1. The New Flesh, "Squeeze" (from Vessel, Heartbreakbeat)
2. Avec, "In Character" (from Lines, Civil Defense League/Doghouse)
3. Wye Oak, "Obituary" (from If Children, Morphius)
4. Thrushes, "Ghost Train" (from Sun Comes Undone, Birdnote)
5. Mario, "Skippin'" (from Go, J)
6. Ckrisis, "Down For Whatever" (from Muscle Up Vol. 2 Bird City Entertainment)
7. Bossman, "So Fresh" (from End of Discussion, One Up)
8. Ogun ft. Che'Ray, Comp, Backland, Little Clayway, Skarr Akbar &
Bossman, "Just Us" (from Bmore Hero, Real On Purpose)
9. Young Dip, "D.T.T.W.C." (from You See Me?, IMP)
10. Jade Fox ft. Eva Castillo, "Got 'Em Like" (from Ashes of Another Life, self-released)
11. Ace ft. Billo, "Slow Ya Speed" (from The Product, For the People Entertainment)
12. Silouette, "Chicken Box" (from The Best of B-Ill: Chapter 1, Banga Bill Enterprises)
13. Tyree Colion, "Projects" (from Hamsterdam Vol. 2: Stash 2 Da Strip, Darkroom Inc.)
14. Heavy Gold, "Charm City" (from Tha Testa, Stay Gettin' Entertainment)
15. Height ft. Bow N' Arrow, "Smash Your Eyes" (from Winterize the Game, Grand Man)
16. DJ Blaqstarr, "Crazy Leg Wit It" (from The King of Roq, JB Starr Productions)
17. Rod Lee, "Enjoy Yourself" (from The Producer, Unruly)
18. KW Griff, "Taking Over" (from K_Swift the Club Queen Jumpoff Vol. 11, Doo Dew Kidz)
19. Say Wut, "Futuristic" (from Beats Extraordinaire EP, Unruly)
20. Dan Deacon, "Jimmy Joe Roche" (from Spiderman of the Rings, Carpark)
21. Cex, "Oregon Ridge" (from Sketchi, Temporary Residence)

I was reluctant to peg this mix to music from Baltimore, the city I live near and work in, since I cover local music exhaustively year round—I'd hate to come off as monomaniacal, like I didn't listen to music from everywhere else this year, too. But considering that Idolator readers mostly know me for regularly defending Finger Eleven, I decided to go ahead and rep for my home turf.

Aside from the New Flesh, a trio of dudes making wonderfully hideous sludge-rock, the indie rock selections here reflect the fact that most of my favorite bands around town these days are co-ed combos where at least one of the singers is female. Avec's Shawna Potter even explicitly addresses the life of the token rock chick with "In Character" ("Everybody likes to guess which boys in the band I've kissed"), one of the best tracks from the slinky, seductive math-rock band's second album, Lines.

R&B singer Mario Barrett is just about the only Balitmorean currently on the main radar, although given his failure to land any major hits since 2004's chart-topping "Let Me Love You," his career is in danger of going the way of Sisqo's. Still, his recent third album Go is a solid effort, with several uptempo tracks like "Skippin'" that I've taken to much more than the prim ballads he tends to release as singles.

As passionate and involved as I am in the local hip-hop scene, I have to admit that Baltimore rap kind of had an off year. Most of the big names laid low, occasionally jumping on big posse cuts like "Just Us" with a newfound sense of unity, and while there was plenty of good music coming mostly from lesser known artists, it already looks like 2008 will be more eventful. The just-released official soundtrack to HBO's The Wire features several rappers from the city the series unflinchingly depicts, including Tyree Colion's "Projects," which was released this year on Darkroom Productions' excellent double album Hamsterdam Vol. 2.

To say that 2007 was a breakout year for Baltimore club music, the city's frenetic, decades-old strain of hip house, would be a hollow repetition of a line equally applicable to 2006, 2005, 2004, etc. Rather, the genre just inched a little further into the national spotlight than it had previously, largely thanks to club music's resident weirdo, DJ Blaqstarr, whose "Crazy Leg Wit It" is that other song featured in his popular "Shake It to the Ground" video.

But more than even Blaqstarr, the biggest darling of the newly Baltimore-infatuated blog world was Dan Deacon. Of course, six or seven years before Dan Deacon became an indie household name for making spastic IDM records and spreading his gospel with sweaty live shows heavy on absurdist stage banter, his friend Rjyan "Cex" Kidwell had pretty much the exact same schtick. In the past couple of years, Kidwell has retreated into Baltimore's under-underground of cassette-only limited edition projects. But one of those limited releases, Sketchi, actually made it to CD, and features serene instrumental techno reminiscent of his early albums, including "Oregon Ridge," an ode to the Baltimore County swimming hole where I spent many a summer day as a kid—as did, I imagine, many of the artists on this mix.

Al Shipley contributes to the Baltimore City Paper and maintains the Baltimore music blog Government Names. He has also written for Scratch and Stylus (R.I.P. to both), and writes the Corporate Rock Still Sells column for Idolator.