though)

Thanks for asking again nicely, Boboss. I don't usually post in the Music forum because while I love music, I'm not much of an expert besides "I like this song/This song blows goats." Thus I don't really have the vocabulary to effectively get my point across.

On the song:

The lyrics are all "Let's all party like it's 1999 and smash our reality tunnelz!!11!!" Such a sentiment is dated now, belonging more to the pre-Millennial zietgiest of the nineties. Also, the references to bombs and destruction, while clearly intended to be tongue-in-cheek, seem to me to be in rather poor taste considering the nervous state of the world's current political climate.

Nevertheless, the jaded-yet-poppy vibe of the song fills me with a nostalgia for a time that never was, for the twenty-year-old me that was stuck in a small college town, bored, shy and isolated. This is the kind of song that I would have enjoyed back then, while dreaming of a future of fame, parties, and beautiful boys.

The magic of "Burn it All Down" is that I get that youthful optimism back each time I hear it.
 
 
Spaniel
12:36 / 06.12.07
Doubley sorry now. That was a lovely post
 
 
Haus of Mystery
14:19 / 06.12.07
Clipse - Mr Me Too

This track still makes my hair stand on end. The fuzzy, almost lo-fi menace of the production matched with a peerless bass-heavy beat drop, the drowsy sneer of the chorus, and the tight inventive rhymes of the boys, plus an unusually on point Pharell...damn. Such a killer fucking tune, from the best hip hop album of the last 5, maybe 10 years.

We cloud hoppers, tailor suits like we mobstas
Break down keys into dimes and sell 'em like gobstoppers
Who gonna stop us? Not a god damn one of ya

Uh huh?
Uh huh.
 
 
Locust No longer
15:45 / 06.12.07
I’m not much into making lists but here’s a song I enjoyed from 2007:

Jennifer Gentle “Twin Ghosts” from The Midnight Room on Sub Pop. There’s a eerie floating quality to this song. I think of Marie Madéleine-Sophie Armant’s fateful final balloon ride over Paris in this song. The initial chant like vocals and a dusty choir-like harmony, mixing with beat driven staccato guitar plucks and chiming piano with what appears to be accordion drone gives it an antiquarian and timeless air. It’s so simple, but also so achingly beautiful. I never get tired of it.
 
 
Jackie Susann
18:26 / 06.12.07
I was just coming here to post about 'Girlfriend'! Have you heard the killer remix with Lil Mama?

Also, would it be inappropriate to post here some rap albums from the last 5-10 years that are better than Hell Hath No Fury? Cause I'm pretty sure I can do at least, like, 50.
 
 
Bear
18:41 / 06.12.07
I think I mentioned elsewhere that I love Girlfriend because she attempted this -

Novia
 
 
uncle retrospective
10:23 / 10.12.07
3epkano
They're a Dublin post rock band who cut their teeth doing live soundtracks for films like Blood of a Poet and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. As you can guess this leads to quite slow and moody music. Here they dumped some of that and made a song that does what it says on the tin. Opening with a distorted guitar, the strings and martial drumming quickly join in. Christ it's so hard to describe post rock. It's distorted and moody and when it breaks into the lush orchestral part towards the middle it I just want to be in a Lancaster bomber taking fire and blowing stuff up.
Towers open Fire

Efterklang.
A bit of a weird one this. It’s very chilled out and built around a slow glitching beat, strings and about 8 people singing. It goes to sublime when the trumpets kick in and then a nice quiet song becomes a thing of beauty.
Falling Horses

Dan Decan
This is a 12 minute nursery rhyme of a dance song. Starting off slow about 3 minutes in the viocordered vocals come in and keep repeating themselves building the song up into a frenzy, leaving you shattered but the end but with a nice afterglow. Live it’s amazing, in a Lighting Bolt kinda way. But way better than I made that sound.
Wham City

The Pirate Ship Quintet
The EP this comes off is the best thing I’ve heard all year. I got it in February and I’m still listening to it a few times a week. In fact I’d go so far as to saw that this is the best post rock I’ve heard since the first time I heard Mogwai Fear Satan. That, from me, is saying a lot. Yes it’s more Post Rock, what can I say It love the stuff and this is amazing. The song is the usual fare for a while, all building guitars and drums it’s only when it come to the first break when it really starts to fly, the violin, trumpet and organ make themselves known in an incredible blast of joyous sound, leaving the guitars to hold the somg in the centre of the mix while the trumpet and organ reach for heaven. God, I really love this song.
Pirate Ship

LCD Soundsystem
From the first cords of the Piano riff you know your in for something a bit different and this is a fucking gem of a song. This is dance music for ass shaking and for the head. (fuck you IDM!) I’m finding it harder to go clubbing as I get older, there really is something horrible about being 10 years older than almost everyone in there and this is the kind of music that gets me through that kind of crap. In my older world with a past littered with friends I’ve let go of or just lost touch this song really touched me. Then threw my ass on the dance floor, where it always should have been.
All my friends

Underworld
Underworld surprised me this year, I saw them live on a whim and they blew me away, just destroyed the place with one of the best dance shows I’ve ever seen. This is the highlight of the new album. It’s quite downbeat with a muted, mumbled vocal line from Carl Hyde with will forever remind me of that warm coming off pills vibe. It’s music to just hold onto someone cause you don’t want to let them go and you feel like your spinning away. Then the second part of the song kicks in and suddenly it’s alright, your in Underworlds hands and your back on the dance floor with some quality, if still a little downbeat techno.
Beautiful Burnout

Super Furry Animals
And here’s the antidote to all the misery and gloom. If there’s a better band in the world right now I sure as fuck haven’t heard them. This is a masterpiece of a song, this should have been a monster hit but no one seemed to notice. It’s a sun kissed, sixties tinged, big snog of a song, with all the heart you want from the Furries. They should get a world medal for being amazing. Feeling a little down? Put this on and the sun will come out where ever you are.
Show Your Hand

Union of Knives
Black to the glum but dancy. This a Ladytron sounding electro band with a male and female vocal, singing in a breathy way about how evil hasn’t loved you the way they have over some lovely warm synths that sound like that have wood panelling. I just love this stuff. Plus you can dance to it.
Evil Has Never Loved You

Clint Mansel
So you have a scene in the film you’re scoring and it’s a big one. It’s a scene where a man in a giant bubble is flying into space with the Tree of Life (that maybe his dead wife) heading towards a supernova. What the fuck do you do? Get in the Kronas Quartet and Mogwai, that’s what you do. 8’30 of pure joy. It starts out with just the Kronas Quartet, a drummer and a choir by the time the choir drop out and Mogwai come in it’s Epic. By the time the choir come back in, with one last blast of Ennio Morriconeesque lushness it’s world beating.. If you seen the Fountain it’s the climax music and is every bit as jaw dropping as the visuals.
Death is the Road to Awe

Digitalism
So here’s my party record of the year. Heavily influenced by New Order this is a pure mdma rush of music, a total lush of a song that makes you want to rush into clouds of dry ice and lasers to throw shapes. What else could you want from a dance song?
Pogo


God, I hope some of this makes sense.
 
 
Spaniel
11:01 / 10.12.07
Why the fuck can I never get rapidshare to work (unless I pay for it)?
 
 
uncle retrospective
11:44 / 10.12.07
Anything your looking for? I can put it on megaupload either.
 
 
uncle retrospective
11:46 / 10.12.07
With free Rapidshare I find that only some of the mirror downloaders work, just keep trying each one till you find one that works. Also if your restart your computer you don't have to wait 2 hours between downloads.
 
  

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