Top Thirsty Albums of 2007: 20-16

20. Bonnie "Prince" Billy - Ask Forgiveness
The last time that Will Oldham was associated with a covers record, it was with Tortoise on The Brave and the Bold. That collection was hit or miss, with excellent versions of "Born to Run" and "That's Pep!," but occasionally suffered from the backing band's overindulgences. This time, it's just Oldham, Greg Weeks, and Meg Baird, and the songs are all Oldham's own selections. The source material is varied and probably marks the first time that Danzig, R. Kelly, and Bjork are all mentioned in the same sentence. In spite of such a wide range of influences, including some of Oldham's more obscure favorites, the 8-song EP is cohesive and feels like another Bonnie "Prince" Billy album. In fact, the one original on the album - the beautiful "I'm Loving the Street" - blends in so well with the rest of the songs that you start asking yourself who wrote it originally. That is the essence of what makes this album so great - Oldham takes these songs and makes them his own, adding the same mountain-man quiver to them as he does to his own. Only through Oldham's voice could Glenn Danzig sound like a sensitive introspective as he does on the "Am I Demon?" interpretation. Also, this further proves that Oldham has a genuine respect for R. Kelly (as he should). For a while he was doing a hilarious and not-at-all-ironic live version of "Ignition," which I expected to be on this album; however, he opts to do "The World's Greatest," which is an even better choice. Any white folk singer who can make you say to yourself, "You know, that R. Kelly may be a sexual deviant, but he sure can turn a phrase," is clearly doing something.

Key Tracks: "Am I Demon?," "The World's Greatest"

19. !!! - Myth Takes
The world's punniest dance-rock band wastes no time letting you know that they're going to set your house on fire, and that you are going to like it. Equipped with quite possibly the greatest title for a rock song ever - "Bend Over Beethoven" - and enough profanity to melt a priest's ears, Myth Takes is a party that's gonna get busted by the cops at any moment. While their previous effort, Louden Up Now, established the band's sense of humor and their love for groovy bass, Myth Takes tightens up !!!'s sound to a point that it could be legitimately played on a dancefloor without too many heads turning. "All My Heroes are Wierdos" finds singer Nic Offer dabbling in falsetto, which should be a relief to those found his voice a tad obnoxious on past works. In addition to featuring the best bass line of 2007, "Must Be the Moon" also has my favorite slice of pure filth in a while -- "She said love is love, but a f*** is what it is/And what's that?/She must have read my mind/Cause she looked into my eyes and she said 'A good time.'" I think that line pretty much sums up the album: it's so much fun that you'll probably have to shower and go to confession afterwards.

Key Tracks: "Must Be the Moon," "Bend Over Beethoven," "Break in Case of Anything"


18. Menomena - Friend and Foe
Certainly the best new band of the year, Menomena combine two of my favorite things: baritone sax and The Muppets. Like Battles with a soul or a three-piece Broken Social Scene, Menomena craft intense, creative, experimental songs which build off of three vocalists and powerful, driving rhythm section. The album's tone is the only thing I've ever heard which comes close to the icy, apocalyptic sound of TV on the Radio's Return to Cookie Mountain. However, that's not to say that this album is all doom and gloom. There's a sweetness to the songs that isn't common among their contemporaries, and it seems like they're genuinely having a lot of fun in the studio, adding laptop blips and whistling to the mix for extra melody. Supposedly, their writing approach consists of looping instrumentals until melodies come along, which would explain the chanting style of much of the album. With all three members singing and playing multiple instruments, the band plays off each other impeccably, allowing them to take their songs into new directions on a whim. With such a creative and unique breakthrough as this album is, I can only wonder what can come next from these guys.

Key Tracks: "Wet and Rusting," "Muscle n' Flo," "Air Raid"


17. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
I feel like if this album had come out a month ago, then I would easily have put it in my top 5. Unfortunately, I've had the time to listen to it over and over again since it came out in March. I'll start with the good things: The production values and recording space of Neon Bible allow for a larger, more dramatic sound than other stuff of theirs. Also, the first four tracks and a couple on the back end sound as good as pretty much anything off of Funeral. If this was anyone other than the band who put out Funeral, then this album would be a revelation.
Now for the bad: the lyrics on this album are terrible. There were the occasional missteps on Funeral, but those lyrics were about personal issues that Win Butler and the band were going through at the time, so they came off as sincere. Here, Butler tries to tackle issues which are too big for him. When I heard Funeral, my reaction wasn't, "Wow, I wonder what this guy thinks about the future of civilization;" it was, "Wow, that guy is leaving it all out there and everyone in the band is on the same page." Moving on to global issues takes away half of what makes the Arcade Fire so great: the absolute emotional catharsis through music. Instrumentally, this album is almost on par with Funeral, but it does lack the explosions of "Wake Up" or "Neighborhood #2." Live, the band doesn't seem as comfortable in the role of "prophets of doom," substituting unparalleled energy with fancy stage set-ups and media clips. That said, "Intervention" is still an amazing song and the only song without a heavy hand, "No Cars Go," is improved upon in its remake. By no means am I off of the Arcade Fire bandwagon, but I just feel like this album was more of a step back than most people thought at first.

Key Tracks: "Intervention," "Black Mirror," "Keep The Car Running," "My Body is a Cage"


16. The National - Boxer
The National seem to have survived the "Great New York Hype" label better than the others that came out in 2001. Six years later, the band is still doing exactly what it always did best: boozy, melancholic tunes dripping with baritone and ego. There's nothing as audaciously vain as Alligator's "I used to be carried in the arms of cheerleaders," from the breathtaking "Mr. November," but the stories are in still full form. Boxer is more immediately inviting than its predecessor, with the drums going at a consistently faster pace and Matt Berringer expanding his vocal range. He still sounds like a favorable mix of Paul Banks and Leonard Cohen, but he works on more harmonies than usual. As always, though, the real focus of this National album is on the lyrics. Every song, like "Hang on, Siobhan" from the Walkmen's Bows and Arrows, makes the listener feel as if he is stumbling out of a New York bar at closing time, either having just had his heart broken or looking for a new party. In "Apartment Story," Berringer pleads, "Can you carry my drink?/I've got everything else/I can tie my tie/All by myself," displaying his constant image of "sleazy guy at the cocktail party." Like Britt Daniel, Berringer seems utterly obsessed with being cool, but he's never too cool to take a jab at himself, as on "Green Gloves," when he says, "Cinderella through the room/I glide and swan cause/I’m the best slow dancer in the universe." If you can't afford to move to New York and become a handsome alcoholic, then just buy this album instead.

Key Tracks: "Fake Empire," "Mistaken for Strangers," "Apartment Story"

15-11 coming tomorrow!