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I’m going to play the blogger’s best of the year game differently this year, but I need to keep the rules roughly the same so that I am (for once) on the same planet. I’m going to choose ten best albums, but they’re what I discovered in 2007, not just those released in 2007.

So these are my contenders:

• A Hawk And A Hacksaw And The Hun Hangár Ensemble — A Hawk And A Hacksaw And The Hun Hangár Ensemble
• Air — Pocket Symphony
• Akron/Family — Love Is Simple
• Akron/Family — Meek Warrior (2006)
• Animal Collective — Strawberry Jam
• Architecture In Helsinki — Places Like This
• Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan — Pullhair Rubeye
• Bees — Octopus
• Beirut — The Flying Club Cup
• Black Lips — Good Bad Not Evil
• Bonnie Russell and the Russell Family — Mountain Dulcimer Galax Style (1995)
• Bright Eyes — Cassadaga
• Caribou — Andorra
• Cathy Fink — Banjo Talkin’
• Colleen — The Golden Morning Breaks (2005)
• Dan Jones and The Squids — Totally Human
• Devendra Banhart — Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon
• Dock Boggs — His Folkways Years (1963-1968) (1998)
• Donovan — Barabajagal (1969)
• Donovan — Hurdy Gurdy Man (1968)
• Donovan — Mellow Yellow (1967)
• Donovan — Sunshine Superman (1966)
• Enoch Kent — I’m a Rover (2006)
• Erynn Marshall & Chris Coole — Meet Me In The Music
• Feist — The Reminder
• Fountains of Wayne — Traffic and Weather
• Fred Spek’s Camp Combo — Rock Paper Scissors (2006)
• Grinderman — Grinderman
• Hamish Imlach — Cod Liver Oil & Orange Juice (2006)
• Howe Gelb — ‘Sno Angel Like You (2006)
• Ideal Free Distribution — Ideal Free Distribution
• Jeffrey Frederick & the Clamtones — The Resurrection of Spiders in the Moonlight
• Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter — Like Love, Lust, & The Open Halls of the Soul
• Joanna Newsom — Joanna Newsom and the Ys Street Band EP
• John Fahey — The Best Of John Fahey Vol. 2 1964-1983 (2004)
• Johnny Cash — American I & II
• Judee Sill — Judee Sill (2006)
• Ken Reaume — Four Horses
• Kevin Drew — Spirit If…
• Kilby Snow — Kilby Snow: Country Songs and Tunes with Autoharp
• Kimberley Rew — Ridgeway (2006)
• Marissa Nadler — Songs III: Bird On The Water
• Michael Hurley — First Songs (1964)
• Mimi & Richard Fariña — Vanguard Visionaries – Mimi & Richard Fariña
• Monica Grabin — Continental Village
• Neil Young — Harvest (1972)
• Of Montreal — Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?
• Okkervil River — The Stage Names
• Old Man Luedecke — Hinterland (2006)
• Otha Turner — Everybody Hollerin’ Goat (1998)
• Panda Bear — Person Pitch
• Po’ Girl — Home to You
• Porter Wagoner — Wagonmaster
• Radiohead — In Rainbows
• Ragged But Right — Down Harmony Road
• Robert Force & Albert d’Ossché — Tiger Dreams
• Sons of the Never Wrong — Nuthatch Suite (2005)
• Stew — Guest Host (2000)
• The Aliens — Astronomy For Dogs
• The Apples in Stereo — New Magnetic Wonder
• The Arcade Fire — Neon Bible
• The Besnard Lakes — The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse
• The Carter Family — The Carter Family 1927-1934 (2001)
• The Foggy Hogtown Boys — Pigtown Fling
• The Harvey Girls — The Wild Farewell (2005)
• The High Water Marks — Polar
• The Houseplants — Livingroom
• The Hylozoists — La Fin du Monde (2006)
• The Icicles — Arrivals & Departures
• The Ladybug Transistor — Can’t Wait Another Day
• The Negro Problem — Post Minstrel Syndrome (2002)
• The Polyphonic Spree — The Fragile Army
• The Soft Machine — The Soft Machine (1968)
• The Unicorns — Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone? (2003)
• They Might Be Giants — The Else
• Tiger Lillies (with Kronos Quartet) — The Gorey End (2003)
• Uncle Dave Macon — Classic Sides
• Various Artists — Skiffle – The Best Of (2006)
• Various Artists — The Old Time Banjo Festival
• Vashti Bunyan — Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind
• Wendy Arrowsmith — Now Then…?
• Wilco — Sky Blue Sky
• Willie Nelson — Red Headed Stranger (1975)

(Before you freak out at the number of CDs I bought, I do subscribe to emusic, so a bunch of these were MP3 only.)