ALBUMS (10 each)
1. Jay-Z - American Gangster
2. Kathy Diamond - Miss Diamond To You
3. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
4. Radiohead - In Rainbows
5. Iron & Wine - The Shepherd's Dog
6. Ghostface Killah - The Big Doe Rehab
7. Panda Bear - Person Pitch
8. Sean Price - Jesus Price Supastar
9. Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank
10. Devin the Dude - Waitin' To Inhale

TRACKS
1. LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends
2. M.I.A. - Paper Planes
3. The Schema - Those Rules You Made
4. UGK f/ OutKast - Int'l Players Anthem (I Choose You)
5. Vampire Weekend - Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa
6. The Fixxers - Can You Work With That
7. 50 Cent - I Get Money
8. Grinderman - No Pussy Blues
9. Chromatics - Running Up That Hill
10. R. Kelly - Real Talk

ARTISTS
1. Lil' Wayne
2. Radiohead
3. Feist
4. UGK
5. LCD Soundsystem

COMMENTS
Okay, so: You fuck around a bit on the piano, and during a particularly mean rendition of chopsticks you notice that the record button has been on the whole time. What happens next is a bit like the "Satisfaction" mythology inside-out: Keith Richards woke up one morning and discovered he had drunkenly invented the most brilliant guitar riff ever; you strip your piano wankery down to its ugliest, most arrythmic, most childishly antagonistic component part—and set about turning it into the year's most monumental anthem.

While I can't truthfully claim that's exactly how James Murphy crafted "All My Friends," it sure as hell sounds like it. He converts a segment of music that absolutely doesn't work into an idea that shouldn't work—looping the throwaway piano riff for 7 (seven!) minutes—and executes it so boldly that it becomes the centerpiece of not only LCD Soundsystem's 2nd album, but the entirety of 2007.

For the second year in a row, my favorite song has been EVERYONE ELSE's favorite song. That may make me feel like a bit of a critical lackey, but there's a great amount of hope in the fact that—even with so much choice and hype and backlash—we can all still arrive at a transcendent moment together.

Each of my picks for Albums and Songs of the year follow the same path: They take a solid, sometimes iffy, idea—from Jay-Z's appropriation of Ridley Scott's American Gangster to DJ Quik's decision to turn the tiniest snatches of every hip hop production fad of the last five years into the juggernaut of a beat for "Can You Work With That"—and make it even better in practice than in concept. Yes, even "Real Talk," where R. Kelly practically invents a new *kind* of song by setting Curb Your Enthusiasm-style comedy of absolute discomfort into a matrix of R&B musical theater. It makes me laugh out loud. Every. Time.

And yet, 2007 overflowed with incredible music. I could have easily picked twice as many songs and albums. So, here's the second part of my ballot: Last year, Michaelangelo Matos had the idea of making this year's poll participants submit year-in-review mixes or playlists. That didn't quite happen, but I'm submitting mine anyway. It says as much about my year in music as anything else could.

MC STANK BOOTY ON SOME 2007 SHIT
(a 100 song mp3 mix)

1. The Fixxers - "Can You Work With That"
2. 50 Cent - "I Got Money"
3. Big Quarters - "Everyday"
4. Boot Camp Clik - "I Need More"
5. Pharoahe Monch f/ Showtyme - "Desire"
6. Black Milk - "Three + Sum"
7. Common f/ Lily Allen - "Drivin' Me Wild"
8. Brother Ali - "Take Me Home"
9. Dizzee Rascal - "Da Feelin'"
10. Kanye West f/ Dwele - "Flashing Lights"
11. The Bird and the Bee - "F-cking Boyfriend"
12. Roisin Murphy - "Checkin' On Me"
13. Janelle Monae - "Sincerely, Jane"
14. Glass Candy - "Rolling Down The Hills"
15. Kathy Diamond - "Until The Sun Goes Down"
16. Matthew Dear - "Don And Sherri (Hot Chip Version)"
17. Hot Chip - "My Piano"
18. Christophe Willem - "Double Je"
19. Pleasure f/ Brett Anderson - "Back To You"
20. Chromatics - "Running Up That Hill"
21. Mark Ronson f/ Ol' Dirty Bastard & Tiggers - "Toxic (Version Revisited)"
22. Flight of the Concords - "Business Time"
23. Of Montreal - "A Sentence Of Sorts In Kongsvinger"
24. The Schema - "Those Rules You Made"
25. Rilo Kiley - "Silver Lining"
26. Jens Lekman - "The Opposite Of Hallelujah"
27. Patrick Wolf - "The Magic Position"
28. Les Savy Fav - "Peggy Lee"
29. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Rockers To Swallow"
30. Liars - "Houseclouds"
31. Prinxhorn Dance School - "Crackerjack Docker"
32. Grinderman - "No Pussy Blues"
33. Okkervil River - "Our Life Is Not A Movie Or Maybe"
34. Iron & Wine - "Innocent Bones"
35. Band of Horses - "The General Specific"
36. Feist - "Past In Present"
37. Kevin Drew - "Lucky Ones"
38. My Teenage Stride - "To Live And Die In The Airport Lounge"
39. Vampire Weekend - "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa"
40. Galactic f/ Juvenile & Soul Rebels Brass Band - "From The Corner To The Block"
41. Baby Elephant - "Turn My Teeth Up"
42. Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra - "One Thing"
43. Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - "Nobody's Baby"
44. Kylie Minogue - "2 Hearts"
45. Rihanna - "Don't Stop The Music"
46. Lil' Mama - "Lip Gloss"
47. Eve - "Tambourine"
48. M.I.A. - "Paper Planes"
49. Wiley - "Gangsters"
50. Lloyd - "Get It Shawty"
51. The-Dream - "Shawty Is The Shit!"
52. R. Kelly - "Real Talk"
53. UGK f/ OutKast - "Int'l Players Anthem (I Choose You)"
54. Termanology - "So Amazing (Dirty)"
55. Sean Price f/ Buckshot & Sadat X - "Da God"
56. Styles P - "Da 80's"
57. Dude N' Nem - "Watch My Feet"
58. Lil' Wayne - "Live From 504"
59. Aesop Rock - "None Shall Pass"
60. Ghostface Killah f/ Chrisette Michele - "Slow Down"
61. The National - "Slow Show"
62. Beirut - "Nantes"
63. The New Pornographers - "My Rights Versus Yours"
64. The Arcade Fire - "Keep The Car Running"
65. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - "Goodbye To The Mother And The Cover"
66. The Twilight Sad - "Mapped By What Surrounded Them"
67. Against Me! - "Borne On The FM Radio Waves Of The Heart"
68. The Hives - "You Got It All... Wrong"
69. The Black Lips - "Bad Kids"
70. Justice - "D.A.N.C.E."
71. ZZT - "Lower State Of Consciousness (Justice Remix)"
72. Dan Deacon - "The Crystal Cat"
73. Battles - "Atlas"
74. White Williams - "Smoke"
75. Rjd2 - "Rollerskating Jam"
76. The Chemical Brothers - "Das Speigel"
77. The Avalanches - "Ray Of Zdarlight"
78. Kavinsky - "Wayfarer"
79. The Field - "A Paw In My Face"
80. The Shins - "Sleeping Lessons"
81. Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - "Who Do You Love?"
82. Spoon - "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb"
83. Panda Bear - "Bros (Edit)"
84. Black Kids - "Hurricane Jane"
85. Devin The Dude - "Broccoli & Cheese"
86. Beanie Sigel - "'Bout That (Let Me Know)"
87. Freeway f/ Scarface - "Baby Don't Do It"
88. Jay-Z - "American Dreamin'"
89. Prodigy (Mobb Deep) - "Nickel And A Nail"
90. Wu-Tang Clan f/ George Clinton - "Wolves"
91. El-P - "Tasmanian Pain Coaster"
92. Burial - "Archangel"
93. Damero - "Gersten_Morgan"
94. Dominik Eulberg - "Die Alpenstrandlaufer Von Spieke"
95. Modest Mouse - "Little Motel"
96. Animal Collective - "Fireworks"
97. Menomena - "Wet And Rusting"
98. Radiohead - "All I Need"
99. Caribou - "She's The One"
100. LCD Soundsystem - "All My Friends"