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the fact that there is so much i didn’t listen to this year makes me loathe to call this a “best of” list (also illustrated by the lack of debut albums). but i did enjoy the following records quite a bit, so you should check them out if you haven’t:

feist - the reminder
pela - anytown graffiti
spoon - ga ga ga ga ga
m.i.a. - kala
les savy fav - let’s stay friends
emily haines & the soft skeleton - what is free to a good home?
ted leo & the pharmacists - living with the living

i was cuckoo for feist this year, even after “1-2-3-4″ became the song that you could. not. escape. as middle of the road as let it die was, the reminder marks feist finding a sound that suits her writing best and was easily my favorite record of 2007. spoon really surprised me with a record of fully realized songs, the opposite of 2005’s gimme fiction. m.i.a. came back with powa powa and a record that was every bit as urgent and vital as her last, if not a bit more varied and worldly-sounding (ugh, i hate the term “organic”) with homages to bollywood and aboriginal artists to go along with the firearm percussion and loop-de-loop rhymes.

to me, the only line better delivered than tim harrington yelping “draw up the drawbridge, draw down the blinds, everyone inside is getting high tonight!” this year was emily haines barely breathing, “the next time you visit me here, how about coming out to my place? we can sit on the floor and play my brother’s records, we can sit on the grown-up bed”. swoon city. in a year where many artists opted for self-indulgence or altogether unmemorable records, pela and ted leo made no-frills rock albums free of pretension and filled them with great songs.