2007 BEST ALBUMS 10-Strawberry Jam- Animal Collective (Just plain goddamned wacky. All the music and lyrics resemble an acid trip almost in the way that We're Only In It For the Money does (but is far less depressing). A weird rainbow of sound and strange lyrics, sung emotionally, dynamically and masterfully by Avey Tare (going from falsetto to full on scream in a moment's notice), make this just damn cool.) 09-Year Zero- Nine Inch Nails (Nine Inch Nails's most concentrated album since The Downward Spiral. Perfectly industrial and hard electro, as well as keeping with Reznor's keen ability to mix pop songstructure with cacophony. Also has one of the least depressive/self-loathing concepts of his albums and even has a pretty nicely paced(ie, good song order) and interesting story too (and ARG to go with it).) 08-Untrue- Burial (Where it lacks in any sort of verve or such, this album makes up for threefold in a lush, beautifully textured ambient music with a great flow. Manages to be warm through all the cold, dark electronics) 07-†- Justice (FUCK THE COMMENTARY, LET'S GET UP AND DANCE WOO.... So, yeah. It's pretty gay that this is on here. But it has some of the most interesting songwriting, as well as most creative house music since Daft Punk's Discovery. It's bouncy house with a nice hard, almost spazzy, edge.) 06-Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga- Spoon (Rock n Roll in a modernly simplistic and minimalistic style. Done perfectly to a tee. Well crafted and played funky tunes with some damn good hooks and ... Well, it's hard to go on about a minimalist album... But it's good.) 05-Liars- Liars ( Noisy, cacophonic... Melodic? What sets this hard-avant-garde band apart is their embrace of rhythm. None of these songs are meanderings in time signatures with decimals, but they all keep the artistic integrity-- the noise-- and also has an odd dance-pop quality almost. I don't know; it's like the Beach Boys and Tool got together and made an album.) 04-The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!- Saul Williams (The only rap/hip-hop album I like. It sounds like if Trent Reznor was black, which is probably due to his co-writership and production of the album. Like with Sound of Silver, a lot of the lyrics are rather smart, as well as rather funny.) 03-Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?- Of Montreal (Some of Kevin Barnes's wackiest, and yet more emotionally resonant are on this album. Barnes was able to take all the angst of his life and make it into lush, beautiful glam-electropop melodies and also make it mean something.) 02-Sound of Silver- LCD Soundsystem (Intelligent dance music at its best. Lyrics are all meaningful and often rather funny. Amidst the synths and drum machines, James Murphy's voice seems almost odd with his auto-tuner-less wide tonal range. All the songs are also damn catchy, ranging in styles from funk to punk to 60s-era-hard-rock.) 01-In Rainbows- Radiohead (Radiohead's Best album since Kid A. It features a perfect mix of the electronic dabblings of Kid A and Amnesiac, and the rock and songcraft of The Bends and OK Computer. It's all smooth, flowy, dreamlike. it.... sounds like rain, so to speak. Probably their calmest effort to date, has some of Thom Yorke's most refined songwriting as well.) Special mention: Mirrored- Battles. Person Pitch- Panda Bear. No Promises- Carla Bruni. BEST TRACKS 10-15 Step- Radiohead (A perfect combination of all things Radiohead: A few keyboards, samplings and drum machines-- Some nice hard-rocking moments with traditional instrumentation-- a calm-ish ballad form almost-- This is what 6 albums has been building up to. A perfect, steady-paced opener.) 09-Straight Lines- Silverchair (Second-gayest song on the list. It's a great bit of pop-rock, I won't say to the extent of Brian Wilson, but that's the only analogy I can think to make. Really a pretty, well-composed and performed song.) 08-The Past is a Grotesque Animal- Of Montreal (Fuckin' epic. It's almost twelve minutes of raw, queer, melodic angst. Beautiful funky horrors dancing to some of the most affecting lyrics/vocal Of Montreal's put forth.) 07-I'm Not There- Sonic Youth (A no-wave band can effectively cover a Dylan song... Who knew? Sonic Youth are able to keep their noisy no-wave style strangely subdued, but just as wild, for this song and it works perfectly.) 06-NiggyTardust- Saul Williams (Hip-hop with a sense of humour more sophisticated than Eminem's Freudian ramblings. This song has got all of the ironic soul that has been missing from this music for years.) 05-The Ghost of You Lingers- Spoon (A haunting, avant-garde-edged ballad. Wonderful droning instrumentation and extremely good production and mixing) 04-D.A.N.C.E. - Justice (The perfect tribute to the King of Pop. Wildly catchy and danceable as well as extremely well composed, just like how Jackson would do. ) 03-Clear Island- Liars (The height of the surf-noise of the album. Dynamic and interesting with somewhat of a "classic punk" feel to it. Nice driving rhythm and some pretty tired sounding vocals (expectable, after so much of the album up to that point).) 02-Colleen- Joanna Newsom (One of Joanna Newsom's tightest and liveliest songs(Also features a pretty traditional structure with highlighted use of her signature "squeaks"). She has refined her singing voice greatly and kept her verbose and poetic verse just as deep and beautiful as ever. 01-All My Friends- LCD Soundsystem (Starting with a drone that John Cale, Lou Reed, and Brian Eno would collectively be entirely jealous of, this song builds into a bittersweet climax of everything that's cool about James Murphy. Intelligent elegiac lyrics, wonderfully simple melody and rhythm, masterful production, and soulful honest vocals. There are times that you just want to get up and hug him.) Special mention: Bodysnatchers- Radiohead. Atlas- Battles. Running Away- The Polyphonic Spree. Bros- Panda Bear. Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse- Of Montreal.