2007: numbers 4-2, or I'm kind of sick of doing this by now

So yeah, after a rather grueling trek out to our storage facility in Maryland (though one on which I finally got a copy of Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, over 7 years after the fact and for a price only $12 less than a used Gamecube goes for these days) I really don't feel like doing three posts on the three runners up for my top album of 2007. With that said, here they are all together with really short descriptions (except for M.I.A., cause that shit's HOT):


The Field
From Here We Go Sublime
Swedish (this is getting out of hand!) minimalist techno artist Axel Willner released, under his moniker The Field, what was easily my favorite purely electronic album of the year, a production so finely crafted that it seems both incredibly sparse and indescribably lush at the same time. Just listen to album opener "On the Ice" and tell me you don't wholeheartedly agree.


Tracey Thorn
Out of the Woods
I admittedly had a tough time deciding which was better, this or the above, and while I think that The Field's album is technically more accomplished, I just listened to this too often to not give it a leg up. Thorn, formerly of the duo Everything But the Girl (with husband Ben Watt), has released an album that recalls the best of EBtG, from its mixture of dance, electronic and folk elements to Thorn's gorgeous vocals. Plus there's a song about a gay boy being beat up at school (the beautiful A-Z), and what's not to love about that.


M.I.A.
Kala
I was somewhat nervous when M.I.A. announced her decision to not work with Diplo on her second album, as it seemed he was responsible for much of what made her debut great (though in retrospect that doesn't seem to be the case, as this rather passionate Pitchfork interview attests to). Fortunately my anxieties were unfounded, as her second album, produced primarily by London-based DJ Switch, tops her first in every conceivable way. A near perfect combination of Eastern and Western beats, sampling everything from The Clash and New Order to Bollywood and Tamil film soundtracks, this album would certainly have been my number 1 had a certain band from Oxford kept with their 2008 release plans (more on that tomorrow - duh!). One final note - in Diplo's defense, while he is almost entirely absent from this record, he did produce "Paper Planes", hands down the strongest track on the album and quite possibly the best song released this year. If you haven't heard it, download that shit now. NOW.