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10) Menomena, Friend and Foe – Their song writing may leave a bit to be desired, and this material lost some oomph in their live show, but this album sounds amazing on headphones, and I love studio trickery.

9) Okkervil River, The Stage Names – “Unless It’s Kicks” earned this a spot on my list all by itself. And the rest of the tunes aint too shabby either. Well, they are kinda shabby, but in a charming way.

VIII) Akron / Family, Love Is Simple – Yeah, it’s got some mis-steps, but the highpoints more than make up for them.

7) White Williams, Smoke – I can’t articulate what I like so much about this. Is it the NEU! that I hear throughout? The playfulness? I’m not sure. Heck, I might not even still listen to this one come February, but for now it’s fun.

6) Panda Bear, Person Pitch – I loved, LOVED Sung Tongs, but Strawberry Jam didn’t really have staying power. In fact, the best song on that one sounded like it belonged on this one. This album is so warm that even though it’s summery, I like listening to it when it’s cold out.

5) Six Organs of Admittance, Shelter From the Ash – If I was gay, I’d be gay for Ben Chasney. Dude’s a genius. This album isn’t as good as the last SOoA or Comets On Fire’s Avatar, but very few records are.

4) The National, Boxer – This album is interesting in spite of its accessibility. No, it isn’t challenging, but the lyrics have a dark wit & the songs reveal quite a lot more on repeat listens.

3) David Vandervelde, The Moonstation House Band – So maybe he does blatantly rip off T. Rex, the songs are great. The production is fantastic, and the sound of the album is a testament to the fact that Wilco never should’ve let Jay Bennet go.

2) LCD Soundsystem, Sounds of Silver – Missing this live show was probably the biggest mistake I’ve made all year.

1) Spoon, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga –The best album of their career? I dunno, but I haven’t been able to stop listening to it all year. And the way that your stylus falls into a groove at the end of the vinyl version and just keeps going until you stop it really pleases me, I’ve actually let that four second loop play for five minutes before getting up to change it.

I still haven’t gotten around to listening to a few that may end up on my retrospective “best of 2007″ list. Ween’s newest (I’m lazy), Yeasayer sounded good when I heard it, but I just listened to it this week. Carribou just missed the cut, prolly cuz I loved Up In Flames so much this couldn’t stand up to my expectations. Too bad that Devendra Banhart record wasn’t half the album Cripple Crow was. And Vampire Weekend sounded great when I first heard it, but I just saw them at Schuba’s & the spectacle there leads me to predict that I will not really be super excited when that album actually gets released.

I left White Rabbits off the list, but they were no doubt the best live show I saw all year, inless that face-melting Comets On Fire show I saw was in 2006, in which case WR gets #2.

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