Big in 2007? The ragged round-up

Time to draw the Big in 2007? short series to a close, I think. There’s so much potentially good new music going to hit us this year and I could go on and on, but since I’ll be featuring decent new music regularly anyway, it all doesn’t have to be under a 2007 tips banner.

Before I leave this then, there are a few artists who released albums in 2006 who I think are deserving of greater things this coming year. Maybe not enough people caught onto them at the time. Maybe the albums were released too close to year end to make a sufficient impact. Whatever, I’ll be hoping to see the names of Jeremy Warmsley, The Early Years and Absentee in lights more this year. We’ll see. Maybe some high profile support slots or having their songs on adverts will do it for them.

Of course, there have been others doing the 2007 predictions thing, often at greater length and possibly with greater authority. Drowned in Sound’s two-part feature for sure. Collective have begun to do it. And a few other bloggers have been doing it too.

And there’s the annual BBC critics poll that they do every year. As I guessed on New Year’s Day, Mika was there – right at the top. But due to their rules, The Good The Bad and the Queen was excluded (already well known individually) and Jamie T didn’t make the cut (has he had a top 20 single? If he has, that would have excluded him). Some of the other artists I hadn’t heard of (Sadie Ama, Ghosts), or have little interest in (The Twang, Enter Shikara). However I was surprised to see The Rumble Strips there at number 10. Maybe it will be their year after all.

Of course, as well as all of these new acts, there are also albums to look forward to from more established artists. Along with many others, I’m particularly looking forward to new stuff from The Arcade Fire, Air, LCD Soundsystem and Gruff Rhys (I’ve just got this one, but not had much of a chance to listen properly). I may also be inclined to listen to the upcoming releases from The Shins, Bloc Party and Idlewild. It’s going to be a good year.

Finally, here’s a couple of tracks from a two of the artists mentioned above. From Jeremy Warmsley’s recent gorgeously-packaged Dirty Blue Jeans 7 inch, is the b-side Photograph of a Hospital (based on a competition-winning short story submitted to Jeremy), and another b-side, from The Early Years. I’m re-posting this one, simply because this sprawling Krautrock instrumental is one of the best things they’ve done to date.

Download: Jeremy Warmsley – Photograph of a Hospital
Download: The Early Years – I Heard Voices