What January would be complete without me doing a top 20 albums list that I will probably totally disagree with in six months time? Well looking at previous posts on here, last January apparently. But let's forget about that.

For me 2007 was overall an OK year for music. There were a lot of good albums but not many great ones. And I noticed that most of the stuff I was listening to were new records by bands that had already had a few under their belts, or from spin-offs of longer running bands. Not much in the way of new debuts that impressed me. Of course, I don't hear even 1% of the music that actually comes out in a year so I'm sure there were new bands that I would have liked if I'd been aware of them. But there wasn't much that came to my attention. Anyway here's the top 20 -

20. The New Pornographers - Challengers
19. Radiohead - In Rainbows
18. Beirut - The Flying Cup Club
17. Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
16. Electrelane - No Shouts, No Calls
15. Holy Fuck - Holy Fuck
14. Deerhoof - Friend Opportunity
13. Dan Deacon - Spiderman of the Rings
12. The Shins - Wincing The Night Away
11. Panda Bear - Person Pitch
10. Mouthful of Bees - The End
9. The Besnard Lakes - Are The Dark Horse
8. Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha
7. Frog Eyes - Tears of the Valedictorian
6. The Apples in Stereo - New Magnetic Wonder
5. Battles - Mirrored
4. Akron/Family - Love Is Simple
3. Miracle Fortress - Five Roses
2. John Maus - Love Is Real
1. Sunset Rubdown - Random Spirit Lover

Sorry that's quite a pedestrian list isn't it. I'll try and find an album of glitchpsych throatsingers for next year.

My favourite EP was Alice Practice by Crystal Castles, the best single was Foundations by Kate Nash, and the C86 Award for Awesome Compilation goes to David Shrigley's Worried Noodles.

Couldn't really pick a film of the year, as I've not seen much and what I have seen has been mostly mediocre. I've kind of fallen by the wayside with movies over the last couple of years, not seen anything like the amount I used to. Even at home, let alone in the cinema. I'm kind of hoping that some of the releases coming up this year will reinvigorate my interest and get me back down to the local magic lantern show with my obligatory bag of outrageously overpriced M&Ms. Just a cursory glance at the list of some of the stuff coming out soonish certainly piques my interest (There Will Be Blood, No Country For Old Men, Be Kind Rewind, Where The Wild Things Are, Cloverfield, Valkyrie). Even the big dumb action movie sequels in 2008 like Batman, Hellboy, Indiana Jones, Trek and co look more promising than 2007's bland efforts.

Book of the year? I'm even more behind in the literary world than I am the cinematic one. I think my favourite book was Kalpa Imperial by Angélica Gorodischer but I'm pretty sure it actually came out a couple of years ago. And it's a translation anyway, the actual book was published back in the 80s. So uhhhh never mind.

Best thing I read on the internet was this.

Best TV was of course The Wire. Duh.

Oh and according to last.fm the twenty bands I actually listened to the most during 2007 were -

20. Félix Lajkó / Lightning Bolt
18. Feu Thérèse / Akron/Family
17. Joanna Newsom
16. The Arcade Fire
15. Swan Lake
14. Battles
13. Miracle Fortress
12. Grizzly Bear
11. The Magnetic Fields
10. Holy Shit
9. Frog Eyes
8. Pavement
7. Animal Collective
6. Vampire Weekend
5. Andrew Bird
4. Destroyer
3. Oneida
2. Sunset Rubdown
1. John Maus

So now you know.

As for the real world... ehhh I might just leave it to my slightly emo summary in the last post. Overall I guess it wasn't that bad a year, for me anyway. Some really cool bits (like going to ATP - twice! - and the Netherlands) mixed in with some fairly shitty bits and a whole lot of unremarkable mediocre bits. I'm left with the feeling of another year going by and nothing to show for it - money-wise, relationship-wise, creativity-wise - other than being another year older. Le sigh. But I remain hopeful that things will pick up this year, change is in store which is a good thing given my general lameness in getting stuff done off my own bat. We'll see.