It’s 2008, but I’m still reeling from all the music of 2007. Frankly, it’s left me in an overwhelming stupor of underwhelmed impressions.
To put it another way, there were a lot of releases but nothing all that pre-eminently mind blowing among the whole bunch. I’m still oddly compelled to make sense of it all though, perhaps seeking the same perverse pleasure people get from going to their Monday morning classes with hangovers. Fortunately, the January lull in album releases afforded me time to explore what I missed last year, reevaluate what I passed over a bit too hastily the first time through and paint myself a new, clearer mental picture of 2007’s music.
Of course the best thing to facilitate this was a thorough exploration of year-end, best-of lists, which all naturally professed to have the definitive statement of the year’s musical merit, but which all fell far short of seeming in the least bit convincing. Interestingly, I found that the lists varied wildly from publication to publication—this year probably more so than ever before. In fact, 2007 started feeling like the watched pot that never boiled. As many watchful eyes as there were, no final consensus ever emerged because not much managed to be all that universally stunning, and even less managed to rise above or subvert expectations either (a key factor in an album becoming a classic).
One of the only things that any of the lists could really agree upon, apparently, was that Radiohead released a really good album, but few were blatant enough to put it in the coveted No. 1 slot. To me, Bright Eyes’ Cassadaga/ was one of the masterpieces of the year, but it often only received a mention low on a list and never the standing ovation it deserved. Nick Cave’s side project album, Grinderman,/ was inexplicably disregarded nearly everywhere, but I found it utterly enthralling from start to finish. I could go on, but there’s really no need; in the end, we all had our own favorites.
As a result, finding someone else who got really into the same album was a difficult proposition, since loyalties were so widespread and vague among those tuned into music in 2007. Sure, many agreed upon records by Spoon, M.I.A. and The White Stripes, but beyond these basics, arguments began to diverge.
I couldn’t resist visiting billboard.com/ to check out the top-selling albums of the year, as a final stop in my exploration of year-end lists. Naturally, none of the albums which were on any best-of list were top sellers. Even on Billboard’s isolated Critics’ Choice List, Billboard’s hit chart-compilers epitomized the sometimes contradictory relationship between popularity and quality by only including highly lauded artists like The National and Battles. This basic lack of congruity between critical praise and commercial success is a rather curious phenomenon in the music industry, one which seems ever-growing. But in a year when Jessica Simpson mentioned albums by Radiohead and Sigur Ros as her favorites in an artists’ poll, is even the fine line of mutual exclusivity changing shape?
Well, it’s almost February, and it’s time to move on to this year’s crop. With this out of my system, I’m finally prepared to move on and embrace 2008. After all, a stellar Magnetic Fields has already hit the shelves, and a new Spiritualized album is on its way in May. What could be better?
Dying to find out what albums Jessica Simpson’s looking forward to in 2008? Send your inquiries to Ben at/ bpeterson1@wisc.edu.
