Hope you didn’t miss me two much.

Musings, music, and mischief ahead.

Happy holidays, everyone. I trust that you are enjoying the holidays as much as I am, and wish you a blessed season. 

Taking cue from last year, I decided again to put together a ‘best of’ for music I had a chance to listen to during the year.  A couple articles from this month’s issue of Paste further prodded me:

“Music is extremely personal.  We are each going to respond to different songs and albums.  Even when personal tastes are close, an album can create extremely different responses in different people…but while music is personal, it can also be wonderfully communal.”  - Josh Jackson, Paste Magazine

“More and more of us are obsessed with our own private discoveries, and fewer and fewer of us connect with the shared experience that puts the ‘pop’ in pop music.” – Geoffrey Himes, Paste Magazine

That said, this is my feeble attempt to share with you what I’ve been listening to.  I’m fine with admitting that I’m not as eclectic as pitchfork would want me to be, but hopefully this list will broaden your horizons to things you might not have known about otherwise.  [Caveat: With so much music out there (and my lack of cash flow), know that this list isn't comprehensive.  Maybe the best music of 2007 is still out there.]

Without further adieu….

Top Albums of 2007

(1-10, In Order)

1. Wilco, Sky Blue Sky
2. Kings of Leon, Because of The Times
3. The National, Boxer
4. The White Stripes, Icky Thump
5. The Shins, Wincing The Night Away
6. Radiohead, In Rainbows
7. Against Me!, New Wave
8. LCD Soundsystem, Sound of Silver
9. Kanye West, Graduation
10. Band of Horses, Cease to Begin

(11-30, Alphabetical)

-       Amy Winehouse, Back to Black

-       Arcade Fire, Neon Bible

-       Arctic Monkeys, Favourite Worst Nightmare

-       Ben Lee, Ben Lee Sings Against Me! New Wave

-       Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Baby 81

-       Cary Brothers, Who You Are

-       The Cinematics, Cinematics

-       Feist, The Reminder

-       Flight of the Conchords, The Distant Future EP

-       Foo Fighters, Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace

-       Ghosts, The World Is Outside

-       The Hives, The Black and White Album

-       James Taylor, One Man Band

-       Jessie Baylin, You

-       Jimmy Eat World, Chase This Light

-       Kenna, Make Sure They See My Face

-       Klaxons, Myths Of The Near Future

-       Paramore, Riot!

-       Paul McCartney, Memory Almost Full

-       Ryan Adams, Easy Tiger

Top Tracks of 2007

(1-12, In Order)

1. Kings of Leon, True Love Way
2. The White Stripes, Icky Thump
3. Wilco, Impossible Germany
4. The Shins, Phantom Limb
5. The Cribs, Men’s Needs
6. Peter Bjorn & John, Young Folks
7. LCD Soundsystem, All My Friends
8. Foo Fighters, The Pretender
9. The National, Fake Empire
10. Against Me!, New Wave
11. Arctic Monkeys, D is for Dangerous
12. Radiohead, Bodysnatchers

(13-40, Alphabetical)

-       Alicia Keys feat. John Mayer, Lesson Learned

-       Amy Winehouse, Rehab

-       Arcade Fire, Keep The Car Running

-       Aqualung, Pressure Suit

-       Battles, Atlas

-       Band of Horses, Is There A Ghost

-       Black Kids, I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You

-       Blonde Redhead, 23

-       The Clientele, Bookshop Casanova

-       Dinosaur Jr., Almost Ready

-       Flight of the Conchords, The Most Beautiful Girl In The Room

-       Grinderman, No P***y Blues

-       Jay-Z feat. Beanie Sigel, Ignorant S**t

-       John Mayer & Dave Matthews Band, #41 (Live @ The Hollywood Bowl)

-       Justice, D.A.N.C.E.

-       Kanye West, Good Life

-       Kenna, Say Goodbye To Love

-       Kings of Leon, Fans

-       Klaxons, Golden Skans

-       Lil’ Wayne, We Takin’ Over

-       Los Campesinos, You! Me! Dancing!

-       Matthew Dear,  Deserter

-       M.I.A., Paper Planes

-       Modest Mouse, Dashboard

-       Paul McCartney, Dance Tonight

-       R. Kelly feat. T.I. and T-Pain, I’m a Flirt (Remix)

-       Spoon, You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb

-       Ted Leo/Pharmacists, La Costa Brava

Seven Songs To Blast With The Windows Down

-       Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Weapon of Choice

-       Cary Brothers, Jealousy

-       The Cinematics, Break

-       The Fratellis, Chelsea Dagger

-       The Hives, Tick Tick Boom

-       Jimmy Eat World, Big Casino

-       Kaiser Cheifs, Ruby

Six Reasons Why More People Should Listen To Mashups

-       ABX, Moneymaking Money Maker That Makes Money (Rilo Kiley v. Ludacris) [via hood internet]

-       Party Ben, Every Car You Chase (The Police v. Snow Patrol) [via bootie blog]

-       DJ Nicky T, Woohaa (AC/DC v. Busta Rhymes) [via culture bully]

-       DJ Zebra, Icky Thump Whole Lotta Funk (White Stripes v. Led Zeppelin)

-       Dunproofin’, Fiddy Fiddy Fiddy Fiddy (50 Cent v. Kaiser Chiefs)

-       Totom, The Way Simple Men Are (Timbaland v. Lynyrd Skynyrd)

Five Covers You Need to Hear

-       Ben Lee, Americans Abroad (Against Me!) [via ben lee’s blog]

-       Dawn Landes, Young Folks (Peter, Bjorn & John)

-       Greg Laswell, Girls Just Want to Have Fun (Cyndi Lauper)

-       The Kooks, Crazy (Gnarls Barkley)

-       Tegan And Sara, Umbrella (Rihanna) [via youtube]

Four Tracks Proving That Pop Music Is Not Dead

-       Kanye West, Stronger

-       Paramore, Misery Business

-       Rihanna (feat. Jay-Z), Umbrella

-       Sara Bareilles, Love Song

Three Tracks That Were Good The First 10 Times I Heard Them…

-       Feist, 1234

-       Flo Rida, Low

-       Soulja Boy, Crank Dat

Two  Tracks I Shouldn’t Like But Don’t Care….

-       The Feeling, Love It When You Call

-       Fergie, Glamorous

One Track I Could Go Without Hearing Ever Again

-       Plain White T’s, Hey There Delilah (Harsh, I know.  But seriously, can’t we move on?)

And there you have it.  Go ahead and complain, agree or even send me your own list (djones87@ufl.edu).   

Merry Christmas,

DTJ 

…you probably already know this…but if you don’t, I’ll make it real easy for you by clicking here.

Arctic Monkeys – “Favourite Worst Nightmare”

So much anticipation leading up to this one….

When you’ve got first album was the fastest selling release in UK history, releasing a second almost without criticism seems an impossible feat. Despite this, “Favorite Worst Nightmare” has recieved highest marks from all the major brit music publications and I’ve been extremely impressed with the bits I have heard.

Be on the lookout on Tuesday….

The lead off track album can be heard on the Arctic Monkey’s myspace here.

These Scotland natives surely have a hit track in their newest single, “Break.” It was produced by Stephen Hague, who did most of New Order and Pet Shop Boys records back in the day.

Plus, the cover has a burning typewriter on it….

Listen to it here. (yep, that’s a link)

Cary Brothers (yep, just one dude) just released the first single from his upcoming release, “Who You Are.” It’s a pretty fantastic track with bleeding shades of U2 and Coldplay. I’m sure you’ve heard his stuff, most notably being “Blue Eyes” off of the Garden State soundtrack. Enjoy.

Check out “Who You Are” right here.

Heaven in a bun.

Light Criticism Project

Quite a stab at advertisements and ad. majors everywhere.  Still, some reality to it all.  Apparently there’s hundreds of those TV’s that display the same thing over and over all day long in NYC.

Got the chance to visit the site of Woodstock last weekend while visting my aunt and uncle’s mountain house in New York.Just a big field, but an amazingly historic spot in American musical history.