Favorite Songs of 2007

Hello! The six-page handwritten list that's been in my little notebook now finds a home in the blogosphere. The scrawled collection of my favorite songs of the year just kept getting longer and longer. I dare say that it's incomplete as shown here. But have a look, enjoy, and click on the ones that are linked if you want to listen (can't find all of them...yet). Also, please please please comment and tell me about what I haven't included or what you agree or disagree with. If it's not on there, it's most likely because I don't know about it.

Limited to this year's releases. I'll add a list later of stuff I listened to a lot this year that was actually released earlier.

Favorite Songs of 2007 (in no particular order)

Department of Eagles - Sailing By Night
(Really excellent song, very sweeping. I especially love the end. Wasn't too impressed with the rest of the album, though...it was a little inaccessible.)

Band of Horses - Is There A Ghost (I'm thoroughly ashamed to admit that this is currently my ringtone. So infatuated.)

Band of Horses - Islands On The Coast (Ben Bridwell has explained that the lyric is "eyelids want to close," but he thought it kind of sounded like "islands on the coast"...so there you go.)
Myspace

The National - Fake Empire (This song is in 3/4 and 4/4. AT THE SAME TIME. It's been done before, but not very often in popular music. It makes my classically-trained brain buzz with happiness. Way to go, The National.)

The Avett Brothers - Paranoia in B Flat Major (The link is currently just a sample...I'll try to fix it. Same goes for the other Avetts songs.)

The Avett Brothers - Shame

The Avett Brothers - The Ballad of Love and Hate
Myspace

Oh, hey. If you've got a minute, read the ridiculously long column I wrote one night about my obsesson with the Avett Brothers. And then comment on it. Make a sad little blogger very very happy.

Beirut - The Penalty (I ADORE this song. It's basically perfect. Intimate and sweeping all at once. It makes me see sunsets and goodbyes. And hope.)

Of Montreal - Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse (Super-happy music about brain chemical imbalance...hmm.)

Of Montreal - Gronlandic Edit (The vocal harmonies alone are worth a good listen. Five-part stack. Hands-down the funniest part about seeing them live at the 40 Watt on Halloween was the fact that there were only two vocalists on stage, but that the audience filled in the harmonic gaps. Hilarious.)

Of Montreal - Suffer for Fashion (I haven't linked it, but see if you can find the Daytrotter version of this. It's without all the electronics, and that makes it even more obvious how well-written it is.)
Myspace

Biirdie - Him (We received this record at the SEP office, but they're from California or somewhere, which is definitely not part of the Southeast region. So I got to keep it. Thanks Team Clermont! Really excellent, broad, shiny sound. This is their best song, I think.)

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Yankee Go Home (Can't find this one anywhere, and REALLY like it...if you have a moment, go listen to it somewhere.)
Myspace

Fishboy - Blackout/Flashback (Links to the page where you can stream the whole album, worth a listen from beginning to end, as it's a rock opera.)

Radiohead - 15 Step (I'm not linking any of the Radiohead. If you don't have this album yet, shame on you. It was free.)

Radiohead - Weird Fishes/Arpeggi

Radiohead - Faust Arp (This might be my favorite Radiohead song. I know that's a dangerous statement...argue with me.)

Wilco - Either Way


Tegan and Sara - The Con (The title track of a lovely album. Completely worth buying. And I'm always impressed with how many vocal textures these identical twins are capable of. It seems like with two of them and each's range, the possibilities are endless.)

Tegan and Sara - Dark Come Soon

Tegan and Sara - Nineteen (Hands down the most drippingly nostalgic song I've ever heard. It's the perfect breakup song. So literal. And so much about what it was like to be younger.)
Myspace
Their show at the Roxy last month was excellent, by the way...

Suburban Kids With Biblical Names - Loop Duplicate My Heart (Silly but wonderful.)

The Shins - Australia (One of my very favorite of the year. Just...excellent. No verse or chorus is the same twice. Excellent work from one of the best songwriters of our time. Who can do better than "Pink Bullets"?)

The Shins - Sleeping Lessons (Very mysterious. Then it rocks out. The perfect first track to an album.)

Radical Face - Welcome Home (If you've never heard Radical Face, you're in for a treat. The atmosphere created by this album...it's gorgeous. This is the first track following the intro, which is called "Asleep on a Train," and you can actually hear rattling glasses and stuff throughout the album, as if you were...you know...asleep on a train.)

Radical Face - Along The Road

Radical Face - Wrapped in Piano Strings
Myspace

Menomena - Rotten Hell (Just damn cool.)


Maria Taylor - Clean Getaway (Beautiful. If you turn it up REALLY loud, you can hear rain falling in the background.)

The Dimes - Catch Me Jumping (Another thank-you-Team-Clermont record for the music mag intern. I think I got it the same week I got the Biirdie album. Good week. These guys are just...clean and good. Good.)

BC Camplight - I've Got a Bad Cold (Weird. Couldn't really handle most of this album. But this song is awesome. Listen hard. It's not as funny as you initially think.)

Arcade Fire - The Well and the Lighthouse (Ah, Arcade fire. They use a hurdy-gurdy. I'm not linking because everyone, and everyone's brother, already has this freakin' album. As well they should.)

Arcade Fire - Black Mirror

Arcade Fire - Keep the Car Running



Ach, that's all for now. May change later. Thoughts?