TOP TEN TOP TENS

For your viewing pleasure, the top ten Top Ten Lists for the end of 2K7.


X. TOP TEN SONGS: "CATCHING ALL THE LIGHTS, VOL. 1"
(Not a Top Ten list, but my music-nurdz-end-of-the-year mix CD. Ask me, and I'll burn it for you.)

1. "Taken Too Young (f/ Taken By Trees)" - The Tough Alliance
   Remixing a song and recording your own vocals over the whole thing, then throwing in island sounds and and African children's choir is the new remixing.


2. "Hussel (f/ Afrikan Boy)" - M.I.A.
   "You know I'm big in Mozambique. Eh eh!"


3. "Patterns of a Diamond Ceiling" - Marnie Stern
   To paraphrase that Newport kid in I'm Not There, every once in a while I kind of like having my brain melted down with sulfuric acid, quick-frozen, and turned into raspberry ice cream.


4. "A Postcard To Nina" - Jens Lekman
   The cutest ode to staying in the closet ever.


5. "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" - Vampire Weekend
   This was the year I got back into Fela and Femi Kuti and Antibalas. Good timing, guys -- not to mention "Louis Vuitton/reggaeton/sandy lawn/Benneton." Wow.


6. "Umbrella (Remix f/ Chris Brown and Jay-Z)" - Rihanna
   Just try crying through it. Come on, all of us at some time or another have driven down 676 with the windows rolled way up so we could plow through the confetti rain of this chorus at the tops of our lungs. You don't have to admit it, but it's true.


7. "The Operation" - Charlotte Gainsbourg
   Serge's daughter lives up to her father's mischievous reputation as she slices her lover into little bits to get to know him better and then shrugs when things don't go well.


8. "I Guess We'll Forget the Sound, I Guess, I Guess" - Bodies of Water
   Get religion.


9. "Horse & I" - Bat for Lashes
   Can we have more music like this in general? Can someone send a copy of this to Kate Bush?


10. "Night Drive" - Chromatics
    Texas Fauxtalians are sexy, creepy, and brilliant.


11. "The Other Woman" - Devendra Banhart
    I wanted to include "Seahorse," but it was too long. I like this song almost as much. The whole album is like a more lucid Paul Morrissey dream sequence that somehow makes sense.


12. "Diamond Heart" - Marissa Nadler
    Taking back women and guitars. I'll bet the decaf crowd doesn't take well to Marissa - "I had a man in every town/And I thought of you each time I tore off my gown" doesn't sound bitter, desperate or slutty, just vulnerable, weathered and honest. She is the most deceptively difficult performer to categorize in 2007.


13. "No More" - The Dirty Projectors
    When your roommate gets famous, you're proud of him. When his music sounds like this, you become the giddy fan of your roommate.


14. "Four Winds" - Bright Eyes
    I wasn't even really a fan until a few years ago; now I wonder if the man can make a bad album. It seems effortless.


15. "Intervention" - Arcade Fire
    OOORRRGGGAAAANNN


16. "Plus Ones" - Okkervil River
    In which the young lads one-up R.E.M, The Zombies, The Commodores, the Crests, Nena, the Byrds and more in one fell swoop.


17. "Myriad Harbour" - The New Pornographers
    I want to give Destroyer another chance now.


18. "Friday I'm In Love" - Scala and Kolacny Brothers
    A great DJ changes the way people feel about music and exposes them to music from other sides of the spectrum; Diplo did that this year when he released a mixtape that included Scala and Kolacny's cover of the Knife's "Heartbeats." We all went scrambling to find the original, and some of us stumbled onto this track from this year's excellent "One-Winged Angel," featuring unironic choral versions of Marilyn Manson, Radiohead and more. I wish I was great enough to get the club kids to listen to choral music, and vice versa.


19. "Peace Is Burning Like a River" - Bitter, Bitter Weeks
    A wish for peace to everyone in 2K8. Also, a wish that Philly bands like this one would keep being so good and getting noticed all over the place. Cheers!