NVinNYC

I present my Top 5 Albums of 2007:

1. Feist - The Reminder: Overplayed and too popular now (so I might have to hate it henceforth), but this doesn’t change the fact that it’s an amazing album of indie rock at the core. Not having any track less than good on the album helps too.
2. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver: Electronic music taken to whole new places with touching and insightful lyrics.
3. Earlimart - Mentor Tormentor: A masterpiece of the introspective with layers of strings upon haunting vocals upon wonderfully tuned distortion.
4. Ra Ra Riot - EP: A band that you’ve never heard of (unless I’ve already shilled them to you) perfected the art of rocking out to the cello & violin.
5. Cinematic Orchestra - Ma Fleur: Listening to this album is like watching your favorite a bittersweet film; if you close your eyes you can see it play out right in front of you.

Here’s another ‘Fiver’ list for you. This time it’s five tracks that have that inexplicable ability, through their wonderful beauty and sadness, to plunge a hot poker into my [normally stone] heart and make it feel broken all over again

1. ‘Shadow’ - Beady Belle
2. ‘Fast Car’ - Tracy Chapman
3. ‘A Dream for Us’ - The Appleseed Cast
4. ‘To Build a Home’ - The Cinematic Orchestra
5. ‘Together We Will Live Forever’ - Clint Mansell, Kronos Quartet, & Mogwai

Extra Special Sixth Bonus Track: Overplaying has desensitized me to it, but ‘Freshman’ by The Verve Pipe deserves to be on this list too.

I’m going to try to make more top five lists because every knows lists are awesome. Here’s the songs that must be played at my funeral (assuming that there was no new music between now and then).

1. Ambulance LTD - Yoga Means Union
2. Spoon - The Beast & Dragon, Adored
3. Creper Lagoon - So Little to Give
4. The Decemberists - Sons & Daughters
5. Philip Glass - Metamorphosis 1

My five favorite albums of 2006, in order:

1. The Crane Wife by The Decemberists (↪iTunes)
2. Broken Boy Soldiers by The Raconteurs (↪iTunes)
3. The Fountain Soundtrack composed by Clint Mansell and performed by Kronos Quartet & Mogwai (↪iTunes)
4. The Eraser by Thom Yorke (↪iTunes)
5. Without Feathers by The Stills (↪iTunes)

Honorable Mentions (in alphabetical order by artist):

• This Binary Universe by BT (↪iTunes)
• Supernature by Goldfrapp (↪iTunes) [Kept out of the top 5 only because of label BS since the UK version was released in 2005.]
• Mind How You Go by Skye (↪iTunes)
• The Last Resort by Trentemøller (↪iTunes)
• The Garden by Zero 7 (↪iTunes)