Since the end of 2007, a year-end tradition of mine has been to make a mix CD of songs I’ve listened to often and enjoyed throughout the year. My friend Jeff inspired me — I got his 2006 mix as a gift and decided the next year I would start doing the same. It’s addictive, and something that can sometimes shape my music listening on a yearly basis. For the sake of archival, and for my own enjoyment, I thought I’d share the 2007-10 mixes here, with some commentary (of course), before Songs of 2011 gets added to the collection. Here’s the playlist from inaugural year 2007 (which you can also listen to on Spotify, if that’s your thing):
1. “Boy with a Coin” — Iron & Wine
One guiding principle of my making mix CDs is that the songs should have a meaningful flow between them — as one track ends and the next begins, the transition is significant (either in its disruptiveness or its smoothness). This puts a lot of pressure on the opener and closer. I liked this opening, and the song has held up well, though Iron & Wine’s most recent album, Kiss Each Other Clean, was a bit of a disappointment.
2. “How to Destroy a Relationship” — The Servant
The Servant’s self-titled album became one of my favorites my senior year of high school, and my first year at Carleton I started going deeper into their catalog. This is the titular track from their ’06 album, the last before the band split (ironic?).
3. “Side with the Seeds” — Wilco
This album (Sky Blue Sky) was sort of a disappointment, and the song probably only made this mix because I really wanted to like Wilco. In 2007 I also didn’t listen to enough music, new or otherwise, to justify a playlist this long, so a few songs then made the cut that likely wouldn’t now.
4. “Siren” — Kenna
I’m not too ashamed to admit that I discovered Kenna from Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink, which I read in the summer of ’07.
5. “Sweet Virginia” — Gomez
In probably late ’06/early ’07 I was beginning a Gomez kick that would last for a few years, at least until around the release of their (mediocre) 2009 album, A New Tide. I reviewed their latest, the awful Whatever’s On Your Mind, for Playground Misnomer, in June this year.
6. “Mad World” — Tears for Fears
The original is so much better than the Gary Jules version made popular by Donnie Darko.
7. “Harder Better Faster Stronger” — Daft Punk
Another song inspired by an actual event, here an a cappella concert at Carleton — The Knights also have a recorded version on Max and Francesco Two Brothers.
8. “The Magic Position” — Patrick Wolf
Damn, The Knights did this one too. Like I said, I was not actively seeking out new music in 2007 the way I started to in subsequent years.
9. “Minnesoter” — The Dandy Warhols
My roommate James was really into The Dandy Warhols. I never got much past Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia, but I dug this song and the fact that it was (ostensibly) about Minnesota, having lived there for a year at the time.
10. “Colours” — Hot Chip
I discovered Hot Chip via Jeff (see above) in 2006 shortly before going to Lollapalooza, but didn’t really get into them until the following year. I heard a remix of this song on Carleton’s KRLX radio station, downloaded the album, and realized I liked the original much better.
11. “Getting Better” — The Beatles
Classic. As time went on I used fewer and fewer old songs (Songs of 2010 only had two songs not from 2010, I believe) — I attribute that to ’07 and ’08 being more musically formative years before starting to curate my tastes more.
12. “Enzymes” — Ian Ball
Ian is one of the three singers of Gomez. His 2007 solo album, Who Goes There, was pretty good.
13. “Phantom Limb” — The Shins
Like the above Wilco track, more a song from 2007 than a song of 2007…
14. “Rough Gem” — Islands
This is a really catchy one Lisa got me into. I find myself wishing I listen to Islands more than I actually do.
15. “In the Waiting Line” — Zero 7
I don’t really remember how this one made the list. I do like it, but unlike a lot of the others, I don’t have a specific memory of listening to it. I think Lisa got me into it, but again, not completely sure.
16. “Op. 90, D.899 – No. 3 in G flat: Andante” — Franz Schubert
A pretty clear outlier stylistically, I picked this song because it was what I was practicing in piano lessons at the end of my freshman year in 2007. Op. 90, #1 is pretty good too, but this one is very beautiful — flowing, dynamic, and surprisingly easy to learn once you get the left-hand arpeggiating down.
So, in all, Songs of 2007 was a little messy, a little unorganized, but with some promising parts to it. Of all the installments so far, it feels the least cohesive. But then, the rest wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for working through this year. Songs of 2008 coming soon — stick around.
