Album of the Year

I am not going to get into a potential conflict of interest by trying the qualify the first N&UR release in the context of a "Best of 2007" list. However, my strong feelings towards God's Boat are pretty much a given.

I am currently reading Stranded, a collection of essays from 1979 with music writers discussing their "desert island album." Albums can change and affect your life in many different ways. Thinking about those that have affected mine - R.E.M.'s Out of Time makes me think about childhood; Blur's Think Tank takes me back to a crazy, life-altering year of college; and, of course, I've written countless times about what Byrds records mean to me. God's Boat by the Passionistas, however, does not "take me back" - instead it inspired, and still does inspire, me to action. Something in the energy and excitement of the album, I became determined to make a pursue goals and passions in my life, namely starting this record company.

I have a special connection with this album that I'm not sure if anyone shares. In fact, I find my reactions to this album different from that of anyone else's. I read a lot in reviews about a so-called lack of musicianship, alongside comparisons to bands I've probably never heard of. When I first wrote about it, I made comparisons to the Sex Pistols and the Pixies - not so much because they sound alike, but because I imagined the excitement I felt was similar to what one must have felt hearing those bands for the first time. You know, the kind of music that can change your life.

I don't believe there's a lack of musicianship in the Passionistas. I've said before that there is a self-imposed lack of discipline, or what they might describe as freeing yourself for having to do something "the right away." That's part of the excitement - the Passionistas' goal is not to "master" their instruments (like you would a machine), but to discover new things every time they interact with them. One need only listen to "Gravity" or any other of John Mayer's awful songs to realize that a so-called mastery of the guitar does not make your music sexy or exciting. There's a freedom in the way the Passionistas play - not trying to dissect and understand all the wonders of the world, but instead allowing yourself to still be amazed and fascinated by things.

That is why their music spoke to me. A year and a half ago, I'd been a fan of Girl Talk's Night Ripper, for I thought he was making the soundtrack for our present day. There was a darkness to the record, but his use of pop samples was not to be critical. Once I heard God's Boat, Night Ripper didn't seem to matter. While Girl Talk needed only obvious sample upon sample to get his point across, the Passionistas accomplished the same thesis, while creating something entirely new.

There's a fantastic collage of things influencing God's Boat, even if the sound they ultimately create is very much rock and roll. In it, I hear the excitement of what it must feel like to play music. In listening to it, I am transported back to when hearing music was an active and challenging experience, not just something to blog about. The experience is that of walking out into the world and being fascinated, disappointed, and excited all at once. T

Most importantly it is a record that inspires you to do things- that might mean starting your own band, or maybe something entirely different. For me, it was New and Used Records.
***Thanks to Johnny Ray Huston for including God's Boat on his best of 2007 list.
***Some of my favorite albums from 2007 include... MIA's Kala; Kanye West's Graduation; the Good, the Bad and the Queen's self-titled debut; Peter Bjorn and John's Writer's Block; and Arctic Monkeys' Favourite Worst Nightmare.