Среда 14 Май 2008, 1:52

1. The Starting Line - Direction - Direction represented the most complete, consistent LP of the year. It had great stand alone tracks like "Direction", "Island", "Way With Words", but it also had great songs between the hits (which is really hard to find). "Birds", "21", and "I Could Be Wrong" are great for keeping the fluidity of the album going. Top to bottom TSL's best work. One of the few albums in the past few years I have bought on the exact album release date.

2. Paramore - Riot! - Wow. Hayley's voice is almost overpowering. Almost. Riot!'s guitar riffs and jams blend perfectly with her voice, and she adds some ridiculously catchy hooks. Some gems include "Fences", "Born for This", "crushcrushcrush", and "For a Pessimist…".

3. Linkin Park - Minutes to Midnight - This one took them awhile. They wanted to make sure everything was perfect. And, it was close. The tracks seemed to be all over the place. . . almost every track rotating from fast to slow. The track order seems out of whack, but the tracks themselves are of high quality. There are a few filler songs in there, but most pretty good. "Leave Out All the Rest" and "In Pieces" make the album.

4. Bad Religion - New Maps of Hell - Jeeze, it seems like these guys have been around forever. Their first release was in 1982, and now they are in their mid-40s. But with New Maps of Hell they are still packing some high energy punk bashes out. The whole album is littered with good-to-great songs, and there is not really any weak points. The only thing bad about the album is that almost every song is about 1:30-2:30. I wish there was a slower, longer songer in there, but Bad Religion doesn't do anything slow.

5. Madina Lake - From Them Through Us To You - Probably the only decent concept album of the year. After listening to the CD, you could swear you just watched a scary movie (especially "River People"). It leaves a tingly, slightly spooked out feeling in your body. I like it. There are many good songs, and a stand-alone great one in "Me vs the World."

6. Rilo Kiley - Under the Blacklight - Admittedly, I never listened to any previous Rilo Kiley album, but I have listened to Jenny Lewis on the Postal Service and Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins. Her voice and story-telling abilities shine throughout the album, especially in "Silver Lining, "Dejalo", and "15".

7. Reel Big Fish - Monkeys for Nothin' and the Chimps for Free - Finally back to the RBF that we know and love! Great album for any ska fan. "Party Down" INSTANTLY lets fans know that they are going back to Why Do They Rock So Hard? fun-loving RBF instead of corporate-created We're Not Happy 'Till You're Not Happy rock-driven RBF. The re-dubbed tracks are great, the covers are great, and the originals are even better.

8. Angels and Airwaves - I-Empire - Some great tracks in there, and if you listen to all the tracks they are well done. . . but gosh each song is an average of about 5 minutes. "Rite of Spring" reminds me of a Blink-182 song, and I love it (and the album) for that.

9. All Time Low - So Wrong, It's Right - I got your picture,
I'm coming with you, Dear Maria, count me in. Man this album is so addicting, with its power pop-punk lyrics and hooks. It is so playfully great. Every song is a diamond if you want to sing-along. "Holly" and "Let it Roll" are exceptionally good.

10. Yellowcard - Paper Walls - Nearly the same as All Time Low's album. Some great sing-along power pop throughout. "Date Line" is one of my favorite songs of the year.

10 Other Goodies:
Cake
Four Year Strong
The Fray
Rooney
Say Anything
Anberlin
Academy Is. . .
We the Kings
New Found Glory

Most Disappointing of 2007

1. Mae - Singularity - Terrible, terrible album from a great, great band. There are only two tracks on the CD even worth listening to once, let alone replaying. The Everglow is one of my favorite albums ever, and when I heard about Singularity I had as big of expectations for it as TSL's Direction. One was great, and one was just awful.

2. Big D - Strictly Rude - No real good song on it. On the whole thing. I was really disappointed, because I really love Big D. They are trying to force bad songs into good songs by throwing random shit in there. . . but it didn't work. At all.

3. Smashing Pumpkins - Zeitgeist - They came back for this? Man, good thing I didn't buy this one. This one was terrible. Only a few are worth listening to. This is a long fall from their earlier albums.

4. Fall Out Boy - Infinity On High - Ya, I know, you ask what is Fall Out Boy doing on most disappointing, because I shouldn't have had high expectations for it. But, I did! I liked most of FOB's old stuff. This one is putrid.

5. Color Fred - Bend To Break - I love Taking Back Sunday! The Color Fred is an ex-lead singer of TBS?!?! Sweet this must be great then!. . . Dead wrong. He had 2 good songs, and the rest are UNBEARABLY bad. Unbearably. Bad.