1. LCD Soundsystem, "Get Innocuous (Soulwax Remix)" (from A Bunch of Stuff EP, Capitol)
2. Modeselektor ft. TTC, "2000007" (from Happy Birthday, Bpitch Control)
3. Klaxons, "Golden Skans (SebastiAn remix)" (from 12-inch, Because)
4. Simian Mobile Disco, "It's the Beat (The Teenagers Remix)" (MP3)
5. The Teenagers, "Homecoming" (single, Merok/XL)
6. Crystal Castles vs the Little Ones, "Lovers Who Uncover" (from the Little Ones' "Oh MJ" single, Heavenly)
7. Yelle, "Je Veux Te Voir" (from Pop Up, EMI France)
8. Calvin Harris, "Merrymaking at My Place (Mr. Oizo Remix)" (from single, Columbia)
9. Matt & Kim, "Yea Yeah (Flosstradamus Remix)" (from single, Tellé)
10. Rihanna, "Umbrella (VNDLSM remix)" (MP3)
11. Curses!, "This Is the Way (Drop the Lime Remix)" (12-inch, Institubes)
12. Surkin, "Radio Fireworks" (12-inch, Institubes)
13. Riot in Belgium, "La Musique" (12-inch, Relish)
14. Feist, "1234 (Van She Technologic Remix)" (12-inch, Universal)
15. Daft Punk vs. Nicky Van She, "Around the World Again" (12-inch, Electro Rock)
16. Justice, "D.A.N.C.E." (from Cross, Vice)

This is my second year participating in Idolator's year-end shenanigans, but it's the first in which I've actually been making my living full-time as a music writer. Prior to 2007, I was freelancing, DJing at clubs, and working part-time at various shit jobs.

Writing about music full-time (and, to a lesser extent, listening to and thinking about it) changes the whole year-end list-making thing quite a bit. Last year, I was ecstatic just to participate, and I looked at my ballot as both a superpower and a great responsibility—my vote was going to be a part of the critical consensus, carved into the unforgiving stone of the Internet. I arranged and rearranged lists for days—editing, rejiggering, adding, deleting. I checked the lists of other critics and websites, to see what I may have missed but also to check if my choices were "right."

This year, I didn't have time for that sort of thing—I'm busy with real deadlines, and the publication I work for is staunchly against year end lists—but I also didn't need as much research/reassurance to feel like my opinions and impressions might be all right. I've only just spent the weekend getting my shit together. I'm also not putting as much unrealistic weight on what goes down here. I'm more comfortable just listing the albums I liked best from last year, rather than trying to make sure my faves align with some kind of critically-correct list of "important" releases.

But still, I get the feeling that my Top 10 albums and songs still look a lot like the critically acclaimed canon of 2007. So I've decided to do something different with my 2007 mix. Here is a mix of songs from the past year that aren't important, that probably won't be (and shouldn't be) part of the mass memory of 2007 20 years from now. This stuff is essentially disposable. A lot of it's French. A lot of it's what you might call "blog-house" or "new rave" if you're into making quotation marks with your fingers when talking about music. Maybe a lot of it is ultimately crap. And yet, though these tracks might be individually forgettable or insignificant, taken together, they sound like 2007 to me. This was the music I heard not only blasting from shitty club PAs (sometimes from behind the decks) but also infiltrating the year's glossiest, biggest-budget pop music (see Kanye, Britney).

So what better song to kick things off than Soulwax's remix of LCD Soundsystem's "Get Innocuous," a self-effacing update of "Losing My Edge," an ode to the ephemeral if empty joy of (dance) music—normalized audio as vital feeling. Modeselektor ring in the year with the ought-enhanced TTC-collaboration "200007." Then, Ed Banger secret weapon SebastiAn runs the Klaxons through some Timberlake/Timbaland filters. The Teenagers add their lo-fi melancholy to Simian Mobile Disco's "It's the Beat," and get adorably misogynistic/anti-American on "Homecoming." Next is a run of lesser anthems: Crystal Castles's 8-bit remix of nobody band the Little Ones, French fluokid Yelle's displaced baile funk jam "Je Veux Te Voir," Calvin Harris' electro fop invite "Merrymaking at My Place" as mangled by Mr Oizo, Flosstradamus' Basement Jaxxy take on Matt & Kim's crowd-pleaser "Yea Yeah." Rihanna's genuine chart-topper "Umbrella" gets defaced by VNDLSM, then two tracks of Institubes's aggressive French touch, then three entries from Australia: Riot in Belgium's "La Musique" and Van She's attacks on Feist and Daft Punk. "D.A.N.C.E." is the obligatory bookend. And that's it: a year of low bitrates, late nights, and punk rockers finally taking ecstasy—one little corner of 2007.

Eric Grandy is the music editor of The Stranger. He lives in Seattle.