Decade End Mix: 25 Songs from 2007

Decade End Mix: 25 Songs from 2007

1. Missing You - The Manvils

2. The Lucky Ones - Pride Tiger

3. Brianstorm - Arctic Monkeys

4. The World Was a Mess But his Hair Was Perfect - The Rakes

5. Junior's Song - Izzy Stradlin

6. Wake Up - Tim Armstrong

7. Dashboard - Modest Mouse

8. Stuck Inside a Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again - Cat Power

9. Maybe Tonight - Nicole Atkins

10. K To Be Lost - Sister Vanilla

11. Don't You Evah - Spoon

12. Impossible Germany - Wilco

13. Unstookie Titled - Babyshambles

14. Meanest Man in the World - John Doe

15. Down Time - Chuck Prophet

16. The Thunderer - Dion

17. Way Down in the Hole - Steve Earle

18. Town Called Heartbreak - Patti Scialfa

19. Knocked Up - Kings of Leon

20. Ain't No Hidin' Love - Deadstring Brothers

21. Keep the Car Running - The Arcade Fire

22. Johny Guitar - Grant Lee Philips

23. Before the Money Came (The Battle of Bettye LaVette) - Bettye LaVette

24. Icky Thump - The White Stripes

25. Alpha Male & The Canine Mystery Blood - Tommy Womack

1. Vancouver's The Manvils was recommended to me (thanks Rads) and I quickly cottoned to it, as it hits all the right notes, high energy rock and roll, with a mild punk and psych-blooze swagger. 'Missing You' is one of many killer tracks on Buried Love. They followed up even more solidly this year. Highly, highly recommended. Highly.

2. Another band from Vancouver, Pride Tiger boasts another one of my favourite singles from the decade, the title track from The Lucky Ones. They're channeling Thin Lizzy and thankfully aren't even subtle about it. And that's a good thing. This is pure joyous rock and roll. Sadly Pride Tiger are no more, dammit.

3. The Arctic Monkeys blew out 2006 with a great debut and a follow-up EP. They followed quickly with Favourite Worst Nightmare in 2007. The lead single was the charging and vaguely surfy 'Brianstorm'. They may have the goods to stick around for awhile, longer than most overhyped UK bands.

4. Contemporaries of Bloc Party and Franz Ferndinand, The Rakes didn't get quite the press. Probably because they weren't as good, but they weren't completely void of charm as evidenced by 'The World Was a Mess But His Hair Was Perfect' from Ten New Messages. This tends to crawl inside your brain and wiggle around until it pains you. Not unlike an earwig, I imagine.

5. I generally dislike humour in songs, at least in my rock and roll. Most of the time it just seems dumb and corny. If I want musical comedy, I'll go and listen to an old Smother's Brothers clip. And for someone who generally isn't known for the funny is Izzy Stradlin, ex-Guns 'N Roses guitarist, a serious, quiet loner kind of dude who plays masterful Stonsey rock and roll. 'Junior's Song' from his excellent Concrete album is all kinds of hilarious and always cracks me up. JUNIOR!! GET OFF THE SHED! GET OFF...GET OFF THE GODDAMN SHED, JUNIOR!!!

6. I find it really hard to listen to the ska and reggae vibe on Tim Armstrong's A Poet's Life with snow on the ground. It's just got that awesome lazy vibe that seems to sound best when the sun in shining and the beer flowing freely. So I'll play 'Wake Up' and imagine it's not 20 below with 20 feet of snow.

7. The addition of ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr to Modest Mouse was a great move, particularly for those of us who like The Smiths sound meshed up with Modest Mouse. 'Dashboard' from We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank showcases him perfectly.

8. I am not a fan of Cat Power. I get why people like her, but I just don't connect with her at all. I appreciate her in a technical sense, but when I heard her cover of 'Stuck Inside a Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again' I kind of started to like her because on album of Dylan covers on the I'm Not There soundtrack, she stood out over a huge pack of talents.

9. Nicole Atkins came off like a female Rufus Wainwright on her Neptune City album, which may or may not be everyone's cup of tea. The girl has an incredible voice and belts these songs out like 'Maybe Tonight' like nobody's business.

10. I'll crib the bio right from allmusic, "Sister Vanilla" was a nickname given to Linda Reid by her older brothers William Reid and Jim Reid -- better known to music fans as the leaders of the pioneering noise pop band the Jesus and Mary Chain." They released only one album to date Little Pop Rock and need to get it together and release another because this was a great album. When I heard The XX this year, I was reminded of Sister Vanilla. This is ''K To Be Lost'.

11. If there's one thing putting together these mixes have taught me, it's that I'm actually a huge Spoon fan in some weird denial twist. These guys are great, 'Don't You Evah' one of ten nearly perfect pop songs from Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. I kind of wanted to put the echoey 'The Ghost of You Lingers' but went with the pop goodness.

12. 'Impossible Germany' is kind of a quintessential latter day Wilco song from their Sky Blue Sky, I could see this branching out in jam live. Having been listening to nothing but the Grateful Dead for nearly 2 straight months I hear them everywhere now, but none more so than Wilco, at least in the last couple of albums. This is a good thing, for me anyway. It will likely cause others to want to kill Jeff Tweedy.

13. Pete Doherty surprised everyone by not dying with an arm full of soot and released another great Babyshambles album Shotter's Nation. For this I was thankful. This was my favourite album of 2007, from it, 'Unstookie Titled'.

14. Aside from his work with X, I'd lately come to know John Doe more for his acting than his music. My favourite was his role as the ex-husband of Amber Waves in Boogie Nights ("My wife is sick woman, your honour..."). His Year in the Wilderness album is fantastic, particularly the 'Meanest Man in the World'. "He never thought of himself as cruel, he never thought of himself at all, kindness was always outside his grasp...he was the meanest man in the world".

15. Chuck Prophet creates these mid-tempo grooves so effortlessly, I don't know how he his songs aren't better known. This is 'Down Time' from Soap and Water.

16. Dion (yes, that Runaround Sue/Wanderer guy) has been steadily releasing these blues and country-folk albums for years now. These old guys, like Al Kooper, still manage to keep dropping interesting music and touring, it's just too bad more people don't get to hear it. This is 'The Thunderer' from Son of Skip James.

17. This is as close to Tom Waits as I like to get (aside from the occasional Chuck E. Weiss album). Steve Earle's cover of 'Down in the Hole', probably better known as the theme song of HBO's The Wire, also known as The Greatest Television Show Ever.

18. Mrs. Bruce Springsteen aka Patti Scialfa released a great album in 2007 called Play It As It Lays. Another one I'd highly recommend checking out, mining the Bonnie Raitt blues here with 'Town Called Heartbreak'.

19. I like that Kings of Leon opened up Because of the Times with a 7 min song called 'Knocked Up' because it started to mentally prepare the fans of the first two albums that they were likely going places we might not want to go. That's not to suggest this is radical, experimental stuff. It's still basic Kings of Leon, it's just that the first song here is approximately 23% as long as their previous two LPs that were clocking in around 30 min apiece. So yeah, they were letting the fans know, you're probably going to start hating us now.

20. Deadstring Brothers play a great mix of alt-country and Southern-fried rawk, the latter best exemplified on 'Ain't No Hidin' Love' from Silver Mountain. In fact, this could be an outtake from Humble Pie's debut, which once again, may or may not be a good thing depending on one's taste. It's great for me.

21. The Arcade Fire's Neon Bible was not quite as lauded as their debut, which is surprisingly because not only is it pretty much on the mark with what they accomplished with Funeral, it extends and they incorporate a bit of Springsteen on a couple of tracks, most notably 'Keep the Car Running'. I look forward to hearing what they do next in 2010.

22. 'Johny Guitar' from Grant Lee Philips' Strangelet is channeling Marc Bolan from the 8th dimension. It's practically perfect.

23. 'Before the Money Came (The Battle of Bettye Lavette)', written by Patterson Hood of the Drive-By Truckers and Bettye Lavette for her Scene of the Crime album is an awesome dark, groove of a tale. Great record, I love the Truckers for their music, but I really appreciate how they back up these old soul greats, like Bettye and this year with Booker T.

24. The White Stripes' Icky Thump is tougher, less immediate album but still full of good stuff, you just need to wade in and hang out a bit longer. I mean, he started playing around with mariachi sounds on this record, so you know he's kind of running down ideas for fun. This is the stomping title track.

25. This may be one of the greatest songs ever and requires no comment other than listening to ever single word Tommy Womack says on 'Alpha Dog & The Female Mystery Blood' from There I Said It.