Greatest Album of the Year

[bovine]

According to Spin magazine, Against Me's (the band name sans the apostrophe and "S") album New Wave is the greatest Album of the Year. Kanye/DP's Stronger got best song of the year. Discuss.

To start things off, I thought that Stronger was pretty lame because it was basically DP's Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (no shit), but essentially unchanged. It's like Kanye just rapped over someone else's song.... not original. The song is good though, don't get me wrong.

[Julius Seeker]

I didn't really like anything new I heard in 2007. I found 2006 to be A LOT better.

Against Me, I don't really know anything about them except that Butch Vig has something to do with them. With a title like "New Wave" I assume that they do New Wave style music which would be something I would enjoy =)

Too bad my speakers are broken.

[Andrew, Killer Bee]

Stronger? WHAT THE FUCK.

It's like Kanye just rapped over someone else's song.... not original.

It is exactly that. Stronger is an awful, awful song, and it makes me furious. Fuck! FUUUCK

My favourite song of 2007 was probably M.I.A.'s Bird Flu. Kala comes close to being my favourite album of 2007, too.

[bovine]

I had never heard of them either. I acquired the album when I heard it got album of the year and it is an ultra-mediocre album. I hear you are into the rap music Mr.Seeker, have you listened to the new Lupe Fiasco album?

[Kupek]

According to Spin magazine, Against Me's (the band name sans the apostrophe and "S") album New Wave is the greatest Album of the Year. Kanye/DP's Stronger got best song of the year. Discuss.

No shit? I've been underwhelmed by the two albums of theirs I bought, although I know they are capable of brilliance. Have you heard it? My main problem was that there would be two songs that were great, but the rest of the album just... meandered.

EDIT: Against Me moments of brilliance:
Pints of Guinness Make You Strong
Don't Lose Touch
Turn Those Clapping Hands into Angry Balled Fists
From Her Lips to God's Ears

[Eric]

lol Stronger.

I liked Everytime I Am, and Big Brother on that album.

Big Brother would have been a huge single in New York at least.

[Julius Seeker]

I had never heard of them either. I acquired the album when I heard it got album of the year and it is an ultra-mediocre album. I hear you are into the rap music Mr.Seeker, have you listened to the new Lupe Fiasco album?

Mostly into the West Coast scene; mostly Tupac and Eazy and those who were associated with them. Otherwise the main type of music I listen to nowadays is New Wave and anything that ties into that (actually, rap first became popular within the New Wave movement, Blondie recorded the first number 1 rap hit, and I think the next one didn't come for almost a decade, sometime around MC Hammer =P)

[Blotus]

no one talks about music in the music forum. I will start a thread to prove this point.

Your experiment is a failure and, by extention, so are you!!!

[SineSwiper]

To start things off, I thought that Stronger was pretty lame because it was basically DP's Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (no shit), but essentially unchanged. It's like Kanye just rapped over someone else's song.... not original. The song is good though, don't get me wrong.

Daft Punk's "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" is actually a rip off of Edwin Birdsong's "Cola Bottle Baby". I think Birdsong should demand royalities for BOTH songs.

More of Daft Punk's rip offs

[bovine]

According to Spin magazine, Against Me's (the band name sans the apostrophe and "S") album New Wave is the greatest Album of the Year. Kanye/DP's Stronger got best song of the year. Discuss.

No shit? I've been underwhelmed by the two albums of theirs I bought, although I know they are capable of brilliance. Have you heard it? My main problem was that there would be two songs that were great, but the rest of the album just... meandered.

EDIT: Against Me moments of brilliance:
Pints of Guinness Make You Strong
Don't Lose Touch
Turn Those Clapping Hands into Angry Balled Fists
From Her Lips to God's Ears

I listened to it a little. Its lyrics want to be from a punk album, but the sound does not sound like the punk genre at all. It seems really confusing and awkward to listen to..... I'll listen to it some more to get you a more established take on it though.

[Blotus]

To start things off, I thought that Stronger was pretty lame because it was basically DP's Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (no shit), but essentially unchanged. It's like Kanye just rapped over someone else's song.... not original. The song is good though, don't get me wrong.

Daft Punk's "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" is actually a rip off of Edwin Birdsong's "Cola Bottle Baby". I think Birdsong should demand royalities for BOTH songs.

More of Daft Punk's rip offs

Is that was electronica is all about? Taking somebody else's stuff and making it different/better?

[SineSwiper]

Is that was electronica is all about? Taking somebody else's stuff and making it different/better?

I could say the same thing about rap.

Electronica artists, even when they are sampling, tend to only take a small piece to use as a secondary part of the song as a whole. They shouldn't be, as the article was saying, ripping out the entire melody of the song and making it as the entire backbone of their song. Granted, there's plenty of "sharing" going on in the electronica world, but it's usually not this blatant.

Daft Punk apparently does this a lot, and so does Fatboy Slim. (Though, I'm forced to admit that I like them both, but not as much as artists to actually work for their music.) It's like being the Puff Daddy of electronica. I'm surprised that Daft Punk actually needs two people to rip off samples like this...

[Julius Seeker]

There's a ton of different definitions of rap. How I would put it in simple terms: rap is hip hop influenced poetry that utilizes rhythm and a rapid pace in the delivery. It most often utilizes a beat and will sometimes utilize prose, though these aren't essential components.

And yes, a lot of "rap artists" are more or less making rap influenced club slut music rather than pure rap.

[SineSwiper]

Rap club beats suck, too.

Anyway, my picks for best album of 2007 are:

Amon Tobin - Foley Room - Not quite as good as his excellent Splinter Cell 3 soundtrack, but this one really grows on me.
Dethklok - The Dethalbum - Seriously. Probably the best death metal album ever made!
NIN - Year Zero - So why didn't anybody mention this?! Excellent, excellent stuff. Can't wait for the next one!
Chemical Brothers - We Are The Night - Probably wouldn't be my #1 pick, but there are a lot of catchy songs on here (Do It Again, for example).
UNKLE - War Stories - A surprising standout from a group I only previously mildly enjoyed. These guys keep improving every album.

I'd probably include Radiohead's newest, but it technically got released in 2008. D-Sides was good, too, but it's a remix album, sooo...

[Julius Seeker]

Alright, my favourite album of last year was probably the one by Rihanna.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WAapKx2TvM">Shut up and Drive</a>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsRWpK4pf90">Don't Stop the Music</a>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4X7eFbP3u4">Umbrella</a>

Look at the amount of views on the videos. I don't think anyone can dispute that this was the best one from last year =)

[Imakeholesinu]

According to Spin magazine, Against Me's (the band name sans the apostrophe and "S") album New Wave is the greatest Album of the Year. Kanye/DP's Stronger got best song of the year. Discuss.

To start things off, I thought that Stronger was pretty lame because it was basically DP's Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (no shit), but essentially unchanged. It's like Kanye just rapped over someone else's song.... not original. The song is good though, don't get me wrong.

I still think Amy Winehouse had the best album of the year. Best song of the year? Feist's "1,2,3,4".

[RentCavalier]

Against me is NOT New Wave--they're punk in a more old-school definition of the word. New Wave is very good listening--it has an old Dropkick Murphy's feel to it for me, but minus the overt Irishness (note: there's still some Irishness).

Best album of the year though? Mmm...I can buy that, if only because I haven't really listened to any other major albums this year (just their singles.) Also, Eat Me Drink Me wasn't that great. Certainly not on par with earlier Manson stuff, like Antichrist Superstar, and I really didn't like most of the Graduation album.

New Wu Tang gets no love? I would've expected a little more praise thrown their way.

[SineSwiper]

Is this still a conversation about rap? I thought we were talking about great albums in 2007.

I have to agree with "Eat Me Drink Me". The last couple of his albums before that one were much better. White Zombie's Educated Horses was so boring that I just stopped listening to it after a while.

Oh, and Radiohead's newest album is awesome.

Other albums I bought in 2007:

Bjork - Volta - Not her best work, but certainly better than Medulla.
HED PE - Insomnia - I was kinda disappointed in this one, after the other two excellent albums they put out. Walk On By is a great hardcore song, but it kinda drops off from there. I think they had some punk friends over to do some of the music, and it doesn't sound right to me.
Type O Negative - Dead Again - Wow, I forgot I bought this. Was this any good?
The Good, The Bad & The Queen - Also fairly disappointing. I was expecting something better from the guy who gave us Blur and Gorillaz.
Underworld - Oblivion With Bells - I really miss Darren. Him not being a part of the group is like Sneaker Pimps trying to be Sneaker Pimps without Kelli Dayton. Having said that, Underworld is still putting out some albums that fair better than a lot of other of my favorite artists.

(Wow...Sneaker Pimps dumped Kelli?! I thought she left them. What a fucking mistake that was...)