2007 music almost finished...

Before I get to 10-1 of my little countdown, I have some 2007 miscellanea to deal with. Stuff that didn't make the list for whatever reason, plus random crap that I wanted to talk about anyway.

Best albums from previous years that weren't released in the USA until 2007:

- Lily Allen - Alright, Still - I was at a party in the summer some time and somebody had the radio on, and "Smile" from this album came on, and I said something like "what the fuck, is that Lily Allen?" My buddy Ed said something like "Tom probably had this album a year ago," and I was put in the awkward position of trying to say that I actually did have the album a year ago without looking like some hipster shitdick. I don't think I succeeded, but Ed claimed not to be a sarcastic ass in saying that either. At any rate, Lily Allen makes some fine sweet pop confections, and she finally got her well-earned US recognition this year. So good for her.

- The Pipettes - We Are the Pipettes - This one was FINALLY issued in the US with different artwork and a couple bonus tracks last fall. It's about damn time. Also, We Are the Pipettes is still an absolutely delightful pop album. It was good enough for #4 on my 2006 list, and it's good enough to mention again, now that you can actually buy it in a store.

- Cyann and Ben - Sweet Beliefs - This one came in at #7 last year on my list, and it's a fine continuation of the Cyann and Ben catalog, with the slow-burning builds, the spaced out psychedelia, and the epic explosions. It's pretty good.

- Junior Senior - Hey Hey My My Yo Yo - This one actually came out in Europe in 2005 or something crazy like that, and it's unbelievable that it wasn't released in the USA until 2007. It's another orgasmic celebration of happiness via pop music, and maybe the most delightful release I heard all year (except for maybe the Pipettes, I guess).

The Led Zeppelin III award(s) for irritating album packaging:

- Bjork - Volta - This one has a sticker on the front that's part of the album art (the picture of Bjork is the sticker, the red part is the cardboard), and to actually get to the CD inside you either have to rip the sticker in half (and then the cardboard sleeve will never actually close again) or carefully peel off half of the sticker. God, it's annoying. And pretty.

- Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer - It's another cardboard package with a gatefold in the front, except the gatefold is the black areas on the front, and the only way to get it to actually close, so that the liner notes (helpfully printed on a loose circular glossy piece of paper) don't fall out, is to carefully replace the whole thing back in its clear plastic sleeve, which would be fine except the thing is damn near IMPOSSIBLE to get back in there.

And the rest:

Brian Wilson - That Lucky Old Sun - This isn't on the list because there is no recorded version of it that isn't a live bootleg (that we know of, anyway). It would be on the list if it were given a proper release because it's Brian Wilson, and it's actually pretty damned good. It's wonderful to see that revisiting Smile seems to have retriggered the part of Brian's brain (or soul) that makes amazing music, because this is the first brand new album-length work he's written that's been consistently good in 30 years (I'm counting The Beach Boys Love You as the last one, for those keeping track). And hell, even the live bootlegs sound great. Brian Wilson is a better performer at this point in his life than he's been in four and a half decades of making music. Brian's 65 years old and still following his muse, and I couldn't be happier about it.

Scott Walker - And Who Shall Go to the Ball? And What Shall Go to the Ball? - Scott Walker, meanwhile, proved what we'd been suspecting anyway: stripped of vocals and "rock" production, his music is now simply avant-garde classical music. It's not on the list because it's a 4 song, 25 minute EP that was written as music to a ballet. The thought of anybody trying to dance to this stuff is beyond absurd. Scott went deep into the waters of atonality with 2006's The Drift, and this stuff is atonal, and also mostly arrhythmic as well. It's not as viscerally intense and downright horrifying as The Drift, but it's almost as unsettling. Scott's 65 years old and still following his muse, and I couldn't be more terrified of it.