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The Music of 2007

Written by Pacdan

Taken from a post in my last.fm group People With An Absurdly Large Music Collection (join!), here’s my favorite albums of 2007, followed by some of the more important new musical discoveries from this year that aren’t actually new (this is a fairly concise list of them, I’d already been writing the first section for an hour and a half. There’s still some stuff from this year I haven’t even had time to listen to yet, but this is a mostly complete list.

Nightwish - Dark Passion Play is absolutely brilliant, proving that they are just as good as ever, if not better, with a new singer. I wrote a full review of it here.

Atargatis - Nova is also very good. A big improvement over their first album and just generally very enjoyable Gothic metal with orchestral elements.

Au Revoir Simone - The Bird of Music is much more of a pop album than I would normally listen to, but is much, much better than most pop and has some extremely catchy songs. Highlights are Stars, which you will never get out of your head, and Sad Song but the whole thing is quite listenable.

The Birthday Massacre - Walking With Strangers is another favorite. This is the first album I had heard from the band, and I immediately had to go download all of their back catalog. I’d say this is tied with Violet as their best album. It’s an incredible masterpiece of synth-rock and one of my favorite new artist discoveries of the year.

Demether - Beautiful is also the first I’d heard of this band and I’m thoroughly impressed. The songs are sometimes heavy and sometimes beautiful, but almost always enjoyable. They also manage to do symphonic operatic metal without sounding like a Nightwish rip-off, which is quite impressive in itself. It could be a little more polished in places, and they should ditch the death vocals, but Beautiful certainly lives up to its title. I really hope to hear more from this band in the future.

Dream Theater - Systematic Chaos was highly disappointing to me, being not nearly as well crafted as Octavarium, but is still a good album, just not as great of one as I would have expected. Most of the songs are heavier than Dream Theater standard, which isn’t a bad thing in itself, but the resulting tracks seem to be just average and, with their past reputation, not entirely up to there standards. They’re not bad, just not the kind of song that absolutely make you say “Wow”. The album really shines on the slower tracks. Repentance is a great track, though it’s a bit longer than the songs contents really required, coming in at almost 11 minutes. The Ministry of Lost Souls is really the high point of the album, the song I keep coming back too over and over again. The instrumentation is masterful and, while it clocks in at just under 15 minutes, the song never feels like it’s being dragged out. The lyrics are excellent, as is James LaBrie’s emotional vocal performance. The long instrumental section in the middle is interesting and never feels like its there just to take up space. Not only is this the best song from the album, in my opinion, it’s the best Dream Theater song since Scenes From a Memory

Emilie Autumn - Laced/Unlaced is good for what it is. The classical violin first disc, which is just a re-release of her first album with bonus tracks, is just as excellent as it was the first time around, while the second disc of electric violin pieces is surprisingly good. I’ve never really seen what the appeal of electric violin is, but the songs are very well constructed and masterfully executed. It’s definitely good stuff, but I still can’t wait for her next release of vocal material.

Epica - The Divine Conspiracy probably the biggest surprise of the year. I’ve never been a big fan of Epica in the past, not that their old material is bad - just that I never found it to be amazing, so I wasn’t expecting this to be such a great CD. By far the best Epica CD to date, and a surprise favorite for the year.

Eyes of Eden - Faith completely out of nowhere some great Gothic/symphonic metal. It certainly isn’t out to redefine the Gothic metal scene, though the occasional classical touches are a nice addition, but the result is well-written, well-played and just generally very enjoyable music.

Flyleaf - Flyleaf this is actually a two year old album that was given a special edition re-release this year, but I’m going to include it anyways since this is the first time I’d heard the band and I really can’t promote them adequately. In case you didn’t get the hint, Flyleaf is absolutely amazing. Absolutely one of the best bands ever, and this is, of course, an amazing album. Cassie is probably my favorite song, but every song on there is recommended, including the acoustic versions which all work very well. This is a Christian rock band, but not so openly so that you can’t enjoy it if you’re not into that type of music. Absolutely incredible.

Fauxliage - Fauxliage isn’t one of my absolute favorite releases of the year, but I still like it enough to think it deserves a mention. It’s really nice light music, with a bit of an ambient feel, and their singer has a beautiful voice. Very good for what it is.

In This Moment - Beautiful Tragedy I came into this not expecting an awful lot, since I’m not that heavily into metalcore and I thought a female fronted metalcore band was not the best of ideas. I’m so glad I gave myself the chance to be proven wrong. This is one of the most underrated bands ever. I never would have thought that this style of music could work with a female singer, but In This Moment carries it out perfectly. Their singer is absolutely amazing, both in screaming and proper singing, and she does a surprisingly large amount of the latter. The album has a very melodic base by metalcore standards, and, in my opinion, is a great musical experience. As I mentioned metalcore is not my thing, but this album is just incredible. I went in with low expectations, and came out with the majority of the album on my playlist. Definitely a new favorite.

Lisa Lynne and George Tortorelli - Love & Peace this new age Celtic music is far outside the norm for me, but is so irresistibly beautiful that I can’t help but love it. Great for relaxation, or just if your looking for something a little more downtempo to listen to. Either way, it’s beautiful music.

Nemesea - In Control almost didn’t make the list, but in all fairness it deserves a place. It’s actually quite a nice CD if taken on it’s own merits, but it did not live up to my expectations after the incredible Mana. The album is very simplified compared to the first Nemesea release, and since they had a professional recording studio this time, has become so overproduced that the demo versions of songs actually sound better and the new songs seem like a waste of their singer’s incredible vocal talent. Regardless of all these criticisms, however, the resulting album is actually very good on it’s own merits, it’s just not quite what I expected it to be. I hope to see better from the band in the future, but it really is a good album, just not the great album I’d been hoping for.

Scala & Kolacny Brothers - One Winged Angel is a beautiful album of covers of popular songs performed by a choir. Beautiful and meticulously executed, this album never ceases to impress. The only weak track on the album is Black Horse An The Cherry Tree, and that is simply because I hate that song, not because the cover is bad. It may sound like a strange concept, but the result is just gorgeous. I’ve had a hard time finding any of their back releases, but I can only hope to hear more of this amazing music in the future.

A Sunny Day In Glasgow - Scribble Mural Comic Journal is one of the most twistedly brilliant releases I’ve heard in a long time. If you enjoy shoegaze, as I do, then you absolutely must hear this album. The songs are amazing, with great titles like “Watery (Drowning is just Another Word for Being Buried Alive Under Water) and “Panic Attacks Are What Make Me ‘Me’ they’re are obviously trying to show that they are something special. And they definitely succeed, the music perfectly represents the creative insanity of the band and the entire album is a brilliant piece of it’s genre, and music in general.

Tori Amos - American Doll Posse is, well, Tori Amos. It was basically guaranteed to make the list. Actually, I’m ashamed to admit I didn’t start listening to Tori until this year, but once I did it was basically instant love. This isn’t my favorite Tori Amos album, not by far, but it still is great. I’m not overly fond of the more rock-oriented feel of some of the songs, preferring the more piano based ones, but the whole thing is still great, we’d expect nothing less of Tori Amos and she certainly delivers as always.

Wildpath - Nyx Secrets was completely unexpected for me. I’d never heard anything about this band before, and they just come out of nowhere with an incredible album of melodic metal. Their singer is superb, and the music itself is just great. A brilliant debut album and instant favorite.

Within Temptation - The Heart of Everything is unsurprisingly excellent. While they are trying too hard in places to sound like Evanescence in places (What Have You Done) the album is still a great follow-up to The Silent Force, bringing back more of the heavy feel of earlier albums and adding some Gothic influence that they really didn’t need, but didn’t hurt anything either. While the songs never achieve the same level of emotion as Angels, Memories, or The Swan Song, The Heart of Everything is a wonderful new album from one of my longtime favorite bands.

New to me in 2007, but not actually new:

Diablo Swing Orchestra is one of the most inventive, interesting and flat out talented groups of any genre I’ve ever heard. Their music completely defies convention, being outdone only by…

UneXpect who are in serious contention for most innovative band of all time. And probably in my top 10 best bands of all time too. The music is so incredibly cool. The combination of jazz influences, a wide variety of metal genres, and the inspiration of circus music just comes together in something that completely blew me away.

After Forever is something I’ve known about for a long time but it’s just recently that I really got to like the band. Their new album is really mediocre, which is why it didn’t make my list, but older stuff like Invisible Circles is just superb Gothic metal.

All My Faith Lost… probably would have made the list with their new release The Hours, but I haven’t listened to it yet so I can’t judge. However their first album, Chamber Music, is superb neoclassical and definitely something new of interest to me. I can’t believe I haven’t listened to the new stuff yet.

Alyson Avenue is something I never expected to like particularly, I was really only investigating the band because their former singer now sings for Nightwish, but surprisingly it’s great hard rock music, although their first album is much better than their second. Annette’s singing is amazing and the music itself is just really good, something like Heart but with more of a hard rock edge. I’m surprised I never heard of them sooner.

Emilie Autumn isn’t new to me, but her album Enchant is, and while I’d heard Opheliac before, this is what really made me a fan of her music. It’s so beautiful, in my opinion much better than her later material. It’s a lot lighter than Opheliac, but for me is really a better album. I think I actually enjoyed the later songs more as a result of listening to this too. If it’s any indication of how good it is, Enchant is the first album in years which I’ve actually bought, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s not the last of hers either.

Hungry Lucy is not going to get a big, in depth description, since I’m not entirely sure how to describe it - I guess the closest I can get is to call it darkwave, but I really don’t think that entirely covers it. Regardless of my inability to but it into word, I really enjoy what I’ve heard so far.

Jessica Heine plays what I would call modern folk. She has a beautiful voice, and is a great guitarist and songwriter. Simply wonderful, especially since I downloaded it completely by accident.

jessica paquette is another case of brilliant music that I downloaded completely by chance. I think she has a beautiful voice, not at all technical, but pretty in it’s own way. More importantly the songs are very good and it’s just generally wonderful music. It’s so weird that I’d never have even heard of her if it wasn’t for a random search, she’s become one of my favorite musicians.

Miranda Sex Garden is very ethereal, but for some reason I really like it.

Opeth had never really gotten consideration before because even though I like progressive metal, they are death metal, which I generally avoid. Once I finally gave in and listened to it, however, the music is just brilliant and, while I still prefer the songs without death vocals, the instrumentation and the songs themselves are so good that it has really made a very positive impression.

Ophelia’s Dream quickly became my favorite of the neoclassical groups, though their first alum is much better than their second.

Vienna Teng has one of the most beautiful voices I have ever heard, and her songs are wonderful too. Basically love at first listen.

Finally done! If you’re still reading, you deserve a medal.