1. Meshell Ndegeocello: "Relief: A Stripper Classic" (from The World Has Made Me the Man of My Dreams, Emarcy)
2. Robert Glasper: "F.T.B." (from In My Element, Blue Note)
3. Christian Scott: "Cease Fire" (from Anthem, Concord)
4. Ledisi: "Upside Down" (from Lost and Found, Verve)
5. Rahsaan Patterson: "Cloud 9" (from Wine & Spirits, Artistry)
6. Janelle Monae: "Sincerely, Jane" (from Metropolis: Suite I—the Chase EP, Wondaland Arts Society)
7. The Smyrk: "Dial V for Venom" (from New Fiction, Ghetto Crush)

Doomsday music industry talk has predictably snuffed a bit of the fun out of listening. But belaboring the bland, boneheaded, and bad is distracting. This year, as ever, I have tried to stay keyed into what makes me flail and raise up for glassy eyed toasts. After all, that is the dream of the child weaned on, amongst others, the "Big Poppa" video. And the dolor here, well, that's just the other side of the coin.

1. But not for Meshell Ndegeocello, there would be no self-contradicting genre-thwarting bisexual bass-playing sex scorers. The D.C.-bred butch who castigated miscegenation (not the musical kind) on her debut, belted an ode to white girls at her Hiro Ballroom album release party this past fall. I guess the "visions of virginal white beauty" were dancing in her faux-hawked head. Stouter now with more flesh to flagellate, she sports insecurity and spouts recycled game on "Relief: A Stripper Classic." I don't buy it but it sounds good.

2. & 3. All the jazz cognoscenti have championed jazz pianist Robert Glasper's chops, but I'll tout the Houston native's feeling. He composes great songs like the pretty and pocketed "F.T.B.," a thinly veiled bird flip to well, ya know, that cheers as it crests. His sort of ballyhooed spliced-together medley of J Dilla compositions, which appears on the same album, evidences the late producer's broad influence. Counted among Dilla's admirers is another young lion. New Orleanian trumpeter Christian Scott paces his round trumpet sound to a classic Dilla bass line on "Cease Fire," one of his many angry and mournful tracks bearing back at Hurricane Katrina two hope-dashed years later.

4. & 5. Nothing but another buzzed about indie soul singer I didn't have time for until she took Madison Square Park in 2006 and sung the summer rain away, Ledisi is a powerhouse and knows it. That cockiness perfectly adorns "Upside Down," the pertest joint of her adult oriented major label debut and by far the most fun. On a song written for and rejected by Chaka Khan, Ledisi appropriates Chaka's sassy pomp and slathers it on this altruistic anthem. Her bud Rahsaan Patterson, a decade long veteran of the now spent neo-soul movement, looked to Sly Stone and Stevie Wonder where Ledisi cribbed Chaka. Pentecostal and nothing like Tyler Perry's trite renderings, "Cloud 9" takes the definitive away from Donnie's brilliant pan-African anthem of the same name.

6. With her Afro upsweep and bespoke space suits, Janelle Monae is dollishly cute, but her music is animated with the smart and now. Although she trades in futuristic imagery, her music filters spirituals and Broadway with a hat tip to new wave and the occasional turntable accent. "Sincerely, Jane," a stringed inner city lament, evolves into something like Stevie Wonder's "Superwoman," and that's about when I hopped on her bandwagon.

7. Earlier this year, I called this Connecticut foursome my favorite band, and although I throw around the word "favorite" lightly, this time I meant it. The Smyrk economize on the cool, leave the irony at home, and ratchet up the bang. When dancing to this Spider Man referent, my enthusiasm exceeds my repertoire.

Freelance journalist Jalylah Burrell writes the Hello, Babar blog for Vibe.com and has blogged at She Real Cool since 2004. She lives in Brooklyn.