Mixtape #26: Best Songs of 2007

Every Wednesday until December, Web in Front will be offering up digital mixtapes of our favorite rock songs of the decade (including rock ‘n roll, rock-pop, indie-rock, post-rock, etc… you get the idea). This is done both in an effort to look back on the past ten years of music as the first decade of a new century winds down, and also to satisfy the insatiable need that all music obsessives have burning within them to make lists and mixes–we simply cannot help ourselves.

We’re getting down to the wire as the eighth in our series of Best Songs of the Decade mixtapes brings us back to 2007, the year in which Radiohead attempted to make even their album pricing forward-thinking and unique (something they seem to have stopped worrying about when it comes to the actual music however, pleasant as In Rainbows may be), while several prominent ’00s artists released high-profile follow-ups: the Born to Run gigantism of Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible, the swirling melancholia of the National’s Boxer, and the bizarre (even for them) crisscrossing genre overlaps of the White Stripes’ Icky Thump.

2007 was the also the year that found Rilo Kiley filtering Fleetwood Mac through a prism of indie guitarwork; PJ Harvey seemed to morph from insane to quietly, beautifully insane; Daniel Snaith switched aka’s from Manitoba to Caribou while his music became even more exquisite; Mark Lanegan continued his hired-gun status by adding to the the spaghetti western cineramas of Soulsavers; Animal Collective’s Noah Lennox (aka Panda Bear) made an album far better than anything his day job has yet to accomplish; and Feist recorded the annoyingly ubiquitous yet somehow always-listenable iPod commercial theme (and album track, for those three or four of you who own it on disc), “1 2 3 4.”

Please note, this is our list of favorite tunes from 2007, meaning that we’re in highly subjective territory.  If you see a favorite song missing, please remember to stay calm.  It’s still only a list.  Tracklisting and song info after the jump.

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1.  “Fake Empire” – The National (Boxer)

2.  “Keep the Car Running” – Arcade Fire (Neon Bible)

3.  “The Underdog” – Spoon (Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga)

4.  “Effect and Cause” – The White Stripes (Icky Thump)

5.  “1 2 3 4” – Feist (The Reminder)

6.  “What’s a Girl to Do?” – Bat for Lashes (Fur and Gold)

7.  “23” – Blonde Redhead (23)

8.  “Melody Day” – Caribou (Andorra)

9.  “Reckoner” – Radiohead (In Rainbows)

10.  “Cataracts” – Andrew Bird (Armchair Apocrypha)

11.  “When Under Ether” – PJ Harvey (White Chalk)

12.  “Phantom Limb” – The Shins (Wincing the Night Away)

13.  “Lazy Eye” – Silversun Pickups (Carnavas)*

14.  “North American Scum” – LCD Soundsystem (Sound of Silver)

15.  “The Moneymaker” – Rilo Kiley (Under the Blacklight)

16.  “Revival” – Soulsavers featuring Mark Lanegan (It’s Not How Far You Fall, It’s the Way You Land)

17.  “Pagan Angel and a Borrowed Car” – Iron & Wine (The Shepherd’s Dog)

18.  “Fortune Teller” – Robert Plant and Allison Krauss (Raising Sand)

19.  “Is There a Ghost?” – Band of Horses (Cease to Begin)

20.  “Depth Charge Ethel” – Grinderman (Grinderman)

21.  “Patty Lee” – Les Savy Fav (Let’s Stay Friends)

22.  “Until It Kicks” – Okkervil River (The Stage Names)

23.  “You’re a Wolf” – Sea Wolf (Leaves in the River)

24.  “Neck Escaper” – No Age (Weirdo Rippers)

25.  “Bros” – Panda Bear (Person Pitch)

* While the Silversun Pickups’ Caranavas was released in 2006, the song “Lazy Eye” was not released as a single until 2007, hence its inclusion in this list.

November 11, 2009 | Filed Under Best of the Decade, Exclusive Features, Featured Media, Mixtapes 

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