Charts >>> 2007 >>> albums
My favourite CDs of the year! Most of them are 2007-exclusive but I obviously included a few of 2006's in there as well because, well, sometimes it just takes a while for music to grow on me, or I haven't yet put the CD down from when I first got it last year. I figure if I'm still enjoying the music in its first run and it hasn't yet gotten dusty at all, it's eligible!


30 Killers Sawdust
I think the compilations of b-sides and other unreleased recordings from the Killers is probably better overall than last year's 'Sam's Town'. The opening track 'Tranquilize' with Lou Reed, is almost up there with 'All These Things That I've Done' and 'Mr. Brightside'. And I really like the inclusion of the Jacques LuCont's Thin White Duke Remix of 'Mr. Brightside', which is among my favourite dance remixes of any song ever. It's awesome!
Key Tracks Tranquilize, Shadowplay, Mr. Brightside [Jacques LuCont's Thin White Duke Remix]

29 Kate Maki The Sun Will Find Us
I'm cheating by including a few older albums on this list but my rule is to pretty much limit it to CDs that have caught my attention within the last year or so, or otherwise albums that I have yet to put down since I got them in 2006, which applies to a few on this list as well. This CD I got in late 2004. I saw Kate open for Tegan and Sara the year before and I was impressed with her. When I first got 'The Sun Will Find Us', I wasn't too welcoming of most of the songs on here because they were too country for me but in the last year, I've given more of a chance to them and bit by bit, I've warmed up to this.
Key Tracks One By One, Forever Blue, Someone Better, Mid March Blues

28 Amy Winehouse Back To Black
A lot of this album, to me, sounds like something from the middle of the last century. But I guess that's the style of rhythm and blues that a lot of the songs are characterized as, which I admit I don't listen to often. It took me months to really get into 'Rehab' but when I did, a lot of the other songs caught on easily. While it's still not really my cup of tea, Amy has convinced me of most of the tracks on here, mainly the title track, 'Tears Dry On Their Own' and the soulful 'Me And Mr. Jones'.
Key Tracks Rehab, You Know I'm No Good, Back To Black

27 Timbaland Shock Value
I've given up buying hip-hop albums pretty much because I find them much too long and can rarely ever get into more than a few songs. There are always going to be exceptions and I think this record is one of them. It should probably be treated as more of a compilation album produced by Tim with all of the featured artists. A lot of the songs are catchy hip-hop/pop tracks that would sound good at a club or on the radio, which I'm sure half of the tracks on here could be big hits. I think 'Apologize' is among the best on here but there are songs that I like better than 'The Way I Are', which in itself is good. I was disappointed with the song featuring Missy Elliott. Normally, I love her but 'Bounce' is probably the album's lowest point. Otherwise, it's a good mix of Tim productions.
Key Tracks Apologize, Time, Release

26 Holly McNarland Chin Up Buttercup
It took Holly five years to come up with a followup to 'Home Is Where My Feet Are'. I wasn't really holding my breath for it though because, while I like her enough, I wouldn't consider myself a huge fan so I wasn't anticipating this. But I got it anyway because 'Stuff' is one of my favourite records. I'll say right away that I think this album could be better than 'Home...' (obviously not as good as 'Stuff' tho) but that will take some work on my part. I realized that I did miss Holly's voice though. This is an album that I could listen to off and on for a while.
Key Tracks Fly, Dry As A Bone, Sad Songs

25 Sarah Slean Orphan Music
Sarah Slean is probably my favourite performer ever! I've seen her in concert four times and she's extremely entertaining, funny yet very classy and elegent. Her songs take on a life of their own with their imagery and phrasing. On Halloween of 2006, she released Orphan Music. A mix of songs recorded live and newly recorded studio versions of some tracks. While I wasn't a fan of the tracklisting, nor the idea of mixing bare studio recordings with live recordings (I hate when live songs are tacked on in the middle of studio-recorded songs on compilations/albums) but I did appreciate the thought of releasing a CD between studio albums. And it's always nice to hear Sarah live even when it's not live. But it really doesn't compare to the real thing. So in a way, it makes me a bit homesick for Sarah Slean shows.
Key Tracks Little London Night, Mary, Somebody's Arms

24 Dixie Chicks Taking The Long Way
This CD was near the top of last year's list but I still listened to it enough this year for it to make it on again. That and I was finally able to listen to their entire thing in one sitting comfortably. I don't know why it took so long for me to achieve that but I could only take this album in doses. Anywho, this year, they won five Grammy awards, which I think was justice done. Anyway, not much to say on this album since it is really no longer relevant and is really last year's news but if you haven't yet, I think you should check it out. 'Not Ready To Make Nice' remains one of the ten best songs of the decade so far!
Key Tracks Not Ready To Make Nice, Easy Silence, Lubbock Or Leave It, Voice Inside My Head

23 Pink I'm Not Dead
This is another 2006 CD but I'm counting it in here because I didn't get it until the LAST week of 2006 and didn't listen to it until the calender had to be replaced. I was never a big fan of Pink. I thought she lacked direction. But then I got this album, gave it a chance EVENTUALLY and realized, wow! I like Pink! I can't believe I didn't like 'Stupid Girls' when I first heard it but it is SO catchy! I always liked 'Who Knew', 'Dear Mr. President' is a big FU to Bush, although a bit more respectible than that. The only song I really don't like is 'Cuz I Can', the rest is alright!
Key Tracks Long Way To Happy, Stupid Girls, Leave Me Alone (I'm Lonely), Dear Mr. President

22 Dixie Chicks Top Of The World Tour Live
Let me explain this one. I didn't get this double-disc collection until THIS year and while I otherwise wouldn't have included it, I did listen to it a lot! It makes up for the lack of an Accidents and Accusations Live CD. Plus, it's two CDs worth of awesome Dixie Chicks music which includes all of the 'Home' album (which I also just got into this year) and some classics like 'Goodbye Earl', 'Wide Open Spaces', 'Cowboy Take Me Away' and more!
Key Tracks Goodbye Earl, Travelin' Soldier, Top Of The World, Mississippi

21 Arcade Fire Neon Bible
I like how much anticipation there was for this CD. A phone number you could call, an awesome website and the album cover was pretty cool too. The SNL performance was pretty awesome too. But then it seemed to die after the album was finally released. What happened? Neon Bible is a pretty cool CD though. Almost instantly classic and epic!
Key Tracks Intervention, Keep The Car Running, Windowsill

20 Sondre Lerche and the Faces Down Phantom Punch
Sondre Lerche has been mixing up his sound since the first album. This time around, he's taken more of a gritty rock sound which is quite a change from 2006's 'Duper Sessions' which was essentially a jazz standards album. I'd like to hear Sondre go back to more of an odd acoustic sound like he had on his first CD. This disc sounds too normal and predictible for what I'm used to expecting from Sondre but it has some good points throughout.
Key Tracks Airport Taxi Reception, Tragic Mirror, The Tape

19 Kelly Clarkson My December
K, so I don't know who exactly said that this album was terrible but it's not HALF as bad as people were saying. I think it's just a bunch of label politics that caused this album to flop. I didn't familiarize myself with 'Breakaway' enough to say whether or not it's better but I think 'Never Again' is as good as anything Kelly's peers have done and 'Sober' is a magnificant song! The best she's recorded so far and I have to admit, Kelly does have a few great songs! I think the best are in the last track. There's 'Irvine' which, aside from 'Sober', I think is probably the best track on here and then there's the hidden track, 'Chivas'. Very basic and vintage sounding. I can see why they didn't include it with the other songs because of the way it was recorded (or mixed) but it's a hidden gem.
Key Tracks Sober, Irvine, Chivas, Never Again

18 My Chemical Romance The Black Parade
Using the same producer as 'American Idiot', My Chemical Romance made what I thought one be one of the biggest CDs of 2007. It didn't quite happen but they still came up with an awesome album! Umm... I don't know what else to really say so...
Key Tracks The Sharpest Lives, Welcome To The Black Parade, Disenchanted

17 Mika Life In Cartoon Motion
2007 was the year of Mika, the reincarnation of Freddy Mercury with good George Michael and some pretty cool pop songs. 'Grace Kelly' was full of style and 'Love Today' was full of attitude. A few tracks are a bit TOO pop for me though like 'Lollipop' but they're offset by the awesome that is songs like 'Relax (Take It Easy)' and 'Erase'.
Key Tracks Love Today, Grace Kelly, Erase, Relax (Take It Easy)

16 Regina Spektor Begin To Hope
Regina Spektor, to me, looks strikingly similar to Tori Amos. She even sounds like her vocally in some instances and musically, maybe a more poppy version of her at times. I'm not sure if she has really molded her own place in music just yet but she has turned heads already. I quite like 'Better' and 'Fidelity' but her album is pretty interesting.
Key Tracks Better, Samson, Hotel Song, Fidelity

15 David Gray Greatest Hits
I knew a few songs by David Gray and liked most of them. I LOVE 'Babylon' and 'Please Forgive Me'. So when I found out he was releasing a Greatest Hits, I said W00t! I'm sure David is the type of artists who has great albums but a GHs is always a good start. This one has all the songs by him that I knew plus a few other tracks. It's great to have 'This Year's Love', 'Hospital Food' and 'The Other Side' on one collection. Plus, I've discovered 'The One I Love'. Great songs!
Key Tracks Babylon, Please Forgive Me, This Year's Love, You're The World To Me

14 Lucinda Williams West
Yeah, so I know that my CD collection is missing a lot of great Americana music like Lucinda Williams. I find a lot of the tracks on 'West' seem a bit long and drag on a bit but I'm actually fine with that. Once in a while, this CD is a breath of fresh air. It feels real and I don't get the impression that Lucinda is trying to impress a bunch of people. But she does do that, it seems. I also think 'Wrap My Head Around That' is a fascinating song. It's almost as if Lucinda is... rapping? Anyway, yeah, great album!
Key Tracks Learning How To Live, Everything Has Changed, Are You Alright, Fancy Funeral

13 Blue October Foiled
Another 2006 album. I got into 'Foiled' more this year. I like the variety of the songs on here. They can go from rocking on 'What If We Could' and 'Drilled A Wire Through My Cheek' to being soft on 'Everlasting Friend' and 'Let It Go' and there's an AWESOME collaboration with Imogen Heap on 'Congratuations'. It's a bit all over the place but in the end, Blue October have a great bunch of songs on here.
Key Tracks Congratulations, Hate Me, X Amount Of Words, It's Just Me

12 Sarah Harmer I'm A Mountain
It literally took me a year to give this album a second listen all the way through. That's how turned off I was by it the first time. But I saw Sarah in concert where she performed most of the songs and I was like Wow! How did I go without this album? I actually think that it's her best now. 'The Ring' is pretty much up there with 'Lodestar' and 'I'm A Mountain' is a great singalong track. Not to mention the incredibleness that is 'Escarpment Blues'. Sarah proves to me that she rules!
Key Tracks The Ring, Escarpment Blues, I'm A Mountain, Will He Be Waiting For Me

11 Melissa McClelland Thumbelina's One Night Stand
So I finally got to see Melissa McClelland in concert this year! Finally! I'll admit that it wasn't quite as exciting as I would have expected but given the change in musical direction between this album and the previous release, I can understand it. Melissa is in her element doing songs like 'Go Down Matthew', 'Iroquois Street Factory' and the incredible 'Passenger 24', even if it's just with a guitar, a violin and a cello. This album has only made me more excited for more Melissa! Meanwhile, check out this if you like Canadiana (the Canadian version of Americana?).
Key Tracks Whisper, Passenger 24, Solitary Life, The Taxi Ride

10 Chantal Kreviazuk Ghost Stories
I named this CD my favourite album of 2006. It makes a repeat appearance in 2007! That's how much I love it! I also think that I can consider this to be my favourite album by Chantal Kreviazuk. That says a lot considering she was my *unofficial* favourite singer for quite a few years, lol. I'm a sucker for pop songs with a lot of strings and Chantal did that with this album. They're all great! Every song! 'All I Can Do' is seriously the worst track on the album! The best? I have no idea. I'm always up for 'So Cold', 'Waiting For The Sun', 'Asylum' or 'Wendy House' but just stick the CD in and press play. It all works!
Key Tracks So Cold, Waiting For The Sun, Asylum, Wendy House

9 KT Tunstall Acoustic Extravaganza
KT rox my sox. 'Ashes' proved that if I didn't realize it from her debut album 'Eye To The Telescope'. This CD was recorded over three days during Christmas in 2005 on some small island in the British Ilse? It's not studio perfection but I think it's great audio! Most of the tracks on here are slower ones so it's not exactly a party disc but it's great coffee house music!
Key Tracks Ashes, Miniature Disasters, Girl And The Ghost, Golden Age

8 Serena Ryder If Your Memory Serves You Well
An album mostly of covers with a Canadian connection, Serena released an album collection of them this year with this album. She has a great voice and brings these songs back to life! There are also three originals on here as well including the awesome 'Weak In The Knees', which was the song that got me to take notice in Serena.
Key Tracks Weak In The Knees, This Wheel's On Fire, My Heart Cries For You, Good Morning Sunshine

7 Dragonette Galore
Dragonette is the new group with one of my favourite artists Martina Sorbara. She dropped the solo act and took up electropop. The end result is this crazy fun album of slutty songs that I really don't think they take seriously but just have a lot of fun performing. I bet they'd be great to see in concert but so far, there's no room for Halifax. Alas, they have some great tracks on 'Galore' and a few other songs from their previous 'EP' to love. This is great respectable pop music! No shame!
Key Tracks I Get Around, Another Day, Get Lucky, You Please Me, Competition

6 Jann Arden Uncover Me
I said it before and I'll repeat myself here but I think this is probably Jann's best record vocally. She's incredible on here! I assume it's because when she writes her own songs, she doesn't give herself enough credit on how strong her vocals are or maybe she just doesn't feel the need to show off. Either way, she sounds great here. The 9 songs on here that are covers are songs that most of us would know, most of them. Jann puts her own twist on them. I won't say that they're at all better than the originals because, well, can anyone do 'Love Is A Battlefield' better than Pat?
Key Tracks Downtown, Bring The Boys Home, Peace Train, Solitaire, You're So Vain

5 Raine Maida The Hunters Lullaby
When I heard about Raine doing a solo CD, I really didn't have expectations at all. Mostly because I heard it had a lot of spoken word stuff and that it would be really political. I think Raine's political-obsession negatively effected Our Lady Peace. He's no Bono and Bono is able to keep the music seperate. (I'm all about having political songs depending on how it's done!) So I did get this album anyway when it came out and I was pleasantly surprised! It's mostly the music and just how full and complete it feels. It's very well produced and satisfying. Wife Chantal on piano and background vocals sounds awesome too! Even Raine sounds good. I try to stay clear of some of the lyrics, some of which are very awkward such as the first verse of 'The Snake And The Crown' which is about a random store robbery involving a gun where Raine is a witness deciding whether to try to stop it or to hide and save himself. He finishes it with "this is not some random nightmare/see for me/this is everyday." I doubt that. The last track also has an awkward first verse as well. So yeah, aside from the bits and pieces of the lyrics and how hard Raine tried to make an anti-American and/or anti-government or completely left-record, the record is very pleasing to the ears.
Key Tracks Careful What You Wish For, The More I Know, Confessional, Yellow Brick Road

4 KT Tunstall Drastic Fantastic
High expectations for this album since I loved 'Eye To The Telescope' so much. At first, I was thinking maybe she passed them. Now, I'm not as sure but 'Drastic Fantastic' is still awesome where most of the songs are great. Actually, 'Hold On' is the only one I skip. But like most sophomore CDs, I find myself dwelling a lot on the thought that it's not as consistantly good as the debut CD of said artist. This album has more ups and downs than the first one did. An up goes to 'If Only', 'Hopeless' and the awesome epic ending of 'The Beauty Of Uncertainty', which could easily have been made twice the length and still sound awesome! Downs go to the mediocre 'Hold On' and I'm not really big on 'White Bird'.
Key Tracks If Only, Hopeless, Saving My Face, The Beauty Of Uncertainty, Little Favours

3 Brandi Carlile The Story
I got this album based on how much I loved 'The Story'. I figured Brandi would be one of those artists that I could grow to love. Sure enough, I think I do! Produced by the legendary T-Bone Burnett, this album mixes folk and pop in a perfect blend of music. Brandi's voice, I think, is up there with the likes of Melissa Etheridge which is evident on awesome tracks like the title track, 'Light Morning Lullaby', 'Have You Ever' and 'Downpour'. And finally, the album finishes (unofficially as there is a pretty cool hidden track in there) with one of the more beautiful songs I've heard this year, 'Again Today'. Every track on this album has something about it that sticks out to me or a specific point in the song that I really like. The disc gets my seal of approval!
Key Tracks Again Today, The Story, Light Morning Lullaby, My Song, Losing Heart

2 David Usher Strange Birds
I had pretty much moved on from David Usher after his last album, which wasn't bad but it just didn't really do it for me. However, he really surprised me with the release of 'Strange Birds', which was a return to a slightly electronic sound that he had on 'Hallucinations'. The songs just seem so much full and complete and there's not really a whole lot else that could be added to them because they've been given their full potential. And this time, they're good songs! I know that David isn't really many people's cup of tea for some reason. Probably because of his premature departure from Moist and the fact that he went from Moist to doing "pussy pop" music. Pssh, whatever. Most of what he's done as a solo artist is pretty kickass. I think I would place 'Strange Birds' pretty high on his discography, if not at the top.
Key Tracks Some People Say, White Flag, Brilliant, The Music, Science

1 Tegan and Sara The Con
I knew from the second listen that 'The Con' was probably going to be the year's best album for me. Coming off of 'So Jealous', which is among my favourite records of the decade so far, Tegan and Sara once again prove to me that they are one of the best groups to come out of Canada. Their consistancy is incredible! I think my least favourite Tegan and Sara track is probably some random some from 'If It Was You' but you know what? I still don't skip it because I bet it's still an awesome song! This new album is no different. From the opening 1:32 of the opening track 'I Was Married' to the incredible finishing track 'Call It Off', they've nailed it! 37 minutes of musical awesomeness! Get this album and make sure it's the one with the DVD because there's some fun stuff on there too!
Key Tracks Call It Off, The Con, Floorplan, Dark Come Soon, Nineteen, Burn Your Life Down