The Year In Music, 2007: The Best CD's Of The Year

As expected, DHMBIB is a little bit late with our "Best CD's of '07" post. But here it is. And for those of you have been regular readers of our posts here -- or elsewhere across the tubes -- this list should come as no surprise.

Read on for the full list...

The ranking is in the ever-popular "1-to-10" style, with a caveat. Read on.

1) Amy Winehouse, Back To Black



DHMBIB's Album Of The Year [well, obvs...it is "number 1", after all -- Ed.]

Grammy Nominations: 6+1

* Album Of The Year
* Record Of The Year -- "Rehab"
* Song Of The Year -- "Rehab"
* Best New Artist
* Best Female Pop Vocal Performance -- "Rehab"
* Best Pop Vocal Album

* Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical -- Mark Ronson ("Back To Black", "Rehab", "You Know I'm No Good" [Amy Winehouse]; "Littlest Things" [Lily Allen]; Version [Mark Ronson])

2007 Nationwide Mercury Prize Short List

Put quite simply, Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson have created a masterpiece of popular music. Ronson replaced the retro-jazz-diva-meets-hip-hop sound of Amy's first album, the Salaam Remi-produced Frank, with a retro-jazz-diva-meets-Motown-and-Brill-building-and-classic-soul motif. [Remi also contributed knob-twiddling assistance on the new album]. For the band, Ronson brought in The Dap-Kings, the band that together with Sharon Jones has single-handedly revived the classic soul sound of the 60's and 70's. Married to the sound are Amy's heart-wrenching, poetic lyrics about love, loss, betrayal, anger, depression, and addictions of all kinds. Singing those vulnerable-yet-defiant lyrics is a one-in-a-million voice. It was a big gamble for all involved, working outside their normal comfort zones, but Amy and Ronson have pulled it off here and produced an album that will be in the upper ranges of critics' "Best Of ..." lists for years to come.

Were it not for Amy's tabloid-captured troubles, she would probably be considered a lock to sweep her 6 Grammy nominations. Even considering the stiff competition Amy faces from Kanye West and Rihanna, among others, Back To Black is that good. However, in the real world, Amy's behavior has turned off many a fan and critic, and her upset loss of the prestigious Nationwide Mercury Prize in September 2007 was widely seen as both a plea and a warning. It remains to be seen how Grammy voters will react to developments in Amy's life over the last year.

If Amy does well with her 6 nominations, she has history within her sights. No female artist has ever won more than 5 Grammys on the same nite, although that's happened 5 times now, including 4 times in the last 6 years. And only once has an artist swept "the Big Four". The main reason for the latter is that it is rare that a "new artist" [BNA] comes along with the chops to write [SOTY] one of the best records [ROTY] on one of the best albums of the year [AOTY]. Amy Winehouse is that artist. In spite of Amy's tabloid adventures, you would not be making a bad bet to put your money on Amy to sweep her categories.

READ MORE [wikipedia]:

Amy Winehouse
Back To Black
Mark Ronson

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2) Kanye West, Graduation



DHMBIB's Hip-Hop/Rap Album Of The Year

Grammy Nominations: 6

* Album Of The Year
* Best Rap Solo Performance -- "Stronger"
* Best Rap/Sung Collaboration -- "Good Life" (feat. T-Pain)
* Best Rap Song -- "Can't Tell Me Nothing"
* Best Rap Song -- "Good Life" (feat. T-Pain)
* Best Rap Album

[Kanye also is nominated for 2 Grammys for work he did outside of Graduation.]

It's hard to overstate the accomplishments of Kanye West in the last seven years. After spending about three years as one of hip-hop's most original and unorthodox producers -- Kanye loved to build songs around samples from artists who were obscure or outside the realm of most hip-hop fans and performers -- Kanye finally convinced his friend -- and production client -- Jay-Z to give Kanye a shot with a record deal. Kanye did not blow his shot. In barely 3 1/2 years, Kanye West as a performer has produced 3 of the 50-or-so best hip-hop albums of all time.

Graduation picks up exactly where 2004's The College Dropout and 2006's Late Registration left off, and is surely at least the equal of either of those excellent records. Sonically, Kanye is still making us all say "whaaaaa???" at some of his samples -- Daft Punk in "Stronger"; Steely Dan in "Champion" -- but it is this willingness to consciously appeal to non-traditional hip-hop fans with samples that they recognize and enjoy that has made Kanye perhaps the most popular hip-hopper across multiple demographic groups.

Graduation would appear to be the strongest competitor to Back To Black in the AOTY race, and although we're pulling for Amy around here, an AOTY win for Graduation would not be undeserved.

READ MORE [wikipedia]:

Kanye West
Graduation

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3) Rihanna, Good Girl Gone Bad



DHMBIB's Pop/R&B/Dance Album Of The Year

Grammy Nominations: 6

* Record Of The Year -- "Umbrella" (feat. Jay-Z)
* Song Of The Year -- "Umbrella" (feat. Jay-Z)
* Best Dance Recording -- "Don't Stop The Music"
* Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals -- "Hate That I Love You" (feat. Ne-Yo)
* Best R&B Song -- "Hate That I Love You" (feat. Ne-Yo)
* Best Rap/Sung Collaboration -- "Unmbrella" (feat. Jay-Z)

[Rihanna is personally eligible to win 4 Grammys -- she is not credited as a songwriter on the 2 nominated songs and thus is not eligible to win those awards.]

Since first appearing on the scene in 2005, Rihanna has had trouble shaking a perception as a nasally Beyonce knockoff whose albums were little more than filler to surround her handful of minor pop hits. Though popular among international club-goers for her Carribean-influenced sound, the Barbados native was not catching on with fickle pop fans in the US, and she looked to be about to blow her chance.

Even though she had put out 2 albums a mere eight months apart in 2005 and 2006, the still only 18-year-old Rihanna raced back to the studio in early 2007 to record her third album. Label head Jay-Z, for whom Rihanna's failure to catch fire was very much a reflection on his decision-making as well, decided that a new formula and new personnel were needed. Added to Rihanna's long-time production team were superproducer Timbaland, Tim's male muse Justin Timberlake, Ne-Yo, the Swedish superproducer team Stargate, and the team of Christopher "Tricky" Stewart and Terius "The-Dream" Nash.

Whatever the cost of assembling this near "dream team" of high-wattage talent, the result was certainly a smashing success. Stewart and Nash brought along the song "Umbrella", which Nash had actually written for Britney Spears (she never responded to his offer) and was also offered to Mary J. Blige (who didn't say "yes" fast enough). "Umbrella", released as a single in March, quickly became a ubiquitous world-wide phenomenon, hitting #1 in 27 different countries and propelling Rihanna to international pop superstardom.

Even though many critics feared the "too many cooks" aspect of the ensuing album Good Girl Gone Bad would render it a sonic mess, it's actually responsible for the album being so accessible and listenable. In short, there's something here for everyone -- "Shut Up And Drive" rocks more than any song on any other "Pop/R&B/Dance" record this year, and also is, 25 years later, "Little Red Corvette" from the female's perspective; longtime fans of Rihanna's euro-club bangers will love "Don't Stop The Music" and "Push Up On Me"; fans of Rihanna's balladry will love her collaboration with Ne-Yo, "Hate That I Love You"; fans of Timbaland's style will eat up "Sell Me Candy"; fans of Rihanna's R&B contemporaries can get behind "Say It", and so on. Probably because there is so much that is so different, Good Girl Gone Bad also stands out as Rihanna's first album that truly needs to be heard all the way through, again and again.

2007 admittedly was very weak in the "Pop/R&B/Dance" genre, with most of the genres biggest names (Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera, Gwen Stefani, Beyonce, Fergie, etc.) having released new material in 2006. But Good Girl Gone Bad does not stand out simply for a lack of competition. Rihanna and her team have produced a record that most pop starlets only dream about. Rihanna's new-found international superstardom is well deserved. We hope she can maintain it for a while.

READ MORE [wikipedia]:

Rihanna
Good Girl Gone Bad

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[Notice anything about the top 3? That they all generated 6 Grammy nominations? Notice anything about the next 7? That not one generated more than 1 Grammy nomination? See any significance in that? No, we don't either -- Ed.]

[DHMBIB's numbers 4 through 10 albums of the year all could share the number 4 honor. They are all different records, with different intended audiences, and different ways in which they challenge the listener. Consider these rankings fluid -- on any other list-making day, we might have ordered them differently -- Ed.]

4) Fall Out Boy, Infinity On High



DHMBIB's Modern Rock Album Of The Year

Grammy Nominations: 0

Rihanna is not the only artist on this list to breakthrough to superstardom with help from Jay-Z in 2007. Jay-Z had long been an ardent proponent of Fall Out Boy -- he did have financial incentives of course -- but his appearance on Infinity On High's leadoff track, the outstanding "Thriller", gave FOB some valuable street-cred to go along with adoration they had cultivated among teens and "emo kids".

Of all the albums on this list, Infinity On High made by far the fewest "Best Of '07" lists I saw. Much of that is undoubtedly due to the rock critics' scorn of "emo", or to their image of Fall Out Boy as a band with far too much appeal to teenage girls. Much of it is also undoubtedly due to FOB's polarizing lead figure, bassist Pete Wentz, and his Hollywood associates. But it's too bad the critics didn't give this record its due, because Infinity On High was, in our opinion of course, the best Modern Rock album of the year.

Wentz's songwriting, and Patrick Stump's vocals, show the positive effects of their rise to stardom in 2005 and 2006. The songs are more mature and less quirky, and Stump's singing has definitely gotten stronger. It may sound hyperbolic to some, but Fall Out Boy right now remind us a lot of the artistic and critical growth of The Who around the beginning of the 1970's. We hope they continue to grow stronger, and we hope the critics start sacking up and giving FOB their critical due.

READ MORE [wikipedia]:

Fall Out Boy
Infinity On High

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5) Miranda Lambert, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend



DHMBIB's Country Album Of The Year

Grammy Nominations: 1

* Best Female Country Vocal Performance -- "Famous In A Small Town"

Miranda Lambert first achieved national attention when she finished 3d in the inaugural season of Nashville Star, an American Idol-like competition focusing entirely on country music performers. Her debut album, Kerosene, was released in 2004 to critical acclaim but initially modest sales. Then, her barn-burner of a performance of the title track at the 2005 CMA Awards added, well, kerosene to the sales of the record, and eventually it went platinum.

Miranda spent much of 2005 and 2006 touring, and in 2007 released her 2d album, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. But even with a command performance of "Gunpowder And Lead" at the 2007 CMA Awards, Crazy appears to have stalled out in the US with barely 300,000 scans, and that's too bad, because this is one hell of a record.

As every review written about Crazy has noted, this is not just an album of 2 or 3 surefire hit songs surrounded by sound-alike filler. This is an album that top to bottom sounds like an interwoven fabric of material -- probably as close as you can come to a fully-realized "concept album" in modern country music. Miranda is not just a talented singer with a gift for expressing complex emotions with her voice, she is also one of Nashville's best songrwiters -- from the anger of the abused lover in "Gunpowder And Lead" to the way she stands genre cliches on their head in "Famous In A Small Town", Miranda shows here that she is a once-in-a-generation talent, akin to Loretta Lynn or Kris Kristofferson.

Which of course means her label will probably drop her next year. Sigh.

READ MORE [wikipedia]:

Miranda Lambert
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

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6) Lily Allen, Alright, Still



DHMBIB's Brit-Pop Album Of The Year

Grammy Nominations: 1+1

* Best Alternative Music Album

* Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical -- Mark Ronson ("Back To Black", "Rehab", "You Know I'm No Good" [Amy Winehouse]; "Littlest Things" [Lily Allen]; Version [Mark Ronson])

The earliest US-released album on this list, Alright, Still has gotten lost on a lot of critics' year-end lists, likely to due the large number of critically-acclaimed albums released later in the year. Also, some critics' attempts to lump her in with Amy Winehouse in their "British ladies invade the U.S." motifs, combined with the tabloid-headline-grabbing year Amy had, have left Lily Allen little room to grab critical mindshare.

It's too bad that so many people have already forgotten this year-old CD, which was far and away the most fun listen of the year. Lily has an incredible knack for writing subversively humorous -- or is it humorously subversive? -- songs that are sweet and funny, catchy and familiar, and instantly likeable. Throw in another perfect production performance from superstar producer Mark Ronson, and this album is a perfect pop album.

Lily has an engaging personality and is adorable in interviews and on her own blog. She also avoided some of the high-profile tabloid-headline-grabbing activity to which so many of her contemporaries were attracted in 2007. She has already expressed that she may retire after delivering her next record, in order to start a family and spend time with them. We hope she changes her mind, but even if she doesn't, we'll always have Alright, Still, the "fun" album of the year.

READ MORE [wikipedia]:

Lily Allen
Alright, Still

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7) Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Raising Sand



DHMBIB's Americana Album Of The Year
DHMBIB's Collaboration Album Of The Year

Grammy Nominations: 1

* Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals -- "Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On)"

DHMBIB is a HUUUUUGE fan of Alison Krauss. But when we first heard about this project, we were skeptical. We are not fans of most of Krauss' collaborative work outside her work with her modern Blue Grass / Americana band, Union Station. Perhaps it's been her choice of projects, or just the difficulty of meeting high expectations, but these collaborations have largely disappointed.

So it was with trepidation that we approached this project. We have great respect for Robert Plant, of course, but his best days seemingly were long ago. But upon hearing Raising Sand, we realized that not only were our fears unfounded, but that we were amazed at the depth of soul and emotion on this project. The two vocal legends teamed with legendary producer-and-artist T-Bone Burnett to create a truly unique listening experience. Burnett was able to persuade Plant and Krauss to step way outside some of their normal comfort zones, and the result is an inspired creation that came from out of nowhere onto many critics Best-of-'07 lists.

Robert Plant famously played a one-off show with his old mates from Led Zeppelin back in November. This, naturally, led to speculation that Led Zeppelin would embark on a reunion tour. Robert Plant could earn upwards of a gazillion dollars on that tour. But instead, Robert Plant announced that he wanted to tour with Alison Krauss in support of Raising Sand.

Yeah, this record is that good.

READ MORE [wikipedia]:

Robert Plant
Alison Krauss
Raising Sand
T-Bone Burnett

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8) M.I.A., Kala



DHMBIB's What-Do-You-Call-This-Style? Album Of The Year

Grammy Nominations: 0

Maya Arulpragasam -- the artist known as M.I.A. [section 13(d)(3)(K)(iv) of the Music Blogger Style code requires all music bloggers who write about M.I.A. to write out in full, at a minimum, her last name -- Ed.] -- has always been a challenging artist in many ways. Most challenging has been "categorizing" her music. Is it "dance" music? Is it "world" music? Is it "club" music? Is it it "indie"? Is it "pop"?

However you choose to categorize Kala, one thing you can say about it is that it is easily the most political album on this or most other year-end lists. M.I.A. does not shy away from using her work to promote her causes, be those causes third-world poverty, immigrant rights, sexism, racism, or classism. But unlike most artists who make "political" music, M.I.A. never clubs you over the head with her beliefs. And you can bet your ass that you will be snapping and bopping along the whole time.

M.I.A. intended to record a significant part of Kala with superproducer Timbaland, which sounds like a good match in theory. Both are known for using unusual sonic elements to produce something completely unexpected. But visa problems (which provided the inspiration for "Paper Planes") kept M.I.A. out of the United States for most of Tim's free time, so the two only produced one track together, "Come Around". Oddly, it stands out as the weakest track on the album, so I'd say the visa problems actually worked out in her favor.

READ MORE [wikipedia]:

M.I.A.
Kala

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9) LCD Soundsystem, Sound Of Silver



DHMBIB's Dance DJ Album Of The Year

Grammy Nominations: 1

* Best Electronic/Dance Album

If you were to synthesize the hundreds of "music critic's best albums of '07" year-end lists in search of some sort of "consensus No. 1" -- to gather some sort of BCS ranking for CDs, as it were -- Sound Of Silver would probably come out on top. I think I saw this CD in the top 3 of more lists this season than every other CD on this list combined.

I agree that it was one of the best of the year. And -- my earlier "coulda pulled them outta my hat" caveat aside -- it would probably be higher on my list if the final track, "New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down", weren't such a downer. Yes, that's stupid, but it's also true, and it needed to be said.

Seriously, from every album I heard "almost" all the way through this year -- and this list plus about ten others is THE LIST of such albums -- "New York..." was the one track I most often skipped over [iTunes tells us that we heard "North American Scum" 3 times as often as we heard "New York..." -- Ed.]. And it doesn't help that the track is not only a downer, but it also clocks in at 5:35, which is waaaaaaay too long for me to be listening to a downer track.

So, James Murphy, kudos to you! You took 9th "this week".

READ MORE [wikipedia]:

LCD Soundsystem
Sound Of Silver
James Murphy

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10) Arctic Monkeys, Favourite Worst Nightmare



Grammy Nominations: 0

2007 Nationwide Mercury Prize Short List

In 2006, Britain's Arctic Monkeys became the first act to achieve superstar status largely as a result of an online community of fans reaching critical mass. Their debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, debuted to critical acclaim and strong sales. After the Monkeys were awarded the prestigious Nationwide Mercury Prize later in the year, the Monkeys' status as Britain's premier rock-and-roll group was cemented.

Many critics worried that the Monkeys would fall victim to the dreaded "sophomore slump", both due to the expectations placed on them after taking the NMP, and because they were so young -- leader Alex Turner was only 20 years old when Whatever... dropped. But seeking to capture the momentum of their solid 2006, the Monkeys raced back into the studio to record Favourite Worst Nightmare.

The critics needn't have been concerned. The Monkeys have managed not only to not slump, but Favourite... actually betters their debut, and demonstrates artistic growth and teases a promising future for the band. The critics largely agreed, and honored the Monkeys in 2007 by again placing them on the Short List for the Nationwide Mercury Prize, making the Monkeys the first artist to be on the Short List in 2 consecutive years (alas, they did not win the 2007 award).

READ MORE [wikipedia]:

Arctic Monkeys
Favourite Worst Nightmare
Alex Turner

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READ MORE:

Idolator's Idolator Pop '07 Music Critics' Poll
Idolator's round-up of other critics' lists
Village Voice's 2007 Pazz & Jop Poll