And on with the top 5:
04 FEIST - My Moon My Man
Emerging from the brilliant Canadian indie group Broken Social Scene, Leslie Feist really did have perhaps the best year ever by releasing her second solo album
The Reminder, which is every bit as excellent as her superlative 2005 record
Let It Die... while it's not as immediate as the former to the hardcore Leslie Feist/Feist/Broken Social Scene zealot, it's definitely a bit more accessible with songs as ebullient as a Spring day like
I Feel It All,
Sea Lion Woman,
Honey Honey &
1234, to midtempo choons like
My Moon My Man,
Brandy Alexander,
Intuition,
Limit To Your Love,
Past In Present to the most heartwrenchingly gorgeous dose of ballads like
So Sorry,
The Park,
The Water &
How My Heart Behaves. Everything Feist did this year was just astronomical - to the brilliant performances she's given on tour, to the manifold videos she's made for
Sea Lion Woman,
The Park,
The Water, & dual video versions of both
1234 & the song that I'm about to give a compendium of now:
My Moon My Man.
As soon as I first heard that
My Moon My Man was going to be the lead single, I was ecstatic with joy - & she made 2 videos for this as well! Everything about this tune is just remarkable & magnificent - from the incredible instrumental, to Leslie Feist's crisp & clear acapella amalgamates into one of the best pop-indie hooks of 2007 -
My moon and me, not as good as we’ve been, It’s the dirtiest clean I know, simple & yet intrinsic lyrics that I can really relate with - & both of the videos for this song captured the essence of this tune - esconced into a serene nocturnal utopia mellifluous to my ears. 8-) 8-) 8-) The atmospheric feel of this track was just too predigious to be ignored & I adored every inclination of it: from it's original version to the excellent Boyz Noise Classic remix of this that I adored all throughout 2007. All in all, Leslie Feist in her career has done no wrong & ranks as my favorite female artist of 2007.
The Reminder &
Let It Die = divine musical treasures of this decade.
03 EDITORS - An End Has A Start
ANTHEM, ANTHEM, ANTHEM! As soon as I first heard
The Back Room album & it's subsequent singles like
Munich &
Bullets, I became a big fan of theirs but I didn't really become a massive fan until they released their successful followup album
An End Has A Start & it's agglomeration of fantastic tracks like
The Weight Of The World,
Bones,
When Anger Shows,
Escape The Nest,
Spiders,
Well Worn Hand,
A Thousand Pieces & of course, the singles! Especially the title track which I was so happy it was chosen as the second single, even though it should have been the first! Reminiscent of an '80s & '90s Britpop choon in it's heyday, everything about this track was just incredible to the maximum power: from that brilliant instrumental in the beginning & the chorus to Tom Smith's powerful & compelling vocals, & it has the most enigmatic chorus of 2007 for a single in my opinion:
You came on your own, And that's how you'll leave, With hope in your hands, And air to breathe, You'll lose everything, But in the end, Still my broken limbs, Will find time to mend. I adore this track for numerous reasons: the way it just aggrandizes each passing second with Tom's lovely acapella, the direct celerity of the lyrics, the dexterous instrumental that still sounds fresh to these ears, to the wacky Feist-like video for the track that makes no sense whatsoever despite being an excellent performance video which all fuse into such a universal anthem with such felicitious verses that flow so perfectly! And this band knows how to give immaculate live performances of the album tracks from both
An End Has A Start &
The Back Room - just incredible - for many reasons alone, they are currently my favourite band at the moment & Tom Smith is a god for numerous reasons - exceedingly talented man. 8-) 8-) Congrats on his future upcoming baby with his girlfriend.
02 EDITORS - The Racing Rats
Perfect, perfect single choice that was even miraculously stronger than the brilliant title track - and was the best one they could have chosen for a third single (besides
When Anger Shows,
The Weight Of The World,
Spiders &
Escape The Nest), everything about this track is perfect: from the beginning chords to Tom Smith's vigorous, passionate & plenipotentiary vocals singing every verse as if he's been in the music industry for decades. Every lyric in the superlative dose of perfection that is
The Racing Rats is sung magnificently:
I push my hands up to the sky
, shade my eyes from the sun, as the dust settles around me, suddenly night time has begun &
Standing at the edge of your town, With the skyline , in your eyes, reaching up to God, the sun says its goodbyes just leave me speechless whenever I hear it. And that bridge is f
ucking supreme in every way with Tom's vocals at their most preponderant with such a momentual insurgence, most notable in the verses:
Oh come on now, You knew you were lost, But you carried on anyway, Oh Come on now, You knew you had no time, But you let the day drift away. And then it kicks into that final chorus that just sounds so elephantine & sublime. This song was also carried by it's excellent video with Tom & the band in a suburban
Desperate Housewives setting in slow motion with Tom noticing a girl who looks like the girl from
Poltergeist drawing a solar eclipse which ironically appears directly parallel causing it to light up spectacularly as the band look on in awe. I love how the entire video is felicitious to the song's lyrics - especially during the scene where Tom raises his arm with his hand directly facing the eclipse like the musical paratrooper that he is - with the video becoming all in all a lighter version of Soundgarden's
Black Hole Sun. In 3:17 minutes, this track is just meritorious from start to finish.
Tom Smith is a god indeed - & every track on
An End Has A Start is just amazing & just testament as to why they're one of the most prominent alternative bands in the UK indie circuit lately. Tom Smith is a god & here's hoping they achieve even greater heights of success in 2008. And for that & many reasons alone, the
An End Has A Start album is easily my favorite album of 2007 - a superlative dose of excellence.