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SCHOLARS & ROGUES
http://www.scholarsandrogues.com/2008/01/17/best-cds-2007-pt1/
Posted on January 17, 2008 by Dr. Slammy under
art,
entertainment,
music,
popular culture [
Comments: none ]
It
was a pretty good year in music. A handful of artists produced
absolutely fabulous CDs and a lot more managed releases ranging from
"worth the money" to "are you
sure that shouldn't be rated a little higher"?
Here's
the format. Instead of the tedious task of actually ranking CDs - a
torture I used to inflict on myself every year - we now have four
tiers: The Slammy, awarded to the CD of the Year; the Platinum LP,
awarded for superior achievement; the Gold LP, for significant
achievement; and Honorable Mention, for things I bought and liked
enough to keep. Today, the Gold LP winners and Honorable Mentions
(presented in no particular order).
http://www.scholarsandrogues.com/2008/01/17/best-cds-2007-pt1/
Gold LP
The Choir Practice: The Choir Practice
Imagine if your favorite indie pop artists joined your high school
choir and kicked the director out of the building. It's kinda like
that. Same concept as The Polyphonic Spree, only better than this
year's TPS effort. Unassuming, bright-eyed even in its dark moments -
perhaps the year's most irresistibly likable CD.
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Year Zero for music in '07
Sorting the best albums from the horrific releases in the year the music nearly did.
Like
lucky soldiers returning from some gawdawful war, this year's best CDs
were surrounded on all sides by unspeakable horrors. Sure, most folks
seem content with predictable televised karaoke, iPod nostalgia or the
festering zombie remains of grunge - but for the discerning ear, well,
no such peace. Here's what I loved, digging around the ruins. Check out
audio slices of most of these on allmusic.com.
THE CHOIR PRACTICE
The Choir Practice: A mini Polyphonic Spree with Vancouver's loveliest voices.
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What
a fan-freaking-tastic year for music. Everyone under the sun released
an album this year! Feist, Art Brut, Deerhoof, Arctic Monkeys... For
the first time Tori Amos, PJ Harvey, AND
Bjork all released albums, which if this were say 1995, you would have
like SO shit your pants. Hell, even Life Without Buildings came back
from the dead briefly to give us a live album. Sorting through all of
it took an entire year, and here for you is what I'd consider the best.
Happy listening.

23. The Choir Practice | The Choir Practice
Video: Failsafe
MySpace: Here
Briefly: Made
up over over a dozen musicians from Canada, The Choir Practice sings
and sounds like a group of high school chorus students recording
original material + covers. Brilliant. The album's textured vocals on
top of light guitars and drums works flawlessly.
http://theait.blogspot.com/2008/01/top-50-albums-of-2007.html