ALBUMS (descending points)
1. Aly + AJ - Insomniatic
2. Fall Out Boy - Infinity on High
3. Rihanna - Good Girl Gone Bad
4. Against Me! - New Wave
5. New Pornographers - Challengers
6. The Noisettes - What's The Time Mr. Wolf?
7. M.I.A. - Kala
8. Taylor Swift - Taylor Swift
9. Paula Cole - Courage
10. Iron & Wine - The Shepherd's Dog

TRACKS
1. Fall Out Boy - This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race
2. Rihanna - Umbrella
3. Lil' Mama - Lip Gloss
4. Kelly Clarkson - Never Again
5. R. Kelly - I'm a Flirt
6. Britney Spears - Piece of Me
7. The National - Fake Empire
8. Christine Ebersole - Revolutionary Costume of the Day
9. My Chemical Romance - Teenagers
10. Plain White T's - Hey There, Delilah

REISSUES
1. Neil Young - Live at Massey Hall
2. Jimmy Eat World - Clarity
3. Operation Ivy - Operation Ivy
4. Leonard Cohen - Songs of Leonard Cohen
5. Bioshock - Original Licensed Soundtrack

ARTISTS
1. Rihanna
2. OiNK
3. Miranda Lambert
4. Aly + AJ
5. ILX

COMMENTS
Dear Charlotte,

Sometimes I listen to music so much that I forget why I listen to music. It's because it's a soundtrack to my life, not because my life is a soundtrack to my music. I listen to music because it runs while we're kissing, when we're sitting on the couch talking, when we wake up together and light fills our bedroom and I've set my laptop to play my new favorite track.

I listen to music because it makes me happy, it makes us dance, it gives us something to talk about, something to argue about, something to live to. I listen to music because I need something to give to you, like a readymade - like a found object - something to show you how I feel. I could just tell you, but giving you a song shows you that even when I'm holed up, my headphones on, my eyes shut, even in those private moments - you are with me.

Do you remember all the music we listened to this year? We listened to punk, ska (you still love Reel Big Fish, after all these years. Who'd know?), emo, folk, country, pop, heavy metal (you hated those Cookie Monster vocals), hip-hop, R&B, dubstep (and you asked me why I listened to ambiance stuff), and all those Disney music videos we watched with my little sister. Do you remember when I heard an album I loved, and I told you to remember it for me? So I could list it at the end of the year?

Charlotte, you're my memory keeper.

I was going to write a long exegeses explaining my choices for top 10 singles and top 10 albums. God knows I have what to write. I spent hours upon hours compiling these lists. I added and subtracted and weighed albums against each other.

But then I thought about you. And I decided that instead of turning this public space into a tribute to my own choices, I'd turn it into a tribute to you. Char, these aren't the best songs we heard this year (though some were). And they weren't necessarily the most rockin' ones. But these were some of the songs we lived with. And I hope that when you hear this mixtape, you'll remember us in 2007.

Charlotte, we've been married a year and a half, and you are still my love light.

Sincerely,
Mordy

Mixtape for Charlotte: 2007
1. Two Hours Traffic - Jezebel
2. Spoken Word Interlude (P.S. I love you)
3. Noisettes - The Count of Monte Christo
4. Boys Like Girl - The Great Escape
5. The Frames - Dream Awake
6. Northern State - Better Already
7. The New Pornographers - All The Old Showstoppers
8. Paula Cole - Love Light (Cardinal)
9. 50 Cent - All of Me
10. Amy Adams - That's How You Know
11. New Found Glory - Iris
12. Dragonette - I Get Around
13. Rihanna - Push Up On Me
14. Streetlight Manifesto - Down, Down, Down to Mephisto's Cafe
15. Sum 41 - With Me
16. Dawn Landes - Kissing Song
17. Pharoah's Daughter - By Way of Haran
18. VA - You Are The Music In Me
19. Aly + AJ - Blush
20. Taylor Swift - Tim McGraw
21. Fall Out Boy - Hum Hallelujah
22. Say Anything - This is Fucking Ecstasy
23. Jordin Sparks - Tattoo
24. The Coral - Fireflies
25. The National - Fake Empire
26. Joni Mitchell - Big Yellow Taxi (2007)