Top 100 Albums of '07: 7 & 8

7. The Antlers In the Attic of the Universe; For the first two minutes of In the Attic of the Universe we are forced to endure a world devoid of Peter Silberman's voice. It is the worst two minutes of the album. And by worst I mean it reminds me of a world where I don't know who The Antlers are and don't know about Peter's voice and it's a world I do not ever want to live in again. Such is the power behind Silberman's Buckley-esque voice, and it is in fine display on the most complete album he has released as The Antlers thus far. The lyrics here are haunting and when they are delivered in this style it's easy to find yourself lost in this album. Of course the voice isn't the whole story, there is some fantastic acoustic guitar bits here and some wonderful piano parts, but for my money I would take an album full of Peter singing in this style with no music to back him, it's just that good.
The Antlers - "On the Roof"
The Antlers - "Stair to the Attic"

8. Deerhunter Cryptograms & Fluorescent Grey EP; It may be cheating to include the album and the EP together here, but I honestly can't separate them in my mind and I think that should be okay for all the list critics out there. Taken as a whole Cryptograms and Fluorescent Grey are a grand display of psychadelic noise rock taken to a level never seen before thanks to Bradford Cox' introspective lyrics. The first half of Crytptograms is particuarly dark, with long ambient sections, and lots of anger built into the melodies, but when Bradford sings "Suddenly I woke up..." as the opening line on "Spring Hall Convert" you know you are in for something drastically different from the band. It's at this moment that the band turns over to some of its pop influences and lets melody and song writing take over. This is leads us to Fluorescent Grey, a collection of four songs recorded soon after the completion of Cryptograms. Once again the band puts melody and pop in front of it's noisy origins, expanding the band's musical capabilities even further. It's amazing to watch the development that takes place from the opening of Cryptograms with the title track to "Wash Off" as it shows a band that progresses not only album from album, but also from track to track.
Deerhunter - "Cryptograms"
Deerhunter - "Fluorescent Grey"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Top Albums #9 - 10
Top Albums #11 - 15
Top Albums #16 - 20
Top Albums #21 - 30
Top Albums #31 - 40
Top Albums #41 - 50
Top Albums #51 - 60
Top Albums #61 - 70
Top Albums #71 - 80
Top Albums #81 - 90
Top Albums #91 - 100