Best of 2007

Robert Wyatt – Comicopera
A sad and tender CD from this UK underground legend.

Various Artists – Bokoor Beats
Vintage Ghanaian Afro-Pop from the 1970s. This compilation lends a window into a little-known, but thriving, music scene that borrowed heavily from American funk as well as the popular regional “highlife” sound.

Battles – Mirrored
Someone resurrected the Butthole Surfers, got them off drugs, taught them how to play their instruments and in turn gave us a driving and merciless CD to listen to repeatedly.

Caetano Veloso – Ce
Legendary Tropicalia golden throat Veloso allows his son to take the reins and lead him down a divine, rough-hewn road.

Panda Bear – Person Pitch
Like it or not, this solo project from the Animal Collective vocalist/instrumentalist is hands down an amazingly fluid, harmonic, and beautiful CD that may take the prize for best release of the year.

LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver
Cheeky and clever is not enough to carry an album, but LCD returned this past year with a stunning release that was as derivative and referential as it was inspired and mature.

Oh No – Dr. No’s Oxperiment
Psychedelic experimental hip-hop with a mad-libby vibe.

Liars – Liars
Noisy, brutish, uncompromisingly rocking release from the wonderful Liars.

M.I.A. – Kala
Don’t hate! Artist M.I.A. hybridizes global street culture, bedroom fashions and marginal rhythms to cultivate an amazingly rocking and thumping CD.

Fridge – The Sun
Reformed and revitalized for ’07, Fridge quietly released this solid recording that holds all the power and subtlety you may require.

Various Artists -The Roots of Chicha : Psychedelic Cumbias from Peru
The title says it all. Or maybe it should be called “Everything you ever wanted to know about Psychedellic Peruvian Cumbias from the ‘60s and ‘70s but were afraid to ask.”