Overlooked albums: Shooting Spires

I'm going to start a little mini-series with albums that didn't receive nearly enough attention this past year. The first selection is Shooting Spires' self-titled debut. Shooting Spires is BJ Warshaw of the ready-to-explode Brooklyn band Parts & Labor. There were lots of cryptic, noisy, and just plain weird bands that made big names for themselves this year like Health and Clipd Beaks, and most notably, Animal Collective. Shooting Spires shares a lot of the same terrain as those bands, but trades some of the weirdness in for anthemic melodies. The noise is all still there, mainly in the electronic elements, but for those of us who are still suckers for pop songs, it's catchy enough to warrant repeat listenings. Shooting Spires is an engrossing debut, and one of the better albums of 2007.