Following are my picks for Top 15 Albums of 2007 (revised to include CDs I heard after the end of the year). These are the CDs that I have listened to most this year, and also those that I think are vocally, lyrically, and musically superior to everything else I've heard. Click the links for reviews, purchase links, and mp3s or audio links.
1. Mavis Staples: We'll Never Turn Back
2. Damien Dempsey: To Hell Or Barbados
3. Anaïs Mitchell: The Brightness
4. Glen Hansard & Marketa Iglova: the Once soundtrack
5. Eleni Mandell: Miracle Of Five
6. Sylvie Lewis: Translations
7. Robert Plant & Alison Krauss: Raising Sand
8. Maria Muldaur: Naughty, Bawdy & Blue
9. Sarah Borges & The Broken Singles: Diamonds In The Dark
10. Pamela Means: Jazz Project Vol. 1
11. Eilen Jewell - Letters From Sinners & Strangers
12. Xavier Rudd: White Moth
13. The Avett Brothers: Emotionalism
14. Jeremy Fisher: Goodbye Blue Monday
15. Alice Smith: For Lovers, Dreamers & Me
Annotations....
* Honorable mention to Luminescent Orchestrii's Too Hot To Sleep (which would have topped the list except it was released in 2005).
*My 2006 Top 10 Albums list has been revised to include CDs that were released last year but not reviewed by me until this year - such as Amy Winehouse's Back To Black and Hem's Funnel Cloud.
1. Mavis Staples: We'll Never Turn Back
2. Damien Dempsey: To Hell Or Barbados
3. Anaïs Mitchell: The Brightness
4. Glen Hansard & Marketa Iglova: the Once soundtrack
5. Eleni Mandell: Miracle Of Five
6. Sylvie Lewis: Translations
7. Robert Plant & Alison Krauss: Raising Sand
8. Maria Muldaur: Naughty, Bawdy & Blue
9. Sarah Borges & The Broken Singles: Diamonds In The Dark
10. Pamela Means: Jazz Project Vol. 1
11. Eilen Jewell - Letters From Sinners & Strangers
12. Xavier Rudd: White Moth
13. The Avett Brothers: Emotionalism
14. Jeremy Fisher: Goodbye Blue Monday
15. Alice Smith: For Lovers, Dreamers & Me
Annotations....
* Honorable mention to Luminescent Orchestrii's Too Hot To Sleep (which would have topped the list except it was released in 2005).
*My 2006 Top 10 Albums list has been revised to include CDs that were released last year but not reviewed by me until this year - such as Amy Winehouse's Back To Black and Hem's Funnel Cloud.
3 comments:
The Mavis Staples is great (and what a career!). Not the sort of thing most music bloggers pay much attention to -- but should.
This is the first mention I've seen in anyone's music lists of Mavis Staples...which is a shame, as it is a really great album; my favourite of that genre since Bettye Lavette's covers album. Thanks for a list that is original!
Amy & Divinyl - Thanks for the feedback! I know most of my other picks are a bit obscure, but I'm surprised Mavis hasn't been on more lists.
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