The Top 31 of 2007 - #28

Cale's Pick

Dan Deacon: Spiderman of the Rings

Released: May 8, 2007

Jill and I didn't plan to have both our picks for #28 to be albums that released on the same day back in May. It just worked out that way. If you were to ask me back then what the better album was, I would no doubt have answered "Volta." But after having her start out on my top albums list in the top 10, she slowly but surely moved down the list until she wasn't in the Top 31 at all (she currently resides at #33).

But of course, this isn't about Bjork. This is about the genius of Dan Deacon, a guy who finds his instruments in the dumpster and then proceeds to make some of the most intricate electronic music on the planet with them. I'm amazed at how shamelessly nerdy his act is, and yet how anyone who sees it has the utmost respect and admiration for the man! His music is unbelievably quirky, juvenile even! But at the same time, it is awe-inspiring and laugh out loud hilarious. I love Dan Deacon because I spent 4 1/2 years of my life trying to make the same kind of music that he excells at only to come up entirely short. I love Dan Deacon because his music can brighten even the most terrible days. But most of all, I love Dan Deacon because he's given us arguably one of the most original albums of the last decade in Spiderman of the Rings, an unapologetically crazy album. It may not be as endlessly endearing as some of the higher-ups on this list, but it is definitely something that needs to be heard.

For freaking me out (in a good way), Dan Deacon web-slings his way to the #28 spot on my list.

The Top 31 Songs of 2007 - #28

"A Girl in Port" by Okkervil River, from the album, The Stage Names.

---------------------------------------------

Jill's Pick

Bjork: Volta

Released: May 8, 2007

I'm sitting in a Starbucks listening to Bjork's Volta but my headphones aren't noise canceling enough to block out the sound of Nat King Cole's The Christmas Song. There's really nothing to that statement other than odd fact.

Speaking of facts, there are two very concrete ones about Bjork:

1. You either love her or hate her.
2. When it comes to Bjork, you never know what you'll get.

I read once that Bjork takes all the parts of the world she lives in and creates her own, leaving behind all those things she doesn't like and/or doesn't need. There isn't a single Bjork album that fails to demonstrate this, and Volta is no exception. I listen to it and I don't know whether I should laugh, cry, dance, play a violent video game, or be in a 1930's murder mystery where I'm about to discover that my lover is really the cold-blooded killer I insisted he wasn't.

The best track: "Vertebrae by Vertebrae," which is just so incredibly stunning I can't find the words to describe it.

Songs you should listen to at least once:

--"Vertebrae by Vertebrae"

--"The Dull Flame of Desire"