5. Porcupine Tree - Fear of a Blank Planet
Steve Wilson had a good year on this list; previously listed for his side project Blackfield and its album Blackfield II, his perhaps more famous band Porcupine Tree is here as well. Porcupine Tree has had a long history of gradual transmutations, coming into existence as a fictional name for Wilson's own musical experiments before becoming a real band comprised of multiple corporeal people, though the music itself is still very much Wilson's alone. As well, while Wilson has always been preoccupied with creating lush productions with various experimental elements, he used to insist adamantly that Porcupine Tree is not progressive rock in nature. This certainly turned around with the release of the band's most celebrated album, Deadwing, which was an absolutely beautiful piece of music ranging the gamut in musical styles and emotions. Fear of a Blank Planet, then, is up against an incredibly hard act to follow. Clearly it fared rather well, considering its position on this list, but while spectacular in every way, Fear falls short due to a shortcoming in its very nature: the album itself is a concept album focusing on the apparent and supposed growing disconnect between today's youth and reality (itself a topic of discussion), and thus is comprised almost entirely of the angry, the haunting, or the brooding. While epic and remarkable in every way, this narrow spectrum of emotion leaves the album devoid of some of the more beautiful moments of Deadwing, and does seem a bit disappointing.Key Tracks: My Ashes; Anesthetize; Sentimental
4. Shout Out Louds - Our Ill Wills
Very contrary to the title of the album, Our Ill Wills is entirely devoid of ill wills or unhappy music; indeed it is filled to the brim with happy indie pop. Perhaps very standard as far as the indie pop genre goes, it is the catchiest damn indie pop I have heard all year long, and it very much earns its spot on this list. With a long series of short tunes, Shout Out Louds have created an album that defies any sort of advanced description I may attempt to lay down here. With never-ending explosions of joyously arranged strings, guitars, and other more exotic instrumentation, the band lays down a framework that is hard to resist. The overall cheerful tone of the music does, however, clash somewhat with the lyrics, as all manner of moods, from the melancholy to the morose, are explored with the same upbeat writing as the appropriately joyous. Especially odd is the line "I lost all my friends in an accident," which is eerily set against a particularly major melody. Regardless, the album is worth it for its overflowing indie pop perfection.Key Tracks: Blue Headlights; Normandie; Don't Get Yourself Involved
3. Streetlight Manifesto - Somewhere in the Between
Streetlight Manifesto is truly one of the cornerstones of the modern ska landscape. Tomas Kalnoky's departure from Catch-22 set that particular band on an entirely different course than he had set with Keasbey Nights, leaving something of a void where his considerable songwriting influence used to exist. His return with Streetlight Manifesto resulted in Everything Goes Numb, which has been about as heralded and beloved as, say, running water. Having pushed out such an amazing and perfect piece of music Streetlight took to touring for a number of years, and finally returned to the studio to record Somewhere in the Between, a process which was likely delayed somewhat by having been robbed of nearly all their equipment while touring. Faced with the monumental task of surpassing the already impeccable Everything Goes Numb, it should be a given that many will come to the conclusion that the band fell short. This is far from the truth. While Somewhere in the Between will never be as iconic as Everything Goes Numb, it is an incredibly strong album and stands on its own as a worthy sophomore effort (the Keasbey Nights re-recording doesn't count). The most noticeable difference between this album and its predecessor is that the sound has been tightened up significantly - the horns sound more like a professional jazz band and less like a boisterous backup to a bar band. This isn't to say that they played poorly before, they were in fact splendid, but the tighter playing creates a different kind of energy: focused and powerful rather than raw and powerful. For the purposes of a studio album, this is the right approach to take. Hopefully they resume the raw intensity for live performances. There isn't much else to say about Somewhere in the Between; either you will enjoy it or you will not. Give it a shot, it's a great album.Key Tracks: We Will Fall Together; Down, Down, Down to Mephisto's Cafe; Somewhere in the Between
2. Radiohead - In Rainbows
I am not necessarily a huge Radiohead fan; I stand more as a casual observer, having dabbled in their works before, but never having taken the plunge. However, this album is different.This album is perfection.
From the first moments of arrhythmic electronic percussion in 15 Step to the final notes of Thom Yorke's lonely crooning against a percussion line falling systematically apart in Videotape, this album is perfection. Nothing is here that shouldn't be, and everything is here that needs to be. Atmospheric, moody, and poignant, the ten songs in the album are exactly where and what they were meant - nay - destined to be. The bass lines throughout the album perfectly complement the textures and chords laid down by the rest of the band, and Yorke's vocals are appropriately lamentful throughout. Something must be said for the fact that upon the release of this album, every one of the ten songs on the album held the top ten spots on the most played tracks on last.fm by a healthy margin from any competition at number 11 for nearly four months in a row. There is nothing more to be said: this album is perfection. I did, however, just learn that I will miss their concert in Seattle by four days owing to being out of the country, which makes me rather unhappy.
Key Tracks: Weird Fishes/Arpeggi; House of Cards; Jigsaw Falling into Place
1. Symphony X - Paradise Lost
With perfection already reached, how does this album rank in first place? The answer is, of course, by being better perfection. With Paradise Lost, Symphony X have simply created an album so intense, so technically and musically proficient, and so poignant that it managed to beat out all of these albums. The band seems to have taken a slightly different direction with the new album. By contrast for example, my previously favorite Symphony X album, V: The New Mythology Suite, incorporated copious amounts of symphonic elements and influences, with an ever-present orchestra playing metal-ized versions of classic works by Bartók, Verdi, Bach, and Mozart forming the backdrop for a very classically Symphony X storyline involving mythology, magic, and fantastical battles. The reason V was my favorite album was due to the sheer volume of classical content in the writing: it was everpresent, overbearing, and thus made V a markedly different album. Instead this time, Symphony X focuses on the traditional progressive metal ensemble rather than the string section, perfecting the neo-classical elements of their music, without falling into the trap of following Yngwie Malmsteen's path. Rather, the classical elements are so integrated into the heart of the decidedly metal songwriting that they don't pop until you really listen for them. This subtlety of classical elements belies a foundation entirely based upon classical music of both song and line structure which the band seems to have completely mastered. Moreover, where it may be evident from the rest of this list that a variety of emotions and musical styles are extremely important to me when listening to music, Symphony X pushes their boundaries here just enough to satiate. Granted, were they to write an entire album consisting simply of Michael Romeo's ridiculous shredding, I would probably be equally happy, but they resist from following that path, with a number of well-executed and well-placed ballads. In addition, Russell Allen continues to prove his incredible abilities as a vocalist with a decidedly harder, angrier vocal style without falling to angst. Paradise Lost is, simply put, the best album of 2007. Go buy it.Key Tracks: Oculus ex Inferni; Paradise Lost; Revelation (Divus Pennae ex Tragoedia)
Dubstep is The Thing these days; there is no end of Skream imitators knocking about in the alleyways of Britain, and grime is on its way in as well. However, it's already all begun to mush together into an unappreciable mess, as tired as the techstep drum and bass beat has become within mere moments of its blaze of glory. Thankfully, dubstep is defined loosely enough that we may feel entitled to call Burial's music dubstep, and thus we find ourself somewhere entirely else all of a sudden. Burial's dubstep in Untrue is moody, brooding, and yet always pensive, as if it daren't reveal its deepest secrets. Melodies shift and slide semi-consciously in and out of what may only be termed an entire musical atmosphere, always coherent yet never cogent. Untrue is the type of album that doesn't require a particular mood, it sets your mood to it, and thus is truly an achievement.
Matrix and Futurebound have both been in the Drum and Bass business for a long time, but not until they began to collaborate did they really come to the forefront of the scene. Their American Beauty remix is quite a remarkable adaptation, and when Skyscraper hit, it hit big, staying at the top of the charts for several months, earning it the title "The Eternal Skyscraper" around here. Soulful and nearly spiritual, Skyscraper is the embodiment of something new and different, as is much of Matrix and Futurebound's work. They have done their best to wrap Skyscraper with a similarly high quality LP, and largely succeeded. The tune Universal Truth itself is more typical fare, but certainly has its own character and, along with most of the album is fantastic. While about half of the album blurs together and is largely forgettable, there are enough gems buried in the wax to make the album truly shine. The sheer variety of music on the album is quite impressive, with the hip-hop infused Knight Riderz (featuring MC Spyda) followed shortly by Sandstorm, a title used altogether too much in electronic music in general, a nearly Trancestep production. My only possible complaint is that all the biggest hits are placed right at the beginning of the album, but as hardly anyone listens to albums straight up in Drum and Bass, this is hardly a significant concern.
No matter how many times I attempted to listen to this album to garner enough material to write about it for the sake of this post, I simply couldn't ever focus on the specifics of it after long: I always found myself suddenly at the end of the album, staring at a spot on the wall after an illusory couple of minutes of listening. And in this regard, Explosions did what they do best; they created an album that is nothing short of a hypnotic experience from beginning to end, which is the key quality for which I enjoy their music in the first place. There is no other music that has nearly this effect, and Explosions has mastered it incredibly well. All of a Sudden itself is a slightly emotive beast than my favorite album, The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place, with more - shall we say - explosive crescendos and perhaps a bit more variety to the various textures that flow through the songwriting. There are moments in All of a Sudden that aren't simply hypnotic as usual, but downright breathtaking, as if you just strolled into a secret garden of sorts, and there are moments of capricious outbursts which will catch you off guard if you're not paying attention. Overall, this trade-in of rolling landscapes for perhaps more interesting and emotive ones is a good move for the band, and I'm interested to see where they will take it next.
British producer and artist Steve Wilson has had a fascinating career, producing most of Opeth's albums as well as leading the initially fictional and later existent band Porcupine Tree. One quality that is persistent across all his varied works is an incredible attention to detail and an ability to produce incredibly lush songs. This ability has led to Porcupine Tree having been labeled as Progressive Rock perhaps before it truly became progressive, and it has also been lent to side project Blackfield, a collaboration with Israeli rock star Aviv Geffen. Blackfield's music is indie in spirit, and yet somehow also progressive in breed, with 70's progressive harmonies crooned over lush productions usually not found out of the prog realm, but with straightforward indie rock backing it all up. With Blackfield II, a lot of the issues with the original Blackfield have been addressed, most specifically the lack of a unified focus within the album, which was compounded by a number of covers of one or the other member's past songs. Blackfield II feels more like it was written by a collaborative effort than two people trying individually to fill an album, but it seems hard to tell now what Aviv's contribution to the effort is. Having had very little experience with his solo work, it's hard to discern elements and signatures in the music that might belong to him, as it seems the whole of the music could have been written single-handedly by Wilson. Nevertheless, the united atmosphere paves the way for an album that is beautifully crafted and lavishly produced from beginning to end.
Those who know me might have expected this album to place higher on this list. Having placed it at number six, however, is by no means a mark of dissatisfaction with the album. In fact, it is an incredible piece of music with the standard Dream Theater trademarks to it. The fact that it is placed at number six is in fact not to detract from it, but a credit to the purely amazing top five albums on this list. I digress: Systematic Chaos is Dream Theater at its finest. It won't win too many people over from the great classics (Metropolis Pt 2, Images and Words) as best Dream Theater album, but it comes damned close. Opening with a standard over the top progressive lick that wouldn't be found anywhere else and giving way to the now familiar Dream Theater brand of progressive metal, the first three songs drive by in a whirlwind. Taking a trick out of Pink Floyd's book, the first and last track of the album are in fact one epic song (which united is in fact their longest at 25 minutes and 38 seconds), which serves as a good way to balance out the sheer bipolar nature of the heart of the album: the nearly black metal Dark Eternal Night gives away to the nearly acoustic Repentance and the brooding Ministry of Lost Souls. All of the softer (but still dark) songs of the album are an excellent demonstration of territory Dream Theater has left largely untouched over the years - their ballads still tend to be powerful and extravagant - and are all great songs in their own right, while the more standard songs on the album are great but not necessarily outstanding considering the standard Dream Theater has set for themselves. The true star of the album, however, is the epic: In the Presence of Enemies (The Heretic and the Dark Master). Dream Theater hasn't done too much in the way of fantasy themes and storytelling over their many years of songwriting (this being the territory of Symphony X), and here they tackle it head on to great success. The story is typical and fairly overlookable; the true success of the story is how it serves to allow the band to explore musical themes in a more flexible framework than previously offered, resulting in a track redefining the definition of the word "epic". Let's aim to see more of this in the future.
Bassnectar's first offering, Mesmerizing the Ultra, was a darkish, eclectic type of take on the Breaks genre that, while interesting, was too unsure of itself and where it wanted to be to really stand on its own. With Underground Communication, though, Lorin Ashton seems to have addressed the issue head on, dropping the intentionally overdone minimalism and inaccessibility for a more direct, hard-hitting sound featuring crisper beats, more vocals (with a whole gaggle of guest artists), and a far lusher sound. The album falters a bit in the middle, as can be expected with its running time, but it is book-ended by incredibly strong tracks, the best of which are a number of instrumentals toward the end.
Tom Morello's solo project The Nightwatchman is completely separate of what he put out with Rage and Audioslave (or even Electric Sheep). There are no guitar pyrotechnics to be found here, no groove-driven music to headbang to. Instead, what we find here is solid, wholesome political folk music. Armed with only his nylon-string guitar and a harmonica, Morello sets out to continue the political note in his musical projects, and in doing so assembles a collection of incredibly catchy, heartfelt songs about the various predicaments of our hostile society, sung in a surprisingly pleasant baritone. One Man Revolution proves that Morello's songwriting ability is top-notch even when stripped to the most bare essentials.
There are few musical experiences in existence today more inspiring than KJ Sawka's live performances. Ripping to shreds most live electronic music shows seems to be what he was born to do, as he literally plays Drum and Bass on his drum kit, with a sampler in tow, constructing and morphing ideas and tracks as he goes on for an hour or more. When he sits down to put something on vinyl, however, he realizes that it's much more difficult to impress people without the visual of him playing along. As a result, the material on his albums tends to be a bit more IDM-inspired than his already highly experimental live sets. Cyclonic Steel is no exception, and in many ways is much more abstract than its predecessor. When a set groove does arise, it doesn't stick around for long, and it's easy to tire of the endlessly dark IDM, but accessibility has never been the reason to listen to KJ Sawka. Much more produced than Synchronized Decompression, Cyclonic Steel is an entirely different, more adventurous album, and it is better for it.
There seemed to be a general disappointment with Bloc Party's sophomore effort when it arrived, but as people slowly began to accept that the band is still evolving, and listening with that acceptance, it seems that the general sentiment began to shift, and most people enjoy the album for what it is: something a little more subdued, but no less charming or energetic. A much more melodic effort, A Weekend in the City shows a new side of the band that wasn't entirely necessary just yet (there was much life to be had yet in the more spastic, untethered rawness of Silent Alarm), but isn't altogether unwelcome. Perhaps the band's members have become slightly more world-weary than when they wrote Silent Alarm.
Rush is one of the most seminal, important bands of all time. Influencing and inspiring a whole generation of prog rockers and bands, Rush's effect on the history of music can only be matched by the length of its own history. As their eighteenth studio album, Snakes and Arrows furthers Rush's incredible and indelible 30+ year mark. The album somewhat furthers the direction Rush diverted upon with its previous album, Vapor Trails, moving away from progressive for progressive's sake, and towards a more balanced state of being. While maintaining Rush's trademark not-quite-dissonance, Vapor Trails was a more full album than previous efforts, and Snakes and Arrows follows suit. Slightly darker and more furious than Vapor Trails, the newest effort seems to be an attempt to push the band's edges even while following this new direction in songwriting, and it largely succeeds. The album's only weak point seems to be a small number of songs which drag on longer than they should have; this point, unfortunately, is rather grave, and cost the album several positions on this list.
