Środa 2 Sty 2008, 23:10

Fare thee well, 2007!! You did me good. How so? Well, lets just look back at some high notes and spine tingling falsetos, shall we?

(just so you know…this thing is like four pages long, so proceed at own risk of time lose LOL)

January -

My introduction to Björk's album Homogenic, an intricate part of my eventual complete immersion into one of my now favorite artists.

Next came Lisa Loeb's Firecrackers, which sorta ended up staying in my cd player on my commutes to school for like, a month at least.

Another noteable was Goo. I really hope I don't have to say who put that album out hahaha

February -

The STAND OUT star of February, and one of my favorite albums of all time thus far in my life, was, believe it or not, Nelly Furtado's Folklore. I crashed my mom's fucking minivan to Grass is Greener!! HAHAHA Seriously, it totally fit the fuckin accident, too. Snow everywhere, can't see ten feet ahead, spinning out almost in slow motion…hitting the guardrail, bouncing back and hitting it again. So surreal…crazy. But yeah, Nelly has been a big part of my musical taste ever since getting her debut album in 2006 (I know! I was late on the Nelly bus…whatever) and with Folklore, she solidified her hold. I was very much pro singer-songwriter in the cold, dark month of February 2007.

Noteable as well were Annie Lennox's Medusa and also Bif Naked's I Bificus.

March -

Well, obviously Anaïs Mitchell's FLIPPIN AMAZING sophomore album The Brightness was my favorite album not only of the month, but now, in retrospect, the year. It was amazing…so much talent and ambition!! FUCK! Just…go get it, or ask me for it. Cuz you'll be glad for it.

Also at this point I had met Johnny, and started dating him, which led me in an electronica/techno/house-y sort of direction (obviously I was already into a few artists in that vein, specifically Princess Superstar and also Peaches whom I redescovered at the time) and more specifically, one of his favorite bands, The Knife, and their album Deep Cuts. Specifically I fell in love with the track Heart Beats.

I also began exploring Lisa Germano, prompted by a moving AIDS awareness video in which her song From a Shell was used.

Also, I FINALLY procured Broken Social Scene's Feels Good Lost. Nuff said THERE hahaha!!

I also got all three k-os albums, even if I don't feel all that excited by him lately, he was still a part of my musical adventure hahaha

April -

The month of April was AWESOME for both old and new influences. The amazing Laura Veirs came out with her junior album Saltbreakers. Nothing too new on it, but I like that Laura stayed true to her sound. Kudos. I had actually purchased a limited edition 7" single from the UK with the title track on it a month or so earlier, and the nonalbum track was amazing. I can't remember the name of the song though…bah.

Anywayz…next was my short but fun Damien Rice phase. It lasted only a week and a half I think, but the song The Professor & la Fille Danse remains one of THE defining songs of my music tastes in 2007 and over all, it's just an excellent song. Actually, I overall enjoyed the whole of his EP B-Sides more than his studio albums. I think a little Damien goes a long way.

HOWEVER, Damien was TOTALLY swept under the rug the moment I made the purchase of one of the most amazing albums I've heard ever: Ani DiFranco's Little Plastic Castle. Absolutely OPENED my eyes to Ani and that was like a floodgate. My interest in all other music waned and Ani took over my ears, and I loved it! It was awesome.

May/June/July -

While Feist's album The Reminder disappointed me, Ani DiFranco continued to fill me up. I basically bought an Ani album once, sometimes twice a week. I got her self titled album,So Much Shouting So Much Laughter, Live from Carnagie Hall, To the Teeth, Knuckle Down, Living in Clip, Educated Guess, and Reckoning/Revelling. I was basically an Ani-boy (hahaha, what are the chances? A boy could be so into Ani?) for…oh wait, still am :)

Not too much also made a blip on my radar during those few months. I did get a couple more Lisa Germano albums (Geek the Girl and Happiness) as well as completing my Björk collection with the addition of Vespertine (I had the live version, but not the studio version) as well as the compilation of remixes from Post, called Telegram (I had it on cassette…but never really listened to it lol) as well as the artistic but inpractical box set Family Tree. Also, her new album Volta came out in April, which I fell in love with instantly. All that was missing was Selma Songs. But I'm getting ahead of myself…

July was also the month I went to France, and I got really into Metric, Stars (the remixes of Set Yourself on Fire, titled Do You Trust Your Friends? made it into my hands before the trip, and stayed with we throughout the French countryside, from the plane to the canal boat to the plane again). I rediscovered Death Cab For Cutie a bit, and found a truly beautiful cover of I Will Follow You Into the Dark by Amy Milan. Unfortunately, I somehow missed her debut solo album…and just never have gotten around to purchasing it. I don't know why…she's just not that exciting to me without Stars I think…

July/August -

I forget exactly which month it came out, but a HUGE album of the year for me was Tegan and Sara's album The Con. It really is amazing, and the fact that Chris Walla is an amazing producer and did things those two NEVER would have thought to do…so helped hahaha. The whole album was charged, I feel, like an electric current ran through the base of it's spine, and zapped me every time I listened to it! It still energizes me! I also rediscovered Tegan and Sara, which was important, because I was scared that The Con was going to be all repetitive like So Jealous, and although I WAS obsessed with So Jealous at the time of its discovery by muah, it was still very much…a very repetitive album, and I couldn't listen to it all that much once the novelty wore off. The Con proved that the Quins are still evolving and I was glad hahaha

Another big release of 2007, one of my most anticipated since I read about the production earlier in 2006 in Under the Radar magazine, was Rilo Kiley's fourth studio album Under the Blacklight. Honestly, I loved it, but it was very different from More Adventurous, so it took me awhile to get use to the pop-iness of it all hahaha, but yeah, I think it's great. My favorite tracks are Dreamworld and Give A Little Love.

A smaller release, for me at least, since it sorta stood in the shadow-sandwich of Rilo Kiley ahead and Tegan and Sara behind, was M.I.A.'s sophomore album Kala. I've only listened to it a few times through, and honestly, I prefer Arular, but maybe I still haven't given it a fair chance, we'll see…

September/October

I got Ani DiFranco's compilation Canon sometime in late summer or early Fall. Also I got Rufus Wainwright's Release the Stars around the same time. Neither have gotten much play, but I'll get around to it, some rainy day, it'll happen heh.

Also, the movie Shortbus really influenced my musical tastes in August/September/October etc, with it's amazing soundtrack, with artists such as Animal Collective, Jay Brannan, Scott Matthew and the legendary Anita O'Day.

The Watson Twins also made it into my collection (without Miss Lewis to trail them along lol) in October. I fell in love with their solo album. It's really quite dazzling, especially Shoot the Lights Out.

Around this time my boyfriend Chris also introduced me to a few amazing bands, amoung them Architects of Helinski (I'm spelling that wrong I think hahaha), The Peat Moss Band, Elijah Wyman and April Payne.

October/November/December (yes, I'm aware of the overlap lol) -

The only stand out is Lisa Germano's AMAZING album Lullaby for Liquid Pig. It has my current and probably forever favorite track by her, "From a Shell". It's really exciting though, because the album was JUST reissued, cuz it's been out of print, and now it has all these bonus tracks and stuff, which is super cool hahaha! So yeah…that's the only real album I purchased in December.

Oh wait, I lied!! The soundtrack to Hedwig and the Angry Inch was like the soundtrack to my November. LOVE IT. I think it's just…an amazing movie as well as an amazing musical. Just…awesome.

Ummmmm that's about it, honestly lol, Kate Nash has sorta crept in via Chris and a manager at work. A few other artists I've met online have also come into view (Mypsace truly is AWESOME for finding new music hahaha) such as Monkberry, this amazing and talented 17 year old girl with more talent than a lot of other people her age and older. Leslie and the LY's stands out as one of the funniest acts (Leslie is basically amazing and hilarious and spandexy and fabulous HAHAHA) and also I have fallen in love with the queercore group Pariah Piranha.

So yeah…that's my year in music roughly, and no doubt I've forgotten a few albums and bands but whatever, I think you get the point, yes? :)

As for the new year, I've already discovered a new artist, or rather band (a two-man UK thing) called The Last Dinosaur. I've also purchased Dancer in the Dark, and plan on getting Selma Songs very soon :)

If you made it this far…you are amazing, and let me know, so I know how amazing you are :D Goodnight.