ALBUMS (10 each)
1. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
2. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
3. Mark Ronson - Version
4. Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings - 100 Days, 100 Nights
5. Studio - Yearbook 1
6. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
7. Grinderman - Grinderman
8. The Dirty Projectors - Rise Above
9. Voxtrot - Voxtrot
10. Tracey Thorn - Out of the Woods

TRACKS
1. LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends
2. Mary J. Blige - Just Fine
3. Rihanna - Umbrella
4. T-Pain feat. Akon - Bartender
5. Interpol - Pioneer to the Falls
6. Spoon - The Underdog
7. Mark Ronson feat. Amy Winehouse - Valerie
8. Escort - A Bright New Life
9. Sean Kingston - Beautiful Girls
10. Lil' Mama - Lip Gloss

REISSUES
1. Pylon - Gyrate
2. v/a - New Orleans Brass
3. Seefeel - Quique
4. Magazine - The Correct Use of Soap
5. v/a - New Orleans Funk: The Original Sound Of Funk: 1960 - 75

ARTISTS
1. T-Pain
2. LCD Soundsystem
3. Spoon
4. Sharon Jones
5. Patrick Wolf

COMMENTS
Oh, 2007. You rascally year of disappointments!

Sometimes I feel like it's easier to explain what I hated this year thank what I loved. Was it that I'd moved too far forward, or that bands I'd loved for years had made a wrong turn somewhere?

Maybe some of both. Luckily, Spoon didn't let me down — even if Okkervil River, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Andrew Bird, The National, Interpol, and M.I.A and what seemed like countless others did.

On the other hand, R'n'B and hip-hop totally became the center of my existence — most likely as I left the den of indie iniquity that is Austin, and landed right in the middle of Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. It was a welcome change, to say the least.

I can gladly explain my year to you by the Hot 100 hits that blared out of cars or from boomboxes strapped to the back of bicycles — or that kept us dancing in the laundromat, or that groups of girls would sing, arms linked, as they walked down the street. The first half of the year was "Irreplaceable," summer was all about "Umbrella" and "Beautiful Girls" and "Crank That (Souljah Boy)" — and the fall was owned by "Just Fine." Let it be known that I hardly ever heard Kanye, thank goodness — and I never did hear enough of "Tambourine," though — bummer.

Moving to Brooklyn reminded me of what good music does best — it scores your life and experiences — it isn't just a way to keep score of your hip factor.

And yet I also found myself wandering the bleaker corners of the way-too-hip post-post-post punk NYC scene — reveling in the wonderful, tough bleak rock'n'roll naked male pain that is a Bellmer Dolls show. Spending messy nights out with any number of hidden noisy, crabby bands that will never rate a Best New Music label on Pitchfork. You won't see me at McCarren park pool in the summer, but you might find me bad-mouthing the Bowery Ballroom and loitering at Pianos or Cake Shop or the still-dreadful Lit or the totally played-out Annex or the far-flung Studio B — still searching for the slivers of bleakness that remain in an increasingly clean and sanitized NYC.

I miss my nights of aural pleasures in Austin — at Emo's and The Parish and Room 710 and Stubb's; I miss that whole life dreadfully some days. But I can never go back to that now. And in the end, this year was more about a psychological shift than an aesthetic one. It was about becoming a self-sufficient adult in the toughest city in the world. And I think I made it. So even if writing about music this year was hard, and getting out to shows was nearly impossible — I had a lot of time to think. And just like Mary, "I like what I see when I'm looking at me when I'm walking past the mirror" — and people, seriously, that's just fine. (Wooo!)