James' Best Songs Of 2007

Since my recent blog revival (and subsequent return to music-blog stardom), I've spent a lot of time trolling through bulky CD binders (remember those?), scouring hard drives (both internal and external) and raiding my friend's personal collections, all in search of old (and, in some cases, long forgotten) James-mixes. I've found some interesting stuff---much of which I will be posting in the near-future---but the real treat has been going back and re-listening to mix CDs I made years ago, even if some of them have aged better than others.

Another plus: I get to create brand new iPod-ready artwork for all my pre-2008 mixes. Because, really, who wants to stare at those damned beamed quarter notes?

Today I'm posting what is probably my personal favourite of the James' Best Songs of year-end mixes, James Best Songs of 2007. Why's it so great? Well, even though I'm not a believer in "bad" years when it comes to music (name me any year post-1964 and I'll name you ten great record from it), I do think that, for whatever reason, some years wind up being better than others (subjectively speaking, of course). Perhaps it's luck, or maybe some kind of karmic convergence, or possibly a large-scale record industry conspiracy... who knows?

Either way, it's hard to deny that 2007 ruled hard.

Hell, I can still remember the child-like euphoria I felt waking up at 4am on a Wednesday morning to download and listen to In Rainbows (which also meant having to skip my 9:30am class). I can't recall ever being so excited for a record (or as blown away by how said record was distributed, with only ten days notice, no less) and, as groggy and sleep-deprived as I was, I was not disappointed. The quality of the album also made me feel a lot better about dropping £40 on the deluxe discbox edition (which, of course, I chose to pre-order before listening to the record).

Kudos, Radiohead, kudos.

If that wasn't enough, "All My Friends" and "Paper Planes" were released, easily two of the greatest songs of the decade. Add to that great records from The National (whom I first heard in 2007 and who have since become mega-famous), Spoon, Arcade Fire, Iron & Wine and Liars, and you've got a year in music which is tough to beat.

That doesn't mean, of course, that 2008, 2009, and 2010 weren't also, musically-speaking, great years (not to mention great year-end mixes); they absolutely were.

But 2007? Forget about it.

Here's the track-list:

01. LCD Soundsystem - "All My Friends" [from Sound of Silver]
02. Arcade Fire - "Keep the Car Running" [from Neon Bible]
03. Joanna Newsom - "Colleen" [from Joanna Newsom and the Ys Street Band]
04. Battles - "Atlas" [from Mirrored]
05. Spoon - "The Ghost of You Lingers" [from Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga]
06. Kanye West - "Can't Tell Me Nothing" [from Graduation]
07. Feist - "I Feel It All" [from The Reminder]
08. Sunset Rubdown - "The Taming of the Hands That Came back to Life" [from Random Spirit Lover]
09. Justice - "D.A.N.C.E." [from †]
10. Black Lips - "Veni Vidi Vicious" [from Good Bad Not Evil]
11. Burial - "Archangel" [from Burial]
12. The National - "Mistaken for Strangers" [from Boxer]
13. Animal Collective - "Peacebone" [from Strawberry Jam]
14. M.I.A. - "Paper Planes" [from Kala]
15. Liars - "Sailing to Byzantium" [from Liars]
16. Iron & Wine - "Boy with a Coin" [from The Shepherd's Dog]
17. Radiohead - "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi" [from In Rainbows]

And here's the download link:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=F4K1ZMTY

Enjoy (and share).