#1 Will Hoge-'Draw The Curtains'
Will Hoge's 'Draw The Curtains' is a collection of ten stunningly crafted songs that are as multifaceted as the relationships he sings about. This album stirs your soul and yields a genuine truth so rarely found in today's music with each song essential to the underlying theme. Hoge has shaped an emotionally severe and intuitive masterpiece that is not just timeless but the best album of 2007. This is an album deeply embedded in reactionary tales that permeate into you more and more with every listen.

#2 The Arcade Fire-'Neon Bible'
Exultant pained crescendos highlight this tour de force album from the indie Canadian band Arcade Fire. You may have heard a lot about them and the truth is that they are in deed as good as you hear they are. The track "Intervention" is maybe the most exquisite track I've heard in the last few years and listening to this group morph into entirely different bands from track to track is nothing short of superfluous. This is a band who you should keep a close eye on as I believe this is just the beginning for them.

#3 The White Stripes-'Icky Thump'
I'm sick and tired of hearing from people who tell me the Stripes are stretching the limits of their music and production. Jack White is an artist of immeasurable enormity and if you doubt me, take one listen to "Conquest" and I dare you to not sit there awestruck and animated at the listening experience. Jack and Meg White have found a way to push the envelope even further proving they are possibly the most unadorned and inventive band in the world at this moment.

#4 Robert Plant & Alison Krauss-'Raising Sand'
Amidst all of the hype regarding Led Zeppelin, Robert Plant released his finest album since leaving Led Zeppelin with bluegrass beauty Alison Krauss. One listen to this album and each of the songs will be embedded in your soul. The lush production and penetrating quiet numbers aim for timelessness. Producer T Bone Burnett assembled a group of first-rate musicians who brought a warm vintage sound to these poignant songs. This is the only album on this list I can play for anyone between the ages of ten and eighty. The album's final track, "Your Long Journey" cemented the sweet spirituality of these songs and recordings. As momentous as a Led Zeppelin reunion would be, there is a part of me that wants to see these two bring the same magic found on this record to the concert stage.

#5 Ryan Adams-'Easy Tiger'
Ryan Adams may be the most maddening, yet brilliant, artist of the last decade. He's intoxicatingly talented, but at times it blinds his editing skills. Despite 'Easy Tiger' not being amongst his best albums, it's easily his strongest and most focused effort since 'Demolition', which ironically was culled from a number of unreleased albums. Pitchfork heralded these songs as "second tier" and even though the live performances I heard prior to the album being released felt second tier, the final output s anything but. The production quality of this disc is transcendent, as is the EP released later in the year, 'Follow The Lights'. On 'Easy Tiger', Adams culled thirteen tracks and somehow, elevated their stature with momentous performances and glowing sonic textures. 'Easy Tiger' may not be Adam's best album, but it's a staggering testament to what he can accomplish when he's clear headed and focused.

#6 Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglová- 'Once' Soundtrack
I'll admit to climbing on the Glen Hansard/Frames bandwagon as a result of the film 'Once'. The film is brewing with the passion of two musicians who create music because they need to be heard. Witnessing these gentle songs come to life and descend into your consciousness after one listen is a revelatory experience. Whether it's a scalding acoustic performance by Hansard on "Say It To Me Know" or the luminous "Falling Slowly", the music encapsulated within this film is ageless and rightfully is bringing attention to two well deserving musicians.

#7 Paul McCartney-'Memory Almost Full'
Right from the opening mandolin kick, the whiff of nostalgia is so potent you can get drunk on it as McCartney delivers on what is arguably one of his three best post-Beatles recordings ('Band On The Run' and 'Flaming Pie' are the others). Every time McCartney releases an album, there are those who claim it's his best in decades. This time, it rings true. The cooing "Ever Present Past", the quixotic "See Your Sunshine", the boisterous "Nod Your Head" and the melancholic "End of the End" are some of the most revealing and poetic of his entire career. Every time I listen to this album, I am overcome with jubilation and smile. I can offer no greater compliment.

#8 New Pornographers-'Challengers'
Power pop indie band from Canada triumphs with an intrinsic layered vocals and storming musicianship on their fourth full length album, 'Challengers'. I loved 'Twin Cinema" from a few years back and even though it took me a while to delve deep into 'Challengers', I found myself returning to it and being continually charmed by the festive atmosphere these musicians bring to each track. Right from the dialed opening of "My Rights Versus Yours" to the deft production of "Myriad Harbour" to the provoking "All the Things That Go to Make Heaven and Earth" and throw in meticulous sequencing of these twelve songs and it's intoxicatingly addicting. The luscious title track is potently enticing with Neko Case's opulent vocals and while it's hard to put in words the feelings their music evokes, what I do know is that this is a band the more I return to, the more I fall for them.

#9 Eddie Vedder-'Into The Wild'
If you had told me that this would have made my Top Ten list, I probably would not have believed you. Let's see here, a soundtrack to a movie directed by Sean Penn based on a book of a young man who leaves all material things behind to brave it alone in the wilderness? Even though I love Vedder and Penn, on paper, this is potentially the most pretentious combination of talent in 2007. To my great pleasure, both the soundtrack album and possibly the movie will be on my respective Top Ten Lists. Vedder managed to not just convey the journey of the film's main character but his own internal one as well. Songs like "Hard Sun", "End of the Road" and "Rise" are so profoundly personal, you feel as if you're overhearing a conversation or reading a personal diary. This album should not have been this solid, but it is. It's truthful, revealing and a revelatory exposition for Vedder and the listener.

#10 Mavis Staples-'We'll Never Turn Back'
The swampy soul delta blues drenches the songs in this defiant collection. It's hard to believe this album is as defiant and fierce from a woman, who is nearing seventy. This may be the greatest record of Mavis Staples career, and this includes her time with the Staples Sisters. I've been knocked to the ground when hearing tracks like "My City of Ruins" by Bruce Springsteen and "Washing of the Water" by Will Hoge, but an entire album of twelve civil rights tracks provides an emotionally luminous, searing and storming ride. The fist thumping thunderous beat of "99 and a ½" is performed with larger than life vocal dynamics and conviction as is the entire album. This album will entrench itself within you and grow on you with each and every listen and proves that music can be more than just entertainment but provides you with not just historical perspective, but console for the lost soul seeking guidance and most importantly, hope for a better future.