Best albums of the year:
Music critics have made their choices for the best in popular and classical releases
1. Radiohead
In Rainbows (self-released)
In Rainbows had “no serious rival” in 2007, said New York. Just when everyone thought that albums were the “only thing deader than rock,” Radiohead shook up the music industry by self-releasing In Rainbows online and letting fans decide what they wished to pay for it. Thom Yorke sings his “dark heart out” throughout this fully realized album.
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2. M.I.A.
Kala (Interscope)
Only M.I.A. could make light of such weighty matters as pocket bombs and the KGB, said Ann Powers in the Los Angeles Times. Kala has the Sri Lankan–British songstress hip-hopping continents to create a “geopolitical playground of rhymes” that is nothing but a “big and bouncy blast of fun.”
3. LCD Soundsystem
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Sound of Silver (DFA)
Sound of Silver is a journey into an infinite electro-space where the “sonic and lyrical elements are in perfect equilibrium,” said Ben Thompson in the London Observer. James “Mixmaster” Murphy and company have created a moveable feast, from the slight opening pulses of “Get Innocuous” to the Manhattan anthem “New York, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down.” We dare you not to dance along.
4. Amy Winehouse
Back to Black (Island)
Once you hear Amy Winehouse, you’re left wondering “who stuffed all those black ladies into that tiny white girl,” said Time. Back to Black, the U.S. debut from the bee-hived Brit, is beyond a “brilliant reincarnation” of Motown. She’s as hard up and heartbroken as her soul sisters, but Mark Ronson’s production makes this record unmistakably now.
5. Spoon
Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (Merge)
Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga is the Spoon album that fans have been waiting for, said Jake Coyle in the Associated Press. After a period of jumping from label to label, Britt Daniel and his Austin-based rock band hung on to produce their best record yet—a “tightly honed collection” of “robust, hi-fi rockers” and “sparse arrangements.”
6. Arcade Fire
Neon Bible (Merge)
Arcade Fire’s second album, like the Montreal-based band itself, is a “thrilling enigma,” said the London Guardian. An album “this mired in fathomless darkness shouldn’t sound so dazzling.” The follow-up to 2004’s Funeral may “rock in an epic manner,” but the sextet has maintained its indie integrity.
7. Feist
The Reminder (Interscope)
Only folk darling Feist can “croon about dear-diary subjects” and leave guys feeling unashamed to sing along, said GQ. On her sophomore effort, the Canadian sings about such obvious girly woes as love and heartbreak. But her diaphanous vocals and candid lyrics carried over lush, lo-fi melodies “pack a thumping rawness.”
8. Kanye West
Graduation (Island Def Jam)
Kanye West’s latest “single-handedly takes hip-hop back to its pre–Run-DMC disco days,” said Nathan Brackett in Rolling Stone. Tighter and less showy than 2005’s Late Registration, Graduation shows that West has grown as a writer and a rapper. It’s an “album you first like, then love.”
9. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss
Raising Sand (Rounder)
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss seemed like an odd couple, said Greg Kot in the Chicago Tribune. But Raising Sand proved that the beauty’s honeyed vocals could tame the rock beast’s roar. Together their hushed, harmonious voices create a “mystical blend of noir blues and country” and channel the “bucolic ghosts of Led Zeppelin III.”
10. The White Stripes
Icky Thump (Warner)
Icky Thump is the “most accessible and straight-up fun record” that Jack and Meg White have made, said The Onion. The White Stripes once again summon the ghosts of music past, including boogie, blues stomps, and country kickers. Like any great rock band, they “cajole listeners to dance, shout, and pump fists.”
The best classical album of 2007
Lorraine Hunt Lieberson and Roger Vignoles
Songs by Mahler, Handel and Peter Lieberson (BBC/Wigmore Hall Live)
Hunt Lieberson, who died last year at the age of 52, stands as the “most luminous and soulful singer of our times,” said Richard Scheinin in the San Jose Mercury News. This “all-wondrous” concert, recorded in London’s Wigmore Hall, captures the mezzo-soprano’s transcendent vocals in works by canonical composers, as well as by her husband, Peter.
How the albums were chosen
We tabulated critics’ choices from more than 25 sources, including the Associated Press, Billboard, The Boston Globe, the Chicago Tribune, the London Daily Telegraph, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, GQ, the London Guardian, Harp, the Los Angeles Times, Maxim, New York, The New York Times, NME, the London Observer, The Onion A/V Club, the Oregonian, Paste, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Q, Rolling Stone, the San Francisco Chronicle, The San Diego Union-Tribune, the San Jose Mercury News, Slate.com, Spin, Time, and the London Times.