Album of the year nominations

The first category in the ‘Best Of’ awards is for album of the year.

This year there’s been a lot of talk about the tumultuous state of the music industry and how record sales are rapidly declining due to file-sharing (sounds dirty if you call it illegal downloads) and the ability of bands being able to distribute their music through websites such as myspace. Record companies have recently tried to recuperate their losses by introduce a policy where they will only sign bands that agree to give them a share in their touring and merchandise profits. This could potentially screw over bands struggling to make a living and hopefully this desperate measure will backfire on them.

In retaliation big names like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails have shaken the music industry by splitting with their major labels and deciding to release their music in a pay as you see fit principle. Hopefully this distribution method will be the way of the future and the big record labels will face the music (pun intended) and realise that their blood sucking days of fucking over bands are numbered.

Thankfully despite all the doom and gloom in the music business there’s still been a lot of great music releases this year. Classic bands such as Bad Religion, Foo Fighters, Jimmy Eat World, Strung Out and Reel Big Fish have shown they’re still capable of kicking it 10 years later, while relative newcomers Bloc Party, Kings Of Leon and A Wilhelm Scream showed they’re more than one hit wonders with their releases.

Against Me! who were previously applauding for their independent releases ended up coping a lot of flak from fans by joining with a studio label on their ‘New Wave’ album, while The Smashing Pumpkins (well 2 of the original members anyway) made a come back with their album ‘Zeitgeist’.

My favorite band The Mad Caddies released their reggae/dixieland style album ‘Keep It Going’ while Thrice released the first two parts (Fire & Water) of a unique 4 part concept album based on the elements.

While local releases were rather scarce (come on Gyroscope, where’s your new album?), Powderfinger, Grinspoon and my new favorite Australian band Horsell Common showed that the Oz music scene is still alive.

Hopefully this rundown of my favorite albums of the year has given you a few ideas and to jog your memory I’ve also included a list of all 2007 releases I have on my ipod below. As people’s choice in music is often more diverse than mine (I love punk), tell me what you’ve been digging this year and I’ll add it to the list.

1. AFI: I heard a voice – Live from long beach
2. Against Me: New Wave
3. Anberlin: Lost Songs
4. Bad Religion: New maps of hell
5. Billy Talent: 666
6. Bloc Party: A weekend in the city
7. Dropkick Murphy’s: The meanest of times
8. Fall Out Boy: Infinity on high
9. Flatliners: The great awakening
10. Foo Fighters: Echoes, patience, silence and grace
11. Grinspoon: Alibies and other lies
12. Horsell Common: The rescue
13. Jimmy Eat World: Chase this light
14. Kings Of Leon: Because of the times
15. The Mad Caddies: Keep it going
16. MxPx: Secret Weapon
17. Nine Inch Nails: Year zero
18. NoFx: They’ve actually gotten worse live
19. Operator Please: Yes Yes Vindictive
20. Powderfinger: Dream days at the hotel existence
21. Queens Of The Stone Age: Era Vulgaris
22. The White Stripes: Icky thump
23. Radiohead: In Rainbows
24. Reel Big Fish: Monkeys for nothing and the chimps for free
25. The Smashing Pumpkins: Zeitgeist
26. Streetlight Manifesto: Somewhere in the between
27. Stung Out: Blackhawks over Los Angeles
28. Sum 41: Underclass hero
29. Thrice: Alchemy index – Fire & Water
30. A Wilhelm Scream: Career Suicide
31. Yellowcard: Paper walls