While you all revel in the awesome that is that image…

Happy New Year! Whoa, is that belated. I *still* haven’t posted my top albums of 2007. Should I do that now? Here? Well, sure.

10. “A Sparrow! A Sparrow!” – Nifty
This is Nifty’s first-ever album…he’s a guitarist, and used to play with Les Mouches (an early Owen Pallett project), but this album is awesome in a “crossover between modern composition and experimental rock” way, and I think it is pretty incredible.

9. “You Could Be” – Torngat
I love Torngat…I mean, what’s not to like about a orchestral post-rock band whose lead instrument is a french horn? This album is beautiful, a gratifying-while-easy listen, and when a song from it comes on I used to be constantly looking up and going “what is that awesome song?”

8. “Welcome to the Night Sky” – Wintersleep
Oh, Wintersleep. Splendid, splendid indie rock, with great lyrics, and songs that just make me happy. Highlights include “Weighty Ghost,” “Dead Letter and the Infinite Yes,” and “Miasmal Smoke and the Yellow-Bellied Freaks”.

7. “Tiny Mirrors” – Sandro Perri
Owen Pallett got me started on Sandro Perri when he recommended him over at SHzine. I was looking forward to this album for months, and it is whimsical and beautifully crafted. “You’re the One” and “Double Suicide,” and “Love is Real” are a few of my favourite tracks.

6. “Ongiara” – Great Lake Swimmers
This is an album for lying on your bed with a lamp on and staring at the ceiling and thinking about life and death. The song “Your Rocky Spine” has some of the greatest lyrics of the year.

5. “Reunion Tour” – The Weakerthans
The Weakerthans are one of those bands that put out a ridiculously amazing album and then just…can’t ever equal that standard, ever again. Not that their subsequent albums are bad in any way…even if “Reunion Tour” isn’t “Left and Leaving,” it’s still a damn good album. Virtute the cat resumes her lecturing ways, and the song “Civil Twilight” spent five weeks at the top of the R3-30 chart for good reason.

4. “Armchair Apocrypha” – Andrew Bird
Andrew Bird, you’ve done it again! I love, love, love the lyrics, the warm string arrangements, the catchy melodies, the mellow-but-slightly-quirky voice…Andrew Bird has to have one of my favourite kinds of voices. I’m not so into trained voices. This is much more my bag.

3. “Do You Trust Your Friends” – Stars
I didn’t much like “In Our Bedrooms After the War”…I felt it was overproduced, and the songs on it not as strong as the songs on “Set Yourself On Fire” *or* “Heart”. But “Do You Trust Your Friends” made up for all that. Out earlier in 2007, it was “Set Yourself On Fire” remixed by thirteen wonderful artists. I didn’t really get into Stars at all until that album; it taught me to love the songs, and made listening to the originals a revelation. Favourites? Metric’s mix of “He Lied About Death” has shades of Miracle Fortress, and is fantastic. “Sleep Tonight” with Junior Boys turned my summer into one full of electronic music, and Jason Collett’s version of “Reunion” is just so much fun that I can’t help but like it better than the original. And Final Fantasy’s take on “Your Ex-Lover is Dead”–the catalyst to my happy relationship with Stars? Sound like Jon Brion though it might, I like it. I like it a lot.

2. “The Reminder” – Feist
I (heart) Music explained it well when they expressed shock that Feist put out an album *rawer* than her past efforts. But “The Reminder” doesn’t suffer for that; in fact it is classy and subtle and suave, and for once I am proud of Canada’s attitude towards a worthy musician–this album outsold Britney Spears’ latest record here! Brilliant! And, of course, Feist has been getting tonnes of coverage for “One Two Three Four” from that ubiquitous iPod commercial (although…man…that music video is awesome regardless). This is a fantastic album, and I don’t *care* that Feist is “a sellout” for licensing her songs and music videos to corporations.
Favourite tracks: “How My Heart Behaves,” “My Moon My Man,” “The Limit To Your Love,” and “Brandy Alexander” which I can’t seem to get out of my head.

1. “Five Roses” – Miracle Fortress
What do I say? What do I say about this album…this band…way back when the Polaris nominees were announced, I decided that “Five Roses” should win. I was sure…Craig Norris agreed with me (I was way excited to find that out, by the way), and as the months passed, more and more music bloggers were coming to the same conclusion.
Then Patrick Watson took home the $20 000 and the glory, and all the bloggers who hadn’t been sure went “Oh man, Miracle Fortress should have won.” And, of course, they should have. It’s an amazing album that I can’t get tired of…the music of my summer, laying on grass in the sun…the music I turn up loud, oh so loud, when I am feeling depressed or angry and want to mellow…the music I can sleep to or dance to or sing along with, or study to…it’s all those things. Frankly, I think this album (and “The Reminder”) are the two most timeless albums of 2007, and I’ll keep enjoying them for years to come.
That’s why it’s number ONE on my list, of course.
Highlights: “Poetaster,” “Blasphemy,” “Fortune,” and “Next Train,” although I love each and every track. For serious.