PART III (#25-#1)

OMG.

2007 has been the greatest year of new music in my lifetime. When I began writing this, I had over 140 albums to whittle down into some sort of cohesive, OCD-styled best-of list. I chose 75 because that is where the cutoff appears to be (the albums I absolutely love vs. the albums that were just okay). There were so many disgustingly good albums this year, it makes me want to puke with joy and convulse with happiness. I love music, and I love each of these albums.

You should, too:

	025	Okkervil River The Stage Names [Jagjaguwar/Aug 7]
	Artsy Austin band’s fourth full-length is rife with angular hooks and intellectual wordplay, brimming with a cool nonchalance that slays its surroundings with droll wit. High point: Unless It’s Kicks

	024	Boat Let’s Drag Our Feet [Magic Marker/Jul 10]
	Seattle lo-fi rockers’ second full-length is a breezy, anticlimatic ride through the midwestern plains and northwestern forests and small towns along the way that effortlessly combines (and updates) the influences of the past 15 years into a refreshing, original album. High point: The Whistle Test

	023	Dinosaur Jr. Beyond [Fat Possum/May 1]
	Reunited vetaran stoner rockers’ eigth studio album (and first in ten years) is a sludgefest of guitar solos fronted by J. Mascis’ typically nasal vocals that still manages to sound completely new and different. High point: Lightning Bulb

	022	Voxtrot Voxtrot [Playloudrecordings/May 22]
	The long awaited full-length debut by these neo-Spoon, Austin up-and-comers delivers on the promises hinted at by their multitude of EPs and singles while continuing to experiment with a more piano-soaked, chamber pop sound. High point: Kid Gloves

	021	Modest Mouse We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank [Epic/Mar 20]
	Brilliant Pixies heirs’ fifth proper full-length reverts slightly back to the rugged, abrasive quality of their earlier albums while retaining the poppy hooks of their recent past to form yet another unbridled indie rock masterpiece. High point: Parting of the Sensory

	020	Film School Hideout [Beggars Banquet/Sep 11]
	A droning dream of moody neo-shoegaze that explodes and implodes in a speedball of ketamine and doom, this San Franciscan band’s third record infinitely loops and encircles its own ambitions and fears. High point: Sick Hipster Nursed by Suicide Girl

	019	Moros Eros Jealous Me Was Killed By Curiosity [Victory/Oct 16]
	Georgian Les Savy Fav disciples offer up second album of brash, confrontational melodies and vigorous song structures that refuse to lay down or even shut the hell up while they dance in circles and vandalize their enemies. High point: Chokes

	018	New Young Pony Club Fantastic Playroom [Modular/Jul 9]
	English hipsters’ debut is a créme brûlée of art punk/new rave á la mode — its detachedly sassy vocals flawlesly emasculating the über-hip hooks to add a foxy, art-school risque. High point: F.A.N.

	017	Circa Survive On Letting Go [Equal Vision/May 29]
	The latest full-length from Anthony Green is a frozen icescape of spacey harmonics and gorgeous melodies trapped in a timeless cave of ambiguity, exquisitely afloat and hovering somewhere between hidden and frostbitten dimensionality. High point: The Greatest Lie

	016	Dax Riggs We Sing of Only Blood or Love [Fat Possum/Aug 21]
	Prolific metalhead’s first official solo LP is a smattering of Roy Orbison-like rockabilly and Glenn Danzig-styled crooning mixed with southern metal roots that coalesce into a glorious, neo-retro machismo. High point: Terrors of Nightlife

	015	Spoon Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga [Merge/Jul 10]
	Renowned Austinites return with a brand new helping of bubbly, jangly indie rock that swanks with stoned grooves and shimmies and shakes like a zombie on PCP; altogether blasé, sluggish, rhythmic and danceable. High point: The Ghost of You Lingers

	014	Kings of Leon Because of the Times [Hand Me Down/Apr 3]
	Third full-length from southern garage rockers is a booze-addled introduction to life’s asskickings, replete with raucous guitars, clever wordplay and a brilliant understanding of Pixies-esque dynamics and southern rock & roll. High point: Ragoo

	013	You Say Party! We Say Die! Lose All Time [Paper Bag/Mar 20]
	Canadian dance-punks’ second effort is an unapologetic onslaught of deliberately vapid keyboards and defiant vocals set to danceable beats that wears its hipster cred on its sleeve. High point: Opportunity

	012	Radiohead In Rainbows [TBD/Oct 10]
	Musical superheroes’ seventh full-length is glorious unification of past and present releases that introduces new directions whilst simultaneously appeasing history’s universal acclaim. High point: Bodysnatchers

	011	The National Boxer [Beggars Banquet/May 22]
	Churning with pounding rhythms and an air of murk, acclaimed Brooklyn band’s fourth album is despondent, disconnected and serves to darken the already gloomy and dejected (and sophisticated) lyrics even moreso. High point: Mistaken For Strangers

	010	Arcade Fire Neon Bible [Merge/Mar 6]
	Canadian indie rockers’ sophomore album builds on the promise of a near-perfect debut and delivers a second helping of gorgeous orchestral anthems and complex instrumentation that’s subdued, majestic, poppy, dignified. High point: Ocean of Noise

	009	Minus the Bear Planet of Ice [Suicide Squeeze/Aug 21]
	Seattle band’s third LP showcases sophisticated songwriting, witty lyricism and complex time signatures as dynamic and innovative as a room full of drunken M80s and crackpipes with guitars. High point: Dr. L’Ling

	008	Thurston Moore Trees Outside the Academy [Ecstatic Peace/Sep 18]
	Eminent experimentalist’s second solo release is a stunning display of deceptively poppy avant-garde noise catharsis adrift in a sea of unwinding, melodic complexity. High point: Wonderful Witches

	007	The Ponys Turn the Lights Out [Matador/Mar 20]
	The Ponys’ third record is another brilliantly cool slathering of vintage rock ‘n’ roll attitude updated with post-punk tendencies that churns like a ‘79 Trans-Am with t-tops and a huge fucking yellow Firebird logo on the hood. High point: Exile on My Street

	006	The Raveonettes Lust Lust Lust [Fierce Panda/Nov 12]
	Drenched in a minimalistic hurricane of reverb and Jesus-and-Mary-Chainsian harmonies, these neo-shoegazers’ third album is a midnight-tinged exposé of leather jackets and 50s-style diners backed by thick beats and nervous, pulsating desire. High point: Lust

	005	Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti Underground [Vinyl International/Nov 6]
	The mysterious first Haunted Graffiti album from lo-fi cult hero is another strange, hallucinatory journey through a collage of twisting melodies, noisy interims and brilliant songwriting that combine together to form a surprisingly coherent, cohesive whole. High point: Underground

	004	A Place to Bury Strangers A Place to Bury Strangers [Killer Pimp/Sep 17]
	Exploding with brain-melting guitars, barely-audible vocals and pulverizing drum machines, NYC’s loudest band offer up a debut of ten thunderously melodic homages to shoegaze and noise pop that nearly break the sound barrier. High point: To Fix the Gash in Your Head

	003	Les Savy Fav Let’s Stay Friends [French Kiss/Sep 18]
	Seminal post-hardcore outfit return from 6-year hiatus with renewed brilliance — showcasing a greater attention to production and adding even more melody to an already defined pair of angular, post-punk fists of fury. High point: The Lowest Bitter

	002	Sexton Blake Plays the Hits [Expunged/Jul 7]
	Portland singer/songwriter’s sophomore album is a collection of jaw-dropping acoustic renditions of classic 80s anthems that salivates at the seams with unparalleled brilliance; genuinely astonishing. High point: Girl You Know It’s True

	001	Blonde Redhead 23 [4AD/Apr 10]
	Seminal indie-rock trio’s seventh proper album is their moodiest yet; twisting and heaving and dying like some kind of drugged-out fairytale from a doomstricken Japanese netherworld, its mortality as ambiguous as ever. High point: Spring and by Summer Fall

Part I (#75-51)
Part II (#50-26)

PART II (#50-#26)

	050	Band of Horses Cease to Begin [Sub Pop/Oct 9]
	Seattle band’s sophomore album is submerged in a gloomy Americana abyss of reverb and My Morning Jacket-styled wailing that do nothing to alleviate the dismal desolation depicted on its cover. High point: Is There A Ghost

	049	Panda Bear Person Pitch [Paw Tracks/Mar 20]
	Animal Collective member’s third solo record is an avant garde cavalcade of strange kaleidoscopic collages composed with patience but bleeding with passion — evoking a sense of experimentation that shimmers and sparkles with a strange, translucent beauty. High point: Bros

	048	The New Pornographers Challengers [Matador/Aug 21]
	Much-adorned Canadians’ latest is more tame and less daring than previous releases, relying instead on subtle textures and unobtrusive hooks that don’t quite live up to potential but still outperform most bands’ best. High point: All the Things That Go to Make Heaven and Earth

	047	The Field From Here We Go Sublime [Kompakt/Mar 26]
	Axel Willner’s debut is an intense minimalist opus of pounding beats and simplistic, repeating melodies which ironically add to the record’s complexity and ultimately rewrite it into something else entirely (a rave? death? drugs? hypnosis?). High point: Over the Ice

	046	Jatun Jatun [Other Electricities/Mar 6]
	Jatun’s self-titled debut takes the synth-soaked melodies of M83 and mixes them with restive, Röyksoppian beats; blissfully scattering atmospheric trip-hop and waves of mesmerizing shoegaze in every direction. High point: Ghost and Grey

	045	Maria Taylor Lynn Teeter Flower [Saddle Creek/Mar 6]
	Former Azure Ray frontwoman’s sophomore effort is delicate and mellifluous, championed by beautiful vocal harmonies and a gentle, soothing rainstorm of instrumentation. High point: Clean Getaway

	044	The Go! Team Proof of Youth [Sub Pop/Sep 11]
	Lauded six-piece’s sophomore LP sounds a bit too similar to its predecessor yet still exhibits enough funky hooks and schoolyard chants to warrant a roller-skate-derby dance-off. High point: Keys to the City

	043	Rilo Kiley Under the Blacklight [Warner Bros/Aug 21]
	Cult band’s fourth release delves into synth-pop territory while still clinging tightly to its alt-country roots, resulting in a neo-Fleetwood Mac vibe that’s at once both retro and progressive. High point: Dreamworld

	042	The Good, The Bad & The Queen The Good, The Bad & The Queen [Parolphone/Jan 22]
	Damon Albarn’s latest project is a logical evolution of Gorillaz’ lethargic melodies mixed with a skillful understanding of indie rock’s recent history. It’s poppy but loaded with a complex subtext that lends it further credibility and rewards patience. High point: Kingdom of Doom

	041	Liars Liars [Mute/Aug 28]
	A valorous return to form, these NYC avant-gardists’ fourth full-length is brash, defiant and mutinous while still maintaining a skillfully crafted sense of experimentalism and self-deconstruction. High point: What Would They Know

	040	Ken Andrews Secrets of the Lost Satellite [Dinosaur Fight/Mar 13]
	Former Failure frontman’s first official solo album is filled with themes of loss and alienation atop spacey, heroin-induced melodies, grunged-up guitars and near-perfect production. High point: Allergic

	039	Glös Harmonium [Lovitt/Mar 27]
	Former members of Denali and Engine Down collaborate to create this hauntingly brilliant record thick with dissonance and drenched in unnerving melody —- incessantly threatening to explode. High point: Entre

	038	Piano Magic Part-Monster [Important/May 29]
	The latest from this ambient-pop charged UK collective is fueled by moody post-punk malaise and a subtle canvas of musical radiation that silently electrifies and envelopes its surroundings, altogether relaxing and entrancing and barely convulsing. High point: The King Cannot Be Found

	037	John Vanderslice Emerald City [Barsuk/Jul 24]
	Folksy singer-songwriter’s sixth full-length ambles and saunters through a slightly-sedated landscape of seemingly-sparse instrumentation and insistent vocal melodies. High point: Time to Go

	036	Maserati Inventions for the New Season [Temporary Residence Limited/Mar 19]
	Athens experimentalists get serious with a stunning batch of churning, instrumental post-rock that fuses post-punk dynamics with implicit esoterica. High point: The World Outside

	035	The Shins Wincing the Night Away [Sub Pop/Jan 23]
	Exalted Portland group’s third proper album is awash in nocturnally-clad desperation, tossing and turning in a bed of diligent admissions and emotional sincerity. High point: Split Needles

	034	A Band of Bees Octopus [Astralwerks/Mar 26]
	English psych-revivalists’ third LP spans a vast array of styles and influences — resulting in a buoyant, hallucinatory listening experience dripping in acid-soaked vitality and sun-drenched happiness. High point: Left Foot Stepdown

	033	PJ Harvey White Chalk [Island/Oct 2]
	Semidivine heroine returns with an angelic offering of saintly vocals contrasted by stark lyricism and bleak piano overtures that barely manage to keep from drowning in the surrounding cesspool of gloom. High point: White Chalk

	032	Shout Out Louds Our Ill Wills [Merge/Sep 11]
	Swedish band’s second album is less sad than The Cure and more neue than new wave — resulting in an effortless cross-pollination of the two that’s happily sad. High point: Tonight I Have to Leave it

	031	Handsome Furs Plague Park [Sub Pop/May 22]
	Wolf Parade frontman Dan Boeckner teams up with his wife to make an estrogenic neo-Wolf Parade record blanketed by a fog of realized delusions and adequate sadness sung peacefully over a backdrop of steady, electronic rhythms and nostalgic melodies. High point: Handsome Furs Hate This City

	030	Klaxons Myths of the Near Future [Polydor/Jan 29]
	European new ravers’ debut LP is littered with literary and intellectual references and still doesn’t break a sweat while breakdancing circles around its surroundings. High point: Golden Skans

	029	The Rosebuds Night of the Furies [Merge/Apr 10]
	North Carolinan trio’s third full-length is soaked in beautiful indie pop bliss and lachrymose wordplay backed by gorgeously danceable synths and heaving beats; hypnotizing like a midnight summer thunderstorm. High point: I Better Run

	028	Tegan and Sara The Con [Sire/Jul 24]
	Androgynous twins’ fifth LP resonates with adamant synth crescendos and sugar-coated vocal harmonies, exhibiting a controlled erotic nuance that’s both restrained and impassioned. High point: Like O, Like H

	027	Belaire Exploding, Impacting [Indirect/Jul 12]
	Voxtrot members’ debut plays host to a myriad of emotions all while appearing casually blithe on a surface of happy-go-lucky synths and dancey choruses that lead nowhere but the circle of life’s happy-cum-sadness. High point: Madison

	026	The KBC On the Beat! [High Voltage Sounds/Mar 19]
	English electro-dance trio’s debut is a monstercosm of raver synths and throbbing beats fueled by a voguish attitude and raw, disconnected coolness. High point: Trippin’

Part I (#75-51)
Part III (#25-1)

PART I (#75-#51)

	075	Sunset Rubdown Random Spirit Lover [Jagjaguwar/Oct 9]
	Third LP from Wolf Parade member is weirder than its predecessors — its rhythmic, staccato vocals contrast the surrounding circus-y instrumentation to form a strangely appealing aural carnival. High point: The Courtesan Has Sung

	074	Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Some Loud Thunder [Self-released/Jan 30]
	The eclectic mixture of artsy post-punk and playfulness on these post-David Byrnians’ sophomore record is more reflective, less poppy and more challenging than its antecedent. High point: The Sword Song

	073	Chromeo Fancy Footwork [V2/May 8]
	Canadian dance pop duo’s second release is a metro-stained helping of funky grooves and insouciant hooks that are both guilty pleasures and skillfully crafted dance anthems. High point: Fancy Footwork

	072	Other Men Wake Up Swimming [Robocore/Mar 20]
	Pinback and Heavy Vegetable alumni team up for a set of spastic melodies and cracked-out vocals that collide perfectly with eachother to create a kind of tensely panicked charm. High point: Other People

	071	Holy Fuck LP [Young Turks/Oct 23]
	Toronto analog improvisationalists deliver second full-length of bleeding free-form electronica that twists and chugs and pulsates its way through a strange land of anti-dramatic melodica. High point: The Pulse

	070	Die! Die! Die! Promises Promises [Tardus/Oct 8] Note: scheduled for 2008 US release
	New Zealand neo no-wavers’ latest is more exploratory, more melodic and more dynamic while still noisy and abrasive, revealing more depth and more sagacity with each successive listen. High point: Sideways Here We Come

	069	Simian Mobile Disco Attack Decay Sustain Release [Wichita/Jun 18]
	British electronic duo’s debut is jam-packed with ridiculously catchy dance beats, energetic rhythms and an explosively repressed attack on the senses. High point: It’s the Beat

	068	Papercuts Can’t Go Back [Gnomonsong/Feb 13]
	Californian neo-hippie Jason Quever’s second record is a transient, nomadic rubberband ball of bubbly melodies that are fully aware (and quite accepting) of their looming deaths. High point: John Brown

	067	Justice † [Ed Banger/Jun 11]
	French house duo’s first full-length is a brilliant update of Daft Punk’s blazing dancefloor anthems, its instantly memorable hooks transforming everything in its path to neon-checkered lights and ecstasy-fueled floor-stompings. High point: D.A.N.C.E.

	066	Sole & the Skyrider Band Sole & the Skyrider Band [Anticon/Oct 23]
	Avant-garde hip-hop artist’s latest combines intellectual, stream-of-consciousness vocal delivery with spacey, atmospheric overtures and abstract idealism. High point: Shipwreckers

	065	Apostle of Hustle National Anthem of Nowhere [Arts & Crafts/Feb 6]
	Broken Social Scene frontman offers up a guileful odyssey of worldly influences and hypnotic soundscapes that traverse through everything from downtempo to reggae. High point: Haul Away

	064	Thrice The Alchemy Index, Vol. 1 & 2 [Vagrant/Oct 16]
	First two parts of post-hardcore band’s four-part conceptual anthology offers quite literal aural interpretations of Earth’s elements; dreary, atmospherical homages soaked to the core with evolutionary subtext. High point: Night Diving

	063	Immaculate Machine Immaculate Machine’s Fables [Mint/Jun 12]
	Canadian band returns with an excellent third effort that brims with sunny melodies and boy/girl harmonies that reminisce and introspect with a modest coyness. High point: Jarhand

	062	Jesu Conqueror [Hydra Head/Feb 20]
	Justin Broadrick returns with another sedated collection of stoned ambience and layers upon layers of droning, apocalyptic doomgaze that could quite possibly destroy the world’s sunlight in slow motion if played loud enough. High point: Old Year

	061	Caribou Andorra [Merge/Aug 21]
	Daniel Snaith’s latest wintery wonderland ebbs and flows in a snowy-December haze of subtle melodies and intricate arrangements which beg for repeated listens and provide joyous memories that never really existed. High point: Irene

	060	Chuck Ragan Feast or Famine [SideOneDummy/Aug 7]
	Former Hot Water Music frontman’s solo debut is a whiskey-soaked, introspective compendium contemplating life’s left hooks and unjustness — cloaked in a folksy flurry of harmonicas, violins and banjos. High point: The Boat

	059	Stars In Our Bedroom After the War [Arts & Crafts/Sep 25]
	Canadian indie pop band’s fourth LP is a sublimely rich symphonic orchestration of vocalized sorrow, complete with pianized ballads and heartbroken themes of lost love. High point: The Night Starts Here

	058	Wilco Sky Blue Sky [Nonesuch/May 15]
	Alt-country superheroes’ latest continues to experiment with avant-jazz and atmospheric folk-pop to form an engaging (if relaxing) record filled with subtle instrumental complexities that only add to the depth of Jeff Tweedy’s increasingly engrossing vocals. High point: Impossible Germany

	057	Rocky Votolato The Bragg & Cuss [Barsuk/Jun 19]
	Alt-country singer-songwriter’s fifth album is another familiarly folk-tinged gem of pseudo-southern backwater rock that sounds as breezy as it is heavy. High point: Red Dragon Wishes