ADDENDUM: I haven’t gone over my bandwidth limit yet, but it’s bound to happen someday. This just might do it. I zipped all the songs (and their originals) in this file and will leave it up until January 7th (or until I exceed my bandwidth). So, come get it: IRCMT2007.zip Gone, thanks for dl’ing!

It’s over! The year, and the mix tape. (Happy new year). This is what I do, after a long drive to NYC from Boston, through snowy grossness, I stay up too late and make sure I get this stuff posted! We had a great time in Beantown, saw some Candice and GW (and their respective SOs). We saw many a drunk Bostonian and heard annoying horns all night long. I ate nachos, potato skins, pizza, almond cookies, and other stuff that is bad for you but tastes great.

But back to the mix tape: Thanks everyone for participating and listening. This was a really fun project to do, and it couldn’t have turned out better. I’m hoping this will turn into a yearly tradition, and next year hopefully I’ll give everyone much more time to do multiple songs and be able to get these things out to everyone much sooner. The limited edition covers are done!They turned out to be much more work than I thought, so some changes were made… I’ll try to get them in the mail over the weekend. If you’re not sure I have your address, send it along!

I received two lists of favorite songs from the year, one from B-Dogg (two G’s) and one from A(manda) and will add my list as well in a day or two. As I mentioned in Lippy’s song post, his list is over here and he even has mp3’s of his songs up!

Lists (2) and full tracklist after the jump.

Here’s the final tracklist:

1. Wet and Rusting – The Life and Times of You, Dec 10
2. No Cars Go – Fokker-Planck, Dec 11
3. Apples and Tangerines – Jenna Frye, Dec 12
4. Falling Slowly – The Timid Owls, Dec 31
5. My Moon My Man – Andrea Thomas and Richard B. Wallace, Dec 13
6. Still Alive – Harvey Whittington, Dec 14
7. When the Morning Comes – The Greatest American Sport, Dec 17
8. Saltbreakers – N. Timothy Salazar, Dec 17
9. Cheer Me Up Thank You – Amanda Peden, Dec 18
10. Midnight – Lippy, Dec 19
11. 1234 – Alison Smith, Dec 20
12. The Sweet Escape – The Greatest American Sport, Dec 22
13. Your Arms Around Me – N. Timothy Salazar, Dec 23
14. Nantes – The Life and Times of You, Dec 24

BMP’s 2007 list:

Here is my top ten album list, including brief “reviews” for some or all of them or something:

(1) Fog: Ditherer. Representative song: I Have Been Wronged.

This album is just excellent. I really don’t know what to say about it. It’s clever and interesting and original, with moments of 80’s guitar rock, dance club music, weird indecipherable lyrics, and utterly catchy pop riffs and vocal melodies. I’ve said absolutely nothing about the music, really: this is all pretty vague. But this album is great from top to bottom and may end up being on my top ten of all time list.

(2) Menomena: Friend And Foe. Representative song: Wet and Rusting.

Menomena’s 2004 album, The Fun Blame Monster, was great, with its catchy indie tunes coupled with drums and guitars that would enter and exit the songs in fits and starts. But it lacked something. Sometimes the song mixes where too full and sometimes too spare. I don’t know, but while I listened to it a lot three years ago, I can’t really go back to it. This new album, on the other hand, is another one that will stick with me a long time. They’ve refined their approach: the fits and starts are still there, but the different parts of the songs fit together better, are more natural. And it is fist pumping music, too. I love the way the drums are mixed, and he hits those things hard. It was tough to choose a song for this one, but I settled on this one since it was one of the songs I recorded.

(3) Travis Morrison Hellfighters: All Y’All. Representative song: Catch Up.

Travis Morrison took the best pop moments from The Dismemberment Plan days, made them better, and recorded the most fun album of the year. No song disappoints, and I particularly like the sort of quirky lyrics he’s known for, like You Make Me Feel Like A Freak’s “She said, Hey don’t you work for NPR? You’re looking uptight, but I think you’re all right, and you’re looking pretty good in those khakis”. Add to that the fact that Travis’ voice – already excellent – sounds better than ever, and you’ve got a great album. If the first song on the album, I’m Not Supposed To Like You (But), didn’t sound like it could have been a Dismemberment Plan song, I would choose it as my representative song. As it is, check out Catch Up.

(4) Radiohead: In Rainbows. Representative song: Videotape.

This album has obviously been reviewed to death. But I like it. And good for them for buying into and putting into effect the novel business models (i.e. free downloads of your new album) that are going to succeed in today’s internet culture.

(5) Beirut: The Flying Club Cup. Representative song: In the Mausoleum.

I’ll always like Gulag Orkestar better, if only because I prefer its Eastern European sounds to The Flying Club Cup’s slightly more Western bent. In addition, while it was clear on Gulag his penchant for catchy riffs, it’s even more apparent here. But whatever: he’s much smarter this time around with his orchestration and arrangements, and some of these songs are just absolutely outstanding and beautiful (see: Cliquot, In the Mausoleum, and The Flying Club Cup). I was going to cover In the Mausoleum but I couldn’t figure out the words, so I covered Nantes instead.

(6) Arcade Fire: Neon Bible. Representative song: No Cars Go.

You love this album. Admit it. Yeah, all the kids love this band, and you picked up the e.p. when they were touring years ago. Yeah, Funeral was incredible and inspiring and depressing all at the same time, and you were hoping for a sequel to that album. Yeah, he sounds like Bruce Springsteen rather than some indie kid. Arcade Fire are not just yours anymore. Sorry. But seriously, if you’re not slamming your hands on your desk or pumping your fist or whatever during this new, triumphant, brilliant version of No Cars Go, you’re an idiot and don’t deserve ears.

(7) Modest Mouse: We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank. Representative song: Dashboard.

Johnny Marr saved Modest Mouse. Isaac Brock wears black on the outside cause black is how he feels on the inside. Not his music, though. After The Lonesome Crowded West, I pretty much haven’t been into anything Modest Mouse has done. The Moon and Antarctica was sprawling and weird and jarred awfully against TLCW in terms of the sleekness of its production quality, making it exceptionally tough to take it seriously. Good News For People Who Like Bad News… whatever. It was boring. Man, why did I never notice that Modest Mouse’s album names were all just ridiculously long? In any case, with this new album, I was finally able to let go my feelings of “Modest Mouse is a band that sounds like The Lonesome Crowded West or This is a Long Drive…” and really listen to some well-crafted pop songs. Isaac will forever be the most brilliant two-chord-song writer ever.

(8) Glossary: The Better Angels Of Our Nature. Representative song: Only Time Will Tell.

I haven’t really listened to a Glossary album since Southern by the Grace of Location, because immediately after that album, they unburdened themselves of their indie-pop roots and became a southern rock band. I just couldn’t take it, especially since they were SO GOOD at writing indie rock songs that made me want to be an indie rock star. But eff that. This album is awesome. These southern-countrified songs just sound really good, and there are still hints of their pop roots; this subtle combination actually makes this album pretty original sounding, despite it being a straight-up rock and roll album. Check out Valessa, which is a pretty gorgeous song, and Only Time Will Tell, which is the perfect example of southern rock meets indie rock.

(9) Laura Veirs: Saltbreakers. Representative song: Don’t Lost Yourself.

A nice, pretty album, with some exceptional songs, like this one and Saltbreakers. But I don’t know if this one will stay with me like a lot of the others.

(10) Animal Collective: Strawberry Jam. Representative song: Peacebone.

There were a lot of albums vying for number ten, but this was the one I listened to the most among all of them, so it wins. This album is probably their most accessible, with nice glitchy pop songs like Peacebone and Reverend Green. That’s it.

Honorable mentions: Blue Scholars, Les Savy Fav, Feist, and Ted Leo.

A’s list:

Here is my top ten (in no particular order):

1. Feist – The Reminder
2. “Our Life is not a Movie or Maybe” – Okkervil River
3. The National – Boxer
4. Andrew Bird – Armchair Apocrypha
5. “Saltbreakers” – Laura Viers
6. “Cheer Me Up Thank You” – New Buffalo
7. YACHT – I Believe in You, Your Magic is Real
8. “Nantes” – Beirut
9. “Majesty Snowbird” – Sufjan Stevens (this maybe doesn’t count,
because we heard it performed in 2006, but whatever, it’s a great
song)
10. “Keep the Car Running” – The Arcade Fire

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