Music in 2007: The Best of the Rest

I’ve been a bit late in posting my year-end favourite music list. For awhile, I thought it was because there weren’t that many albums I was very crazy about in 2007. But, with a bit more reflection, there actually were quite a few great ones. I’m going to write separate entries for each of my top 5, but here’s the best of the rest:

I’m Not There Soundtrack
Iron and Wine - The Shepherd’s Dog
The National - Boxer
White Stripes - Icky Thump
Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
St. Vincent - Marry Me
Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger
Bright Eyes - Cassadaga
Feist - The Reminder
Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?
Elliott Smith - New Moon
Kings of Leon - Because of the Times
Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank
The New Pornographers - Challengers
Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Bruce Springsteen - Magic

If the me of a year ago could see that list, I think he’d be very surprised to see new records by Iron & Wine and Ryan Adams not in the top 5, and even more surprised to see a Bright Eyes album anywhere near the list! I’ve linked to a decent YouTube or other sample if you’d like to check any of them out. Any guesses as to what’s in the top 5? Some of them are obvious.