Best Music in 2007

I listened to over 65 new albums this year, so picking the tops has been hard. It was a pretty good year for music, and lots of good stuff came out this year. Here's a smattering...

Could have made it much higher in the charts
(AKA I didn't find it til late or didn't listen to it enough)

Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha
The Answering Machine - Silent Hotels
Great Lake Swimmers - Ongiara

Damn Fine Albums
Caribou - Andorra
Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
Aesop Rock - None Shall Pass
Ha Ha Tonka - Buckle in the Bible Belt
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Oh No! Oh My! - Between the Devil and the Sea
Battles - Mirrored
Apparat - Walls
Beirut - The Flying Cup Club
Bishop Allen - The Broken String
The Choir Practice - The Choir Practice
Dan Deacon - Spiderman of the Rings
Editors - An End Has a Start
Los Campesinos! - Two EPs
Menomena - Wet and Rusting
The Shins- Wincing the Night Away
Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
The Swarthy Band - How they Look to the Skies
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists- Living with the Living
The Twilight Sad - Fourteen Autumns, Fifteen Winters
Panda Bear - Person Pitch

Honorable Mentions
(contenders that just missed the cut for the top 5)
The New Pornographers - Challengers - I felt this album just missed... not quite up to the strenth of prior NP releases. But it does boast one of the best singles of the year with Niko Case singing the title track.


Voxtrot - Voxtrot - Sort of like how I felt about the New Pornographers, the Voxtrot full-length didn't quite live up to the promise of their previous EPs. But it's still a strong album with some great songs on it, and I listened to it a bunch.


Moonbabies - At the Ballroom - Oh god... do I really have this this high? I can't help it, it's poppy, it's catchy, it's saccharine-sweet, and I like it. I listened to it a bunch, so I can't deny it. I dig it. This has to be the guilty-pleasure album of 2007


The Earlies - Enemy Chorus - Different than anything else I heard this year, Enemy Chorus has some great dark, expansive moments. And while it's different, it's still eminently listenable. (I really dug Panda Bear's Person Pitch, but that went even farther into the realm of the weird... Enemy Chorus is different, but still listens like an album if that makes any sense at all)


The Aliens - Astronomy for Dogs - Wow... the Aliens are GOOD. That's about all I can say about that. Hints of classic rock drift in and out of the music. Boasts one of the years best single tracks in Only Waiting


Apostle of Hustle - National Anthem of Nowhere - had this list been made at the beginning of the year, National Anthem of Nowhere would probably have been in my top two. I listened to the shit out of this album early on and maybe overdosed a bit, as I haven't returned to it much in the second half of the year. So maybe it doesn't have the staying power of the truly great albums. For what it's worth, though, I dug it.

Stay tuned for the Top 5 of 2007!