What! No Pigeon Detectives? My Top 100 Songs of 2007 (Part 2)

075 Sally Shapiro * He Keeps Me Alive
"But I'm still happy when I get to hold his hand. He says I can hold it, but remember 'we're just friends'
Swedish. I know people that have gone through really bad break-ups, when they've found it utterly impossible to get over their former love, and their partner has used this entirely to their ill-gotten gains, by continually leading them on, leaving them unable to let go entirely because the fingertips grasp they have is what's keeping them together. Luckily I've never had this fun, but this song highlights what an awful experience this must be, and what a shit her guy must have been. The fact it's set over an ice-cold disco beat only makes matters more bitter.

074 The Drams * Unhinged.
"I'll show you pictures of someone I knew who disappeared"
Similarly to the Jason Isbell track mentioned above, another prodigal son of gruff Southern-states alt. country broke free from the restraints and returned to the fray. Brent Best, former hero with ludicrously underrated superheroes Slobberbone, was back, and although not quite up the same high watermark as the two essential Slobberbone albums, this is a typical example of not letting the dream die. This was another of the very first songs I head all year, where in the first week of January I'm already thinking "wow, this is a contender for song of the year already" in the sort of naive way that shouldn't be allowed to happen. Still, 73 places lower isn't as bad as some of the casualites of that first week,

073 Lucero * She's Just That Kind of Girl
"She was drunk when she kissed me"
From the old guard to the new school. Quite why I haven't come across Lucero before, despite their blatant place in the family tree which goes Uncle Tupelo - Son Volt / Slobberbone - Drive By Truckers / Drams + /Lucero. If that even is a family tree. Rugged, blue lumberjack shirted hairy Gregg Allman-meets Whiskeytown rock. With additional organ sound.

072 Junip * The Ghost of Tom Joad
"The highway is alive tonight"
No end-of-year 100 is complete without the obligatory Bruce Springsteen cover. This is the first, one I discovered whilst researching tracks for Gemmas dad's Springsteen covers mix cd.

071 Call Me Lightning * Soft Skeletons
"Fuck!"
I forget where I read it, but this is a good example of a band I decided to investigate because of a review that basically pulled no punches, and unreservedly gave them a slagging to kingdom come. They were partly right, because a concept album about everybody turning into a skeleton and then turning into dust is, as far as concept albums go, a poor one. Secondly, they're named after a Who song, which is never good thing. However, something about the review made me determined to see if they were really as bad as this vilification merited. The answer was no, they weren't. And this, the title track, is just over an ad break's worth of unrivalled joy.

070
Brand New * Jesus Christ
"So what did you do those three days you were dead"
Except, of course, he was only dead for two. They could have at least have consulted one of their many out-and-out Christian support acts to check the facts on that one. I owe Ian for realising this is a good song, and not just 'another Brand New track'. I'm so glad they shortened their song titles as well.

069
Bruce Springsteen * Radio Nowhere
"I want a million different voices speaking in tongues"
This chart barely reflects it, but 'Magic' is probably the best Springsteen album in ages. It's a strange year for the over fifties making their best for years (Springsteen, Richard Thompson, and Nick Cave) whilst young indie upstarts have turned to shit. This is a big blustering open-shirt convertible AM radio belter, all about Bruce moaning there's jack all to listen to on the radio anymore (get Last FM man, get in the right century) as using this as a metaphor for who much the whole world is lacking something, like 'soul' (get it?). Add the almost-as-good but not quite ballad with a title as daft as 'Gypsy Biker' as you've got one of the albums of the year.

068
Dans Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip * Thou Shalt Always Kill
"Bloc Party - just a band"
I was reading the Chrstmas edition of Mojo magazine over the festive period and every year they interview various Mojo-orientated artists (and Jools Holland) about what their favourite records of the year have been. Uusualy this is an excuse to see how out of date people are "I've just discovered The White Stripes..." or the occasional surprise "I've been listening mostly to Andrew WK" - Tim Burgess, and who could forget the edition where Devendra Banhart starting ranting and raving about 'Happy People / U Saved Me' by R Kelly? Not me, for one. This year had Ricky Wilson from the Kaiser Chiefs, who listed this track as one of his favourites of 2007, which is interesting because this track is essential a ranting diatribe against the culture in which Ricky Wilson, and 99% of all Kaiser Chiefs live and thrive in. Take you pick from the many excellent one liners in this. Don't judge Lethal Weapon by Danny Glover.

067
Liars * Plaster Casts of Everything
"I want to run away I want to run away I want to run away I want to run away"
Video of the year, and a completely demented return to form for the Liars. This was a song I overlistened to the point of overkill during my 7 day sojourn in Winchester in the summer. Every time a film finished, or I went in the kitchen, or left the house, I listened to this on repeat. It's one of the few songs of the year in which the dying art of the riff rose from the grave, and two-fold in this one, too.

066
Laakso * Someone Somewhere
"..the feeling that says "fuck them, go walk alone"
Swedish. Laakso don't sing in Swedish, but are huge in Swedish. They're like, the Swedish Kooks, or the Swedish Orson. But Sweden being Sweden, and being almost completely incapable of producing anything in the way of bad pop music, this is a bizarre Placebo-meets-Guided By Voices-meets-Muse-meets-Britpop semi-power ballad which features enormously warbling falsetto shouting, and a fantastically Scandinavian collection of repetitive lyrics. HOT.

065
Motion City Soundtrack * Everything is Alright
"I'm sick of the things I do when I'm nervous, like cleaning the oven or checking my tyres"
I defenitely remember listening to this on the cramped stinking megabus on the way to London to see the Arcade Fire at the tail end of January. I'd spend the previous day listening to a CD I found in the lounge of bands signed to Burning Heart records and playing Tony Hawks on Mark's Playstation. I reworked the tape I was making at the time to incude this as the last track on side B. Not terribly exciting, but after the demise of two walkmen, and buying a replacement CD/casette player to make tapes, that also didn't work, I conceded defeat, and this song will go down in history as being the very last track on the very last tape I made for my tape collection - 146 - 'Babel"

064
Robyn * Show Me Love
"Show me everything and what it's all about"
Swedish. The film of the same name is probably the best film about Swedish lesbians I've seen all year, if not the best film full stop. One character gives another Robyn perfume at one point. The whole soundtrack is phenomenal, including a timely use of 'I wanna know what love is" by Foreigner. This playing over the closing credits is the icing on the cake.

063
Shout Out Out Out Out * Chicken Soup For the Fuck You
Instrumental
Probably the most contrived thing on this list, but utterly compelling none the less. A New York (yawn) 'Dance-punk collective' (yawn) who specialise in playing a lot of cowbell (yawn) to the extent that they all dance on stage and hand out cowbells to the audience (yawn). They also have a stupid name and stupid song titles with unnecessary swear words in. They're essentially a !!! tribute act, but not to their detractment, this is bonkers electro that sounds like Roobarb and Custard farting 'House of Jealous Lovers' over a hundred thousand handclaps. And there's nothing contrived about THAT.

062
Mineral * Unfinished
"I still dream of December, dancing together with rings on our fingers"
I was reading a thread on a message board, possibly Drowned in Sound, but I tend not to take anybody on there seriously, so it was probably somewhere else, about what 'proper' Emo songs people would reccommend listening to. Although I was annoyed by the sort of holier-than-thou tosspieces who refute any music released since Jimmy Eat World sold more than two copies of Clarity as being 'not proper', I looked into it, just because the thread said "Mineral - Unfinished *sobs* ". It doesn't get more pathetic than that, so I checked it out. A boring anecdote; I listened to this song on the way to the dentist, during the week the management team of Borders were holed up in a hotel room chiselling away at a business plan, and drinking lime cordial. This was around the time of the 'Fuckjaw' incident, covered elsewhere I'm sure.

061
The Sound of Animals Fighting *The Heretic
"My body is a witch, I am burning it"
Significantly better than a supergroup comprising members of RX Bandits, Circa Survive and Finch who dress up in animal costumes has any right to be. This is yet another song from the 'catsitting sessions', and despite sounding a bit like a hybrid of DJ Shadow and Hoobastank, is a genuinely interesting and almost moving slow burner, complete with pointless lyrics about 'pumpkin boys' and the like. I have absolute no cause to explain what made me investigate such a band, but I'm so glad I did.

060
Hakan Hellstrom * Kann Ingen Sorg For Mig Goteborg
"Don't shed a tear for me, Gothenburg"
Swedish. And sung in Swedish, for good measure. This sounds like 'Together Again' by Janet Jackson being covered by Gogol Bordello. You'd better believe it.

059
Enter Shikari * Anything Can Happen in the Next Half Hour
"Who remains when the curtain goes down?"
Here's another one that shouldn't work. Ugly precocious ballbags from St Albans who listen to too much Pendulum making thrash metal records, sung in their native cockney, with a synth sound liberally 'borrowed' from the album 'It's My Life' by Sash. Yet oddly, and more often than not, it works in perfect harmony. Whats interesting, is that in the wake of the surely-now-dead 'new rave' scene, Enter Shikari were regularly omitted, despite this being the most appropriate 'rave' song of the year, and not just a bad indie band who can't keep in time, like the Klaxons.

058
Stars * Bitches in Tokyo
"I just want you back"
I made three mix cds when I went away to Bournemouth for a week: The Bournemouth Identity, which was full of sad songs, The Bournemouth Supremacy (you can see where this is going) which was full of songs you can dance to, and The Bournemouth Ultimatum, which was 21 tracks of utter favourites. A few of the songs on here I didn't fully appreciate until that week, when I had night after night in my hotel room getting ready after work in the shop there, with just three CDs. This is one. This was also the week just after I split with Gemma, although interestingly none of the songs bear any relevance to that.

057
mewithoutYou * In a Sweater Poorly Knit
"You're a door without a key, a field without a fence"
Kings of the bad religious metaphor which generally has to be crowbarred into each song, which stand along as mystical works of bonkers individuals singing through their noses. These emo/hardcore/indie fronted by the double whammy of genius that is a hardcore Christian with Aspergers (and yes, it does show), this bizarre no-mans-land halfway between The Arcade Fire and Boysetsfire runs rings around almost evey other song that falls into the above three pigeonholes. It's another one chalked up to catsitting.

056
!!! * Must Be The Moon
"1 drink 2 drinks 3 drinks 4"
The worst lyrics of the year without fail. This makes 'Grace Kelly' look like Ivor Novello material, which is probably was come to think of it. Take your pick from "love is love but a fuck is what it is", "but I was surprised when I got the cold shoulder (the next morning)", "you just got me hot, I finished off when you were snoring", or JUST ABOUT ANY OTHER LINE. Spectacular, but then !!! are not known for their lyrical desterity. What they are known for, is floorfilling insanity. Job done.

055
MGMT * Time to Pretend
"we'll choke on our vomit, and that will be the end"
My boss likes this because she thought it was a hidden track on 'Discovery' by Daft Punk with guest vocals from The Killers. Recommendation indeed. This featured on my festive CD which was played after closing on a couple of late shifts at Borders, which was unanimously uncommented on.

054
Wolves in the Throne Room * Queen of the Borrow Light
Not even going to try finding out the lyrics
11 minutes plus of doom ridden black metal by a self-sufficient farming community trio who only play gigs in the middle of the woods. More of this next year, please.

053
The National * Ada
"stand inside an empty tuxedo with grapes in my mouth, waiting for Ada"
The National were one of the artists whose albums I was eagerly awaiting this year who didn't disappoint. For once, not making a radical departure from the previous album proved the key to success, because Alligator II (aka 'Boxer') was a rousing joy, although not as immediately so. This was the track with the most similarities to Alligator, and wonderfully so.

052
The Tough Alliance * 25 Years and Running
"I don't think I can have another day of this"
Swedish. Wham meets The Knife in a baseball-bat weilding neo-realism high concept pop duo. More interestingly, I started listening to them after reading a news report where they either got arrested, or had their concert cancel for beating someone up with a baseball bat whilst onstage. Whether this is generally lies, or a nonsense fabricated 'news' item. Either way, it worked for me, and the EP this is taken from, which has only 3 1/2 songs on it, is one of the most consistently awesome releases I've heard all year. Needless to say, they're Swedish. And from Gothenburg, and it says more about the musical productivity of the city, than any sycophantic obsession I have with where I went on holiday, for the record.

051
Parts & Labor * Fake Rain
"I saw you start to wonder but we'll sing just like we never knew"
Purely because it's the only album on here which has three songs off it, and because it's completelyfuckingawesome, 'Mapmaker' by Parts & Labor is my album of the year. This is oddly remeniscent of 'Panic Song' by Green Day, which is obviously no bad thing.