FAQ | Guest Book | Mission Statement | Minions | What's Coming | What's New | What's Happened

 

2007 Year End Best Of

  
 
Minion Name:
  Indoor Miner  
         
 
          Top LPs of 2007
 
 
 
  1. Spider Smile by Tarwater
    Tarwater's Silur and Animals Suns & Atoms are two of my favourite albums of the last ten tears. Now I'm not suggesting Spider Smile is as good as either of those two records, and I know some folk felt that it was "just another" Tarwater album and they hadn't exactly taken any huge musical leaps forward, but this proved to be a real grower all the same. And if the opening few numbers don't grab you, hang on in there –- as much as I like them, the albums really kicks in around track four. A Marriage In Belmont and Lower Manhatten Poutoum which follows are definitely classic Tarwater tracks.
     
  2. Grinderman Grinderman
    There was feeling in some quarters that this, after the showpiece Get It On single, wasn't different enough to Cave's Bad Seeds albums. Who cares!?! There's some great, dark and direct numbers here that are just getting better and better as time goes on. And Set Me Free, the most Bad Seeds-like track here, is fit to grace any of their albums. A classic Cave song for sure.
     
  3. Art Pop by Githead
    Absolutely splendid stuff, with Wire singer Colin Newman on top form here in an A Bell Is A Cup… sort of way. There's some great work from bassist Malka Spigel, too. Indeed, Drop surely has the bassline of the year!
     
  4. Drums & Guns by Low
    A somewhat experimental Low release, but despite the more clattery percussive sounds, the songs and harmonies mean this couldn't be by anyone else other than Low.
     
  5. Reformation TLC by The Fall
    Like most Fall albums, Reformation TLC is patchy at times, but there's always something there that makes you glad you bought it. And at least 50% of this one finds MES, etc on top form, and in Reformation, The Fall are neck and neck with Wire's 23 Years Too Late for the Indoorminer Track of the Year! Watch the video for Reformation here.
     
  6. Lust Lust Lust by The Raveonettes
    OK, the excellent opening number, Aly Walk With Me with its slow Sidewalking-like bassline and slightly more experimental feel, may prove something of a red herring before the band return to their more usual Shirelles-meet-early-J&MC sound. But if you've liked any of their other releases then this is pretty darn essential.
     
  7. Station by Alan Vega
    This years offering from Vega finds the Suicide man in real uncompromising form. Some of the titles - Freedom's Smashed and Gun God Game - will give you some idea how he's feeling. He's not happy. Indeed he's probably the noisiest grumpy old man you'll hear all year. And he means it, maan!
     
  8. Sound of Silver by LCD Soundsystem
    The arrival of the excellent North American Scum single early in the year signalled that LCD Soundsystem were unlikely to have much of a problem following up their promising debut album from a couple of years back. And so it proved because there's plenty more to get your hands on here - not least their fab Human League-like electro-pop gem, Someone Great. If only James Murphy, the man behind LCD, had gone the whole hog and roped in Phil Oakey on vocals! Watch the video for North American Scum here.
     
  9. Woke On a Wheel Heart by Bill Callahan
    The Smog man's first solo album (cos the others weren't really solo, were they!), but whilst this isn't Bill's finest release, there's at least three tracks (Diamond Dancer, Sycamore, Night) here that are fit to grace any Smog LP.
     
  10. Moonshout by Transglobal Underground
    I was a big fan of the Nation label groups, Transglobal Underground and Loop Guru in the 90s. But whilst Loop Guru's 2007 offering, Elderberry Shiftglass, is far from being their best, Moonshout finds their former labelmates on pretty fine form.
  
     
 
          A-Z of Compilations and Re-Issues
 
 
  All of Yesterday Tomorrow by AMP
Christ vs. Warhol by Julian Cope|
Two Sevens Clash (30th Anniversary) by Culture
The Projected Passion Revue by Dexy's Midnight Runners
Flightless Bird by Hadaka No Rallizes
The Move by The Move
Shazam by The Move
Drum Sound by The Revolutionaries
Dance to the Music by Sly & The Family Stone
Peel Sessions Plus by Teardrop Explodes
Bolan at the BEEB by T.Rex
Greatest Hits by Marc Bolan & T.Rex
Magnitude by Wild Swans 		 
     
 
          EPs and Singles
  
 
 
  1. Read & Burn 03 EP by Wire
    We'd been led to believe that Wire were no more. Colin Newman's Githead had long ceased to look like some short-term side project, and Graham Lewis had re-activated his He Said alter-ego in the shape of He Said 27/11. And then suddenly, almost from nowhere, came this superb Read & Burn, the third instalment that we'd long since give up on. There's might only be four tracks here, but there's much to love (and apparently none of these songs will feature on the forthcoming album). Our Time blurs the line between Wire and Githead. No Warning Given features an excellent, relentless bass riff c/o Lewis, whilst Desert Diving boasts a great A Bell Is A Cup... like melody. But it's the ten minute opening 23 Years Too Late that is the real star of the show here. Graham's spoken lyrics are perfectly suited to its haunting background before the band power into a simplistic/poppy chorus before everything falls away to that droney ending. Truly awesome!
  2. No Pussy Blues by Grinderman
  3. North American Scum by LCD Soundsystem
  4. Icky Thump by The White Stripes
  5. Is Is by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
  6. Ice Cream by New Young Pony Club
  7. Euro Eccentric by Mike In Mono
  8. Dead Sound by The Raveonettes
  9. Vanity Unfair by Meat For A Dark Day
  10. Who'd Gonna Find Me by The Coral
  
     
            Ten Great Live Moments  
     
  1. The Only Ones closing their set with The Beast, and as the instrumental section that ends the track began, the band kicked on to another level, keeping going despite Kellie's nods to end it.
     
  2. Crispy Ambulance encoring with We Move Through The Plateau Phase, with singer Alan Hempsall repeatedly hitting the drummer's cymbals as the band produced an intense tribal warfare sound that was probably on a par with anything I've heard all year.
     
  3. Marc Almond camping it up appropriately at the Marc Bolan tribute gig for a magnificent Dandy In The Underworld and Teenage Dream double header, the latter backed by a string section conducted by the one and only Tony Visconti. And then there was that highly entertaining acoustic Tainted Love duet with the legendary Gloria Jones…
     
  4. Ex-Blow Monkey Dr. Robert performing a stunning acoustic version of the early Bolan single Hippy Gumbo at the above event.
     
  5. Caribou's duel drumming battles giving me goosebumps during their Go Team support slot, whilst their Krautrock moments at the end were, quite simply, immense.
     
  6. The Damned rolling back the years by opening their set with excellent versions of See Her Tonight, I Fall, and New Rose from their classic thirty year old album.
     
  7. Julian Cope alone at the keyboard, playing You Disappear From View as the slow, esoteric number he originally intended it to be, rather than the funk workout that it became in the hands of the latter-day Teardrop Explodes.
     
  8. Triclops' Throbbing Gristle-like electronic improvising over an almost tribal beat, whilst a trumpet blared away in the background.
     
  9. All-girl act, The Suzan, bringing a huge grin to my face as they smiled their way through their Japanese take on Monkees-style 60s pop, with some New Rose-like drumming thrown in for good measure.
     
  10. The Go Team's high energy dancing about the stage to the funky Junior Kickstart and the former 45, Bottle Rocket.
 
         
 
Related Links:
  Return to the End Of Year Lists menu.
Read Indoor Miner's 2004 lists.
Read Indoor Miner's 2005 lists.
Read Indoor Miner's 2006 lists.
 
         

Return to the top of this page. | Return to the Minion Roster. |Return to the End Of Year Lists menu.