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2007 was another great year to find music, whether popular or little-known. The following are a couple albums I found myself listening to more than any others. Some are recent releases, others arrived early in the year – but each seemed to hold something a little bit fresh and different from everything else on the scene.

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#15. Spoon
“Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga”
I was a huge fan of 2005’s “Gimme Fiction,” and I’m a bigger fan of this album. Consistently listenable and uptempo tunes fill the album from top to bottom, and their gig at Lollapalooza only increased their fanbase further. This is a group that’s blowing up, as they say. They had the balls to charge $75 at the Metro Chicago in December, so lead singer Britt Daniels must finally be feeling a level of rock star love to match his rock star charisma.

#14. Justice
“†”
What is it about the French? Their food is greasy and fattening, their attitudes the stuff of legend. But their dance music is straight-ahead rocking (see: Basement Jaxx, Daft Punk). The duo of Justice may not win awards for originality, but they can certainly get butts on the dancefloor. Highlights include “D.A.N.C.E.,” whose Schoolyard Rock chorus works perfectly (and the remix with Mos Def is spectacular), the jazzy menace of “Phantom,” and the cock-rock bluntness of “Dvno.” The ego/cockiness is evident in their entire package and adds to the fun, from the mustaches to the skinny jeans to the unpronounceable album title. How long the clock runs for Justice will depend on how far they can push the boundaries of their jock-rock well-worn sound, but for this year the fun factor remains high.

#13. The Shins
“Wincing The Night Away”
Like most of “Scrubs”-loving America, I was swept up in the beauty of “New Slang,” Zach Braff’s soundtrack gift and The Shins’ big break. I did not enjoy the rest of Chutes Too Narrow as it was such a deviation from what I enjoyed most about the single. Imagine my delight (actually, don’t – that sounds creepy) when I first heard “Wincing The Night Away,” a record whose sound is seemingly centered around the best bits of “New Slang”: Simple, bright tunes with slightly odd lyrics concerning girl sailors, phantom limbs, and sea legs. The circus sideshow aspect is there but doesn’t overwhelm, keeping the album just strange enough to be interesting.

#12. Arctic Monkeys
“Favourite Worst Nightmare”
After the love/hate explosion of being the UK’s Next Big Thing, you would be forgiven for thinking the barely-legal punks would fold under worldwide pressure and criticism. Of course, you would be wrong. Nightmare is in many ways a superior disc to the defiant Whatever You Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not. Wearing their New Wave punk influences on their sleeves, they manage to build and expand their sound while staying true to what made them fun to begin with. Short, tight, cleanly grooving jams rail against fickle music critics, backstabbing friends, girls attracted to bad boyfriends, and the rollercoaster of youth and young relationships. This album also earns points for being one of the most party-friendly discs of the year – which is appreciated.

#11. Wu Tang Clan
“8 Diagrams”
My expectations could not have been lower for this album: in-fighting and egos were the only pre-album buzz, and Ghost has made the only pop-culture blip on the landscape in the last five years. But to many people’s surprise, the Wu stormed back hungry and tight, banging out a very solid effort that proves when they get in a room, there’s a lot of talent ready to blast the speakers out. Wisely, they kick off with “Campfire,” a showpiece for Wu anchors Meth and Ghostface, the former dropping a stutter-style tounge-twister flow that Ghost picks up immediately and embellishes. This album also features some of the best kung-fu beats and samples since 36 Chambers – which is a long time back – most notably the royal horn march of “Rushing Elephants,” featuring a great couple bars by U-God, the underrated Tang’er whose Clan lines always rise to the competition more than his solo work. Inspectah Deck and Masta Killa are still dropping the same phrases they always do, and RZA’s flow is still mumble-mouthed and awkward, but GZA and Raekwon can paint a picture in their flow that’s uniquely Wu-Tang. Even though they’ve lost ODB and the wild-card insanity he could unleash on any track, this album is still a showcase of veteran talent that knows they can no longer hope to get by on reputation alone.

#10. Nine Inch Nails
“Year Zero”
Crashing back into collective consciousness from the depths of your high school memories, Trent Reznor constructs his most paranoid, angry, political – and dare I say interesting – album in a long long time. This is a disc you’ll want to hear constantly, a tight conceptual package of attitude that stretches from guerilla marketing on YouTube (giant god-hands reaching from the sky to a desert highway) to a final cataclysmic battle with his label (earning him independence a few short months ago). Reznor hasn’t changed much since last we noticed him: Still anti-gub’ment, anti-authority, and anti-social. But the sounds over which he barks are again as interesting as the rants themselves, battering drums and buzzsaw guitars dipped in acid and covered in rust. Trent brings the sexy back with a disco vibe on Bush-basher “Capitol G” and “The Good Soldier,” samples 80s arcade basslines on “The Great Destroyer,” resurrects his Broken-era thrash on album intro “Hyperpower!”, and channels Mike Patton on “Survivalism.” This gives me hope that our favorite sourpuss still has some tricks left up his sleeve.

#09. VHS Or Beta
“Bring On The Comets”
No one brought us back to the heights of electro rock this year the same as VHS Or Beta. This tremendous pop rock effort is one of the best listen-through albums of 2007, even folding in influences of Pink Floyd, U2, and other classic rock greats along the way. Their arena-filling sound, all reverb and big chords, fleshes out a danceable bass/drum foundation. The first half of the album is slightly more guitar-based; the second half more electronic. But their sound is consistent from start to finish – randomizing the tracks doesn’t detract from listenability (the mark of a great album, in my opinion). Standout tracks include the anthemic title track, the 80s Erasure-like revolution of “Burn It All Down,” the simple-pleasure pop-rock of “Love In My Pocket,” and the breezy “do do do” rock humalong of “She Says.” Not the headiest album of the year, but guaranteed to keep your feet moving.

#08. Queens of the Stone Age
“Era Vulgaris”
Josh Homme’s most pointedly atonal album is a direct rebellion against critics’ charge that the Queens lost their edge when he unceremoniously fired bassist/naked screamer Nick Olivieri a few years ago. While the next resulting album, Lullabies To Paralyze, was certainly not a QOTSA best, Era finds Homme returning to the individualistic snotty streak that first brought him to prominence in 1998. The album kicks off hard as Homme realizes “The world is round/ My square don’t fit at all,” and takes some hard swipes at the haters: “They say those who can’t just instruct others/ You can’t lose it if you never had it/ You ain’t a has been if you never was.” “I’m Designer” is a stuttering guitar stab of defiance and outrage aimed squarely at GenX: “My generation’s for sale/ Beats a steady job/ The thing that’s real for us is fortune and fame/ All the rest seems like work.” This is one of the first Queens albums where lyrics are a focus more than a textural element (or maybe just the first time Homme has let his famous guard down). There is a fair amount of singularity and ostracism conveyed by Homme toward his band’s role as “guilty pleasure music,” and he looks to be trying to shake a couple fair-weather fans with this disc. Sparse, lean and street punk aggressive with a mind to match the muscle, Era Vulgaris is one of the most memorable albums of 2007.

#07. Kings of Leon
“Because of the Times”
I was mildly impressed with Youth and Young Manhood, but never really gave it much of a second thought after it was replaced in my rotation. Not so with Times – it’s a good hangover record, and so had plenty of calls from the bullpen. The uniquely Southern-ness of it, the almost-Rolling Stones attitude, the visual lyrics of the Brothers Followill (mostly no-good women and the booze they bring) all make this a very American album. Not in a Toby Keith way, but a Corvette-driving, blue collar, tales of life gone wrong kind of way. It reveals itself upon multiple listens, some songs showing themselves at different times, others reliably rocking out every time. “Ragoo,” “On Call,” and “McFearless” are the alpha males of the album, but nearly every track can stand on its own if you’re in the mood to hear it. And for my money, a record that tells you a different story every time you play it is one to keep.

#06. M.I.A.
“Kala”
Probably the most foreign musical experience of 2007 – literally and figuratively. After being refused entry into the US to record with Timbaland for political reasons, M.I.A. decided to blow her album advance traveling the world to find undiscovered production talent. Lucky for us, she found it in some unlikely places. The decidedly African and Far East sounds, beats, and concepts of Kala are like almost nothing being done in the West today. Even the song titles are Eastern-influenced: “Bird Flu” was named such because M.I.A. felt its beat would spread through clubs as fast as its namesake virus. The drums and chanting of “Boyz” is the sonic equivalent of an African market after a World Cup victory (and nearly as over-the-top). A lot of people wanted to count M.I.A. out after a meteoric rise to fame landed her in weekly hipster paparazzi columns. But with this sophomore effort she’s living up to the hype, and in many ways surpassing it. We should all look forward to what else is in store.

#05. Radiohead
“In Rainbows”
As much a story for its method of delivery as its music, In Rainbows feels like the album I’ve been waiting for since the success of OK Computer pushed them away from conspicuously rocking music years back. Kicking off with a one-two punch of “15 Step” and “Bodysnatchers” sets an early tone which, while not sustained in BPM, is kept alive with intelligent chord progressions, ominous strings, and some great vocals. It may not take hold at first, but most Radiohead albums are dense affairs to be slowly absorbed by osmosis into your brain. After the “Ah-ha!” moment of each record arrives, it’s easier to appreciate the nuance and form. Some would say that makes In Rainbows a “difficult” record from a “difficult” group, but what the hell is news about that idea?

#04. LCD Soundsystem
“Sounds of Silver”
I’ve seen this album described as “electronic music for grown-ups.” Which makes it sound like one of the most boring albums ever; suitable only for background noise at wine-and-cheese parties where everyone compares mortgage rates and babysitter cellphone numbers. But in reality, it’s a funny-smart collection of rants about people trying to find fun in a world that’s not, wired to some fantastic backing beats. There’s the winking, wicked/smart dressing-down of American isolationism in “North American Scum,” where-the-party-at album opener “Time To Get Away,” the Who-like epic build of “All My Friends,” disco-guitar and high-hat ride of “Us v Them,” and the hilarious open-letter kiss-off “New York, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down.” This is an album that rides the rock/dance tightrope as close as possible, leaning and wavering this way or that, thrilling us the whole time.

#03. The Arcade Fire
“Neon Bible”
Fist-in-the-air anthems, over-earnest intensity and rollercoasters of emotion pack every track of Neon Bible. This is music for shouting; whipping listeners into the same religious fervors and string-tinged emotional frenzies the songs themselves darkly warn against. Canadian-born but with a decidedly Rust Belt Americana flavor, Arcade Fire here sound like the anti-Mellencamp: Singer Win Butler knows blue collar life and honest living, but doesn’t buy the small-minded simplicity angle inherent in that life – a thinly veiled shackle that suckers lesser men into religious bullying or settling for the cards life can deal us. Righteous indignation is his drink of choice and he passes it around liberally over propulsive rhythm, synths and strings. In a year with a lot of anger toward world events beyond our control, Arcade Fire have brought the conversation back to the individual, personal battles that impact us even more.

#02. El-P
“I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead”
The intro features a Twin Peaks sample concerning falling through space. The outro is a mix of free jazz and turntablism. But in between is the densest, most industrially aggressive sound in hip-hop. Lyricist and producer El-P – born Jaime Meline – swarms back on the scene after five years away, armed with a sonic palette that sounds like Public Enemy’s Bomb Squad producers trapped in a microwave. Time off has only enhanced El-P’s ornery black humor streak, as he unloads a half-decade of aggression into an hour’s worth of incredibly layered tracks of verbal animosity. Opener “Tasmanian Pain Coaster” is an accelerating track that blends from a chance meeting on the train into a commentary on man’s need for meaning: “Evidence of pressures mounting/ Wounded working city unit,” he observes about his down-and-out acquaintance as they speed uptown on the subway. “Smithereens (Stop Cryin’)” sums up our world state by pointedly asking, “Why should I be sober when God is so clearly dusted out of his mind?” Elsewhere, El-P weaves in and out of stabbing horns and keyboards on “Drive” darkly comparing US and Middle Eastern political climates via driving attitudes and choice of vehicles : “New York is Fallujah for Metal Gear-using Christians/ Posted up for the gods of oil mining/ In a military Humvee with no bulletproof siding.” Trent Reznor adds vocal hooks to “Flyentology,” as El-P finds his agnostic belief set overcome by survival instincts on a turbulent plane: “Suspension of disbelief in uniquely freak flash/ Thirty-thousand feet and dropping it’s on-and-popping at last/ Lord please forgive my bastardized style-dash/ And anoint me with salvation in form of non-crash.” Overall, I’ll Sleep is El Producto’s most consistent disc; his anger more broad and mature, his targets more immediately identifiable – and identified with – without compromising his vision one iota. His futuristic mechasound and shotgun blast wordplay has finally found a partner in his subject matter, and his work is all the better. I listened to this album far more than any other this year and I’m still finding new pieces to uncover.

#01. The National
“Boxer”
There was a fair amount of The Boss being channeled in popular music this year, as wars rage on, housing dips, and economies continue soft recoveries no one can feel. No record caught that feeling more succinctly and exactly than Boxer. An amazing record whose every track does what music is supposed to do: Capture a feeling, convey a subconscious fact, enact a tipping point in thought which the general populace knows to be true but cannot convey. The deep bass voice, propelling drums, atmospheric guitar, strings, and piano: Boxer has managed to capture our national temperature for 2007 and somehow encapsule that into a single listening experience.