Mix Tape
Total Running Time: 65:05
I didn’t really approach this mixtape idea from the perspective of a 2007 year’s end “best of” mix. Many of the songs I chose are not even the best songs of their respective albums, but perhaps they were the best selections for this particular mix. Generally, they all fit into a loose thematic framework beyond the 2007 connection.
2007. It’s been a hazy, chaotic year. A year still in the grips of post-9/11 hangover, worn-out and tired. A year spending its early afternoon in an all-day breakfast diner with messy hair, hoping that the headache will be gone before nightfall. We’ve seen a rising tide of cynicism over foreign wars in a media that previously was objective but supportive. Frustrations over inaction on environmental concerns; stalling from the powers that the world most desperately needs on board –- the U.S. mostly, but our man Stephen is playing right along, refusing to set any serious goals or make any bold steps even while it’s becoming widely acknowledged that Canada is per capita one of the worst polluters in the industrialized world. We’ve seen a massive rise in sabre-rattling smack talk from our southern neighbours, while Bush refuses to exit his second term gracefully. How many times have you heard the words “nuclear bomb” over the past year, despite not a single one being dropped anywhere in the world in decades?
2007 is a year of disillusionment, stress, fear, and disappointment, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. There are flashes of hope. Energy conservation seems to be trendy and has the potential to reshape the marketplace. The political situation in the USA is up in the air, but is feeling optimistic, and a shift even slightly to the left will relegate Mr. Harper into near-irrelevance (especially since Australia already tossed Howard) and hopefully prompt my fellow citizens to make a choice for positivism and progress, rather than status quo, short-term war-making bullshit. A guy can only hope, I suppose.
Likewise, I hope the music of 2007 I’ve picked accurately reflects the world of 2007. I think it does; the blues, the bad omens, the self-doubt, the resignation, the nostalgia for better times, the anger, but also the understanding, the hope, and the drive to improve.
“The sun is out, it melts the snow that fell yesterday
Makes you wonder why it bothered”
- The Past is a Grotesque Animal, Of Montreal
- by Jeff Geady