And tell me doctor can you quantify?

My plan for this evening was to come home, grab a Second Cup Moccachino, have my favourite comfort dinner of grilled cheese sandwiches with ketchup and roasted vegetable soup, and then write a bitter blog post about how I’m totally suffering from the winter blues, which I completely blame on the inevitable end-of-semester workload that is killing me. I did the first three items, but my bitterness had subsided. Was it the caffeine or was it the grilled cheese I wonder? Or maybe it’s the fact that the Stonecutters episode of the Simpsons is on and currently making me happy. So what do I blog about now since I’m feeling less crabby?

It has been on my mind that I have yet to do a top 10 albums of 2007 list like some of my other fellow music geek blog buddies (here and here – I hope they’re not mad at me for calling them music geeks; I use that term with the utmost of respect since I proudly consider myself a music geek). And thankfully, iTunes makes reviewing what albums you bought in particular year super easy. No more racking of the old brain.

And now, without further adieu, here is Christielli’s top 10 albums of 2007. I’m surprised that it didn’t take me until 2010 to do this with the levels of procrastination I’ve been facing in my life these days.

10) The Shade of Poison Trees – Dashboard Confessional: Dashboard is my musical equivalent of a grilled cheese sandwich with ketchup, and this album makes me feel warm and fuzzy. There’s just something about the earnest emolicious-ness of Dashboard Confessional, and they’re one of my favourite sing-along bands.
Fave Song: Where There’s Gold…

9) The Reminder – Feist: 1234 was probably the most ubiquitous song of 2007 that pretty much anyone would like. I actually bonded with my period 2 class (who are 90% male) over this song. However, one song does not an album make, and the rest of the songs on this album are great too.
Fave song: I want to not say 1234 and say “I Feel it All” instead, but if I was stuck on a desert island with one Feist song, I’d have to go with 1234.

8) American Doll Posse – Tori Amos: Tori created and inhabited five personas for this album. Clyde seems to be my favourite, but I’d hang out with any of the Dolls given the chance. When I saw her play this year, she brought out Pip, who is the rocker, and Tori (of course). I just love things that are creatively different, and this album is and it works. I love the opener, Yo George, which is such a great eff you to everyone’s favourite George. I understand that Tori isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but this album pleased every Tori-phile I know.
Fave song: Roosterspur Bridge (Clyde)

7) Nevertheless – Christine Fellows: This is the first of two highly-anticipated albums from Winnipeg musicians that I love. I love that this album starts out with a beautiful instrumental song that actually sounds Christmasy and made it onto this year’s Christmas playlist. I saw Christine Fellows play live twice within a month of this album’s release, and her music is the kind that expands when it is live, but it’s really good on disc too.
Fave song: Nevertheless

6) The Con – Tegan & Sara: I listen to the title track of this album constantly. It gives me more energy than a highly caffeinated beverage. The song Call It Off makes me feel wistful. I always listen to Hop a Plane when I’m taking the train back to where I came from. I love this band, and this album is great.
Fave song: The Con

5) Ashtray Rock – The Joel Plaskett Emergency: Sometimes I fear the concept album because I figure it will be too convoluted for my simple tastes, but when it centres around something non-pretentious such as a love triangle, it works very well. Even though I was not in a band in high school, and did not have such drama in my young life, I can identify with a lot of the themes on this album, and they bring me back to the shenanigans of my youth quite fondly. And, this is such a fun party album. If you can see this dude live, go, go, go. He is one of the best live acts in Canada.
Fave Song: Face of the Earth

4) Hospital Music – Matthew Good: I started listening to this album before its release when you could stream it through Good’s website. When I started doing this, I said to myself “Christielli, be careful, you’re going to wear it out and then be sick of it by the time you buy it.” Well, I think it’s a testament to the album that I did not grow sick of it after repeated listens, and it did keep me good company on my Edmonton to Vancouver train trip.
Fave song: She’s in it for the Money

3) Stars – In Our Bedroom After the War: So many of my favourite artists came out with new stuff in 2007. Stars released this album early on iTunes 4 days after its completion, which lead to me becoming overstimulated by its brilliance. Stars had a tough act to follow after Set Yourself on Fire, but In Our Bedroom did it. I’m only sad that I didn’t catch them live this year.
Fave song: Window Bird

2) Ongiara - Great Lake Swimmers: This album is breathtakingly beautiful and introduced me to a great musical find. I spent a whole day searching record stores in Toronto looking for this album after reading a glowing review of it, only to discover that it wasn’t out yet. Thankfully, I was able to buy it at zunior.com and I fell in love. A great bonus was I saw the band perform at a downtown church, which is the perfect venue for their sweeping symphonic sound. (Go alliteration!)
Fave song: I Became Awke (My girl Sarah Harmer does backup.)

1) Reunion Tour – The Weakerthans: I’m pretty sure that most people who have even a passing familiarity with yours truly would not be surprised that this is my top album. I eagerly anticipated this album since the 2003 release of Reconstruction Site. I got to preview a bunch of the songs live in June when I saw the Weakerthans play live in Hamilton, and I could tell then that I would have warm fuzzy feelings for this record. If you are looking for a wonderfully lyrical, melodic album with songs about a myriad of topics such as curling, cats, medical oddities, bus drivers, and the like, this is it.
Fave song: Reunion Tour

Honourable Mentions:
Marriage - Attack in Black: Definitely the best driving in Vancouver CD of the year.
Armchair Apocrypha - Andrew Bird: Best mention of mitosis in an album of 2007.
Do You Trust Your Friends - Such an interesting remix of one of my favourite albums ever. I especially dig Final Fantasy's version of "Your Ex-Lover is Dead".

Did you notice that 8/10 of my fave albums are by Canadians? I just did! Woo-hoo for Canadian music!

2008 is off to a strong start album-wise, or at least if my expectations hold out. The new Hayden comes out tomorrow, and I’m quite excited for that. Then, there’s new Hawksley Workman on January 29th. I’m especially excited for the new Hawksley, because I’ve heard a few of the songs and they’re all brilliant.

As the song in the iPod commercial goes, music is my boyfriend. :)