Can't Get Enough VK? or Facebook?

Oh, XKCD!

Or perhaps you're missing VK posts because Facebook sucks up all your time. Believe me, we know. So we just created a Facebook group for Volume Knob:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=18981644244

Join, or just stalk it. And while we're at it, here's a completely unrelated song that I've been listening to a lot lately:

Feist - Lover's Spit (Broken Social Scene cover/B-side).mp3

I Feel It All

Feist runs around and bangs on trash cans filled with fireworks. Best video concept ever. All shot in one take too. Impressive. And explosive.
Hopefully "I Feel It All" will get her known as more then just the iPod girl. It is after all the stronger single on what is, overall, a fairly strong album.

Top 2007 Albums

These albums were chosen by the four of us using a weighted rating system, with each of us having 10 points to evenly distribute over 8-15 albums. Click on an artist's name to see our review of the album, the album name to purchase a copy, and mp3s to download ahoy before you ring in the New Year!*

The 12 winners (ties at #2 and #8) with their point totals are below:

1. Jens Lekman: Night Falls over Kortedala (26.8)

The Opposite of Hallelujah.mp3

Don't mind Jess plagiarizing herelf, but she's gonna quote her blurb in The L Magazine's top 25 album list, (which you should all check out as well, even though it's not as cool as this list because Jens is only #6 and not #1)

Every song on Kortedala joyously unfolds like the start of a newfound love affair, replete with all the smitten excitement, endearing awkwardness and the good kind of nervousness that any worthwhile relationship naturally entails. With its swirling retro-pop samples seamlessly integrated into the Swedish troubadour’s distinctly contemporary tales of romantic melancholy, it’s hard not to be won over by his lyrical wit, aw-shucks charm and total lack of irony. Whether he’s slicing up avocados, getting a haircut or flirting with a deaf girl, Jens effortlessly transforms those mundane little moments into the stuff that magical glockenspiel-laden epiphanies are made of. Doing what few albums this year (or any year) could accomplish: Kortedala inspires, reaffirming life and restoring faith in that crazy little thing called love, for even the most cynical. Don’t let anyone stand in your way.

2. Andrew Bird: Armchair Apocrypha (18.3)

Heretics.mp3 Dark Matter.mp3

Our favorite fine feathered friend fingerling-a-lings a finely focused effort.

2. Okkervil River: The Stage Names (18.3)

A Hand To Take Hold Of The Scene.mp3, Plus Ones.mp3
The audio equivalent of a rich, satisfying novel.

3.The National: Boxer (17)

Slow Show.mp3

Listen for our friend Sufjan ticking the ivories on a few tracks of this rock-solid rock album.

4. Arcade Fire: Neon Bible (13.3)

Intervention.mp3

"It's got enough atmosphere to start a planet: One minute of rapt attention, at two minutes my mind was blown. By the time the three-minute mark rolled around, my face was so melted as to leave my corpse unidentifiable." -June

5. Patrick Wolf: The Magic Position (11.3)

Overture.mp3, Accident & Emergency.mp3
Creepy and joyous, all at the same time: Wolf's broad-reaching voice and lyrics take back seat to impressive layers of Rachmaninoff-inspired pop compositions as colorful as the packaging.

6.
Radiohead: In Rainbows (11)

Nude.mp3

Not only the best pick-your-price album of the year, but one of the best in general. A real return to real rock, and their best opus since OK computer.
7. Of Montreal: Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? (10.3)

Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse.mp3

Jess again quotes herself: "It’s a weird mix of accessible melodies and dark synth-powered vitriol, a constant battle between the two tones, ending gloriously in a draw."

8. Rufus Wainwright: Release the Stars (10)

Between My Legs.mp3, Slideshow.mp3
Epic and operatic and tongue in cheek and melancholy and oh-so-very Rufus.

8.
Ted Leo & the Pharmacists: Living With the Living (10)

A Bottle of Buckie.mp3

9. Magnolia Electric Co.: Sojourner (9.6)

10. Architecture in Helsinki: Places Like This (8)

Hold Music.mp3, Lazy (Lazy).mp3
A more mature sounding recording that doesn't sacrifice any of the playfulness of their earlier albums.

---

Runners-Up (chosen by two or more of us)

Spoon: Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb.mp3

So few bands actually sound their best when they sound more like themselves. Spoon is one of them.

The Shins: Wincing the Night Away

Sleeping lessons.mp3

Mmmmmm...slacker-rific! Now, with new improved sound and delicious hooks!

Wilco: Sky Blue Sky

Either Way.mp3

Does liking this album take me one step closer to soccer mom-dom? Aw, fuck it. Jeff Tweedy will never break my heart.

White Stripes: Icky Thump

You Don't Know What Love Is (You just Do As You're Told.).mp3
People keep saying the White Stripes have done all they can. People can be dumb sometimes.

Feist: The Reminder

I Feel It All.mp3
Please, let's divorce this album from all its commercial appeal, because let's face it no matter how hard Apple might try, Feist proves you can't commodify a broken heart.

---

EPs we liked (not ranked)

Los Campesino!: Sticking Fingers Into Sockets

You! Me! Dancing.mp3
The most fun 16 minutes I've heard all year, like if AiH had a love child with Art Brut.

Black Kids: Wizard of Ahhs

I've Underestimated My Charm (Again).mp3
Yeah, maybe the blogs overestimated their charm, but hey you gotta admit they're catchy.

Grizzly Bear: Friend EP

He Hit Me.mp3
Psych-folk masters rework old material and freak the crap out of me. In a good way, of course.

Jukebox The Ghost: Jukebox The Ghost

Hold It In.mp3
Damn near-addictive piano-based, power-pop, proving quirky vocals and handclaps are always a winning combination.

The Viking Moses: Swollen & Small: The Songs of Neutral Milk Hotel

Holland, 1945.mp3
A small selection of pared-back Neutral Milk Hotel covers from one of the best acts to come
out of new weird America.

Two Gallants: The Scenery of Farewell

Seems Like Home To Me.mp3
With voices that sound older then they are as inherently American as Bruce Springsteen and pb&j.

Flight of the Conchords: The Distant Future

The Most Beautiful Girl in the Room (live).mp3

New Zealand's 4th-most-popular guitar-based digi-bongo a capella rap-funk-comedy folk duo!

---

Individual picks

Jess liked...

Richard Hawley: Lady's Bridge

Serious.mp3
I'm really just a sucker for his croon.

Sea Wolf: Leaves in the River

The Cold, The Dark & The Silence.mp3
This album is so gorgeous, I can't even justify its majestic, autumnal gorgeousness.

The Felice Brothers: The Adventures of the Felice Bros., Vol. 1

Whiskey in My Whiskey.mp3

The penned landscape of downtrodden America; Americana at its must rustic, rural--and authentic.

LCD Soundsystem: The Sound of Silver

North American Scum.mp3

The one album that made me want to dance and cry at the same time, despite not being coordinated enough to do so.

June liked...

Oliver Future: Pax Futura

Stranger Than Stranger.mp3

Instantly arresting lyrics, unstoppable guitar riffs and rock beats; the songs stand on their own but work best as a collective unit.

Deerhoof: Friend Opportunity

Kidz Are So Small.mp3

Where cacophany, noise rock, J-pop and a complete lack of irony in the joy of music collide into brilliance.

Castanets: In the Vines

Sway.mp3

Haunting gorgeous... or gorgeously haunting? Asthmatic Kitty's best release this year.

Saul Williams: The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust!

Tr(n)igger.mp3

Trent Reznor has been busy this year, putting out his own album (Year Zero) and producing this fantastic over-the-top grindcore work from preacher/poet/musician Saul Williams.

Megan liked...

CoCo Rosie: The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn

Werewolf.mp3
Everything I hate combined to make something I love.

Faker: Be The Twilight

Are You Magnetic.mp3

Megan raved about this album at length just a few posts down, but she'll say it again: kickass album with kickass choruses!

Bright Eyes: Cassadaga

If The Brakeman Turns My Way.mp3
The boy wonder isn't a boy anymore, and it's fitting that his new album has a more mature
sound. Sure, a lot of the clumsy charm of his earlier stuff is gone, but the polished, grown up
songs on Cassadaga are just as rewarding in their own way.

The New Pornographers: Challengers

Myriad Habour.mp3
Energetic and melodic and instantly enjoyable.

Lizzie liked...

Peel

State Radio: Year of the Crow

Griffin House: Flying Upside Down

Willy Mason: If the Ocean Gets Rough

*For those of us currently West of, say, Casablanca.

Kanye Takes on Feist?!

Kanye West sure has been getting his indie on lately. First he samples Sweden's favorite "Young Folks" Peter, Bjorn and John and now he's taking on iPod cover-girl Feist. The dreamy songstress' "Gatekeeper" is mashed-up into a million little pieces as Twista drops a few rhymes over the melody. Mr. West is of course behind the bizarre production. Check it out here:

And for the five of you haven't yet heard Kanye's take on the ubiquitous PB&J tune here it is:
Young Folks - Kanye West

1, 2, 3, 4 Tell me that you love me more!

As if you needed another reason to fall in love with Feist:



Ooh, look at all the pretty colors! Let's just hope the Gap doesn't co-opt the tune any time soon.

Download - 1 2 3 4

Off Feist's upcoming album The Reminder, out May 1st. (As if you really needed another reminder to buy it).

Jeez, between Feist, The National, Wilco, Rufus, Voxtrot and a posthumous compilation of previously unreleased Elliott Smith material, May is shaping up to be quite the month, in what has been quite the year for utterly fantastic music.