‘Tis the season. With just about every 2007 release already in the marketplace, best-of lists have begun to roll in. Who doesn’t love these things?
True to their organized form, The 9513 has their Top Ten Country Albums of 2007 list up already, when I haven’t even started mine yet. Way to make me feel lazy, guys!
They pick some good albums, including some that I haven’t heard. Trisha Yearwood can be found at #1:
1. Heaven, Heartache, And The Power Of Love, Trisha Yearwood
With Heaven, Heartache and the Power of Love, Mrs. Garth Brooks reasserted herself as a country powerhouse, delivering a string of captivating vocal performances over a core of wonderfully crafted, musically diverse songs. While most of her female contemporaries tried to find their niche market (and thus, their niche musical approach) in 2007, Yearwood’s 10th studio album shattered expectations by successfully drawing from many of the genre’s root influences. Western, Blues, Americana, this album brought them all together under the big-tent of country music, and the result was a rich, textured album that will be remembered and listened to for years to come. — Jim Malec
After checking out their consensus list, be sure to read the individual lists of each staff writer. Matt C’s list is a wonder, given that every album on it that I’ve heard is a contender for my year-end list. Now I have to listen to those I haven’t heard to make sure I’m not missing something great!
Also out now is the Rolling Stone annual list of the year’s best songs. There are three country entries, with Miranda Lambert the highest at #28:
28 “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”
Miranda Lambert
The title cut from the best country album of the year, this single found Lambert pushing the role of the rowdy Nashville lass to new extremes. Over bar-band stomp, Lambert narrates a rage-fueled encounter with her ex’s new girl, and both her big chorus and slice-of-life story are long on raucous energy and entertainment value.
Also acknowledged are tracks by Lucinda Williams and Robert Plant & Alison Krauss. Essentially, just tracks from the country albums that you’d expect Rolling Stone to have a clue about.
Considering “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” followed directly on the heels of Carrie’s overwhelming success with “Before He Cheats”… which esentially covered the same ground, and did it better, I don’t see how they could rank this in their Top 100 and not rank the Carrie track at all.
This song was my least favorite track on Miranda’s record, because it seemed like a pale attempt on the theme., a caricature from a singer who knows she’s sung better songs And neither of those “I’m angry my man done me wrong songs” mentioned here beat “Mrs. Leroy Brown” by Loretta Lynn.
“Before He Cheats” was on the Rolling Stone list last year, along with “The Long Way Around” by Dixie Chicks.
I see that Rolling Stone doesn’t care about chart success when rating their songs. If Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (I can’t even recall if it cracked the Top 40 or not) is the highest country song listed, then songs like Moments by Emerson Drive, Find Out Who Your Friends Are by Tracy Lawrence, and a slew of other songs that stations are still playing extensively months after they fell off the chart must be considered garbage by them. Get a clue Rolling Stone! Don’t include country songs if you aren’t going to look at ALL songs for the year.
Thanks for the shout out, Kevin. It took us awhile to compile our list, but we finally got around to it. Rolling Stone is pretty worthless when it comes to country music, eh?
I dunno, Brady. Rolling Stone isn’t intended to be a country magazine, it’s more of an old guard rock mag in terms of reviews (the covers have been mostly about hot young things to sell copies for a while now.) What tends to show up on their radar is stuff with that type of credibility. Their best album list last year had Johnny Cash, Dixie Chicks, Todd Snider and Willie Nelson, all of whom were on mine as well (though Willie was there with a different album), but the rest of the things on my list were way off of their radar, I’m sure.
Honestly, with the state of rock music post-grunge, their lists have become a hodgepodge of genres. I always find them an interesting read, and usually like the country music that they single out, but I wouldn’t use them as a source for country music. Perhaps rock fans who like to dabble in country do, though.
But RS has also become a slave to every fad in hip-hop and pop – far from it’s anti-establishment, “classic” rock origins. I just think they consider most mainstream Country to be not hip enough for the room. That list is riddled with meaningless hip-hop tracks justified because they have a decent beat and a couple of good rhymes here and there.
I agree with you, Pete, in a sense, but I think the dilemma Rolling Stone has is that the anti-establishment classic rock that they championed has become the establishment. I don’t know what the solution is, but for a while now, Rolling Stone has essentially been a solid music magazine without a unifying vision. I still think they write some of the best music reviews out there, but they don’t come together to make a larger statement like they did in the magazine’s heyday.
I don’t know. At some point RS decided to abandon a specific editorial point of view to embrace larger pop culture. I think their music reporting is fine, and some of their reviewers are good, but I see all these 3 and 3 1/2 star reviews that seem to always straddle the fence. When we’re told everything is middle of the road it’s no wonder consumers can’t tell what to buy (or steal). Take a stand and dis a record or champion a record every once in a while.
I honestly don’t read RS except when I stumble across a review, so I’ll have to take your word for it, Kevin. I don’t agree with a few of their reviews of Gary Allan’s albums and it seems they’re approaching them from the wrong context, but I realize that’s just a few out of many.
That wasn’t my favorite Miranda song on her album, but I do appreciate that she’s getting recognized. I think a lot of rock fans, especially females, would really enjoy Miranda’s music if they gave it a chance. “Guilty in Here” and “Famous in a Small Town” were my two favorites off of Miranda’s album.