2007: number 1

To recap:

10. White Rabbits, Fort Nightly
9. Patrick Wolf, The Magic Position
8. Sally Shapiro, Disco Romance
7. Robyn, Robyn (UK Edition)
6. Burial, Untrue
5. Roisin Murphy, Overpowered
4. The Field, From Here We Go Sublime
3. Tracey Thorn, Out of the Woods
2. M.I.A., Kala

and last - or more properly first - but not least....

wait for it...

wait for it...

the biggest non-surprise of the list....



Radiohead
In Rainbows
It was four years since the BEST BAND EVER(!!!!!!!) put out their last album, Hail to the Thief, when guitarist Johnny Greenwood announced in October that Radiohead would be releasing their seventh LP, In Rainbows. The following week. On the internet. For however much one felt like paying. Such tactics had been utilized before by minor artists, but this was Radiohead, and the news threatened to overshadow the album itself. Not only that, but this seemingly slapdash method, thrown on the internet only a week after announcing it when everyone was expecting a 2008 release, made it seem like this wasn't a REAL album, that the band didn't have as much faith in these songs as they did for their traditional CDs. Neither of these anxieties came to fruition, for simply put, In Rainbows is perhaps their best album since 2000's Kid A, a collection of songs that recalls both the more guitar-driven Bends/OK Computer period ("Bodysnatchers", "Jigsaw Falling Into Place", "Big Ideas") and their more recent experimental leanings ("15 Step", "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi", the utterly sublime "Reckoner"). I fell in love with most of these tracks when they first started playing them in early 2006 and, more importantly, I got to see them performed live on their first US date, and yet the slightly altered and sometimes entirely new arrangements make it all feel so new again, particularly on closer "Videotape", here softer, somewhat less focused, mournful yet strangely uplifting, and as perfect an album closer as there will ever be. "No matter what happens now you shouldn't be afraid because I know today has been the most perfect day I've ever seen."