The year in music 2007 Pt. 2: FAILs, Undecideds

FAIL

• The White Stripes, Icky Thump: Nice effort from the White Stripes. Some clever new variations on the theme, without being self-consciously different yet boring the way Get Behind Me Satan was. But. The mastering is awful. Clipped, and not in a musical, interesting way. This one gets a FAIL. It'd be like if I cooked you a really nice meal and then dumped everything out on the ground outside. Maybe the food's good, maybe it isn't, but it's pretty much ruined in any case. 
• Wilco, Sky Blue Sky: Somewhere in here is the band that I gave my 2002 album of the year nod to. I think. It's really hard to tell when Nels Cline wanked his guitar over it, leaving the band buried under opaque goo. Frequently pleasant, but often unpleasantly pleasant. Can't quite bring myself to hate it when I listen to it, but I hate it on principle. 
• Feist, The Reminder: Bored me the way Cat Power often does. Cindy said it was too much of a chick album for me. Bryan liked it. I found it disappointing enough for the FAIL list. 
• Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Some Loud Thunder: Gut reaction is that this is nowhere near the level of their debut, itself a good but not great album. Maybe it deserved another chance. For the inclusions of the annoying "Satan Said Dance", I'm failing it. Maybe I'll regret this one day. 
• Architecture in Helsinki, Places Like This: Maybe there's a market for weird-ass juvenile disco electronica stuff like this, but I'm not it. Big disappointment compared to their previous record. Cindy once asked me to turn it off when we were in the car. 
• Of Montreal, Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?: Liked Of Montreal more when they were a fairly standard Elephant 6 band instead of a slightly more indie, slightly less gay Scissor Sisters. 
• Stars, Do You Trust Your Friends?: Track-by-track remixes of Set Yourself on Fire, an album that I loved quite a lot. Listened once and was bored to tears. The sort of b-side fodder bands probably shouldn't be charging money for. 

Undecided

• Band of Horses, Cease to Begin: Too much backwoods country, not enough soaring, Built to Spill-style indie rock. Needs more listens, though. 
• The Shins, Wincing The Night Away: A lot of albums this year struck me as mediocre and made me wonder if I really got the bands to begin with. This was one of them. Great opening track, though. 
• Stars, In Our Bedroom After the War: Seems so similar to Set Yourself on Fire, but didn't grab me emotionally in the same way. Not bad and I'll probably keep coming back to it, though. So far, I can't quite pinpoint why it's lacking, but technically, seems like it's all there. 
• The Polyphonic Spree, The Fragile Army: Didn't grab me. Maybe just not as good as the first two albums, or maybe I just haven't spent enough time on it. 
• Fountains Of Wayne, Traffic & Weather: Another Fountains of Wayne album. Can't say exactly why it's not as good as the stuff on their first two, but I don't think it is. 
• The Go! Team, Proof of Youth: Made me think I don't really get the Go! Team, which is weird, because it seems like, "What's to get?" Enjoyed this some but didn't feel compelled to go back to it. Certainly I enjoyed it in moments, but those were fleeting. 
• M.I.A., Kala: Made me think I don't really get M.I.A. Really liked the cover of "Jimmy", though. 
• Dntel, Dumb Luck: Seems OK, but I have to admit I've never quite gotten Dntel all by itself. "(This is) the Dream of Evan and Chan" was pretty much a Postal Service song anyway. Maybe if I had a better understanding of Life is Full of Possibilities I'd be better equipped to judge this one. 
• Battles, Mirrored: Totally didn't get the appeal. Tempted to FAIL but willing to allow that there's good stuff here I didn't get.
• James Blackshaw, The Cloud of Unknowing: Great guitar technique but not a super compelling listen. 
• Blitzen Trapper, Wild Mountain Nation: Hillbilly aesthetic vs. Pavement-esque rock. Had potential but didn't grab me. Was much more impressed with the songs live. 
• Bright Eyes, Cassadaga: Bright Eyes used to annoy me, but since spending some time on Digital Ash in a Digital Urn and I'm Wide Awake It's Morning, I think I see the appeal better. I need to give this a listen in its new-found context, but my recollection of it is that it feels quite mediocre next to the aforementioned albums. 
• Bill Callahan, Woke On A Whaleheart: Seemed great at moments; boring and trite at others. Much better performed live. Need to go back and listen to some (smog) at some point to see what all the fuss is about with Bill Callahan. 
• Wes Anderson, Darjeeling Limited: As is often the case with a Wes Anderson soundtrack, some great gems on here (particularly some Kinks songs, but also the track that keeps getting played in the Hotel Chevalier short), and some nice bits of Indian music, too. Left it off the list because as an album, it's not really novel enough to be "Best Of" for the year. Prefectly nice, though. 
• Dan Deacon, Spider-man of the Rings: I found the album horribly, horribly annoying, but the material is a whole lot more fun live, saving it from a FAIL. 
• Nick Drake, Family Tree: Only listened once or twice. Seems like they're scraping the bottom of the barrel. Probably some good stuff on here but I haven't found it yet. Benefit of the doubt.
• Kevin Drew, Spirit If: Brings back lingering doubts about my understanding of Broken Social Scene. I'd rather put in more listens to their proper albums. 
• Explosions in the Sky, All of the Sudden I Miss Everyone: More perfectly competent post-rock instrumental music, but I'll just keep listening to The Earth is Not a Cold, Dead Place. 
• The Field, From Here We Go Sublime: Listened once, was turned off my how "electronic" it sounded. Jeff claims it's brilliant; I might like it if I had a proper understanding of classic electronica
• Figurines, When the Deer Wore Blue: Don't remember this one very well, but it lacked the energy and fun of their previous release. Need to give it another listen. 
• Interpol, Our Love To Admire: Sometimes I think I get Interpol, sometimes not. In any case, this doesn't seem as good as either of their previous efforts, but ultimately I didn't get enough of a feel for it to make a final judgement. 
• Calvin Johnson & the Sons of the Soil: Nice enough material from Calvin Johnson, but essentially it's him covering himself, and the whole thing might make more sense if I were familiar with the source. 
• Iron & Wine, The Shepherd's Dog: Seems pretty good, but for whatever reason I didn't get enough of a feel for it to put it on the list. Listened more since then and would probably include it now. At times seems like a more boring version of a Sufjan Stevens album, though. 
• Menomena, Friend & Foe: Sonically interesting and displaying good musicianship, but ultimately I found it sort of boring, much like their last one. 
• Pinback, Autumn of the Seraphs: Sonically, I seem to like what Pinback does, but the songwriting didn't really hook me here. Not bad though. 
• Rilo Kiley, Under The Blacklight: I've sort of got a grudge against Jenny Lewis and Rilo Kiley; I think they're over-rated. Given that, I liked this one surprisingly well. It's not the "dance" album it was billed as. Instead, much less homogeneous and more sonically interesting than More Adventurous, but maybe, by comparison, lacking in songwriting. 
• Rogue Wave, At Heaven's Gate: Listened five times when it came out but haven't revisited it since then. A little too serious, lacking the fun of the Shins-ish pop their first couple albums had. Pretty, though.
• St. Vincent, Marry Me: Listened more than five times, not settled on it. Probably would have stuck it on the main list had I composed this today. Definite potential.
• Sunset Rubdown, Random Spirit Lover: Listened five times, and I think I can see the appeal but so far I've found the SR albums unfocused and, overall, boring compared to the tight pop of Wolf Parade's debut. 
• Tegan & Sara, The Con: Birthday gift from Jeff. Still haven't listened but will probably tackle it soon. 
• El Ten Eleven, Every Direction Is North: Nice enough instrumental post-rock, but not something I expect to listen to a lot. 
• The Tough Alliance, A New Chance: Listened quite a bit to this disco/electronica/indie pop-influenced album, and it certainly has its fun moments, but never got a good feel for the whole album. 
• Travis Morrison Hellfighters, All Y'all: Closer to the timbre and style of his older Dismemberment Plan stuff, and far better, than his solo debut Travistan, but I'm not sure the songwriting is as good. Over five listens into this one, but the jury is still out. 
• The Twilight Sad, Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters: U2-style grandiosity with a thick accent. I can see the appeal but it never really did much for me. I gave it the requisite five listens. Bryan liked it. 
• Saul Williams, The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!: Points for using a Radiohead-derived distribution model, but I've only listened to the album once. If I like it I'll pay for it, I swear.