Favorite Music from 2007

As the year winds down I've seen a lot of "best of" lists when it comes to music from 2007. These lists are obviously comprised of songs and/or albums that were released in 2007.

This of course got me thinking about what my personal favorites from the year were. However, I soon realized that most of the new music I started listening to consistently in 2007 didn't necessarily come out during the year, but was new to me. In some cases it was 20+ years old. The following is not in any particular order and in some cases is not a specific song or album but rather an artist.

1. "Beyond the Neighbourhood" - Athlete
This was one of the few ones on my list that came out this past year. Their album "Tourist" still remains one of my overall favorites.

2. Badly Drawn Boy - I can remember hearing the song "You were right" a few years ago but never knew who sang it. I came across it when I was on Hype Machine one day and ended up checking out a lot of other BDB songs. All good stuff. BDB did have an album come out in 2007 called "Born in the UK" but "Have You Fed the Fish" is the by far his best in my opinion.

3. "Sundress" - Ben Kweller
This is one of those cases where I liked this particular song a lot, listened to it over and over. Unfortunately I could never really get into any of his other stuff.

4. Joy Division
I had always been a big New Order fan but could never really get into their precursor band Joy Division other than the song their probably most well-known for, "Love will Tear us Apart." Then I watched the movie "Control" in November which is a biopic on the late Ian Curtis, the lead singer of Joy Division. The movie itself was pretty good but it of course feature a huge dose of Joy Division songs. After watching the movie, Joy Division became a regular on my workout playlist. I could listen to "Transmission" over and over again.

5. "Mockingbird" - Derek Webb
I love the way Derek sings about his faith and puts it the context of everyday issues. He isn't the most subtle guy with respect to how he feels about something, just check out these lyrics to "A King and a Kingdom" - there are two great lies that i’ve heard:“the day you eat of the fruit of that tree, you will not surely die”and that Jesus Christ was a white, middle-class republican

6. "Mr. Lemons" - Glen Phillips
Although I continue to be a huge fan of the former Toad the Wet Sprocket lead singer, when this album first came out in mid-2006, it really didn't do much for me. Then there was a few days of brutal commutes a couple of months back that I was listening to nothing but GP and the Mr. Lemon's songs really spoke to me. The lyrics to most of the songs had a very spiritual undertone to them, particularly "Everything but you" and "Thank You."

7. "Nothing Left to Lose" - Mat Kearney
The title song hooked me on this album. Took a little while before I could appreciate it but the strong lyrics did it for me. Kearney is one of the best Christian songwriters I have heard in a while.

8. "We were dead before the ship sank" - Modest Mouse
I could listen to "Dashboard" over and over again. Former Smiths' guitarist Johnny Marr joined the group for this one and put these guys over the top in my opinion.

9. "Boxer" - The National
One of those artists I constantly heard thanks to satellite radio. Never got tired of hearing "Start a War."

10. The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir
Great band out of Chicago but you would think they're from Ireland. Kind of have a bit of Chieftains sound to them.

11. "Our Ill Wills" - Shout Out Louds
Everytime I hear their lead singer, it makes me want to watch Austin Powers Goldmember. Lead singer sings with a heavy dutch/scandanavian accent, but it's not so bad that you can't understand what he's saying.