The new year’s upon us. Not to sound like the grizzled grandpa screaming “hey, kids, get off my lawn!” in a voice that sounds way too much like Ad Rock in recent years, but the past year, for my ears, was utter crap. I couldn’t have possibly spewed more vitriol against J.U.S.T.I.C.E., Simian Monkey Roller Disco, Super P and Ed Rollins or whoever the hell’s heading up Ed Banger (still much love for Feadz though), and any and all of the new wave of uber-caucasian bass-washed-in-treble-to-make-it-less-offensive “new rave”. Actually that’s a lie, I did have an entire “anti-Justice” post ready to go, but an inter-office email from Trixie basically lay down the law (and the sad fact that I was losing friends, readers, and killing kittens). It’s been, as such, an incredibly negative year for Shaun@ResonatorMag.com, not the least of which has culminated in our decision to finally flat-out shun any RIAA-sanctioned music.

In that tidal wave of young (bad) blood, it’s way past time to explore some of the really, really good, nay-the best that 2007 had to offer.

Eye-patching the use of Neon Bible, it was intensely difficult, in 2007, to find albums that did anything more than make me long for someone to produce something that was, well, to belabor my three most over-used adjective: intelligent, emotional and real. Never in my life would I have expected the album I played most often, and the album to end up closest to my heart by being closest to my lobes (both ear and brain), would come from an Atlanta band-my locale, and the very-same scene that had me running and hiding to listen to nothing but old Knife for the early half of the year.

One Hand Loves The Other’s self-titled debut, released in 2007 on Atlanta stalwart Stickfigure Records, came to me with very little hype around the same time as the final Harry Potter book arrived in my hands (with, um, just a *tad* more hype). The two aren’t intricately linked in my brain, per se, but it’s fitting that the emotional underpinning of (go ahead and laugh) one of the best books of the year for me is one of the best albums of the year.

Not to go on endlessly about a band we’ve covered here before, but to simply summarize: One Hand Loves The Other is an Atlanta-based fusion of classical instrumentation, electronic composition and pop sensibility. That’s the “on paper” read. The magic that’s created, though, from vocalist Lou’s impossibly angelic voice and the band’s musical prowess (cello, flute, keys, laptop) is impossible to pin down in words. In a year full of really, really stupid electronic music, One Hand Loves The Other have created a modern masterpiece, an album that’s timely and yet will still sound entirely fresh in a decade.

The band’s set at Wordsmiths Books for the store’s “futuretense” evening of entertainment showed them, strangely, in an ideal environment: given the high ceilings and mis-matched, quirky interior of the bookstore, One Hand Loves The Other soared and reverberated, causing everyone in attendance to hold their breath.

There’s nothing, though, that can be written about OHLtO that can’t be better expressed in song:

One Hand Loves The Other: Rubbernecker Nightingale

One of the highlights, by far, of their self-titled album, it takes off slowly before becoming an open-handed plea for understanding: “I/Don’t/Know/How/To/Be/What/You/Need”.

At the tail-end of 07, OHLtO released the expected and ubiquitous “Remix EP”. The disc features a couple of takes on OHLtO songs that don’t really do anything for me, re-inventing them by making them sound more like the Friday Night Dance Party stuff I’ve fought so hard to avoid. The majority of One Hand Loves The Remix, though, is really GOOD-”good” as in “well done”, “good” as “inventive”, and, wonderfully enough, “good” as in “places Lou’s vocals even more front-and-center than the originals”. Not surprisingly enough, the highlights are remixes of “Rubbernecker”:

One Hand Loves The Other: Rubbernecker Nightingale (Sta remix)

Sta, who has seen play roundabout these parts in the form of those beloved Hacks remix posts, takes a hand to “Rubbernecker” that, at first glance, sounds syncopated like a Prince jam. Quickly enough, though, it becomes evident that Sta’s playing with the listener, drawing them in to think this is a goofy take before stripping away any extraneous instrumentation and leaving a basic drum machine…only to blow the whole damn thing up in a flash of light. This is euphoria at its best.

One Hand Loves The Other: Rubbernecker Nightingale (Music For People remix)

Music For People present what is by far the most innovative take on the original “Rubbernecker”. A bit crunchy, jagged around the edges, something akin to what would result from Trent Reznor making a track for Morr Music.

Again: words can do OHLtO absolutely no justice (no pun intended). Their sound is pop confection crafted in dance music heaven, with repeatable mantras in the form of hummable hooks and drum patterns that stick in your mind for days. This is a band that truly has it all: the ability to compose, construct and produce a flawless, spotless album that’s both artsy and fun, and then back it up by blowing the “they couldn’t be this good live” quota out of the water.

There’s talk of the sophomore album coming out this year. While I’m still living in the debut, I’ll take more from these kids anytime.

Thanks, One Hand Loves the Other, for making one of the best albums of 2007, being one of the best live acts of 2007, and for making Atlanta a hell of a lot better.