True Enough For You: Sounds of 2007, Cheater Style

So here are my favorite songs of the year. I wish that I could explain my criteria, but there are none, really. It's just how I feel, yo. The list would be completely different a few moments from now, and I will probably change my mind about the order or inclusion of songs as soon as I post this. But that's not important. Here's is an aural snapshot (no such thing, right?) of my 2007.

Here are the very important caveats: They didn't have to be singles or even have been commercially released this year, indeed there are some tracks that are b-sides or album only tracks. They couldn't have been from what I perceived to be previous years (for example: The Shins' "Phantom Limb", "Rehab" by Amy Winehouse or "Young Folks" by Peter Bjorn and John aren't here because I heard them in and associate them with 2006, but "With Every Heartbeat" by Kleerup and "City" by Lo-Fi-Fnk are here because they just FEEL like 2007 to me). I tried to keep one entry per artist on the list, but if I really liked 2 songs by an artist, I just lumped them together. It works better in some cases (LCD Soundsystem) than others (Arcade Fire). Yes, all of that is cheating, but I make the rules.

Songs by Nelly Furtado, Maroon 5, VHS or Beta, Alison Krause and Robert Plant and Metro Station narrowly missed the list, and "The Way I Are" by Timbaland was not included because its grammatically incorrect name offends me so profoundly. It's a great song, though. A special shout-out to the Marv who gave me so many musical suggestions this year through his powers of persuasion. Some of them were actually quite good.

One should also know that I am more of a "singles" person than an "album" person. I rarely listen to an album straight through without getting sick of the artist, but I very much enjoyed the efforts from Radiohead (In Rainbows was my favorite Radiohead album since OK Computer), Spoon, Arcade Fire, LCD Soundsystem, Mark Ronson, Feist, Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen. These artists are all represented below, and the tracks I listed could easily be substituted for others on their albums.

At one point, I thought about including commentary, but this list looks so pretty and orderly without it. If you have any questions/think I am insane for including or missing a song, please let me know. I would guess that you are wrong. Enjoy. Let the debate start here.

1. "The Underdog" – Spoon.

2. "With Every Heartbeat"—Kleerup feat. Robyn

3. "Umbrella" - Rihanna

4. "I Feel It All"/ "My Moon My Man"/ "1,2,3,4" - Feist

5. "Ankle Injuries"- Fujiya and Miyagi

6. "Heimaldsgate Like A Promethian Curse" – Of Montreal

7. "Someone Great"/ "All My Friends" – LCD Soundsystem

8. "LDN" - Lily Allen

9. "Oh My God"/ "Valerie" – Mark Ronson feat. Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse

10. "Pogo" - Digitalism

11. "D.A.N.C.E."- Justice

12. "Paper Planes" –M.I.A.