NSFP Albums o' the Year

As appeared in Tuesday's issue of the New School Free Press.

Myself and two other reporters on the paper, Kyle McGovern and Joe Veix, picked what we thought were the best albums of the year.

Sky Blue Sky by Wilco

Upon first listen, I was a little disappointed in the album but as time went by, I realized how good it actually is—which is why it’s my pick for one of the year's top albums. There’s a restraint throughout, which only occurs when a band has a total understanding of themselves. Maybe in a better year for music (2006, for instance), *Sky* would have placed lower, but with songs like the haunting “On and On and On” and deceptively solemn “You Are My Face,” it’s something for the boys from Chicago to be proud of.

-By Josh Kurp

Dandelion Gum by Black Moth Super Rainbow

If Boards of Canada stopped sampling, purchased real instruments and dropped Prozac like jellybeans, they'd sound a bit like Black Moth Super Rainbow. BMSR found an unexplored niche between electronica and psychedelic rock somewhere in the boondocks of western Pennsylvania. Compared to other records released this year, Dandelion Gum sounds thrillingly different.

We All Belong by Dr. Dog

With their third record, Dr. Dog have fully established their sound, proving that a classic rock framework doesn't have to sound overly derivative. We All Belong has a subtle, tight production that glues together each harmonious, hook-laden track into a beautiful, cohesive whole.

-By Joe Veix

Boxer by The National

The cover of Boxer couldn't be more fitting: the black and white photograph of the National performing at a wedding fits the record's cinematic arrangements and the band's professionalism. The guitars beautifully complement one another, the drumming is precise and Matt Berninger's slightly-drunken slur makes his wordy lyrics romantic. The National aren't doing anything new, but they have made one of 2007's tightest records.

In Rainbows by Radiohead

The off-balance drums of “15 Step” are familiar—expected even—until that sugary riff sinks in, opening what is Radiohead’s loosest album in years. Free from their contract with Capitol Records, Radiohead actually sound somewhat relaxed. Nothing on In Rainbows resembles Hail to the Thief's tense tantrums. The closest relative is "Bodysnatchers," when Thom Yorke expresses the frustration of being under contract: "I'm trapped in this body and can't get out."

-By Kyle McGovern

I Like Radiohead, But...

As appears in Tuesday's issue of The New School's newspaper, the New School Free Press:

The release of a new Radiohead CD is the closest thing our generation has to understanding what our parents felt eagerly awaiting the next Beatles album. The expectations are sky high and Thom, Colin, Jonny, Ed and Phil always have treated listeners to something great— even a flawed great like Hail to the Thief. In the case of In Rainbows, though, I couldn't help but feel let down.

Buying the album through their website for $5.25 (explained in further detail in "WTF, Thom?" on Page 14), I eagerly awoke the morning the album came out, downloaded it and was almost instantly let down.

Is it unwise to expect to hear another Kid A or OK Computer? Yes. Is it unfair? No. By that, I don't mean to say I want to hear "Subterranean Homesick Alien 2007," but I’m at least expecting to hear something solid, not the background music feel of Rainbows.

The album opens with "15 Step" and the lyric, "How come I end up where I started?/How come I end up where I went wrong?" The sound of the song seems to be Radiohead’s attempt at releasing a track that'll work on the dance floor. In whatever context it was meant to be, it doesn't work.

The guitar work of Jonny Greenwood and Ed O'Brien, normally providing a stellar complement to Thom's voice, doesn’t add much to the feel of the album—the sound is too synthetic, and on songs like "Bodysnatchers," the listener is left annoyed by the vocals.

The highlights of the album are the final two songs, "Jigsaw Falling Into Place" and "Videotape." To get to those, though, you have to listen to eight other tracks that don’t do much to further Radiohead’s reputation as one of the great bands of our time. Or, as Yorke sings on “Nude,” “Don’t get any big ideas/They’re not going to happen.”

Update: Radiohead sold 1.2 million copies of In Rainbows through the download program. Wow.

Ten Best...Songs Mentioning "Airplanes"

#10. "Crystal" by Husker Du

Avalanche looms overhead
Airplane flies overhead
Important man sits by the window
Sucked out of the first class window
Images run by, thousand miles an hour
But the time seems far away
Folding clothes in a folding closet
Folding money in a resume

#9. "Galileo" by Indigo Girls (That's For You, Ma)

And then I think about my fear of motion
Which I never could explain
Some other fool across the ocean years ago
Must have crashed his little airplane

#8. "Long Neck Bottle" by Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band

Well, one night she got to drinking
Got out and shot up the town
I'll be damned if she didn't,
Bring an airplane down
I don't like to talk about my woman
But this one sure could chug 'em down
I don't like to talk about my woman
But this one sure could chug 'em down

#7. "The Bends" by Radiohead

Where do we go from here?
The words are coming out all weird
Where are you now when I need you?
Alone on an airplane
Falling asleep beside my window pain
My blood will thicken

#6. "Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits

See the little faggot with the earring and the makeup
Yeah buddy that's his own hair
That little faggot got his own jet airplane
That little faggot he's a millionaire

#5. "Power of Love" by Jimi Hendrix

Shoot down some of those airplanes you're flyin'
Especially the ones that are flyin' too low
Shoot down some of those airplanes
Especially the ones that you're flyin' too low

#4. "Earth Died Screaming" by Tom Waits

Rudy's on the midway
And Jacob's in the hole
The monkey's on the ladder
The devil shovels coal
With crows as big as airplanes
The lion has three heads
And someone will eat the skin the he sheds
And the earth died screaming

#3. "You Got the Silver" by The Rolling Stones

Hey babe, what's in your eyes?
I saw them flashing like airplane lights
You fill my cup, babe, that's for sure
I must come back for a little more

#2. "Thunder on the Mountain" by Bob Dylan

Thunder on the mountain heavy as can be
Mean old twister bearing down on me
All the ladies in Washington scrambling to get out of town
Looks like something bad gonna happen,
Better roll your airplane down

#1. "I'm a Little Airplane" by Modern Lovers

Well, I'm a little airplane now
I'm a little airplane now now
I'm a little airplane now
I'm a little airplane now now
And wangity-wang wangity-wang
I'm a little airplane now.

I fly in the dark,
Over the baseball park.
Well, I fly late at night.
I got my little red light.
And wangity-wang wangity-wang
I'm a little airplane now.