Just In It For The Music: A sweet year in music

Traditionally, now is the time that most rock critics lock themselves in their rooms with… Traditionally, now is the time that most rock critics lock themselves in their rooms with only their record collections, laptops and a week’s worth of snack food in order to pare down every album they heard this year into their own Best Albums of the Year list, ignoring such socially accepted norms as showering, talking to others or feeling the glow of daylight.

At least that’s what I did. Last year, that is.

Call me a wuss, call me a quitter, or just call me the only kid at Pitt who doesn’t have a computer, but the bottom line is that my computer died and took with it all my songs, so my ability to reevaluate all the music that came out this year was reduced to nothing. Basically, I don’t have a Best Of list. Is this a cop out? Yes. I hope you’ll forgive me.

That said, I’ve compiled a list of a different sort, and it’s more my style – mainly because it contains the word “sweet.” So, here I present to you: The Top Five Sweetest Things to Happen in Music in 2007:

5. Rage Against the Machine Reunites: After seven years apart, with Zach de la Rocha (the singer with the big hair) constantly about to release a solo album but never actually doing so, and the rest of the band playing in Audioslave, Rage finally came together to play at the Coachella music festival this summer. And it couldn’t have happened sooner because, let’s be honest, no one really liked Audioslave. Reunited Rage followed its first major reunion show with a string of other festival appearances this summer, including dates with the almost-as-sweet and also newly reunited Wu Tang Clan.

The band has plans to continue with a bit of touring, and although there are no current prospects for a new album, it was a breath of fresh air in the music world to see that Rage, easily one of the most influential and outspoken, let alone kick-ass bands of the past two decades, could return and reclaim its place as arguably the top political band out there.

Add to the mix that, upon returning to the stage this summer, de la Rocha publicly chastised Fox News and compared the current Bush administration to Nazi war criminals, and you’ve got some reassurance that rock ‘n’ roll still can be ballsy. Thank God.

4. Kanye West, Jay-Z, Others Save Rap from Utter Destruction: It should come as no surprise that rap just ain’t what it used to be. From the idiocy that is Hurricane Chris to Soulja Boy’s questionable ability to speak English, what was often popular in hip-hop this year was certainly not, for lack of a better term, good. At all. Luckily, not everything was lost. In fact, some things got stronger.

Kanye’s album, Graduation, helped put intelligent and innovative hip-hop back on the mainstream map with the muscle of his lead single, “Stronger,” a tune that is almost too hip for its own good. The beat is ripped from electro-freaks Daft Punk and the track contains lyrical references to Prince, OJ and Kate Moss. Try not to like it. Just try. It’s impossible.

Elsewhere in the neighborhood, Jay-Z wrote an entire hot album based on an advanced screening of the flick “American Gangster” (talk about inspiration!), Nas released the boldly titled Hip Hop is Dead and artists like Aesop Rock and K-OS released underground masterpieces. Though there was a lot of crap to wade through, these diamonds in the rough made it all worth it.

3. James Blunt Effectively Drops Off the Face of the Earth: Ah, Mr. Blunt. Remember him? Just a few years ago, he was a superstar here in the good ol’ USA, selling more than 2 million copies of his album Back to Bedlam. You know, the one with that song “You’re Beautiful,” the one that effectively made listeners both go mad and die a little inside each time it was played. Well, his follow-up record sales reached – get this – 6 percent of his first. Looks like Mr. Blunt got smoked. Good riddance and goodbye.

2. The National Releases the Best Album of the Year: I know, I know. I said I wasn’t making an album of the year list, but I’m allowing myself a pick for the top – The National’s Boxer.

Imagine you just got your heart broken. You can’t sit still so you leave your house at 3 a.m. and hop in your car, then drive all night with the windows down singing or crying or doing whatever you do when your heart is broken, and as the sun comes up, you realize that you’ve reached the ocean, so you park and watch the sun rise over the water. It’s that beautiful. Just less cheesy and with more guitars.

1. New Radiohead Album! And It’s Free!: We’ve all heard about it – those dudes in Radiohead actually put out their new album, called In Rainbows, as a download from their website for which you can actually choose how much you pay, an option, of course, being nothing. At first this led many to say “OK, computer, you must have a virus because this can’t be real.” But upon further inspection, it was very real and caused a hell of a stir in the music world.

Not only is the album stellar, but the band effectively spit in the face of the big, bad record industry by cutting it out completely. Without any promotion, singles or videos, the only ones to (possibly) profit from the album are the band members themselves, proving that, in the fight against CDs that cost $18.99, there are more options than iTunes or illegal downloading.

So there it is, the Top Five Sweetest Things to Happen in Music in 2007. If your favorite musical moment wasn’t included, I’m sorry. Sweetness is all in the eye – or ear, as it were – of the beholder.