Go to content Go to navigation Go to search
The Big Takeover > top-ten

Dave Heaton’s Top Ten — September 30

by Dave Heaton
30 September 2007



  1. Jens Lekman – Night Falls Over Kortedala (Secretly Canadian)

    Album of the year? Probably. How can music this sad sound this lush and romantic?

  2. Sleeping States – There the Open Space (Misra)

    Another of my favorites so far this year – mixes experimental guitar, indie-pop and jazz-crooner vocals, in beautiful ways.

  3. PJ Harvey – White Chalk (Island)

    Maybe not her best album (I still say that’s Rid of Me), but definitely one of the most distinctive – the piano and near-falsetto-vocals give it an otherworldly quality that’s unique in her discography.

  4. Kanye West – Graduation (Roc-a-Fella)

    Not as elegantly full as Late Registration, but still a solid album, with a variety of music sampled (Daft Punk, Can, Steely Dan, Mountain) and made into sleek hip-hop. An album-length joke about Kanye’s “ego”, but also pushing his music forward.

  5. Aesop Rock – None Shall Pass (Definitive Jux)

    His best album because he’s learned that streamlining things can make his unique style seem even more unique, and less smothering.

  6. The Lucksmiths – Spring a Leak (Matinee)

    Fabulous, jam-packed two-disc set of singles and rarities and radio performances and whatnots.

  7. Architecture in Helsinki – Places Like This (Polyvinyl)

    I can’t get my head around the vocals, why they’ve turned their voices into cartoon characters, but this album’s still tons of fun.

  8. The Burnside Project – “I Do Believe You Are Blushing”

    I haven’t heard the whole album (their latest, from earlier in the year I believe), but you have love a band that, in 2007, is covering Unrest still. Don’t forget ‘em!

  9. The Rascals – “Groovin”

    Working on an article somewhere else about Collectors Choice’s seven Rascals reissues…so I’ve been listening to, and thinking about, this brilliant song a lot lately.

  10. Miles Davis – “It Never Entered My Mind”

    I heard an NPR segment interviewing somebody about his favorite Miles Davis song. It was “Someday My Prince Will Come” – this one is mine.

Comments

I actually think that “Graduation” is far superior to Kanye’s past releases. While the highs might not be as high (excepting “Can’t Tell Me Nothing”, imo), the album is the most even and listenable to date. Part of this is definitely due to the absence of the annoying skits that have cluttered his last two albums, not to mention more than a few otherwise unassailable hip-hop albums. But, beyond that, I feel that Kanye’s innovation and originality have finally fully come to fruition. In a genre that often lacks these qualities (especially in the mainstream) West has made something that sounds distinctly his own creation and that holds up from top to bottom. If Pharaohe Monch hadn’t released a new album this year, “Graduation” would most likely be my choice for hip-hop album of the year.

For the record, I think that the hip-hop single of the year, hands down, is “International Players Anthem” by UGK and Outkast. The beat, flow, and soulful samples are unlike anything I’ve heard in ages and Andre 3000 reminds everybody how good of a rapper he is by spitting the verse of the year. Check it out if you haven’t heard it!


— ChrisD    2007-10-03 01:21    #