El Guante’s 2007 Musical Bullet Points

Today we start rolling out "the 2007 lists" from dane101 contributors, friends, and readers. You can keep up by hitting "2007 Reflections" above.

I don’t particularly like top-ten-albums-of-whenever lists—when asked to write one myself this year, my first response was “hell no.” I still haven’t heard a whole lot of this year’s crop of albums, and it’d feel wrong to sit here and say “these are the best ten albums of the year” when I’ve only heard about 1% of what’s actually been released.

As an alternative, I present here my list of ten albums, songs, trends or artists that I discovered this year that I feel like I won’t forget about. A big part of my own art is striving to write songs that aren’t just “good” (hot beat, nice flow, solid lyrics), but are memorable and unique, songs that stick with you after you’re done listening to them.

So with that in mind, here are ten magical bullet points. These aren’t necessarily the “best” albums or artists that came out this year, but they’re some of things that I’m going to look back on and remember. And in the end, isn’t that more important?

1. El-P: I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead

It’s pretty amazing to me how slept-on this album was. I mean, it got recognition, I’m sure it sold well, it may even make it into some critics’ end-of-year lists. But I feel like this should have been a paradigm-shifter, an “oh shit” moment, hip hop’s “OK Computer.” It’s really that good. I’d never been much of a Def Jux or El-P fan before listening to this album, but I definitely am now. From the adventurous production to the creative song structure to the brilliant bar-by-bar poetry to the overall vibe—this is a damn near perfect forward-looking hip hop album, by far the most interesting thing I’ve listened to in years. Then again, I have a soft spot for vitriol, and “I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead” supplies it by the truckload.

2. K-OS: Atlantis—Hymns for Disco

K-OS is a perfect example of a artist who makes up for his technical deficiencies by writing amazing songs. He’s not a powerful singer in the traditional sense, nor is he a great emcee by any stretch of the imagination, but he flat out makes beautiful music. Pop-oriented, funky and organic, the songs on “Atlantis,” particularly “The Rain” and “Sunday Morning,” are tremendously catchy; pop music that isn’t saccharine. Unlike a lot of artists I really respect, I actually ENJOY listening to K-OS. Indie-rappers could learn a lot from K-OS. It’s not all about five syllable rhyme schemes and airtight flows; a little melody and some creativity can go a long way.

3. Nine Inch Nails’ “Year Zero” Marketing Campaign

I liked the album, especially the single “Survivalism,” but what I’ll really remember about NIN’s 2007 exploits will be how Reznor and his team marketed the album. Short films, a bunch of weird and unsettling websites, phone numbers with recorded messages, flash drives left in bathrooms at concerts—it all added up to a multimedia multiplayer mystery that ended up being just as entertaining as the music itself. I think that this is the path music is going to take in the next decade (and movies too, if you look at how the next Batman film is being marketed). In order to really stand out, artists are going to have be creative with their marketing and promotion, building buzz in new ways. “Year Zero” represented an alignment of music, visual art, technology and hype that really pushed it into new territory.

4. Saul Williams: “The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust”

Speaking of Trent Reznor, he lent his production skills to the bulk of this album, Williams’ third and most cohesive to date. I may be one of about a dozen people in the world who likes Williams the punk vocalist as much as I like Williams the slam poet, but I think he really killed it here, sonically as well as lyrically. His nasal snarl works really well over Reznor’s production. I even liked the “Sunday Bloody Sunday” cover that everyone hates. Again, this is future music, mixing industrial with hip hop with spoken-word with punk in ways that most people probably aren’t ready for.

5. Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson

Is she a drug addict? Is she a culture vulture? Does she deserve or can she handle her success? While the media this year focused on Winehouse’s extracurricular activities, “Back to Black” is a pretty monstrously good album on a purely musical level. Some of the credit has to go to Winehouse’s smoky voice and unique songwriting skills, but a lot has to go to Mark Ronson, a still underappreciated producer who’s done incredible work with a wide variety of artists, from Rhymefest to Lily Allen to Mos Def to the guy from Weezer to many others. His best work to date might be on this album, as he recreates the vibe of classic ‘60s soul. Salaam Remi, another talented and underappreciated beatsmith, produced a couple tracks on the album too, but the best moments are undoubtedly Ronson’s.

6. People I Know Part One: Buss One and Child of the Black Madonna

Yeah, we’re signed to the same label; I’m not an objective observer. Call shenanigans all you want, but this rock/funk/punk/rap band is something special. Buss, formerly of award-winning hip hop band Leroy Smokes, is a passionate, charismatic frontman, moving effortlessly between rapping, wailing, singing and just bouncing all around the stage. The band is one of the loudest, hardest hip hop-oriented ensembles ever assembled, though I guess I’d hesitate before calling CotBM a hip hop band. Yes, Buss is best-known as a rapper, but he’s a rapper who can actually pull off covering Nirvana, James Brown and the White Stripes, on top of a whole lot of engaging, hard-hitting original material. And the live show is a mess, in the absolute best, most positive sense of the word.

7. People I Know Part Two: The Figureheads Debut Album

More shenanigans—I actually have a guest verse on this group’s debut, self-titled LP, so again, I’m not objective here. But the Figureheads are out-of-this-world talented. Mixing glitchy, futuristic beats with thought-provoking, precise lyrics, this group really dosen’t sound like anyone else out right now. Both emcees in the group can rap their asses off—meaningful content, mind-blowing flows and intricate rhymes, but they never use that as a crutch; they challenge their listeners. The album is surprisingly melodic, and each song transcends the “rapping about rapping” aesthetic that has infected so much of underground hip hop.

8. Radiohead: In Rainbows

Had to include this, but everything that can be written about this band, this distribution method and this album has already been written. Thom Yorke’s voice is what you’d hear if you recorded both God and the Devil into ProTools and then played them back at the same time.

9. Pass

There have been a million albums this past year that I kind of wanted to hear, but when the time came to put up the money, I just couldn’t. They’re either hyped-up mainstream hip hop epics that promise to disappoint (Kanye, Jay-Z, Common, Ghost etc.) or indie hip hop masterpieces that’ll probably leave me bored (Blu and Exile, Little Brother, Kweli, Sage Francis, etc.). I’m not saying any of these albums were bad—after all, I haven’t heard them yet and they could be amazing. I’m just saying that, on a larger level, it’s getting hard to get excited about stuff these days because the standards are so LOW. As hip hop heads, we get overly excited for any mainstream hip hop album that isn’t absolute ringtone trash, or for any underground hip hop album that makes us feel like it’s 1993 again. I’m sure some of the artists I just mentioned parenthetically put out great albums this year—eventually I’ll get around to hearing them. I just wish I could be more excited about it.

10. Assorted Odds and Ends

“International Players’ Anthem” by UGK and Outkast is ridiculous. Definitely can’t get behind the lyrics (which is what knocked this out of its own point) but Andre’s been killing it all year and the beat is bonkers. “Coffee” by Aesop Rock is also great. The guest spot from John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats really caps it off perfectly—we’re going to see more indie-rap/indie-rock collabos next year I’m sure (Cat Power was on the El-P album too). MIA is the future of pop music. New MC’s solo album was fresh. I have a weakness for melodrama too, and A Fine Frenzy’s “Almost Lover” is the jam in that regard. “Wow” at Prodigy’s “ABC;” best Mobb Deep beat in a long minute. Finally, let me just say that Gogol Bordello is the greatest thing ever in history.