Rich's Top 30 of 2007

Playlist by Rich Pickings - 9th January 2008

Already posted in the blog but as that's dissapeared and CB informs me that this thing is working again...We got some negative reaction (Amongst the torrent of Viagra spam) to this originally but so what. And no, we don't believe the Klaxons are the best band on earth. ..

RP

Manic Street Preachers - Your Love Alone (Send Away the Tigers, 2007)

Their wilderness years now forgotten...

Interpol - Pioneer To The Falls (Our Love To Admire, 2007)

Leaving behind copyist accusations and carving a niche all their own, the New Yorkers out baroqued The Editors.

Burial - Archangel (Untrue, 2007)

For his second outing dubstep’s captain spliced the subterranean neck breaks of his debut with snatches of plaintive heartbreak and slices of hope.

Roisin Murphy - Let Me Know (Overpowered, 2007)

It’s testament that the former before the lungs and attitude of Moloko can overcome a cheesy Celine Dion-esque intro before settling into the job of kicking Ellis-Bextor shaped ass.

Caribou - Melody Day (Andorra, 2007)

Like a modern BeachByrds, this goes hiding in Syd Barrett corners shunning a world in which there is no longer any escape.

The View - Same Jeans (Hats Off To The Buskers, 2007)

Little new, but despite the hype there was an estate sweetness to them matched by a profound sense of nuance – when you get it wrong, you end up with The Fratellis

The Enemy - Away From Here (We'll Live And Die In These Towns, 2007)

Despite their Liliputian stature, the Coventry trio were undeniable in 2007.

Venetian Snares - Husikam Rave Dojo (Pink & Green, 2007)

Aaron Funk’s worldview is akin to watching Dance Energy through a looking glass whilst being bottled repeatedly by a jackhammer; picture music that sounds like that and you’re well on the way to understanding Husikam Rave Dojo’s aesthetic

Stars - The Ghost Of Genova Heights (In Our Bedroom After The War, 2007)

You want to say Prefab Sprout circa Steve Mcqueen. It’s that good.

Justice - Genesis (+, 2007)

True, the less discerning dancefloor featured David Guetta’s clumsy approximations, but the Parisians remained continental europe’s club energisers du jour.

PJ Harvey - White Chalk (White Chalk, 2007)

Running out of superlatives now. As far away as you can get from being Lily Allen and stay in this universe.

Maps - You Don't Know Her Name (We Can Create, 2007)

Whilst Ian Brown continues to batter away at impregnating us with his loony alien abduction theories and The Mondays shared most pointless reunion of the year/decade with The Cult, Northampton’s James Chapman was busy creating Sally Cinammon for the Cabrini generation.

The Wombats - Let's Dance To Joy Division (Prouldly Present.., 2007)

In amongst a slew of third rate soundalikes, a moment of drink spilling effusiveness which made you want to forgive Eddie Argos. Then punch him.

The Bronx - Shitty Future (Live @ Leeds Festival, 2007)

A circular mosh pit, frenzied oxidising words surrounded by a chaotic mosh pit and punk’s true descendents making a weirdly serene tableau in the early evening gloom

Just Jack - Starz In Their Eyes (Overtones, 2007)

The truth?

The Hold Steady - Chips Ahoy (Boys And Girls In America, 2007)

We’re now far away from check shirts and bandannas for them to be no longer a weapon of anti-fashion counterinsurgency, but music this raw and so closely related to the

Simian Mobile Disco - I Believe (Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release, 2007)

Once they got to play it their way, dirty disco smudged with tech lipgloss made us all want to do a little dance, make a little love, get down tonight…

Jack Penate - Hour, Minute, Second (Matinee, 2007)

Oh, for the days when pop was a simple as this; a ten second kiss, no tongues, two hundred yards away from the doorstep. Ah well.

LCD Soundsystem - North American Scum (Sound of Silver, 2007)

Perhaps in the current climate of self loathing a braver record to make than it first seemed, James Murphy then wrapped up the sentiment in contrarian, hands up it’s not our fault should shrugging, like, erm..real people might just do

SoulSavers - No Expectations (It's Not How Far You Fall.., 2007)

Like a Baptist brother to Death In Vegas’ Contino Sessions, Mark Lanegan’s vocals ensure that the Mancunians second album was a more desolate, years in the wilderness version of their hallucinogenic Stooges tribute

Maximo Park - Our Velocity (Our Earthly Pleasures, 2007)

Sure the top hat is annoying. And this comes from a sludgy miss and infrequent hit affair, but few opening bars contained that much “I’m back, baby” venom.

Arctic Monkeys - 505 (Favourite Worst Nightmare, 2007)

Via a sodden Glastonbury and Old Trafford, Alex Turner & co. elevated themselves to a position few would envy with their debut, but by the time they’d reach the conclusion of the follow up they’d elevated brains and feet to instruments of mass destruction.

The Little Ones - Oh, MJ! (Little Ones EP, 2007)

No matter how much we try to anglicise this West Coast sound, we always end up sounding twee and winsome like Belle & Sebastien. This was just perfect.

Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip - Thou Shalt Not Kill (Single, 2007)

Loaded with enough irony to choke a dozen donkeys, the Londoners commandments dissected the lives of bigot, coward and liberal alike with equal measures of pathos and disdain. And it was laugh out loud funny.

Mark Ronson Ftr Amy Winehouse - Valerie (Version, 2007)

Winehouse could sing extracts from Biochemisty For Dummies and still more soulful than a stadium full of Beyonces. Ronson for once matched guile with application and the second best cover of the year resulted

Kaiser Chiefs - Ruby (Yours Truly, Angry Mob, 2007)

Their second had twice the quality but half the recall of Employment, but Ruby left their imitators clutching at straws

The Shins - Phantom Limb (Wincing The Night Away, 2007)

The Americans are coming! The Americans are coming! Forget emotionally bankrupt r’n’b, the transcontinental interior worlds of David Lynch and Edward Hopper breathed life into psychedelia. Exquisite.

Dizzee Rascal - Babylon's Burning (NME Love Music, Hate Racism CD, 2007)

The long forgotten Ruts resurrected in a gesture a million times more portentous than John Lydon fleecing us all over again, made real by grime’s mugger-prince

Reverend And The Makers - Heavyweight Champion Of The World (The State Of Things, 2007)

Anthemic and embittered in equal measure, John McClure remained an enigma throughout the year, although this soundtracked what little summer there was to be had in Atlantis-like 2007.

The Cribs - Our Bovine Public (Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever, 2007)

Typical – just as real money beckoned the Wakefield trio’s riposte was a two fingered salute to all their contemporaries and a cacophony so sweet and brutal that Alex Kapranos could only stand and stare at it.