Josh Ritter These Animal Years:
One of the best written, most earnest albums of the year. A tender and delicate collection of thoughts on love, sex, war, protest and mourning. Has an amazing eye for detail, and is perfect for those moments of meloncholia when the listner is convinced the world will end very soon.

Beyonce
B Day
This is better than the Dream Girls soundtrack, because for the first time, she is unafraid of making her gorgeous voice ugly.

Fergie
The Duchess
Pure pop trash, mostly due to the production, would call it cryptic if the words actually meant anything. Sweaty, danceable, and not quite erotic, perfect for juinor high rainbow parties.

Christina Aguilera
Back to Basics
Remaking herself as a classy chanteuse was such a cliche move, and everything about the makeover, from the sailor chic to that cotton candy, vanilla halo of Jean Harlow hair, would be problematic and tired, if it weren't for the sheer effort. There is something charming in finally seeing the hardest working gamine in showbiz sweat.

Kelis
Was Here
The was, is the wrong word here, the tense should be is. An album that manages to be all things for all people, if they bothered to hear it, including difficult noise, gorgeous ballads, toxic nostaliga, and eroticism that straddles the line between raw and cooked. Everytime I heard it, something else slithered into my ear drums, lyrically, sonically, or otherwise.

Pharell
In My Mind
Just because of his pretty, pretty croon.

Kris Kristofferson
This Old World
The intensity of Kristofferson as moral authority never wavers, because he is so ambigous about his role.

Rouges Gallery
Pirates of the Caribbean is a movie of great stupidity, and even worse vulgarity, whose spectacle bores, but this well curated, and beautifully sung compliation done as an unoffical merchandise, brings the best rape and murder in English Balladry. Actually makes Pirates dangerous again, and romantic in a slit your throat kind of way. Best tracks include Lucinda Williams, Lou Reed, and oddly Sting.

Bruce Springsteen
The Seeger Sessions
The rumour is that Seeger hated it. That was the highlight, the rigid and obnoxious purity of Seeger, as saviour of the poor and downtrodden gets attacked by rollicking guitars and even harder drums. Considering that this could have been an orgy of self congratualtory lefty goop, it works as a lean, tough and hard album of good musical/poltical instincts.

Gnarls Barkley
St Elsewhere
I've heard singles from this album come out of cars, carnival rides, shopping at the mall, on television and on the radio, for months now. Each time a new single came, it was better then the last. the entire hsitory of pop music from Louis Armstrong to Justin Timberlake, from the Clash to LL Cool J, in a meta-contextual blender of smooth licks and hot pussy. Proves that Danger Mouse might be the greatest bricoluer in a generation that has given us nothing but.


Singles:
Bubba Sparxx/Scar
Ain't Life Grand
Bubba Sparxx's pyscho-geographic blending of southern musical tradition, comes to a natural conclusion, when he sings the immortal lines:
But y'all gettin sick of banjos and fiddle shit
I hit a lick with it, but now I'm feelin brand new
It's time to reinvent again and win again

Gwen Stefani
Wind it Up
This isnt even the first time that this song has been remixed in a pop way, but I am so enamoured by the glories of a well placed yodel, that anything that could put it back on the charts, goes on the list.

Johnny Cash
God's Gonna Cut You Down
Goth Camp, effective because he is Johnny Cash, and his basso profundo gives him the moral authority of Jeremiah. The all celebrity, black adn white, glam video made the song though, especially with Priscilal Presleys black mascara caking and streaking, like her mother on the Kings wedding day.


Franz Ferdinand
L Wells
Creamy, decadent, pseduo-european, and not nearly as naughty as it thinks it is, one of the best aural pleasures of the year.

Ludacris/Pharell Williams
Money Maker
There is something so rigorous and pure about how low these two voices go, its another anthem of late capital excess, and both stupid and kind of offensive morally, but the effect of the sound hypnotizes us into forgetting.


KT Turnstall
Black Horse and Cherry Tree
A remake of Faithful's North Country maid, anglo exoticism desinged for New York Hipsters, her voice, with all the angst and lovliness, strips it of any available presciousness.

Beyonce
Ring the Alarm
Ugly. It takes balls to make a single this ugly. and it hurts to listen to, all good things, extending talents, proves that she is one of the bst vocalists working today.

Justin Timberlake/Timbaland
Sexyback
Its the arrogance that does it. That he released a cult attack mp3 after Prince tried to reclaim the crown he lost 20 years ago, proves that the only way to prove who fuckable yuo are is to say it loudly, and with much panache. It's almsot riseable, if my cock didnt stand on attention faster than a marine at revelery.

Paris Hilton
Stars are Blind
Novelty and Blankess marks the entry into the third dynasty of a post warholian universe, or welcome to the age of Koons, without his moral authority.

Jeffry Loss
Williamsburg Will Oldham Horror Rough Trade
Because the only one funnier to laugh at then emo, is self conciously ironic indie hipsters. The only problem was that Williamsberg was dead in 2006, and even me, who lives in rural alberta, knows that.