For me, the best album of 2007 was Animal Collective’s Strawberry Jam. Despite the critical gravitation toward frontrunners such as Radiohead’s In Rainbows and LCD Soundsystem’s Sound of Silver, Jam provided the most exciting batch of songs last year, effortlessly progressive in execution and more cohesive than the band’s earlier releases. I read the year-end, “best-of” lists like anyone else and compared my thoughts to other critics, but I’m a big boy—I can make my own opinions.
Truth be told, the “best of” lists are a sham. More often than not, such rankings represent a massive conglomeration of the lists of writers and editors rather than nuanced evaluations. As such, this aggregation reveals the “most widely-liked” albums for the year instead of the “best,” ultimately favoring tepid, middle-of-the-road music in lieu of the gems. Certainly, this assertion all depends on the number of lists involved, the tastes of contributors and other mitigating factors, but it’s safe to say that democracy kills good music criticism.
For example, Radiohead’s In Rainbows technically should be considered the “most widely-liked” album of 2007. The LP has appeared on at least 26 top-ten lists from various music publications, with more “number one” designations than any other album (see: metacritic.com). And liking In Rainbows is easy—it’s one of the band’s most accessible albums to date, it represents an unprecedented business experiment, and Thom Yorke still loves that moody falsetto.
If, however, you find In Rainbows to be an unfulfilling album (like I do), then don’t settle. Forget the aggregate “top-ten” lists and pursue the micro-level: find a critic you identify with and look into the music included on his or her year-end list instead. Tastes tend to align much more in this arena than with aggregate lists and (if the stars align) your favorite critic can often predict your likes and dislikes better than you can.
All you have to do is find an album that you enjoy more than In Rainbows. Voilà: best music of 2007.
I did it. You can too.
