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A recent theme of VOTW has been to show you videos of some of the summer's hottest upcoming albums. But this week I've decided to take us back to the cold, desolate days of 2007, when an album by the name of Places Like This made it into Audio Overflow's top albums of the year. This song is one of the best on that album, and the video itself is just as quirky as the music. So, you know...here you go.
Have you ever been in one of those goofy moods where seemingly everything is funny? Where you feel more hyperactive than normal, and all you want to do is have a good time? Yeah, I get those sometimes. When such a thing happens, I usually try to encourage that mood with an equally goofy soundtrack. More often than not, that means I'm going to pop in The Sunlandic Twins by Of Montreal. But in the interest of variety, I've assembled what I feel is playlist that is goofy enough to stand on its own. Hopefully it will keep you in that goofy mood of yours.
Architecture in Helsinki: Places Like This
Prince: Planet Earth
Metric: Grow Up and Blow AwayOne could make the argument that Grow Up and Blow Away does not belong on a Best of 2007 list for the simple fact that it was made the better part of a decade ago. Of course, I could make the argument that that person is an idiot for thinking that (and I'd be right). The fact is that even though Grow Up and Blow Away was meant to be released when I was still in high school, it didn't ever get a formal release until 2007. It's a shame too, because this is a fantastic album. Emily Haines doesn't portray herself as a rough, opinionated figure of femininity as she does nowadays. She sounds girlish and innocent, and you can tell that she has yet to mature into the strong female that she would later become. Grow Up and Blow Away features Metric as a two-piece too, so there's no resemblance to the four-piece new wave rock band they've grown into; sounding more like a pop act than anything else. In the end, it's just a fun, satisfying album that doesn't try to make a statement or be overly complex. It's a couple of kids playing around with synths and drum machines, stumbling upon greatness in the process. And it's all the more magical because of it.
It may be old, but it's still deserving of the #18 spot on my list.
The Top 31 Songs of 2007 - #18
"Hold Music" by Architecture in Helsinki, from the album, Places Like This.
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Jill Scott: The Real Thing - Words and Sounds Vol. 3Can I share a secret with you? I hate doing myspace music monday. It's such a chore to weed out all the crappy bands on myspace to find the one or two decent ones. As a result of my hate towards the feature and a really hectic schedule for the rest of 2007, myspace music monday is gone until 2008! We had a good run, babe.
But hey, that's not what this post is about! It's to update you on the happenings of the 4th Annual Cale Awards (going on RIGHT NOW!). So far things are going kind of slow. None of my regular readers from the U.K. and only one Californian (my second-largest audience) have voted thus far. That's quite alright though, because there are some heated battles going on!
Take the Album of the Year category, in which Of Montreal and Radiohead are tied in the polls at the moment of this writing. Even more heated is the epic battle for Best Male Solo Artist in which Jens Lekman, Patrick Wolf, and Loney, Dear are in a three-way tug of war for superiority! Sure, it may sound like I'm being overdramatic for the sole purpose of luring you readers over to the polls, but I assure you this is not my intention.
There are also some upsets brewing. St. Vincent is running away with both the Best Female Solo Artist award and the award for Best New Artist. I think she deserves both, personally. A huge surprise to me was The Besnard Lakes pulling ahead in the Band of the Year category. I've also discovered that I'm alone in my admiration for Architecture in Helsinki's new material, at least so far.
It's all pretty enlightening to me, and if you have 2 or 3 minutes to spare (it may even take less than that), please head over to the polls and cast your votes for the best and worst of 2007! As always, you can write in your own nominations for each category. This is not only a fun way to appreciate our favorite artists, but it helps me to know what kind of music you listen to and what type of music I should cover more of to cater to you. It's kinda the most important thing ever, folks.
I don't know what else to say....
