The 20 Best Albums of 2007 - Klaxons: "Myths of the Near Future"

11.  NME, Q and Mojo have written so much about the "Nu-Rave" movement (whatever the hell that means) that the inevitable wave of hype caused many people stateside to feel burned out on the genre before they heard any of the music. Surely this affected the reception of the anticipated debut album of Klaxons since it turned out (surprise!) not to be the transcendental marriage of dance and rock music the British press promised it would be.

Instead, Myths of the Near Future is simply a collection of tight pop hooks, dance-inspired rhythms and precision production (courtesy of Simian Mobile Disco's James Ford). There's  certainly nothing wrong with that and it would be foolish of any music fan to punish any band that failed to live up to unrealistic expectations they never placed on themselves in the first place. I, for one, prefer to focus on what I can observe with my own two ears. And my ears tell me Klaxons have a gift for creating pop music with an energy and pace that never seems to let up. We can sit here and criticize it for not being "revolutionary" all we want, or we can simply shut the hell up and give in to the fact that it is damn fun to listen to.