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yan·off (yä nôf) n. A Wisconsin family consisting of Gillie, Carly, Kathy and Scott Yanoff.

music

Best Albums | Best Songs | Most Disappointing Albums

Scott's Picks for Best Albums of 2007

  1. Boxer by The National - Kathy and I saw them in concert because I liked their album and their last one, Alligator, was amaaaaaazing. They are my favorite band of the moment and I just can't seem to get enough of them.
  2. Challengers by The New Pornographers - They're like a Canadian supergroup of people from other (supposedly) popular Canadian groups. One band member, Neko Case, mostly does solo work that is to die for (my favorite album last year was her album Fox Confessor Brings the Flood) and every song she touches as part of New Pornographers turns to gold.
  3. Magic by Bruce Springsteen - It sure grew on me. At first, it felt more like a relationship album but the more I listened to it, the more I realized that it is actually a bit of a protest album. The title track is a big dig on the current administration, "Gypsy Biker" recounts a family celebrating their dead solder relative/friend by getting his bike out and polished, "Livin' in the Future" seems like regret about the present and pretending to be living just a short while into the future (after the next president has been elected), and "Radio Nowhere", while not political but basically it is saying there's crap out there on American radio.
  4. Easy Tiger by Ryan Adams - Ryan Adams churns out about 3 albums a year and they can be hit or miss but lately his stuff has been really solid. He had a hit with the song "Two" off of this one.
  5. Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters by The Twilight Sad - I am not sure how I found out about this band, probably from one of the music blogs I subscribe to or from metacritic.com. The singer sings with a thick Scottish accent which makes it hard to understand the words sometimes but it also makes it fun to sing along with.
  6. The Stage Names by Okkervil River - 9 songs and maybe only 1 dud in the whole bunch. Great rockers combined with great ballads. Each song tells a story.
  7. Get to the River Before it Runs Too Low and Leaves in the River by Sea Wolf - The former is a 5-song EP of a great mixture of songs and the latter is a full album of mostly mellow stuff but really well-written.
  8. Arcade Fire by Neon Bible - Well, it's on just about everyone else's list, so why not mine? It's got higher production values than their last effort, Funeral, which makes for a much more enjoyable listen. I don't like everything on the album, but at least 9 of the songs are keepers.

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Scott's Picks for Best Songs of 2007

  1. Apartment Story by The National
  2. Start a War by The National
  3. Go Places by The New Pornographers
  4. All the Old Showstoppers by The New Pornographers
  5. Dark Road by Annie Lennox
  6. Cold Days From the Birdhouse by The Twilight Sad
  7. Daisy Chains by Youth Group
  8. Lost by Annie Lennox
  9. Girls in Their Summer Clothes by Bruce Springsteen
  10. Gypsy Biker by Bruce Springsteen
  11. Magic by Bruce Springsteen
  12. How Far We've Come by Matchbox Twenty
  13. Adrenaline & Heresy by Son Volt
  14. My Rights Versus Yours by The New Pornographers
  15. Windowsill by Arcade Fire
  16. Gone Gone Gone by Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
  17. We Need Love by Hard-Fi
  18. Parents Livingroom by Shout Out Louds
  19. Tonight I Have to Leave It by Shout Out Louds
  20. Unless It's Kicks by Okkervil River
  21. The Promise by Sea Wolf
  22. Falling Slowly by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová
  23. Young Folks by Peter Bjorn and John
  24. Is There a Ghost by Band of Horses
  25. Magic Beans and Truth Machines by Say Hi
  26. Keep the Car Running by Arcade Fire
  27. No Cars Go by Arcade Fire
  28. System by Seal
  29. Amazing by Seal
  30. Drop Down to Earth by Puressence
  31. 14 by Paula Cole
  32. Hey You by Madonna

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Scott's Most-Disappointing Albums of 2007

  1. The Awakening by Melissa Etheridge - I love Melissa and I love concept albums, but this is the first Melissa Etheridge album I won't be buying. The 1-minute song interludes seem like a nice idea but they really don't offer much. The old Melissa finally makes an appearance on the last two songs which offer a glimmer of hope for future albums, but the rest of this contains rock songs without hooks, spiritual lyrics without much spirit, and blues-y numbers that just leave me blue.
  2. Release the Stars by Rufus Wainwright - I think Rufus got good reviews for this one and about half of it is good. However, if you want to listen to a way more solid album from him, check out his last one, Poses.
  3. Armchair Apocrypha by Andrew Bird - His last effort, The Mysterious Production of Eggs, was fantastic and was one of my favorite albums to fall asleep to for quite a while. There are maybe 3 songs I liked on this one, however, and the rest was just filler.
  4. Songs of Mass Destruction by Annie Lennox - I own a few of her albums but aside from the songs "Dark Road" and "Lost", there were not any other keepers on this one.
  5. Memory Almost Full by Paul McCartney - The reviews claimed that this was as good as Flaming Pie, one of only a couple of McCartney albums I've felt were worth owning. Unfortunately, there was nothing really special about this latest album.

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