TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2007 (PLUS 3)

Lil Wayne - Drought 3
this album is exactly why the mixtape format works so well. you get Wayne over a bunch of hot songs that have less than stellar vocals and the kid blacks out on 95% of them over the course of a double album. its understatement to say that Wayne killed it this year, as his stock rose incrementally in '07, but on Drought 3 you get all of the lobbying he ever needed for the title of best rapper alive. Dude sounds entirely invigorated, laid back and like hes having the time of his life. similarly to the way Ghostface at his best sounds as if hes simply sitting in his chair and shouting a story at you while soul records play in the background, like some kinda eccentric rap grandpa. Wayne on Drought 3 sounds as if he hes taking part in the greatest, drug aided, stream of consciousness freestyle this side of your most permissive high school friends' mom's basement.
An entirely different beast than on his standard albums or guest appearances his idiosyncrasies show through on Drought 3 and dude crushes every beat he comes into contact with and make this the album of the year easily.

HORSE the band - A Natural Death
This album had absolutely no reason to be anywhere as near as good as it was. A joke band that writes songs about videos games, conceives an album dedicated to pizza and has an affinity for dressing their stage in stuffed animals should not put out a cohesive, grandiose, eclectic fun record. But for some strange reason they are able to pull one of the best metal records of the year out of their collective ass. In a way A Natural Death reminds me of Refused's Shape Of Punk To Come if they dropped the revolutionary politics and decided to have fun a lil bit. A Natural Death somehow manages to be ADD as fuck with raging straight on metalcore songs that sound like the best of Cave In's metal period "Hyperborea", dancey electro numbers "Sex Raptor", slow burning souther instrumentals "Crow Town", cartoon theme songs "Kangarooster Meadows" and expansive ambient electronic passages "Lif". But the great selling point is that all of these songs on one album does not sound disjointed or novel, but instead flows organically from song to song, making the entire album a journey from one odd corner of their aural world to the next. Also they're label mates with the diplomats and Barney which somehow explains alot.

Kanye West - Graduation
You already know whats up with this one.

Justice - †
as much as i wanted to hate on this album as pure hipster band wagonery or as bullshit new wave rave. shit actually bangs. somewhere between early MJ, Aphex Twin and stadium rock these dudes fit in perfectly. i have no clue how this shit works, but it does. the imagery of the lit cross and the two dudes looking like child rapists doesnt really hurt their appeal either.

The Black Dhalia Murder - Nocturnal
Alot of metal bands try and mix evil melody with brutality, alot of metal bands try to get the fist pumping head banging sound like Metallica on Kill Em All. most, fail.
TBDM are not reinventing the wheel, they wear their black metal influences on their sleeves openly, but somewhere in listening to hardcore and american metal they figured out a way to distill black metal into an extremely evil, heavy and anthemic version of Metallica's Kill Em All. 10 songs, no bullshit. the entire album sounds like battle scenes of Lord Of The Rings if the Orcs were telling the story. perfect music to drive really fast in your car too on a moonlit night.

Little Brother - Getback
LB get alot of shit for talking shit on dumb rappers and on hip hop in general, but really its mostly a load of shit. they sound like happy early 90s rap (tribe, de la, pete rock and CL), dope soul beats rap about shit everyone can fuck with (girls, money issues, bullshit job, chillin) and thats all they do. similar to TBDM above, not reinventing the wheel, just some good ol fashion rappity rap.

Cam'ron - Public Enemy #1
For most of the year Cam had bene missing, no mixtapes, no guest spots nothing. while jim jones blew up with We Fly High (Ballin!), Cam was M.I.A. all we got was some bullshit feud with 50 Cent (CURTIIISSSS) and a couple hilarious youtube videos. but then outta nowhere Cam came back with a free double album mixtape. If we previously knew Cam for his over rhyming, egotistical rambling and his predilection for misogyny and grandiose warlike beats. this new Cam is a different beast. the misogyny is still there, but now inserted in love songs, we get a few grandiose beats but we also get slow soul beats almost just as much, the rambling has been extended into a 6 minute non rap intro over a paranoid piano loop. in short the weird what the fuckery of Cam seemingly only grew and festered and matured in his absence and we're reaping all the benefits.

Neurosis - Given To The Rising
Old school metal soundscapists drop their zillionth album and in one fell swoop say to their imitators/progeny "don't forget who started this rap shit" except they replaced rap with soundscape nearly instrumental doom metal. this album sounds like hell, not the bombastic warlike hell that children imagine but the black slowly encompassing quietly tortuous solitary hell that old people fear.

Sigur Ros - Heima and Hvarf-Heim
Never have i heard a band that simultaneously sounded like the saddest and happiest moment of your life. SR continues to put out albums that sound as such.

HONORABLE MENTION:

Baroness - Red Album
What if you took Metallica post Master oF Puppets locked 'em in a room with nothing but mind altering substances, a bunch of Pink Floyd and lasers until 2007? theyd sound much like this band does.

The Cool Kids - Totally Flossed Out
Throwback to the late 80's era rap. simple boom bap tracks and songs about how fresh they are. LL would be proud to hear em on his Raddiiiooo.

Kavinsky - 1986
When you travel back to 1986 to do a bunch of coke and solve crimes in your talking lattack helicopter, bring this album with you. youre gonna be bumping it in the ride ALOT.