Listening Room Forum: 2007

Blond Redhead - 23

Since nobody else has jumped in yet, I figured I’d get the ball rolling because, honestly? This album is pure perfection from start to finish. I mean, maybe "Silently" didn't totally hit the spot for me personally, but even then, it still works. Easily one of my top picks of the year. I really thought they wouldn't be able to top "Misery is a Butterfly," but man, was I wrong. Turns out, there's more greatness in store.
It kicks off with that brilliant track "23," and honestly, what more could you ask for? Hard to pick favorites when everything is this good, but if I had to... "23," "Spring and Summer by Fall," and "Publisher" are definitely riding high for me.

Overall, 🙏

Personally, I'm only really feeling track 23—the rest of them? Honestly, they’re just pretty little screensavers for my eyes and nothing more...

Hey, honestly? This just totally clicks for me. 🙂

of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?

Genre: psych, antidepressants/drugs, Kevin Barnes, life up north, divorce, mental breakdowns, love, Phil Spector, fuzz, electrical engineering, long post-rock tracks, miracles and omens, vive la pop music.

Man, this is easily the best album from of Montreal yet. Happy tunes paired with totally wrecked lyrics. It’s such a raw record (not surprising since Barnes has been stripping down on stage lately), and honestly feels painfully intimate at times. Between him having a daughter, running away from home, the rumors about cheating, the actual divorce, and that wild hedonistic phase that led to a full-on breakdown followed by depression, pills, and finally reconciling with his family—it’s all right there. He weaves it all together perfectly with these witty little touches and some of the most upbeat music you could imagine (which, let's be real, is actually danceable). For me, this is definitely the album of the year. Period.

Jason Richardson5 said:

Blond Redhead - 23

All in all 🙏

I'm already on my second listen. Where are the guitars? 😬

I feel bad for dropping this band after Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons (which is a beautiful record), but after hearing this new stuff twice, I think I'm ready to give them another shot. The sound has shifted, but it's still that classic Blond Redhead sad vibe.

Nicholas King62 said:antelope - reflector

The album is up on Discord, and honestly, it’s got that polished bass sound you’d expect from a Discord release. The tracks themselves are short and straightforward, built out of repetitive phrases that:

a) thanks to some really solid drumming, can actually sound like they were pulled straight out of a post-rock history book—you know, that era before everything just devolved into the standard Mogwai clones,

I gave it a listen. It’s definitely catchy. Hypnotic, even. These guys know how to play. The guitar tone is dry, almost skeletal, while the bass keeps things at a steady mid-tempo. The drummer hits with a bit of an anemic touch, and the vocalist has a slightly nasal quality. You could easily mistake them for a band that stepped right out of a 1979 Rough Trade shop, recorded DIY by Ian MacKaye. It feels old-school Discord. Fans of Calvin and K Records would probably dig this. It’s great background music for just chilling out in the living room.

👍

Calvin is an absolute icon. He’s gonna kill it. His new album finally dropped, but I haven't had a chance to dive in yet.

Hey, I actually gave your suggestion a listen... even though Marishka feels like pretty familiar ground, so it wasn't exactly a massive blind risk on my part..

I'm listening to 'Thinking of you' right now and honestly, I'm really feeling it. 😉

I have a feeling this track might actually provide a better soundtrack for those late-night "meditations" than those life-and-death ballads did—those always felt a little too pretentious and heavy for me. 😳

👍

This thread is great—it’s honestly a shame it’s so small given how many killer albums we've had this year. It really has been a solid year 👋

I was actually planning to post something specific, but then I realized the album I wanted hasn't even dropped yet 😳, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see what the label decides to do. In the meantime, I'll just throw in something we've all probably already argued about, but whatever
:

Battles : Mirrored, Warp, 2007



Basically math, post, prog, those Smurf-like vocals, rhythm, plinking sounds, hypnosis

Battles is basically a supergroup—they're just that good. They really tear into their instruments, and you can hear it; they play around with everything, whether it's computers, keys, guitar, or drums. This album feels like it has enough sounds for five different records. They managed to cram it all into 11 weird, chaotic, mathy, nerdy, yet danceable and headbang-worthy tracks. You kind of have to listen to it repeatedly because it’s like an onion—new layers just keep popping up.
The first single was Atlas, which is easily the wildest track on the album—maybe even the best. Definitely a hit for when you want to blast music and just zone out.
They've got a video out for Tonto now, too.
Personally, my favorite is TIJ.
This feels like music from the future—album of the year, maybe even more. Apparently, they're incredible live, and gentlepuma20 says that's pretty much spot on.

God help us all if this is what her music sounds like...

gentlepuma20 said:Now they've gone and made a music video for Tonto too.

Haha, it's the exact same tired gimmick they used for Yellow by Coldplay. 🙂

gentlepuma20 said:: mathy, post-prog vibes, those Smurf-like vocals, rhythm, lots of plinking, and just pure hypnosis

Arthur Barnes said:God help our future if this is what she's making now

Way back in 1991 😳

Long live the rhythm 🙂

So, listen up!!! - myth takes
because this is the new pills'n'thrills'n'bellyaches
even though I guess the creators definitely didn't intend for it to be the next 😳

Jason Chavez33 dropped a link to the mobile version 🙂

Nicholas Perez33 said:So, listen up!!! - myth takes
it's basically the new pills'n'thrills'n'bellyaches
even if the creators definitely didn't intend for it to be some new 😳

Also, I forgot to mention that small snippet of a concert I caught—just about 3 or 4 songs—sounded exactly like the second record, "the name of this band is talking heads." But without the actual songs...😬

Fu Manchu ~ WE must Obey [2007.]



After a massive gap of several years, Fu Manchu has finally dropped a new record. It’s top-tier stoner rock that follows the path set by "California Crossing"... this time clocking in at just over 36 minutes, and there isn't a single second of filler. You get that signature sound here... solid riffs... great fuzz... basically, a sweet album for tapping your foot at the office.

Douglas Taylor4, can we get some more trashy picks too? 😈

Just let me know if you only want the good stuff—I can stop if so. If not, here's one record that was pretty essential back in 2007, and honestly, still kind of is:

Qui : Love's Miracle, Ipecac, 2007



Genre: David Yow, noise rock, and whatever else—no bass, pretty dull

So, David Yow has a new band! Or... maybe not really. I think Qui were already pretty mediocre before this (I checked out some of their MySpace stuff), and they haven't improved much with him. The group just has a guitarist and a drummer—who also sings sometimes—but they’re missing a bassist entirely. It’s a 9-track album that leans into noise rock but has those hippie vibes sprinkled in. The songs feel repetitive and way too drawn out—they might start off decent, but then they just drag on for five minutes until everyone loses interest. It all feels a bit hollow and aimless to me. I guess "Freeze" is okay, and the covers are fine (Echoes and Willie The Pimp), but covers don't really count.

Qui is playing in New York City this December, and I'm hoping Yow goes wild on stage so the live energy might actually make up for the album.

Josh Ritter—specifically regarding *The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter*... it’s such a fascinating piece of work to revisit, isn't it? One can't help but get lost in his songwriting style—it's quite deliberate, almost academic in its precision, yet remains deeply soulful... there is a certain weight to his lyricism that reminds me of the greats—perhaps even touching upon the storytelling traditions found in Bob Dylan's work or the grit of Woody Guthrie... though Ritter brings his own unique, polished perspective to the table. It really makes you wonder about the evolution of modern folk-pop... how it bridges that gap between traditional Americana and something much more contemporary. Just a thought... anyway, back to the music.



I suppose we should get started... if there's any interest in such things—though I often wonder if anyone truly listens anymore... anyway... let's begin.Folk, pop, gospel... you have Ivana Orleansk and Florence Nightingale all tucked away inside the belly of a whale—plus General George Custer on those pink pills, and the looming shadow of WWIII... just so many other beautifully nebulous things to ponder...

Legend—and by that, I mean AllMusic—claims that Ritter actually started composing songs after hearing Bob Dylan's Girl from the North Country. And honestly, looking at his catalog, it isn't even a bad comparison... Ritter’s work is constantly peppered with motifs drawn from American history and pop culture, often layering sharp critiques of violence through the lens of—well, let's call them—fictionalized emotional connections. Much like his obvious influences, Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie, the narrative tone remains the absolute focal point of everything he does...

We simply occupied our hours with crosswords—a rather quiet, methodical way to let the time slip by...
She actually had the presence of mind to bring it indoors... which, honestly, is more than I can say for most people these days—not that I'm judging, per se, but you know how it goes...
"What five letters spell apocalypse?" she asked me...
I sort of drifted over here just to mention WWIII...

While we are essentially talking about folk songs here—though, if you think about it, that's a bit of an oversimplification...—the actual arrangements are actually much closer to that beautiful, shimmering guitar pop style (Empty Hearts..., Right Moves... ...or even just some unpretentious rock (To the Dogs or WhoeverWhether people want to call him an American icon, a folk singer, a rock 'n' roll legend—or whatever else they feel like labeling him as—it doesn't much matter to me... personally, I find this stuff to be significantly better than anything Bob Dylan has put out in the last thirty years. 😳

Take a look at this too: The Animal Years... such an interesting group, really—they always seemed to have this specific energy that just caught you off guard—and looking back at their discography now, there’s a certain depth there that wasn't immediately obvious during their initial run... quite a fascinating trajectory, actually. (V2, 2006)

Let us meet within the belly of the whale and have ourselves some fun. Thank you. Goodbye... 🙂

Alright, here are my two heavy hitters from this year's breakout list:

First up, Hannah Fury ~ Through the Gash



Listening to this album feels like stepping into a dense forest in the Pacific Northwest right after a heavy rainstorm—that thick, damp scent fills your lungs while you listen to the tales of a girl whose heart is constantly teetering on the edge of being swallowed by the dark.
It leads you down a path where you'll likely lose your footing trying to decode all those obsessive mysteries 😳. These tracks feel like they’re writing themselves, exploring demons, fixations, and the raw question of who we actually are underneath it all 🙂))

The second one is Polly Jean Harvey ~ White Chalk



Man, this record is a total masterclass in sorrow; it's designed to mess with your head 😁. It drags you through desolate landscapes, winding backroads, and sheer uncertainty, treating melancholy as an inevitable final destination. But strangely enough, by the end, it becomes that one friend you need when you're feeling isolated—a weird sort of blessing 😍 and just indescribably beautiful.

gentlepuma20 said:Alright, "Freeze" is solid, and the covers are decent too ("Echoes" and "Willie The Pimp"), but covers don't really count.

Come on, how can you say "Willie The Pimp" is good when "Echoes" is just a disaster?
Truth is, they drag things out way too much on this album. They lost that specific vibe that made the Lizards feel so magical back in the day... everything feels kind of hollow now, even if there are some genuinely great moments...

And honestly, the concert was booked mostly because of Radiohead, who (let me quote what I wrote on the forums a few weeks ago) used to be basically a religious experience for us back in the nineties...