Top Ten Albums of 2007

Wassup rockers!
And now, our annual recap of the prestigious winners of Timothy's Number One Album of Timmy's Top Ten Albums of the Year. This just gets more exciting (and lengthy!) every year.
1996: Pulp - Different Class1997: Radiohead - OK Computer1998: Belle and Sebastian - The Boy With The Arab Strap1999: Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs2000: Sleater-Kinney - All Hands on the Bad One2001: The White Stripes - White Blood Cells2002: Bright Eyes - Lifted, or The Story is in The Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground2003: Death Cab for Cutie - Transatlanticism2004: Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous2005: Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake It's Morning2006: The Hold Steady - Boys And Girls In America
So here we are at the close of another year, schliemel, schliemazel, let's get that out of the way. All of these were released in the U.S. in 2007 (CHRIS), and all of them will make your eyes bug out more than "two girls one cup".
Maybe not. I mean, have you seen that? Wow. Not good times. At all. Anyway.
Honorable Mention: "Icky Thump" -White Stripes, "Magic" - Bruce Springsteen, "The Black and White Album" - The Hives, "Our Love To Admire" - Interpol
Biggest Disappointments: "Under The Blacklight" - Rilo Kiley, "Traffic and Weather" - Fountains of Wayne, "Calling The World" - Rooney
And the ten albums upon which all human creation will be judged, ca. 2007
10. "Cease to Begin" - Band of Horses. Snuck in at the last minute. I couldn't describe this band with a thesaurus and a bump of speed, other than to say they "sound good". And what else are we looking for, friends?
9. "Sky Blue Sky" - Wilco. In which Wilco almost do what other bands gone woefully experimental always threaten to do: go back to their roots. Wilco go almost a bit too far, to the point where the album drags, but the songcraft carries them through. Not as good as "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot", much better than "A Ghost Is Born". And the VW ads were great.
8. "Graduation" - Kanye West. Hello, token rap album! I'm trying to be a real rock critic here, people. (Though if I was, I'd have this 2 and some unknown mixtape artist 1, but let's all thank god I don't write for Pitchfork). That said there is no one in pop music, or probably pop culture, as entertaining as Mr. West these days. And he loves the gays! We all love the gays!
7. "Challengers" - The New Pornographers. As detailed in some TheAgingHipsters.com blogs this summer, I was nervous about this album. Early reports said that it was ballad heavy, and I look to the New Pornos for 3 to 4 minutes of power pop bursts. But then, wouldn't you know, my two favorite tracks ("Unguided" and "Go Places") are of the ballad persuasion. So I'm an asshole.
6. "Cassadaga" - Bright Eyes. The expectations are too lofty now. If I'd never heard of Bright Eyes, it's possible this would be a top five record for me, but it just doesn't have the peaks of "Wide Awake" or "Lifted". Starting off with a field tape of a psychic reading notwithstanding, it might must not be pretentious enough, y'know? This is one of those years where a Hall of Fame slugger hits .315 with 31 HRs and 115 RBI. Not an MVP season, but a solid campaign in the grand scheme of things.
5. "Because of the Times" - Kings of Leon. This wasn't on my Top Ten list until about six hours ago, when I gave it one last listen, and realized at least six of these songs had ended up on one mix or another. For some reason it never came together fully for me at the time. My fault, I'm sure. I underrate Kings of Leon continually. Even though they did help me clear out the dancefloor at my wedding. (How can you people not dance to "Molly's Chambers"? Are you dead inside?)
4. "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga" - Spoon. The Cormac McCarthy of indie rock. Spare, spare, spare, spare, spare. Except this time. They actually put some background flourishes behind a couple of tunes ("Underdog" and "You Got Yr Cherry Bomb") and not only do those songs benefit, the rest of the more-Spoonish songs do as well. I stand behind my comment in the last blog that some rapper needs to find these guys.
3. "Costello Music" - The Fratellis. Because I like rock and roll with big hooks and big choruses, and because you should too.
2. "Neon Bible" - The Arcade Fire. If my number one album were my award for The Best Album of the Year, this would win it. I have no doubt that as far as songcraft, wordplay, and genuine tunefulness "Neon Bible" has all others beat. It's like one of the late 80's - early 90's U2 albums. But there was one album I found myself clicking on more in the waning days of the year. So in a surprise last minute upset, my number one album of 2007 is:
1. "The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter" - Josh Ritter. This album is getting ignored on the most of the critic's end of the year list, dissed by people who I respect (CHRIS), and I've never heard one of these songs on popular radio, but this is the first album in a long time that I'm threatening to learn word for word (for the record, the last one was "Alien Lanes". That's 12 years ago). I'm not doing it on purpose, but everytime I pick up my iPod, I seem to be choosing this album. And that's why intellectually this would probably be number 3 or 4, I had no choice but to name it Timothy's Number One Album of Timmy's Top Ten Albums of 2007.
It's the Pleasure Principle, my friends.
And did I mention how I love you in your underwear?