“Suddenly it hit me – I got paid this Friday last, and so I rifled through my pockets for some change.
But all I found was a packet of broken cigarettes and a sinking sense of shame.”

-Frank Turner – “The Real Damage”

Just a reminder of where we are in the countdown:

10. M.I.A. – “Kala”
9. Modest Mouse – “We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank”

Picking the eight best album of 2007 was a bit of a challenge for me. I had seven that were definitely on the list leaving me with about fifteen* to fit into the other three slots. I picked nine and ten rather flippantly leaving me with a conundrum for number eight. This decision pretty much came down to a three sided coin flip and the fact that I thought there had to be at least one more British act in the top ten – it has been a bad year for British music this year, but not that bad. So, introducing my eighth best record of the year – Frank Turner’s “Sleep is for the Week”.

Turner is a 25 year-old Eton educated singer-songwriter based out of London. He came to some prominence as the lead singer of Million Dead before that band broke up in 2005. “Sleep is for the Week” is his solo long player. I’ve always been a sucker for a good singer-songwriter and Turner is a great example. He’s one of a new generation of “folk” artists like Joseph Arthur, Bright Eyes and Sufjan Stevens and he holds his own in that esteemed crowd. I think that this record is better than Bright Eyes’ 2007 release “Cassadaga”. His lyrics are humorous and heartrending, powerless and fulfilling. Like these from “A Decent Cup of Tea”:

“I see her in the nightclubs, I see her in the bars,
At rooftop after-parties, or crammed into friends’ cars,
And we talk about the weather, and how she drowns her pain in drink,
And I nod and never ever dare to tell her what I think.”

Some of Turner’s songs may be a bit mystifying to a non-British audience which may be why “Sleep is for the Week” is available as an import only in the U.S. or from eMusic. It’s worth buying if you can get your hands on it, though.

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* The ones that didn’t quite make the list:

  • Bright Eyes -”Cassadaga” (Listen to “Four Winds” here)
  • Joe Henry – “Civilians” (Listen to tracks here)
  • Lucinda Williams – “West” (Listen to “Where Is My Love? here)
  • Bishop Allen – “The Broken String (Listen to tracks here)
  • Ryan Adams – “Easy Tiger” (Listen to “Pearls on a String” here)
  • The White Stripes – “Icky Thump” (Listen to “You Don’t Know What Love Is” here)
  • Alison Krauss & Robert Plant – “Raising Sand” (Listen to “Killing the Blues” here)
  • Radiohead – “In Rainbows” (Listen to “Down is the New Up” here)
  • Gogol Bordello – “Super Taranta” (Listen to “Ultimate” here)
  • The National – “Boxer” (Listen to “Squalor Victoria” here)
  • Of Montreal – “Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?”
  • Over the Rhine – “The Trumpet Child” (Listen to “If A Song Could Be President” here)

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