BEST OF 2007 - The Best of the Rest G-Z

by New Noise

All those great 2007 albums that didn't make the final 20, from G to Z

"One of about three albums this year which is even remotely any good at all. It's not downloading that's killing the music industry, it's shit bands"

When we invited our writers to nominate their albums of the year, they came back with more than 140 names. Undeterred, we asked them to vote for their top five. Even then, more than 80 albums received at least one vote. Here, in alphabetical order and complete with both positive and negative comments from the writers themselves, are all of those that didn't make the top 20. On this page: artists from G-.

Grinderman | Grinderman (New Noise review)



Simply an extension of The Bad Seeds – but in the best possible way. Cave’s voice growling away on ‘No Pussy Blues’ marks a return to form for the band, albeit under a new persona.
Charlotte Otter

In a genre saturated by wimpy boys in tight pants this is the unmistakable sound of MEN and goddam does it rock in the most raw and organic of ways. 'No Pussy Blues' has to be a perfect song - the unbridled sexual frustration of a rabid Nick Cave underpinned by that sinister bassline builds into an explosive orgy of screeching feedback and more than anything it sounds thrillingly real. It's the sound of a group of hairy veterans letting loose in the studio and it's as much fun for us as it no doubt was for them. For those who never 'got' Nick Cave's work, this dark, earthy and incredibly sexy record just might be your ticket.
Jenny Perkin
Gruff Rhys | Candylion (New Noise review)

A charming little record, full of great melodies and fun. And still the second best record Gruff Rhys has released this year.
Daniel Whelan
Holy Fuck | LP (New Noise review)

Psychotropic Casio mayhem. Rainbow-coloured, aurally-administered mind Soma. Just chuffing brilliant.
Jim Merrett
Interpol | Our Love To Admire (New Noise review)
Manchester Orchestra | I'm Like a Virgin Losing A Child (New Noise review)
Maps | We Can Create (New Noise review)



One of about three albums this year which is even remotely any good at all. It's not downloading that's killing the music industry, it's shit bands.
Tom Mendelsohn
Marnie Stern | In Advance Of The Broken Arm

It's not simply her finger-picking guitar prowess - think Eddie Van Halen meets Lightning Bolt's Brian Gibson - which makes 'In Advance...' so great (multiplied by the fact it's a GURL! with a GEETAR!, which as ever still gets the indie boys all predictably over-excited). There's so much more: how everything combines, the furious whirring buzz of her voice with its deliriously child-like sing-song edge, the chaotic tumbling drum flurries courtesy of her pal Zach Hill from Hella, and the whole incessant, gleeful blur of sound she and her guitar deliver. Exhausting, but in the most exhilarating way possible.
Pete Flynn
Minus The Bear | Planet Of Ice (New Noise review)
Modest Mouse | We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank (New Noise review)

An absolutely bonkers piece of music; extremely brave and therefore produces as many hits as it does misses, it's great to hear a band - and especially former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr - not afraid to take risks when experimenting with their sound.
Daniel Whelan
Nine Inch Nails | Year Zero (New Noise review)
Oxbow | The Narcotic Story
Patrick Cleandenim | Baby Comes Home (New Noise review)



The comment at the bottom of the full review sums up this album perfectly.
Jon Fletcher
Patrick Watson | Close To Paradise (New Noise review)

An album that thinks it's better than it is, Watson's stand out track of the year was in fact his collaboration with the Cinematic Orchestra on 'Build A Home'. This is still, a very listenable record, but you can't help but feel that it's had it's peaks levelled and its troughs filled in.
Jon Fletcher
Piano Magic | Part Monster
Pierce The Veil | A Flair For The Dramatic (New Noise review)
Polytechnic | Down Til Dawn (New Noise review)



Bafflingly popular record; an uninspiring mix of indie music's greatest hits 1979-1993.
Daniel Whelan

An uplifting mix of indie music's greatest hits 1979-1993. Just read the comments...
Jon Fletcher
Psychic TV | Hell Is Invisible, Heaven Is Her/e (New Noise review)
Queens Of The Stone Age | Era Vulgaris (New Noise review)

Sub-standard offering that hid behind some dirty riffs and a fuzz pedal.
Jim Merrett
Richard Hawley | Lady's Bridge (New Noise review)

Pap.
Jon Fletcher

Everyone likes a little Hawaiian guitar now and again, and as each new release sees Hawley becoming more and more cheerful, they become a little more beautiful.
Charlotte Otter
Shocking Pinks | Shocking Pinks (New Noise review)

One-man My Bloody Valentine does his bit to make up for DFA signing Prinzhorn Dance School. Succeeds.
Jim Merrett
Sloan | Never Hear The End Of It

After a couple of just above average records (‘Pretty Togther’ and ‘Action Pact’) and the release of a career spanning best-of, it seemed that these veteran Canadian power-poppers might have been coming close to calling it a day. Instead they returned with this 30-track near masterpiece. ‘Never Hear The End Of It’ is full of Technicolor melodies, gloriously addictive hooks, stunning harmonies and choruses so utterly grand you have to sit down just to take ‘em in. It is an album that encompasses everything from 60s beat pop to 70s soft-pop, sophisticated adult orientated art-pop, the odd punk snarl, new wave bounciness and alt-rock earnestness and melds it all together in one beautifully cohesive whole.
Nadeem Ali
Soulsavers | It's Not How Far You Fall, It's The Way You Land
Super Furry Animals | Hey Venus! (New Noise review)



There are many reasons why SFA number amongst the greatest assets in British music today. This album isn’t one of them.
Jim Merrett

SFA have always produced great tracks - their 'Greatest Hits' is probably one of the best out there. But their albums have mostly been brave, if rather patchy affairs. For every 'Northern Lites' or 'Juxtaposed With U', there's a 'Wherever I Lay My Phone' or 'Receptacle For The Respectable'. 'Hey Venus!' was their first album since 'Radiator' to score a hit with nearly every track; shame about the dreadful cover art though.
Daniel Whelan
The Chariot | The Fiancee (New Noise review)
The Cribs | Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever (New Noise review)

Great single but this album doesn't live up to the hype. So they're antiestablishment and one of them goes out with Kate Nash? This is mostly indie by numbers with a long way to go to live up to the chaos of their live shows.
Lisa Holmes
The Dillinger Escape Plan | Ire Works (New Noise review)

The Dillinger Escape Plan had already proven how ferocious they could be. And with 04s ‘Miss Machine’ they showed they could excel with soft and experimental edges too. Now all that was left was to combine the two and leave heavy music’s collective jaw on the floor for good. And hell did they deliver. This isn’t just the sort of album that you can sit with for days- letting the intense noise, juddering rock, razor-sharp hooks and gentle, mathy lullabies wash into your brain- ‘Ire Works’ is the record that this band have been promising for a decade. One of the best albums of the year without a goddamn doubt.
Simon Diplock
The Fall Of Troy | Manipulator (New Noise review)
The Go! Team | Proof Of Youth (New Noise review)
More a rehash of Go! Team MK1 than the radical departure we were promised, but when it’s this good, fuck it. The Chuck D cameo is awesome.
Jim Merrett
The Good, The Bad & The Queen (New Noise review)



Why culling the old should be mandatory, though on this evidence, culling the young is beginning to sound like a great plan.
Tom Mendelsohn

One can only assume this record's January release date prevented it from coming higher in the NN chart; it's practically 2006 for God's sake. Another blow for those of us who think Damon Albarn's a bit of tosser - there seems to be very little he can't turn his hand to and still be successful.
Daniel Whelan
The Narrator | All The To The Wall (New Noise review)
The Narrator’s endearing twenty-something art-rock is filled with all the conflicting and confusing emotions being in your twenties can sometimes, or oftentimes, entail. ’All That To The Wall’ can be melancholic, goofy, witty, stupid and chaotic, sometimes it can be all those things in just one song.
Nadeem Ali
The Ponys | Turn The Lights On (New Noise review)
The Shins | Wincing The Night Away (New Noise review)
UNKLE | War Stories (New Noise review)
Various | Ballads Of The Book (New Noise review)

This record should not work; the Arts Council funding Scottish poets and novelists and Scottish bands to make an album together reeks of worthiness, and if the films of Sean Penn have taught us anything it's that worthiness often equates to dullness. Thankfully head Balladeer Roddy Womble guided the project towards brilliance - unmistakably Scottish, and all the better for it.
Daniel Whelan
William Fitzsimmons | Goodnight

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