10

We all knew he could write songs but 2007 was the year it all really came together for Josh Ritter. This is the sound of an artist on a roll and knowing it. With a few exceptions this album is packed to the brim with joyous, ballsy, life affirming music. Horns abound, choruses soar, and Ritter, well, he just has fun, and you can tell. From the opening notes of "To the Dogs or Whoever" listeners join Ritter on a rollercoaster ride of incredible tunes backed up by impressive musicianship. Once buttonholed as the next Bob Dylan, this is Ritters breakout album, the one that Spoon wished they made in 2007!

The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter Josh Ritter

09

Will Sheff has to be a tortured man, at least to a certain point. You saw this more with 2005's Black Sheep Boy, but the pain is still very much evident in The Stage Names. At times, this album goes into full on rock with the band kicking it at full force, but it also meanders and tugs at your heart strings, like the wonderful "A Girl in Port." But schizophrenia is common among the tortured artist community, so Sheff seems right at home here. More accessible than their previous work, this is the album that gets them on the bigger stages with the bigger names. Bout damn time!

The Stage Names Okkervil River

08

Oddly, Cease to Begin Cease to Begin is full of the aggressive, the folksy and the pop. All that and a very interesting number called "Detlef Schrempf," all for good measure. Ah, my NBA Jams hero.

Cease to Begin Band of Horses

07

Four long years since their last release, Explosions in the Sky hit back hard. I am always amazed this band only has three people in it. All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone is the perfect run in in the park, the perfect quiet morning in bed, and the perfect 45 minutes of hot steamy sex, assuming of course you can last that long. Loud or soft, guitar leads or drum beats, there is simply nothing bad to say about this album. Amazingly hammered home by their live show, this is the best post-rock album of the year, and one could make a case for it as the be-all end-all of rock music in 2007.

All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone Explosions in the Sky

06

I dream about the heavenly haircut Jens Lekman in getting on the cover of Nigh Falls Over Kortedala. I don't know who is doing the trimming, but I want in. This cover makes sense, as this album is sort of a an aural delight the same way Jens' haircut must feel. Always borderline twee, Jens takes his Swedish pop roots to the brink on this album. Some can certainly comment on his voice, and he's no Moz, but he owes the Smiths a strong debt of gratitude, and they can be proud knowing their melancholy pop lives in spirit with others.

Night Falls Over Kortedala Jens Lekman

05

Boxer not only has the focus Alligator lacked, the band is wise enough to aim that focus at their strength - articulate, achingly sad Nick Drake-like melodies with Matt Berninger's smokey baritone to coat your soul. Twelve songs succeed somehow at being stark & lush simultaneously. Its like the anthemic opener "Fake Empire" comes with 11 exclamation points. Beringer's lyrics are the equivalent of watching dark clips of couples fighting on Youtube... all hazy details and fuzzy sounds obscuring the sharply beating hearts inside. And the rest of the band has become experts at building the worlds in which Beringer's characters wander. Dark, brooding, funny, obscure. One of the best records of the year.

Boxer The National

04

Few outlets have Weekend in the city on their top lists of 2007, but that's only because they are too afraid to reward a band that has really stretched themselves. Silent Alarm is a fantastic album -- especially as a debut -- that put Bloc Party on the map. The up-tempo guitar rock fit in with the UK scene it was a part of. But rather than go ahead and kick out the sequel, with the same repeated themes and energy, they went back and came out with the anthem for the 20-somethings in London. Cold, lonely, unsure of one's self, can anyone not be all too familiar with these feelings? Bloc Party capture what it feels like to not even know yourself. A fantastic album filled with tons of amazing songs. Years from now, when folks talk of Bloc Party's career, they will eventually say that it was this album, not Silent Alarm that defined them.

Weekend in the City Bloc Party

03

Some frown on Spoon because listeners confuse mastery for commercialism. Britt Daniel has only cared about 3 things during his bands 10 year career: precision, precision & precision... oh and detail. And he cares about melody. So what do you listen for in music? Daniel and company consistently manage to create compelling songs out of the most stripped down details -- a hi-hat, a bass line -- with just enough tinkering to keep things interesting. With Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, Spoon have become the perfect blend of the rock attitude of the Rolling Stones and the studio wizardry of the Beatles

Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga Spoon

02

I enjoyed Neon Bible from the first listen presumedly for the same reason most others did -- that with Arcade Fire's gifts being not only their sense of scope and epic production remaining as huge as they want it to be but also that rare thing that separates the profound from the masturbatory. Earnestness. When the Arcade Fire go big (and of course they always do) you believe it. Momentum is created at will because of the honesty of their music. However, it was when I saw them live that they truly came alive. At that show (easily the best I saw this year) it occurred to me I was seeing something special. Specifically, I felt that maybe in some way it felt similar to seeing U2 in 1983 or being present at the taping of what became their "Sunday Bloody Sunday" video. One might quibble with this comparison but the MO of protest is the same and the Arcade Fire's interest in melody to go along with that momentum is increased with the stakes of our times.

Neon Bible Arcade Fire

01

I? have to agree with the consensus here: It might not be Radiohead? most *Important* album or its most adventurous, but In Rainbows gets under your skin in the best possible way -- through great songs, some of which may take more time to appreciate than others. It? reassuring that Thom Yorke and co. have regained their peerless level of quality control after the wildly uneven and ultimately unsatisfying Hail to the Thief. On top of its pissing in the eyes of commercialism, which earned them my vote almost instantly, the album continues the movement away from the vague and disconcerting, to the more formal and understood. Not something I thought I would say after Kid A but let this album prove that just about anything is possible.

In Rainbows Radiohead