polaroids of androids

2007 - A Mixtape

22% Sydney
9% Wolf Parade
22% New Zealand
0% Modular
0% The Panics
100% tasty

DOWNLOAD (zip file / 121mb)

1. Dead Farmers - Violence
Is there any better way to open an album of the best songs from 2007 than with the feedback driven noise of Sydney's Dead Farmers? From the Violence 7" single.

2. Radiohead - 15 Step
Krunk music. The opening track and defining moment of Radiohead's In Rainbows album.

3. Cut Off Your Hands - Closed Eyes
A head splitting fury of punk harmony. From their Blue On Blue EP. Surely 2008 is the year when the NZ four piece take over the whole world.

4. The Shins - Split Needles
The best non-Shins Shins song ever. The strong beat is a complete contrast to their normal style. Taken from Wincing The Night Away.

5. Batrider - Trouble
No other song completely sums up this awesome New Zealand band quite Trouble, the closing number to their brilliant Tara record. It moves quickly from a bouncing track to a whirling tornado of angst before exploding into a fantastic mess.

6. Hand Me My Jetpack - Fragement (Consider Revising)
The stripped back intro makes way for a fantastic shifting track. Instantly addictive. Loved the first time it hit our ears and we still loved it when it finally made it's way onto a physical release.

7. The Ripping Dylans - Elephant Ink
This track is similar to the feeling of a dirty fuck in a disused alleyway in the industrial part of town. Taken from On The Fritz.

8. Caribou - Melody Day
There is a moment during this song when everything stops - the rumbling flower-power melody, the spinning of the world and the listener's heart. Everything then starts up again with a triumphant burst of life and the track moves from 'good' to 'fucking yeah!!' territory. Taken from Andorra.

9. Sunset Rubdown - The Taming Of The Hands That Came Back To Life
Lyrically this is Spencer Krug at his finest. The continual rhythmic shifting and bouncing nature of this track is fantastic. From the wonderful Random Spirit Lover album.

10. Andrew Bird - Heretic
Filed under 'music we almost completely missed'.

11. Talons - Squid
A fine example as to why Talons are our favourite Sydney band. From their Ducats EP.

12. Tegan and Sara - The Con
The Canadian sisters have an uncanny ability to always create one song on each of their album's that completely knocks me over.

13. Shocking Pinks - Victims
A garage punk rock start that melts into a heartfelt acoustic number in just two minutes. Taken from the self-titled DFA Records release.

14. Die! Die! Die! - Promises, Promises
It was almost impossible to pick just one track from this band's amazing album. In the end we went for the title track - a stabbing assault of punk rock that builds, shifts and turns a million or so times.

15. Surf City - Headin' Inside
Sloppy sing-a-long grunge party music. New Zealand's Surf City are one of those bands that you email every week to ask them to play at a party that you haven't organised yet. Taken from EP.

16. Battles - Tonto (Edit)
This song glues togehter all of the reasons Battles are such an awesome band and why Mirrored was such an unbelievably good album. The track opens with two seperate keyboard out of time beats that melt into a single path before exploding into a powerful guitar riff.

17. Bluejuice - Vitroil
One of the most instantly catchy tunes of the year.

18. Black Kids - I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You
Arguably the most over-blogged, over-hyped song of 2007 but also still a fantastically well constructed lo-fi tune.

19. Liars - Plaster Casts Of Everything
At times this is a full throttle, harmonic Led Zepplin cover. At other times it's a umbrella laced with daggers spinning out of control. Taken from their self-titled album.

20. Menomena - My My
This probably isn't the best song from Menomena's Friend and Foe album but is the finest summary of why the album was so brilliant. It's passionate, catchy and backed by a theatrical, multi-layered rhythm. Detailed almost beyond belief yet unbelievably simple and accessible.

21. Handsome Furs - What We Had
Dan Boeckner is a genius. Taken from Plague Park.

22. Dan Deacon - The Crystal Cat
Piercing electronic build-up, undistinguable vocals and effects dumped on top of more effects. Taken from Spiderman Of The Rings.

23. LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends
Song of the year. Get fucked if you think otherwise. Taken from Sound Of Silver.

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Suprisingly tracks from the Holy Fuck, Les Savy Fav and Bit By Bats records didn't make the final cut even though we scored all of them fairly high when he reviewed them. It didn't seem to do either of them justice to pick one single track and include it. It was also extremely hard to pick out a track from the Die! Die! Die!, Battles and Menomena albums - most probably an indication of our complete these releases are.

Others bands that were cut in the final round - Arcade Fire, Jens Lekman, Actor/Model, Justice, Pnau, Richard In Your Mind, Soft Tigers, Cuthbert & The Nightwalkers, The White Stripes, !!!, Lucy & The Pheromones, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, No Age, Black Lips, Feist, Spider Vomit and Interpol. The more we think about it - the more certain we are that we probably could have made this a double disc without dipping too much on the quality. It turns out that 2007 was a pretty damn good year for music.

The total playtime is over the standard 80 minutes for a CD-R so if you are planning to burn this onto a disc you should investigate the 90 minute burning options or cut off the two or so songs you like the least.

This album is dedicated to the memory of Marcel Marceau. Marcel is best known for his three main life achievements - inventing the moonwalk, curing polio and once beating Ice Cube in a freestyle rap battle. Yo be missed.