am/fm

If you're out there, here's a few more lists to contemplate...

• Accentuate the negative over at The Onion AV Club with the Worst Band Names of 2007. My personal favorite: Cornish Gay Men.

• Make fun of mainstream mediocrity at Best Week Ever with their list of the Least Essential Albums of 2007.

• And finally, shake off the snark for a more positive New Year. Stereogum looks at forthcoming releases for 2008. The 25th anniversary edition of Thriller comes out in February.

OK, this was kind of agonizing to cut it to 10, but I guess that's the point. These 10 albums have proved themselves my favorites of 2007, over some very strong contenders. I am by no means saying that these are the absolute very best of the year, they're just albums that meant a lot to me. And I would highly recommend a listen.

Albert Hammond Jr. "Yours to Keep"

I'm not ranking these in any particular order — because it was hard enough to just choose ten — except for this one. This was my all-time favorite album of 2007. It's so basic, but so good.

John Vanderslice "Emerald City"

Listening to Vanderslice is like reading a really good collection of short stories. The characters he creates and emotions he evokes go beyond the range of the average rock song, but he's not overtly literary like The Decemberists or The New Pornographers (much love for both of those bands, it's just a different style). You can engage with the songs on a surface level or go much deeper, ether strategy is rewarding. (That's three.)

Bishop Allen "The Broken String"

Something I learned: Bishop Allen is an actual street in Cambridge, MA, where the band members used to live. They're not there anymore, but the street is pretty small, so you can totally go stalk their old house. The album is totally charming, folky with an edge.

Kanye West "Graduation"

A-duh. What don't I like about this man?

More after the jump ...

Here's a baker's dozen of my favorite posts from the last year. They were either fun to write or fun to read, or I just think that they represent the blog pretty well.

1. These are the only acceptable Christmas songs.

2. Songs that feature cowbell prominently, in list form.

3. You should be watching Flight of the Conchords already.

4. I can't include this on my "Great Albums of 2007" list, because it came out in 2006, but The Cardigans' "Super Extra Gravity" is a great one.

5. I saw Calexico! I didn't tag it "live review" for some reason, so I missed it for the Best Shows of 2007 post. It should be on there.

6. I do love Muppets and Kanye, so when I can talk about them both in the same breath, I'm a happy girl. Also, I love imparting random, tangential trivia.

7. Porcupine or Pineapple!

8. The one and only Soundtrack Battle Wednesday.

9. An internet-wide discussion of the worst song ever. I still say not in a million years would it ever be "Ebony & Ivory."

10. Cool music makes the TV shows that play it cool, right? I don't know if I'm noticing it less, or what, but the hipetude of "Gossip Girl"'s soundtrack is less glaringly obvious these days. And, yes, I watch it every week.

11. I liveblogged the VMAs. It's taken me a while to recover, but I think I'll be ready for the Grammys by the time February rolls around.

12. We covered all aspects of CMJ (for which we won an award from Newsday!), including what was in the gift bags.

13. Me and the kids love Pavement.

eh.www.amNY.com

10 CD Thursday is the blog's occasionally regular feature. I've been pretty bad at it of late, just because my Thursdays are so hectic (I'm considering moving it to Sunday ... we'll see). Anyway, the gist is, I listen to 10 CDs from my ever growing slush pile (unsolicited advances sent to me by publicists, or sometimes the band itself) during the course of the day and comment snarkily on them. I generally like 2 out of the 10, and truthfully not many of them make it into regular rotation. But here's a bunch that, against all odds, permanently wowed me.

1. The Harlem Experiment s/t
"Jazz from above 125th Street, this album meanders funkily on an actual musical journey."

2. Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings "100 Days 100 Nights"
"I am absolutely loving this album. Funky old Motown with an energetic freshness."

3. Liars s/t
"I like this, very much. Deconstructed rock with palpable menace."

4. Alaska! "Rescue Through Tomahawk" [Release date: March 8, 2005]
"It's slow burning awesomeness."

5. Jens Lekman "Night Falls Over Kortedala"
"A very stylized production, with a big band disco throwback feel. It's like a modern day musical, with some very dark undertones."

6. Common "Finding Forever"
"I love Common, and I am so glad that he is finally getting national, widespread attention. He is so talented and totally deserves it. Maybe it was that Gap commercial that did it."

7. The Budos Band "The Budos Band II"
"An instrumental funkgasm from the fine folks at Daptone Records."

8. John Vanderslice "Emerald City"
"A gifted singer/songwriter with an ear for despair, Vanderslice a master of 'wallow music.' But it's not so depressing that it will drag you down out of a good mood. I just love it." (That's two)

9. Why? "Sanddollars" (EP)
"Pleasant downer rock with barbed lyrics. It's kind of what I imagine living in the center of the country sounds like."

10. Thee More Shallows "Book of Bad Breaks"
"There's a lot of complexity to this album, and mixing of elements that you might not think would go together: some electronica noise over top of a straightforward rock score in a way that doesn't mesh, but totally works."

eh.www.amNY.com

(Growing up, on our birthdays, my dad used to wake my sisters and I up with this song on full blast.)

So today is the first anniversary of am/fm. We've had our ups and downs, stylistic changes, musical awakenings; features were created and abandoned; we tried out live blogging and video production (of which there will be more of in 2008). Basically, it was like any first year of blog life.

As the anniversary falls conveniently in December, I'm going to use this space for a little reflection on the year that was. First up: best live shows. This is, of course, not definitive — it's the best shows from this year that I saw and blogged about.

10. Justin Timberlake: Way more fun than I was expecting.

9. Wainwright Family and Friends Holiday Show: This was my very first post. You can tell that I hadn't yet developed my signature rambling live review style.

8. Duran Duran: I expected this show to be awesomely filled with nostalgia, but the absolutely kick-ass time I had was bonus.

7. One Ring Zero: Dork rock that's even better in person.

6. Vampire Weekend: This local band is getting a dangerous amount of hype; Their first album doesn't even come out until the end of January, and they're already a critical favorite. But their "Graceland"-inspired world pop is GOOD.

5. CMJ Seven Band Extravaganza: A chronicle of my own personal musical odyssey. I didn't like every band I saw, but I had a lot of fun going venue to venue. And Spinto Band was a nice cap to the night.

4. Rocketship Park/Two-Man Gentleman Band: Another CMJ show. I chose these two bands at random because I liked their names, and it happened to work out for me.

3. John Vanderslice: I can't get enough of this man. You'll be seeing more of him later today.

2. Albert Hammond Jr.: My true love of 2007.

1. White Stripes: Jack and Meg totally owned MSG. This was really a magical night.

eh.www.amNY.com