In the Diner Reviews constant, unrelenting, never-stopping, emotionally engaged and as always completely selfless effort to provide a service to it’s hapless (hopeless) readers, here is the Diner Review Best of 2007 Composite CD. If you drop me an email with your mailing address I will burn you a copy because... well that is just the way I roll. So if you want it, drop me an email at wantonbecker@gmail.com or post a comment here...whatever. Do not panic. This will be followed up an over all “best of including books, movies, concerts.... Merry Christmas!
OH! ONE MORE THING! Make some additions, post your own list here or email it to me and I will post. Do it!
One more thing. This link was forwarded by a friend. It amused me:
http://www.avclub.com/content/feature/the_worst_band_names_of_07?utm_source=avclub_rss_daily
1. “Our Life Is Not A Movie or Maybe” (Okkervil River: Stage Names) The whole CD grows on you but Will Sheff and the boys have ripped off another sweet little psychotic CD complete with hooks, rhymes and a nice back-beat. This song of course leads you to the conclusion that your life is like a movie... and not a good one. His songs never end well. I like that.
2. “Fire It Up” (Modest Mouse: We Were Dead Before The Ship Ever Sank) The Mouse returns with quasi tragic, surreally brilliant CD which is... chock full of quality indie rock. “Fire It Up” can be read a lot of ways but will of course be regarded as a stoner anthem... why not? As the ice falls off the roof and the snow piles up outside, why look for deeper meaning?
3. “Black Like Me” (Spoon: GaGaGaGa) I have decided that this Spoon CD is likely one of the underrated CD’s of the year and this song begs for inclusion in a “hip” TV series. Perhaps on fax...maybe the new one called “Quarter Life” about all those interesting, self involved 20 somethings coming out. Good, self pitying and tuneful. Who could ask for anything more?
4. “Flat Head”(Fratellis: Costello Music) A curve ball. A 2006 release which of course did not capture the imagination until those taste makers at Mac put it on a iPod add. Who said the Brits are dead. This song thrums along in post punk hum along way that brings us to an in tune Clash.... that sold out. Awesome.
5. “We’re Not Alone”(Dinosaur Jr.: Beyond) Because sometimes, even if it is not his best work, you just need to hear a little J Mascis and Dinosaur Jr. The album rocks but because I am old I grabbed a softer song with understated guitar and plaintive vocals. Sweet.
6. “This Better Be Good”(Fountains of Wayne: Traffic and Weather) The boys from Jersey are back and this pretty little ditty of teen age angst and betrayal plays right into their sweet spot making cultural references to Dockers, the Gap and some girl who evidently is not telling the truth... heartbreaking in a way that you cannot feel bad about.
7. “Spirit Road”(Neil Young: Chrome Dreams II) Neil Young off of “Chrome Dreams”. Might not be a brilliant album but this is a song I can see him peeling out at concert for the next 20 years or so. Neil scathes indignantly searching for meaning as he lectures us on “the path”. Do not look for Dali Lama brilliance from Neil but crank it up and perhaps even open up the windows. The emperor still has clothes, even if their not new.
8. “Weird Fishes”(Radiohead: In Rainbows) From the formerly free on line Radiohead CD “In Rainbows”. This song is just tuneful and reminds me of the best art rock of my youth. Pretentious and precious Michael York. You other love the guy or you visualize blowing his head off gangland style... but this is a pretty song and the whole CD is pretty great.
9. “15”(Rilo Kiley: Under The Black Light) Rilo Kiley big disappointment for 2007. Big swinging horns and Jenny Lewis lilting voice make this song a really good one on an otherwise lackluster album. Your standardized song about having sex with a 15 year old girl. Sure Jerry Lee Lewis (no relationship to Jenny) did it better 40 years ago but what the hell?
10. “Either Way”(Wilco: Sky Blue Sky) Jeff Tweedy and Wilco’s pean to middle age “Sky Blue Sky” is... even as I prepare to leave middle age, a brilliant, sweet, tuneful masterpiece and this sad, sad song about a relationship (marriage) which is...ending or perhaps restarting is great. Even the sweetened strings don’t ruin the earnestness of his voice or his prose. Buy the CD.
11. “Soul Singer In A Session Band”(Bright Eyes: Cassadega) Connor Oberst (The Oracle of Angst From Omaha...not to be confused with Warren Buffet) turned out a really nice e CD in this years “Cassadega” and it has a lot of good songs on it and this is one that I did not play to death but it show cases his ability to turn a phrase and make something out of nothing. Also, his band plays very tightly on this one.
12. “Sunshine Super Man”(Rickie Lee Jones: Party of 5 Soundtrack) Another curve ball. 1995 release on the “Party of Five” sound track which I had never heard before. This was one of Donavan’s funkiest and coolest little songs and when you throw in Rickie Lee Jones voice... she reads it like she reads everything else... like a stoned beat poet. Made me smile.
13. “A Little Bit More” (The Good Life: Help Wanted Nights) The Good Life... more mopers from Omaha on a side project to the band Cursive. This guy can really whine in a way I love and plays a nice subtle electric and acoustic guitar interplay here as he complains to the poor girl who he thinks he loves... Omaha must really suck and the girls there must all be whores.
14. “England's Latest Clown”(Graham Parker: Don’t Tell Columbus) Graham Parker is one of the greatest singersongwriters of our time and is so well regarded by critics as to elevate him to almost god like status and he puts out great music every year. Fo a 50 something he can really song too and this song about Pete Doherty of Baby Shambles and his trials and travails (oh to be a heroin addict rock star) as the next best thing is biting and poignant.
15. “Don’t This Look Like The Dark”(Magnolia Electric: Sojourner. download only) Simply a brilliant song by Magnolia Electric in the Jay Farrar Sun Volt/Uncle Tupelo mode he tears along with a a soft Neil Young guitar over his strained, throaty vocals as he despairs... and then despairs again but this is one of the best songs of the year.
16. “Jericho Road”(Steve Earle: Washington Square Serenade) Steve Earle comes back with a CD about his move and his life in New York and being in love but in the middle throws us this night metaphorical song about life, love, family, betrayal...etc... good shit.
17. “Single Girl, Married Girl”(Levon Helm: Dirt Farmer) The Band is dead! Long live the Band! Levon helm shoots back at throat cancer and the world with his one of a kind voice on a great album. Helm as the bands drummer always carried the weight with his voice and back beat and this CD is a triumphant one. This song is kind of an old timey throw away but it has his voice, some nice backing vocals and some tasty picking. Pick it up.
18. “Act Naturally”(Dwight Yoakem: Dwight Sings Buck) Dwight Yoakem sings an albums worth of songs by his late friend and mentor Buck Owens. Dwight has always been a better singer and player then the “Big Hat” country boys and in his honest readings of Owen’s sometimes brilliant work he proves it again and again. I included this one because it makes me smile. If you do not know Yoakem’s voice you should.
19. “Underneath The Stars”(Peter Case: Lets Us Praise Sleepy John) Peter case is one of the greatest living singer songwriters and though the whole CD is breathtaking but this song about a homeless lady and her cohabitants who sleep out. With Carlos Guitarlos singing back up it is a song that tells you everything you don’t want to think about in regard to a life and a reality that we refuse to think about and with our current government are encouraged not to. It is easy to slip.
20. “Simple Twist of Fate”(Jeff Tweedy: I’m Not Here Soundtrack) Nothing new by Dylan this year but Jeff Tweedy’s reading of this beautiful...beautiful song from the “I’m Not There” sound track demanded inclusion. The great thing about tweedy here is that he is every bit as tortured as Dylan... but you can make out all the words. Download it and remember what great song writing really can sound like. Miss it.
