g’blah

Overview
For me 2007 was filled with very little activity or progress, hence my decision to move back to Texas to reboot. Basically it was a knee-jerk reaction to winding up in the hospital twice in as many months without any health coverage. That’s a major oversimplification but it was the last straw before the reassessment of my priorities.

I miss Chicago. I miss my friends. I miss the places I frequented.

Enough reminiscing; onto the fun stuff.

G’BLAH PLAYS FAVORITES
A few years ago, say 2002/3, many of my friends would compile top ten lists. I think this stopped once Neal moved away and the internet became saturated with such lists, prompting what will be known in the future as “Early 21st Century List Fatigue Syndrome.” I remember it being a lot of fun though. It was always interesting to see what my friends felt was the most engaging music of the year. There would always be surprises in everyone’s lists, even if we had spent the entire year talking about each of these albums. So I thought I might as well take a crack at it again. These aren’t necessarily my top ten albums. In fact there are 11, and I sure I’m forgetting some.

Best Album Ever*
My favorite Album of 2007 (easily) was Scott Walker’s The Drift. Technically this was released in June of 2006, making it the best album of 2006, 2007, and now, 2008. I was so busy gushing about The Drift to anyone who would listen that I forgot to gush about it here on g’blah.

It’s a lesson in history, poetry, avant-garde classical music, and experimental rock. And it plays like surreal horror movie. It is occasionally dismissed as being difficult to listen to, but I don’t buy that at all. Repeated listens reveal unique, inventive song structures that play between atonal and melodic tendencies. The lyrical themes work in a similar manner, often combining unrelated subject matter into cleverly woven concepts.

Oh yeah, he’s 64 years old and has made what I now consider to be the album of his career. I know I know… What about Scott 3 or Scott 4? They’re definitely still two of my favorites, but The Drift is a work so wholly unique and singular, it could never be duplicated or even approximated by another human being. A++++++

*A nod to the hyperbolic language of friends.

Actual “2007″ Albums I enjoyed:

• Robert Wyatt - Comicopera
• Panda Bear - Person Pitch
• Richard Hawley - Lady’s Bridge
• Grinderman - Grinderman
• The Bees - Octopus
• Radiohead - In Rainbows
• White Rabbits - Fort Nightly
• Black Lips - Good Bad Not Evil
• Field Music - Tones of Town
• Burial - Untrue