I’ve been putting a bunch of thought (statistics) into my favorite albums of 2007 and I think I’ve narrowed it down enough to put some stuff up here. I’ll attempt to group everything into 3 categories: my favorite albums of the year, my biggest disappointments of the year, and finally, some albums that have been getting a lot buzz with the whole ‘best of’ thing that I never got around to listening to/listening to enough to judge but plan on listening soon.


So, my most disappointing albums of 2007, unranked, are:


Ted Leo & the Pharmacists “Living with the Living”. I really really like Ted Leo, but this album just didn’t deliver like I expected it to. I thought the first single (Bomb. Repeat. Bomb.) was boring and annoying. There were a few good tracks, but all in all, not even close to as good as his previous LPs.


Voxtrot “Voxtrot”. Their EPs were great, and similar to Ted Leo, it just didn’t live up to my expectations. If it were limited to 4 songs, it could have been amazing. Just too much filler.


There are a few others that were disappointing, but I don’t really care about the bands enough to be that disappointed. Those bands include Interpol (album summation: stagnant.) and Rilo Kiley, who have turned…just plain bad.


Now onto some albums that I’ve downloaded in the past few days based on recommendations and other top ten lists. Maybe I’ll do a “best of what I missed” podcast next. I hope they live up to the hype. The albums are as follows:


Dirty Projectors “Rise Above”
Bon Iver “For Emma, Forever Ago”
White Rabbits “Fort Nightly”
Frankel “Lullaby for the Passersby”
LCD Soundsystem “Sound of Silver”
Burial “Untrue”
Handsome Furs “Plague Park”

And now, onto the albums that were my favorites of the year. It was a pretty great year, considering several of my all-time favorite bands had new releases. I guess I’ll try and put them in a bit of order, mostly based on my play count statistics.

Unranked, honorable mention goes to the following:


Ryan Adams “Easy Tiger”
Beirut “The Flying Club Cup”
Iron & Wine “The Shepherd’s Dog”
Of Montreal “Hissing Fauna, are You the Destroyer?”
Radiohead “In Rainbows”
Black Kids “Wizard of Ahhhs”
Broken Social Scene Presents Kevin Drew “Sprit If…”
Patrick Wolf “The Magic Position”
The Shins “Wincing the Night Away”


and now…
10. Panda Bear “Person Pitch”
9. Arcade Fire “Neon Bible”
8. Battles “Mirrored”
7. Josh Ritter “The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter”
6. Bishop Allen “The Broken String”
5. The National “Boxer”
4. Loney, Dear “Loney, Noir”
3. Animal Collective “Strawberry Jam”
2. Wilco “Sky Blue Sky”
1. Spoon “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga”


It was really tough deciding between Spoon and Wilco, so I let the numbers do the talking. You can find great reviews of all of the above albums pretty much anywhere, so I won’t write them.


So now the tracklist for my podcast accompaniment. Some of the albums above have had several songs featured on alphabeticalORDER, so I did my best to throw in new songs or great B-sides. Download it here


1. Animal Collective “For Reverend Green”
2. Arcade Fire “No Cars Go”
3. Battles “Tonto”
4. Beirut “Nantes”
5. Bishop Allen “Butterfly Nets”
6. Black Kids “I’ve Underestimated My Charm (Again)”
7. Britt Daniel (Spoon) “Bring It On Home to Me”
8. Broken Social Scene presents Kevin Drew “Farewell to the Pressure Kids”
9. Iron & Wine “Innocent Bones”
10. Josh Ritter “Mind’s Eye”
11. Loney, Dear “Saturday Waits”
12. The National “Green Gloves”
13. Of Montreal “Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse”
14. Panda Bear “I’m Not”
15. Patrick Wolf “The Magic Position”
16. Radiohead “All I Need”
17. Ryan Adams “Two”
18. The Shins “Phantom Limb”
19. Voxtrot “Kid Gloves”
20. Wilco “The Thanks I Get”

episode x! big deal!


I’ve had some trouble with wordpress’ formating lately, so I’m just going to type the tracklist in paragraph form.


1. Animal Collective “Peacebone” 2. The Good Life “Heartbroke” 3. Josh Ritter “To The Dogs or Whoever” 4. Josh Ritter “Right Moves” 5. Loose Fur “The Ruling Class” 6. M. Ward “Carolina” 7. Radiohead “Jigsaw Falling into Place 8. Spoon “Black Like Me” 

welcome to episode 9! In the words of Jim Anchower, it’s been a long time since I last rapped at ya. I usually do most of my blog surfing while I’m supposed to be studying, but with it being summer and all, I haven’t really been studying much for the past couple of months. I don’t really have anything too cutting edge for you right now, but I do have a bunch of tracks that were either in heavy rotation this summer, or are up & coming singles, so here it goes: 


1. american music club – ladies and gentleman


the exception to the intro paragraph. i’ve been listening to this album for about 2 years, but AMC has never made the podcast before. (I’m short on material).


2. animal collective – for reverend green


at the moment, this is my favorite track off their upcoming album ’strawberry jam’


3. eric bachmann – so long, savannah


i went to see him a few falls back, and this album came out last spring (i think). this is a song that came across on my Shuffle this summer.


4. spoon – the underdog


so this is the 3rd track from ga ga ga ga ga to make it to alphabeticalORDER. it’s been in pretty heavy rotation for me and on wxrt here in chicago. i saw spoon at their first milwaukee performance since thanksgiving ‘01 at summerfest, and then got a chance to chat with them at a bar after the show. my roommate also ganked a setlist and got it signed. pretty good night, and i’m looking forward to the pabst.


5. the thermals – here’s your future


this album came out last summer, and it’s a good one. i like it more than fuckin’ a, and close to as much as more parts per million. this song closed out a recent episode of Weeds, which is a great show.


6. voxtrot – firecracker


recently released as a UK single, this track is from their eponymous debut LP.


7. wilco – the thanks i get 


one of those tracks from the vw commercials, however, this one is not on the album. seeing wilco live is always a pleasure, and i can’t wait till the millennium park show next week.   

get it here 

yay new episode. I’m trying to do this in the ‘enhanced’ fashion, which will hopefully allow you to see exactly what song is playing. please let me know (randy) if you can’t get it to play on a lo-fi computer. if not, i’ll upload another version. download the enhanced version here. or lo-fi here


1. Bishop Allen – Like Castanets


these guys put out an EP every month for the year of 2006. They have a new full length coming soon, but this song is from the september ep.


2. The Boy Least Likely To – Be Gentle with Me


i don’t really know much about this band. it came across my shuffle the other day and caught my ear.


3. Elvis Costello – (I Don’t Want to go to) Chelsea


i love elvis. i had this song in my head for several days after it closed a recent episode of entourage.


4. Emitt Rhodes – Somebody Made for Me


a friend recently told me of emitt rhodes. he is described as a ‘one man beatles’. the voice is very pauly.


5. Lonely, Dear – I Am John


Lonely, dear was on the last episode of alphabeticalORDER, but this song has been getting in my head like crazy this past week.


6.  Quasi – I Give Up 


an old quasi song. quasi is great.


7. Stars – Soft Revolution


same story applies as for boy least likely to.


8.  Wilco – Side with the Seeds


my friend loaned my the DVD that comes with the new album ’sky blue sky’. this song owns. total face-melter.