Well here we are, perched on the edge of a year that just kept peaking for music. Despite the handwringing among radio barons and industry bigwigs, who are understandably worried that their children will have to settle for an un-endangered birthday tiger this year, 2007 proved to be pretty damn good for those of us that actually like LISTENING to music.

Of course, the one thing audiophiles like more than listening to music is bitching about other people's opinions of it....and never has there been a more magical time for doing so than this blessed season: the december end-of-year best-of lists!

So, without further ado, my own little slice of musical snobbery:

The Sage Turk Annual Best Albums and Songs of 2007

There's not much in the way of attention spans on this here internet, but on my mog page there's a playlist with almost every song listed. So if you want to help me pretend like I didn't waste 8 hours putting it together, go ahead and take it for a spin. You won't be sorry! Let's begin!

albums that were really good but everyone already talks about all the time so I'm just gonna get it out of the way and list em here so people don't blog and whine that I forgot your favorite band even though at this point even my grandma knows who Arcade Fire are

Eh hem...Arcade Fire, MIA , LCD Soundsystem, Band of Horses, Radiohead, Rilo Kiley, The White Stripes, Spoon, the National, Bruce Springsteen.

albums that were really good but had songs that make you want to punch yourself in the ears cause they were so overplayed
Feist - offender "1234", play instead "Sea Lion Woman"

Peter Bjorn and John - offender "Young Folks", play instead "Amsterdam"

Modest Mouse - offender "Dashboard", play instead "Missed the Boat"

album that deserves a second chance

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Some Loud Thunder - "Satan Said Dance" (Everyone was secretly twirling their mustaches waiting for indie uber-darlings CYHSY to be just some kind of fluke and when the already weird, exuberant, angular to begin with band released a second album that was just more concentrated portions of all of the above, the love-to-hate bandwagon was filled faster than the internet can leak an album. But something nagging inside told me to try again, and thank goodness I did. A few songs are non-starters, but same with the first album. Some Loud Thunder is one of those "i'm glad I didn't give up so easily" sort of albums. Give it another spin... it's not like you paid for it the first time.)

Architecture In Helsinki - Places Like This - "Heart it Races" (Jangly, wild vocals wrapped around odd-duck tunes that burn into your brain. People dismissed this one faster, if not as harshly, as CYHSY , but deserves an equally sincere second try. It's too much fun to miss..)

album that may have come up in 2006 but I got it in 2007 so suck it

The Blood Brothers - Young Machetes - "We Ride Skeletal Lightning" (take every word in the band name, album, and track, shake in a bag, and pour into your ear. That's the type of music you got here.)

gypsy music magic

Beirut - Lon Gisland EP - "Scenic World (Version)" (The beefed up version of last years scenic world that is simply breathtaking)

Gogol Bordello - Super Taranta! - "Supertheory of Supereverything" (madonna is a fan of these guys but don't hold it against them)

albums that are unapologetically catchy as hell

Aqueduct - Or Give Me Death - "Split the Difference" (perfect exhuberant pop with some Princess Bride influences. excellent)

Sloan - Never Hear the End of It - "Who Taught You To Live Like That?" (how can they keep making so much music that's not only good, it's the 'hasn't this song been around forever?' sort of good)

Pop Levi - The Return to Form Black Magick Party - "Pick Me Up Uppercut" (catchiest. song. ever.)

Chad Vangaalen - Skelliconnection - "Flower Gardens" (no where as dark as his last album, but underneath the sunshine some shadows still lurk)

Softlightes - Say No! To Being Cool, Say Yes! To Being Happy - "Heart Made of Sound" (these guys are almost TOO happy. I'm supposed to be sulky dammit!)

Tunng - Good Arrows - "Bullets" (catchy doesn't have to mean super sweet...Tunng spread their ditties with a dark glaze that somehow makes it all the more tasty.)

dark fuzz....guitar fuzz...not...nevermind

The Black Angels - Passover - "The First Vietnamese War" (rock as droning and dark as a walk through skull lined cambodian jungles)

Liars - Liars - "Plaster Casts of Everything" - (the six die-hard Liars fans out there hated them for getting more accessible and polished. Everyone else was just happy to be rocking out.)

The M's - Future Women - "Trucker Speed" (fluctuating between pop and a white-guy version of TV on the Radio)

LOW - Drums and Guns - "Belarus" (what can I say, they're the best slo-core band on earth, which is fitting cause they invented the damn thing)

The Veils - Nux Vomica - "Nux Vomica" (The lead singers voice is a wild unleashing torrent of awesomeness)

Nick Cave & Grinderman - Grinderman - "Honey Bee" (Nick Cave is a leathery bar brawlin' bad ass which makes his wry sense of humor even more disconcerting)

cross-breed soundalike wonder kids

Electric President - Electric President - "Metal Fingers" (postal service + why?)

Caribou - Andorra - "Sandy" (The Shins meet the 60s)

stringing us along - acoustic awesomeness

Sean Lennon - Friendly Fire - "Friendly Fire" (he does the impossible..he stands on his own merits. Not bad from the son of the most loved musician in the world)

Elliot Smith - New Moon - "Thirteen" (he's the master...and he should really be in the top five, but he's dead and that's not gonna help me get over it any time soon)

Elvis Perkins - Ash Wednesday - "While You Were Sleeping" (the surest proof that Jeff Mangum is dead and was reincarnated as the son of Psycho's Anthony Perkins)

John Vanderslice - Emerald City - "White Dove" (So good, and JV is such a top notch guy, I'll forgive the topical political undertones)

Hip Hop Hipsters

Spank Rock - YoYoYoYoYo - "IMC" (the dirtiest mouths in rap with the sharpest minds equals a potent mix)

Pharoahe Monch - Desire - "Body Baby" (if hip hop is dead, then loving this album as much as I do is illegal in 48 states)

Aesop Rock - None Shall Pass - "None Shall Pass" (butterscotch buttery gold, jittery zeitgeist...there, three months of listening to this thing and I can officially sing along to 5 words of it)

K-Os - Atlantis Hymns for Disco - "Sunday Morning" (I DEFY you to listen to this song and not have it stuck in your head for the rest of your life. DEFY YOU . The rest of the album is really good as well...but damn you sunday morning!)

happy happy joy joy - aka Polyphonic Spree, watch your back

I'm From Barcelona - Let Me Introduce My Friends - "Treehouse" (this should be in the catchy as hell category, but more than it's immediate stick-to-your-mind ditties, this band of a suspiciously large number of members is pure sunshine in a bottle.)

The Apples In Stereo - New Magnetic Wonder - "7 Stars" - (The lead singer no longer sounds 14...he now sounds 15. Which might not seem like a big accomplishment, but then again, you obviously don't realize how good this band really is.)

The Little Ones - Sing Song - "Lovers Who Uncover" (yeh yeahyeahyeahyeah!)

Bishop Allen - The Broken String - "Rain" (with one of the best songs of the year, the rest of the album surprisingly keeps up. Plus, they've tuned down the preciousness by about 3 notches making this a less-guilty pleasure than their last)

weirdo wonderland

Panda Bear - Person Pitch - "Bros" (Panda Bear samples like a dance-hall MC inhabited by brian wilson's ghost. I know he's not dead, but work with me here.)

Frog Eyes - Tears of the Valedictorian - "Idle Songs" (Finally, a frog eyes album I can like as much as my indie-cred tells me to)

Yeasayer - All Hour Cymbals - "2080" - (like animal collective meets gang gang dance meets the black dice meets the steve miller band. try finding an itunes genre category for that.)

Old Time Relijun - Catharsis In Crisis - "Liberation" (vocals so awful they're awesome...just listen you'll see)

Deerhunter - Cryptograms - "Cryptograms" (take away every band with the word Deer or Wolf and you'd be left with...I dunno...Soulja Boy and some "the Who" tribute band... but anyway, I digress. I weird building little album that gets under your skin and lays eggs.)

Sunset Rubdown - Random Spirit Lover - "The Mending of the Gown" (who knows what is real and what is side project when you discuss spencer krug, carey mercer, or Dan Bejar...but this feels pretty damn real. A mind blowing album that absolutely lives up to the potential their first album made so apparent.)

swede as candy

Loney, Dear - Loney, Noir - "I Am John" (a bouncing ditty that gives twee a good name)

Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala - "I'm Leaving You Because I don't Love you" (morrissey meets cabaret in the most awesome "what if they mated" album ever)

punk that rocks...see also, rock that punks"

Ted Leo - Living With the Living - "A Bottle of Buckie" (Slightly more hit and miss than their last albums...as in, when they hit, it's right in the awesome-bone, and when the miss they still end up glancing you on the rad-sack. I'm sorry about this, it's late.)

warbly boy wonder of the year, 10 years running

Bright Eyes - Cassadaga - "Middleman" (even though, I think he should officially be known as a man-wonder. But that's weird.)

female / male wonder-duos

Los Campesinos! - Sticking Fingers Into Sockets - "We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives" (as soon as these guys figure out how to hold onto a hook once they've found it, they'll be the new Mates of State)

The Submarines - Declare A New State - "Peace and Hate" (i think these guys ARE the new mates of state)

Fields - Everything Last Winter - "Skulls and Flesh and More" (a more sweeping brand of sweet and sour duo-rock)

Enon - Grass Geyers...Carbon Clouds - "Mirror On You" (imagine if deerhoof made real music and not just Satomi Matsuzaki's fever dreams. side note: I'm a fan so calm down.)

Stars - In Our Bedroom After The War - "Personal" (this one I listened to once and set aside...but providence put them in my shuffle and they've stayed there. Really worth letting it sink in....as good as their last.)

she-wolves...ferociously awesome female leads

Blonde Redhead - 23 - "23" (their most accessible album...like a haunted room with a missing doorknob accessible)

Elk City - New Believers - "Cherries In The Snow" (cool song from a cool smoky voiced lady)

Lavender Diamond - Imagine Our Love - "Open Your Heart" (one of the most exciting new voices in indie rock... this earth mother can belt it)

Tegan & Sara - The Con - "The Con" (everyone focuses so much on the headline makers 'Lesbian! Twins! Sisters! Haircuts!' they ignore the basically perfect pop magic these two lesbian twin sister haircuts are making.

Nina Nastasia and Jim White - You Follow Me - "I write down lists" (the only reason this isn't listed in the top 5 is because it's too raw and painful to listen to often. Honestly though, that's top accolades if I've ever given em.)

Scout Niblett - This Fool Can Die Now - "Kiss" (a raw duet with Will Oldham that only gets better with each listen)

she-beards

Devendra Banhart - Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon - "Seahorse"

she-weirds

Cocorosie - Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn - "Werewolf"

Joanna Newsom - the Ys Street Band E.P. - "Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie" (it's only three songs and this one is a alternate version of an earlier song...but it was still all I could do to not put this in top 5)

PJ Harvey - White Chalk - "The Piano" (if you think time has mellowed her out, you obviously don't know that the slowest burns go the deepest)

silent but dancey

Black Moth Super Rainbow - Dandelion Gum - "Lollipopsichord" (audio LSD )

Holy Fuck - Holy Fuck LP - "Super Inuit" (who would have though a band called Holy Fuck would be so easy to google? oh, and they make rad music)

coolest song with the words "snap off your head"

Hot Chip - "The Warning"

the funniest person on the planet right now is

Patton Oswalt - Werewolves & Lollipops - "At midnight I will kill George Lucas with a shovel" (here he singlehandedly makes up for his years of laughless King of Queens appearances)

if their beards give them their power, let us pray they never ever shave

Iron and Wine - The Shepherd's Dog - "White Tooth Man" (Sam Beam can literally do no wrong. It's not as good as Woman King...but maybe that's good since I can actually get through this album without sobbing)

Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago - "Skinny Love" (Maybe the best song of 2007. Simple, powerful, haunting, enough reading go listen to it now.)

best album that's technically the soundtrack to a movie even though it really isn't

Loudon Wainwright III - Strange Weirdos - "Daughter" (it's from Knocked Up, but Louden continues to be all the good things about his son and daughter without the baggage...maybe he IS the baggage...who knows.)

most bafflingly well received album of the year

Britney Spears "Blackout" - Honestly, whether you actually liked it or not, how can you really even consider Britney the actual artist of the album? If you were to list the army of writers and producers who made this happen like movie credits, it'd take like 5 minutes of scrolling to get to Britney herself. She'd be way down with the Best Boy or Key Grip (or Craft Services...heh, I keed.... )

and now, drum roll please....the Best Albums Of The Year - The Top 5

5. Cloud Cult (This earthy band gets alot of guff for their...well....tree planting...but this is no mungbeans and birkenstock kumbaya jam. This is cynical finely honed pop majesty with references to Alien Christ, Death, and medicated oblivions. The death of lead singer Craig Minowa's baby son obviously tore away a piece that he's never been able to fill...but as long as he keeps trying with albums as good as this, maybe there's hope for this dumb earth after all.)

4. Les Savy Fav - (they're back and they're better than ever. A genre bending mix that was one of the best treats of 07)

3. Patrick Wolf - The Magic Position - "bluebells" (the flamboyant young man with the grown up voice, this was one of my most exciting finds of 07. Just the right touches of electronica, strings, and percussion drip from an album with blinding whites and inky darks. Catchy, disturbing, and disturbingly catchy, this was a sadly underlooked album. If i'm in the right mood, this is number one of the year.)

2. St. Vincent - Marry Me - "Marry Me" (the slight gentle exterior hides a whallop of a voice...if Feist hadn't taken the indie-sultry-voiced-seductress award early on, St. Vincent would be the one gracing ipod commercials. Not that i'm complaining. One of the brightest out-of-nowhere gems of 2007.)

1. Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha - "Scythian Empire" (Andrew Bird is proving himself as one of the greatest artists and musicians of the last decade...even though no one's listening. This is one of those rare albums (just as his last) that does the miraculous...it actually changes as you listen to it. Unfolding, evolving...Andrew Bird doesn't just make songs. He makes music. There's a difference, and this is it. Every pluck of the guitar string, every beat, every whistle (yes I said whistle) is exactly where it was meant to be when the universe aligned to bring this music to life. If you think that "fake palindromes" or "nervous tic motion" were the best songs on his last albums, you probabaly need to listen to that one a little more before moving to this one - the maturity here requires a little more effort to dissect, but damn...I keep coming back to this album and keep finding myself amazed. If that's not best of the year requirements, I don't know what is.)

well folks, if you read this far, then thanks for the year of awesome mogging. Here's to another 365 days made somewhat more tolerable the the great music in our lives. Happy Holidays and Merry Mogging.