Best of 2007 (Indie Rock)
-
The Akron/Family hits the jackpot on this, their second full-length. They’ve gone for a more subdued, stripped-down affair than some of the extreme experimental free-jazz noise from their las...read more
-
Animal Collective has churned out one great album after another for years now, so it’s always tempting to brace yourself for a letdown when a new one comes out. Will the bubble burst? Not on ...read more
-
Lots of records were hyped to death this year, and lots didn’t pass muster. One big exception was Arcade Fire. The test of any band’s mettle is whether they can follow up the success of...read more
-
We were a little alarmed that Zach Condon, a.k.a. Beirut, returned so quickly with a follow-up to last year’s monumentally successful Gulag Orkestar. He’s still a baby, after all (he st...read more
-
We don’t always get things right at Sound Fix, but when we predicted back in the spring that this would be one of the sleeper hits of the year, boy, were we right. A terrific mix of shoegaze,...read more
-
We’ve had garage rock revivals in the past, but nothing quite like the Black Lips. This band is the real deal, folks. After putting out several fine but underappreciated full-lengths and a le...read more
-
The band that gave us one of our favorite in-stores of the year has also given us one of our favorite records. Never has an album cover been more representative of a band’s music: Black Moth Supe...read more
-
Wild Mountain Nation opens with “Devil-A-Go-Go,” a headspinning song with a rhythm that contracts and contorts as it moves along, blasts of noise occasionally manifesting to further dis...read more
-
The best album of Blonde Redhead’s illustrious career captures the band at its absolute peak – never before have they been able to balance their avant-rock sound with an impeccable pop ...read more
-
The Smog frontman puts his name on this album for a reason. You can tell who it is, no question about that, but it doesn’t sound like Smog. Neil Michael Hagerty (Pussy Galore, Royal Trux, Wei...read more
-
Indie rock’s acoustic-troubadour savant Conor Oberst, a.k.a. Bright Eyes, has returned to his traditional rambling acoustic whims, ballads, and rapid fire folk with Cassadaga, a welcome homecomin...read more
-
Celebration’s second album is not only an absolute triumph, it’s also a marked improvement over their debut, which was a fine record in its own right. This Baltimore three-piece is (des...read more
-
North Star Deserter is a gorgeous, brooding return to form for the brilliant singer/songwriter Vic Chesnutt. Cliches like “woefully overlooked” were invented for artists like Chesnutt, ...read more
-
The fun part of putting together a list of your favorite albums of the year is that you get to revisit those special moments when you first heard these great records. Except in the case of the Clie...read more
-
After five long years, Cornelius releases magic into the world once again! A playground of sounds and more synthfully delicious than ever, Sensuous is the Japanese pop-pastiche master’s first...read more
-
Spectacular. Talk about a record coming out of nowhere! A surprisingly rockin’ record from Kranky, the label who in the past few years have been known for a steady output of electronica, ambi...read more
-
Imagine, a reunion that not only worked but was as good as the original incarnation. Yes, that actually happened with the long-awaited Dinosaur Jr. album. You have to be careful with nostalgia R...read more
-
Chances are, you know the genesis of this record by now: lead Projector Dave Longstreth finds old copy of Black Flag’s Damaged sans cassette; decides to record the entire album from memory; h...read more
-
What a year for post-rock 2007 was. And Toronto’s Do Make Say Think made as good a record as the genre has given us in years with You, You’re a History in Rust (post-rock bands are not ...read more
-
Cynics may wonder how many albums we need by an instrumental indie-rock band. If the band is Explosions in the Sky, the answer is “all of them and more,” since they just keep getting be...read more
-
It’s always exciting to watch a band come into its own. We liked Field Music, but we never knew they had Tones of Town in them. From the first few sounds of the opener, “Give It Lose It...read more
-
I have never ever really listened to Nick Cave’s music at all, even in all my years of musical exploration and record-shop workery, so this makes me quite an objective reviewer of his new alb...read more
-
I&W started out as just singer-songwriter Sam Beam, but he’s fully moved into the band format now. He has done so without sacrificing the distinctiveness of his sound or the ethereal inti...read more
-
Few pop records these days dazzle you with their sheer beauty, but such is the case with this remarkable debut full-length from Lavender Diamond, Imagine Our Love. Becky Stark (leading lady Lavende...read more
-
Oh, Jens. Sweden’s best export (sorry, IKEA) returns with another brilliant effort – no surprises there, as it’s been obvious since his 2005 debut that Secretly Canadian’s b...read more
-
You know someone’s special when he invents a genre all on his own – or, in the case of LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy, inventing a genre-less genre. By defying categorization, LC...read more
-
Liars have their hardcore fans, no doubt, the ones who enthusiastically gobble up every release. But to many others, the band is an acquired taste. The band hit pay dirt on this self-titled release...read more
-
Yes, we love Scandanavia, and this week seems particularly heavy on releases from that part of the world (appropos given the weather), so here’s another. Loney, Dear (unlike Peter Bjorn &...read more
-
Did anyone know who Menomena was one year ago? Oh, a few did for sure (I Am the Fun Blame Monster is really worth getting), but many do now. And for good reason: Friend and Foe, the band’s th...read more
-
I was a little nervous about this one. Sonic Youth has been on a terrific roll lately, and I feared a Thurston Moore solo record just wouldn’t measure up. Add the fact that he released this o...read more
-
After the spectacular success of Alligator, can the National follow up? You bet. All the thrumming tunefulness and enigmatic lyricism returns (the lyrics filled with even more foreboding and dread ...read more
-
The members of O’Death say their whiskey-inspired music sounds like steam trains, wet soil, men with beards, and dried blood. I agree. Drawing from traditional Appalachian Mountain music, thi...read more
-
The Stage Names is Okkervil River’s best album, a more buoyant and exuberant affair than the band’s previous records, as fine as they all were, revealing new depths to frontman Will She...read more
-
“Wonderful, joyous, endlessly inventive and unfailingly melodic – Panda Bear’s Person Pitch is a cinch to go down as one of the best records of 2007.” That’s what we w...read more
-
What an absolute joy this record is! The second album from Jason Robert Quever’s band is unfailingly melodic from beginning to end. On several tracks Andy Cabic of Vetiver doubles Quever̵...read more
-
Writer’s Block is quite simply a perfect pop record. It doesn’t dazzle, it’s not groundbreaking, it’s just so good it hurts. The third album from Swedish sweethearts Peter B...read more
-
There are still plenty of pop hooks on Wincing the Night Away, the Shins’ third full-length, but James Mercer continues to mature as a songwriter and expand his production palette, so don’t exp...read more
-
Forget the baby-talk title on Spoon’s latest. Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga is a decidedly adult album that shows the band has grown up without growing pains. After more than a decade together, it wouldR...read more
-
One of the most gorgeous records of the year, this two-CD set has a slight split personality between the two discs. On disc one, the influence of Brian Eno’s ambient music is especially strong; f...read more
-
A lovely and majestic record, as wondrous as its gloriously vulnerable album cover. St. Vincent is the solo project of singer and multi-instrumentalist Annie Clark, who has lent her guitar playing ...read more
-
While Glasgow, Scotland’s Twilight Sad cite everyone from Daniel Johnston to
Phil Spector as influences, their sprawling, noisy anthems share most obviously with the epic, sonically detailed ...read more
-
John Vanderslice has been quietly amassing a brilliant catalog of meticulously arranged, beautifully recorded and heart-wrenching records over the past seven years. Emerald City is the natural cul...read more
-
Here’s an album we never got sick of. In fact, it just got better and better to our ears. Vandervelde was somewhat of a blog superstar in ‘06, and while some of his Brooklyn Vegan and S...read more
-
It took us a whole to come around to this one, but boy, are we glad we did. White Rabbits hail from our backyard, and their debut, Fort Nightly, is smashing, one of the most electrifying records of...read more
-
Hey, indie kids: there’s a reason the White Stripes are 50 times more popular than your favorite band, and it’s not just the outfits. What’s the secret? The unnervingly appealing combination ...read more
-
With Sky Blue Sky Wilco has come full circle sonically, deserting the arty atmospherics of 2002’s acclaimed alt-country and psychedelic rocker Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and the earthy indolence of 200...read more
-
It was a good year for comebacks, and the return of Robert Wyatt was one of the year’s best. Wyatt may not be a household name (a pity), but he is actually one of the key figures in psychedel...read more
-
It’s only fitting that Yeasayer should be at the bottom of this list, given that the year has ended with this delightful album sweeping our hearts. All Hour Cymbals has one of the freshest so...read more
Tags:
ambient
,
guitar
,
indie
,
instrumental
,
pop
,
post-rock
,
psychedelic
,
rock
,
scandanavia
,
slowcore
,
twee
