Extremely belatedly, the "2007 cd" I made back at the end of last year, along with the bulk of the accompanying notes.
1. Ceremony – New Order
Marie Antoinette OST (2006) [1981]
2. Intervention – The Arcade Fire
Neon Bible (2007)
3. Rhythm & Soul – Spoon
Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (2007)
4. Stockton Gala Days – 10,000 Maniacs
Our Time in Eden (1992)
5. So Have I For You – Nikka Costa
Everybody Got Their Something (2001)
6. Thunder Road – Bruce Springsteen
Born To Run (1975)
7. Back To Black – Amy Winehouse
Back To Black (2006)
8. Breakaway – Kelly Clarkson
Breakaway (2004)
9. Tommib Help Buss – Squarepusher
Marie Antoinette OST (2006) [2003]
10. Out Loud – Mindy Smith
Long Island Shores (2006)
At year’s kick-off, it was all about the Marie Antoinette soundtrack – the film was dizzyingly lovely, and its musical record no less so…“Ceremony” is a classic, but never sounded so good as it did swirling through Coppola’s sherbet dream, and Squarepusher’s mournful reprise of Lost In Translation’s “Tommib” is plangent, raindrop-perfect.
Not long after that was Neon Bible which, coming through in waves, was just as towering and magnificent as Funeral; “Intervention” was the song off it that first sent a shiver down my spine, and it’s still probably my favourite.
Nikka Costa came out of left field, “So Have I For You” grabbing me with its closing-time Joplin-isms; Spoon’s Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, by contrast, was predictably great, all stripped back rock tunes with a dash of soul, dressed in perfect details like the two-finger piano plinks in “Rhythm & Soul”.
At some point, I started listening to 10,000 Maniacs again, and remembered the kinds of pictures their music paints; “Stockton Gala Days” has been the key track. Also somewhere in there was Springsteen – having been rocking out to Born in the USA for years, I finally figured to listen to more of his stuff, and once you’ve listened to Born to Run LOUD, there’s no going back. And there was Amy Winehouse too, who I was all set to ignore till I heard “Back To Black” and realised that it was exactly the sort of thing that I like these days.
“Out Loud”, irresistible in its delicacy and pull, was almost certainly the song that I listened to most throughout the year; and “Breakaway” has been the one for the last couple of months, though I can’t explain that last, except maybe to say that a great pop song is a great pop song, and one way or another we’re all gonna empathise with it somehow.
