My 10 Favorite Songs of 2007

And so they begin: My "Best Of" lists for 2007. These have become as ubiquitous around this time of year as Christmas carols and hangovers, but for those of us obsessed with pop culture and list-making, they're like cocaine; you can never get enough, until you do. Fortunately with these lists, you don't die.

I start my wrap-up with the best single songs I've heard this year. I must admit, Top 40 radio and iTunes have killed the album. I think music is still best enjoyed in chunks, 12 tracks in a row, often telling its own story. Unfortunately, I can't think of 10 new albums I've listened to straight through this year. The short list includes the Silversun Pickups' Carnavas (came out in 2006, ditto with Wolfmother's self-titled effort); Son Volt's The Search; Kanye West's Graduation; and the Foo Fighters' Echos, Silence, Patience & Grace. Some singles from those discs appear on this list.

Rules and qualifiers: Albums have to have been released this year (it won't be so with other lists, because I make the rules here). This list will also put asunder any indie cred I might have with friends and readers of my magazine... not that there was much to begin with. I listen to things as they come across my desk or my XM Radio. If there's a lot of Top 40, well, I am married to a high school teacher.

10. "Long Walk Home", Bruce Springsteen
My earliest memory of music is The Boss's "Born in the U.S.A.", when my parents were little older than I am now, and over the last 25 years, Springsteen has changed right along with America. He still rocks, but he's more of a statesman of music than a rock star. And the band backing for this song is almost as good as the song itself.

Choice lyric: "Your flag flyin' over the courthouse/Means certain things are set in stone/Who we are, what we'll do and what we won't"


9. "Dance Floor Anthem", Good Charlotte
This is the one I'll take heat for, no doubt. Good Charlotte blows, I know that. But this song was in my head all the way through my marathon, which makes it special, if not good. It's just got a catchy chorus: It makes me want to be 19 again. Still, Joel Madden is kinda funky looking; and he knocked up Nicole Richie.

Choice lyric: "She calls him up/She’s tripping on the phone now/He had to get up/And he ain’t comin' home now/He’s tryin' to forget her/That’s how he got with her/When he first met her/ When they first got together"


8. "Empty Walls", Serj Tankian
What a voice; what an act. And the video... sheesh. Just watch.

Choice lyric: "When we decline, from the confines of our mind/Don't waste your time, on coffins today"

7. "The Great Escape", Boys Like Girls
God, another teeny bop song. I really like this one; I've had times this year when I felt misunderstood, or just wanted to drive until I hit a border or the ocean. This song sums up those feelings nicely.

Choice lyric: "Watch it burn/Let it die/Cause we are finally free tonight"


6. "Girlfriend", Avril Lavigne
I'm starting to get embarrassed. Still, something about this song reminds me of my wife. In a good way.

Choice lyric: "Don't pretend I think you know I'm damn precious/And hell yeah I'm the motherf'n' princess"

Embedding was disabled on YouTube (probably because Avril likes to rip off other people's beats and then overprotect her own stuff), but here's the link.

5. "Roc Boys", Jay Z
If American Gangster was one of my favorite films of the year, this song has to be one of my favorite spins. I love pretty much everything Jay Z does, because he's everything I'm not.

Choice lyric: "Let your hair down baby, i just hit a score/pick any place on the planet, pick a shore/take what forbes figured then figure more/cause they forgot to account what i did with the raw"


4. "All Your Words", Starrfadu
The only ballad on my list is also the only local tune. There weren't a lot of Springfield bands to put out honest-to-got albums this year, but And Yes... Our Thoughts Were Elsewhere was a good one. I like this song. It's sad, but kinda perky.

Choice lyric: "Maybe we're both crazy/and it's plain to see with you and I/that we ain't getting nowhere tonight"

No video online, but here's a link to the band's MySpace page. Listen to everything, for reals. You might recognize one of the songs there, "Let It Out" was used in a 2007 Kleenex commercial. No joke.

3. "The Pretender", Foo Fighters
The Foos have taken over the role The Counting Crows held until I was 25: The role of Favorite Band. I'd listen to Dave Grohl play the slide whistle. This is the most ass-kicking song they've put out in some time, and surpasses any the hard stuff on 2005's In Your Honor. Grohl will never be the icon Kurt Cobain was, but he's surpassed his blond ass as a musician. Great video too; Green Day would do something similar.

Choice lyric: "The secrets that you keep are at the ready/Are you ready?/I'm finished making sense/Done pleading ignorance/That whole...defense"

Another damn "no embed" video, but here's the link.

2. "How Far We've Come", matchbox20
Another band and lead man that gets better with age, though they're hardly the Foos. This is my favorite matchbox song. It never lets up, and I can see it being a theme song for a movie version of The Stand, my favorite book, because it seems to evoke the apocolypse. The video would indicate it's about social change. Wusses.

Choice lyric: "I sat down on the street, took a look at myself/said where you going man you know the world is headed for hell/say all goodbyes if you've got someone you can say goodbye to"


1. "Stronger", Kanye West
I love everything Jay Z does, but I'm awed by almost everything the Louis Vuitton Don cranks out. "Stronger" might be the most technically flawless song of 2007; the production is second to none, and Kanye's rhymes leave me slack-jawed, like Eminem's used to before he quit recording and I realized life was too short to listen to shi* that doesn't make you feel good (even if it makes you laugh). Kanye is king.

Choice lyric: "Bow in the presence of greatness/Cause right now thou has forsaken us/You should be honored by my lateness/That I would even show up to this fake shi*/So go ahead go nuts, go ape shi*"


I'm sure there a billion quibbles, and a billion great songs out there I haven't listened to. One of my many new year's resolutions is to dip deeper into the great pool of music. Trouble is, the good stuff is just so hard to find anymore, so middle-of-the-road fans like me are left singing along to Avril. Sigh.

Peace.

ML