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10. Amy Winehouse, Back to Black
Island. March 13 (USA)

(This might be fudging a little, since Back to Black was released in the UK in late 2006, but didn’t make it across the pond until this year. I hope you’ll forgive me.) This album surprised me; all the hype, the screaming fangirls, and Winehouse’s tabloid fodder did not an interested Ruhee make, but when I finally listened, it was nothing like I expected. Instead of trashy dance-pop R&B, Winehouse has crafted a vintage soul album with serious throwbacks to Motown, tied together with one remarkable set of pipes. Whether or not this album is your cup of tea, there is no denying the girl can sing. Some of the songs are a little take-or-leave, but “Rehab” … oh man. A catchier single there never was. This album is a bit of a guilty pleasure sometimes, but it is a good one.

09. Spiral Beach, Ball
Sparks. October 16

I’ve been waffling back and forth on this band for a while. I saw them open for Sloan twice near the beginning of this year; one of the shows was really excellent and the other left me fairly ambivalent. Their first album, self-titled, was good in places and a little grating in others, and I expected the same from Ball when it was released this fall. However, it was definitely not so. This record is full of spacey dance-rock numbers, all short and flashy, and much tighter than the last album. “Made of Stone” sounds a thousand times better than it did live, months before this record hit the shelves, and “Kind of Beast” and “We Saw Ghosts” are particularly enjoyable. Spiral Beach has their own distinctive sound (love it or hate it), and they’re becoming more comfortable with it here. At this rate, their third album will be a real treat.

08. The Acorn, Glory Hope Mountain
Paper Bag. October 1

This is another album I’m glad I managed to hear before the year was out, or my list of “belated top albums of the year” would have been remarkably long. The Acorn are a band that are certainly well rooted in folk and country, but who put a remarkably fresh spin on the whole package. Glory Hope Mountain is very similar to Cuff the Duke, but in a less rock, more laid-back sort of way; particular favourites are “Oh Napoleon” and “Low Gravity,” the former quiet and sweeping, the latter energetic and danceable. This is a band who know what they want and how to go about creating it, and the end result is equal parts hoedown and slow dance.

07. Cuff the Duke, Sidelines of the City
Hardwood. October 23

Speaking of Cuff the Duke (I didn’t do that on purpose, I promise!) … the third full-length album from Ontario country-rock favourites is just what we were hoping for. The album is very cohesive and the songwriting strong, although sometimes the lyrics feel a little contrived, namely “Long Road”. Standout tracks include “Failure to Some” (a track I had no idea was 7 minutes long until I looked at it in my iTunes just now!), which features a now-classic Cuff the Duke build-up ending; “If I Live or if I Die,” which has shades of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s “Shuffle Your Feet”; and the closing track, “Confessions from a Parkdale Basement”. There are numerous references to suburbs where members of the band grew up (such as in “Rossland Square”) and to Toronto itself, which makes the entire album feel rooted somewhere, like it belongs somewhere. I’m not sure if I would say it’s their best album, but it is a solid one that I’ll be listening to for a while.

06. Rufus Wainwright, Release The Stars
Geffen. May 15

I hadn’t heard a single track off this album until I saw Rufus perform a large handful of them live in July. Wearing lederhosen. If ever there was a way to sell a Rufus album, that was it. Wainwright’s newest effort is a complex, beautifully-executed piece of work, much of it about traveling, different cities, and being discontent with staying in one place. That theme lends a whole lot of interest to the record, since it does much the same thing musically; it never stays in one place very long, preferring to veer around and tell stories in different ways, although never going too far from Wainwright’s familiar lilting style. Particular favourites: “Going to a Town” (especially the cheeky I’m so tired of you, America), “Sanssouci,” and the title track. This album makes me want to just hop on an airplane and tour the world with not much except a change of clothes, a camera and some music for the road.

05. Two Hours Traffic, Little Jabs
Bumstead. July 24

A messy-haired, power pop foursome from the East Coast … no, there were no new Sloan records this year; instead, Joel Plaskett protégés Two Hours Traffic’s brand new full length, full of smiles and singalongs. There are no skipable tracks on this album, although their style is streamlined enough that they all bleed together a little. The band is extremely tight, live and on record, and their joyful brand of pop-rock is pretty infectious. Little Jabs is full of standout tracks, including the single “Stuck For The Summer”, “Nighthawks”, and “Jezebel,” although if the list went on long enough it would include the whole record. Sometimes the lyrics get a little too cutesy, but overall, this is an excellent album from a band I’m sure we will be hearing from often in the new year.

04. Nathan, Key Principles
Nettwerk. March 20

Nathan are such darlings. This album is cute and folky and full of really well written songs that get stuck in your head, all the time, with a delicious amount of banjo (courtesy Shelley Marshall). One thing they are sure not to do, though, is get too stuck in the folk mentality; there is plenty of pop here, with horns and handclaps everywhere you turn, and it balances everything out perfectly. Songs like “The Wind” and “Terrible Way To See Omaha” conjure up images of the sweeping prairie, while “Daffodils” is one of those that would make little toddlers bop around in the living room. Key Principles is sunny and warm on first listen, but its solid songwriting and excellent vocals (Keri Latimer, with Marshall) make it complex enough to not get tossed by the wayside. It’s an album that feels like home, down to the hand-stitched album art; listening to it is akin to curling up with hot chocolate in your favourite blanket and watching the clouds go by.

03. The New Pornographers, Challengers
Matador. August 21

You might remember a review of this I did earlier, which ended up fairly lukewarm. And it’s true, Challengers is the most mellow and cohesive of all of the Pornographers’ albums, but the more I listened to it throughout the rest of the year, the more I grew to love it. My favourite tracks still remain the first two (”My Rights Versus Yours”, which was the first single, I believe, and “All The Old Showstoppers”), but there’s a lot of hidden goodness after that. “Adventures in Solitude” is extremely sparse and perfect, and “Entering White Cecilia” is quirky and fun. Challengers is nothing like Mass Romantic’s craziness, where it seems they tried to fit in as much as possible; here, they have grown up a little and focused on one direction. That’s not to say it’s not a classic New Pornos album, because it is. There’s still the weird Dan Bejar material, the singalongs, and the remarkable amount of melodica-fueled riffs; they’ve just learned to channel it a little more, and out of that comes a commendably mature but totally enjoyable record. There’s not much they’ve done that I don’t like, and that trend still continues.

02. Joel Plaskett Emergency, Ashtray Rock
Songs for the Gang. April 17

This is listed as #2, but for all intents and purposes, the top two albums of this year are a tie. And so, the first top album of 2007: Ashtray Rock, the Joel Plaskett Emergency’s third effort (Plaskett’s fifth as a solo artist post-Hermit). It would be impossible to say everything about this album in a paragraph, but my two cents would include praising the excellent transitions between songs - it makes you want to always listen to the whole thing, top to bottom, which is quite a feat - and the repetition of ideas throughout (I like the instrumentals, for example). And lately, I’d have to argue that one of the best moments of the record is in fact “The Instrumental,” complete with the letter, and the roller coaster it takes you through in just three minutes - a concise summary of the entire story of Ashtray Rock with almost no words at all.
Plaskett’s crafting of a ‘concept album’ has worked wonderfully here, and by the end of Ashtray you become completely attached to the characters whose stories he tells. I loved the record from the get-go, but the more I listen to it, the more I become attached - even, yes, to “Fashionable People”, which I think is a hilarious and quirky addition to the otherwise more streamlined album. Plaskett is never afraid to do something a little silly when he feels like it, and dammit, he will; and from falsetto to “Face of the Earth,” the end result is one of his most enjoyable albums yet.

01. Field Music, Tones Of Town
Memphis. January 22

That’s right. An album released just barely three weeks into the new year is topping my list. Unheard of, in the short term memory world of music blogging and downloaders, but not impossible … and this year, the honour goes to a band hailing from Sunderland, England, on their sophomore release that really sounds like nothing else I’ve ever run into. Certainly comparisons can be drawn to The Futureheads (unsurprising, as they have shared members) - think that sound, but brighter, cleaner, and as tight and quirky as can be. Field Music are, underneath, really prog-rockers, but not in the sense of Rush or Pink Floyd; they do rip off Yes a lot, though, and their sound is particularly poppy. Tones of Town is an incredibly well-crafted record that flows together in a particularly satisfying way. “Give It Lose It Take It”, the opening track, features an excellent use of open strings; “Working to Work,” the first track that I heard from the album, is maddeningly catchy (I’m serious; I think it’s been stuck in my head since April).
My favourite track, though, is the final one, “She Can Do What She Wants”. Meter changes, possibilities for air-drumming, and an excellent opportunity to sing along in earnest English falsetto. There’s not much better. Tones of Town is, as far as I’m concerned, the best record to come out of 2007 (or tied for it, anyway), and one that will stand up for a long time to come. It’s tight, it’s layered, it’s hard to pin down completely; Field Music, if they come back from their projected hiatus, is going to have a hell of a time following this act.