For music critics, end-of-year top-ten lists are the most subjective things we write all year. Did we rate something too high? Is there something we missed? Do you think we’re twits for not putting Radiohead on this list? (Hey that rhymed!) Anyway, here are the albums that made the top of the heap for the TOC music crew in 2007.

Matthew Lurie, Music writer:
1. Dirty Projectors - Rise Above (Dead Oceans)
Not just a conceptual mindfuck—which, by the way, it most certainly is—this stream-of-consciousness reprise of Black Flag’s Damaged calls on African guitars, jabbing tempo shifts and utterly transfixing lead vocals to raise the stakes of "homage" from here on out.

2. Lifehouse - Who We Are (Geffen)
The group with that Eddie Vedder guy singing has honed a brilliant pop-rock formula and consequently made its Joshua Tree.

3. Robert Wyatt - ComicOpera (Domino)
The British eccentric dives into the thick of politics and love and doesn’t necessarily love what he sees.

4. R. Kelly - Double Up (Jive)
Surprise: The guy with the Jerry Lee Lewis complex is still R&B’s best singer and most audacious producer.

5. Great Lakes Myth Society - Compass Rose Bouquet (Quack Media)
Poetic power-pop vistas from one of the Midwest’s most brilliant songwriting outfits.

6. Crowded House - Time on Earth (ATO)
Reunited with producer Mitchell Froom, these pop-rock legends deliver a typically enigmatic batch of treats.

7. Nels Cline Singers - Draw Breath (Crytogramophone)
Wilco’s extraordinary lead guitarist only gets better, leading his avant-garde jazz trio through a dazzling mix of styles.

8. Michel Portal - Birdwatcher (Sunnyside)
72 years old and plenty kooky, the French reedist collaborates with Minneapolis and New York jazzers in an inspired one-off project.

9. The Roches - Moonswept (429 Records)
Aging eccentrics make another gem of hilarious, light and smartly crafted folk-rock.

10. Luciana Souza - The New Bossa Nova (Verve)
Working with famed producer (and new husband) Larry Klein, the Brazilian chanteuse redoes the pop songbook in her bare, estimable style.

James Porter, Music writer:

1. Various Artists - The Young Breed (Wild)
We haven’t heard this much feral rockabilly come from one label since Sun Records went out of business in the ’60s—Santos, Luis & The Wildfires and others remove this music from the maltshop and take it right back to the gutter.

2. Mary Weiss - Dangerous Game (Norton)
The former lead singer with 1960s girl-group icons the Shangri-Las hooks up with modern-day garage rockers the Reigning Sound. She’s still sounding (and looking!) good.

3. Crazy Joe & The Mad River Outlaws - The King of Nerd-A-Billy (Atom)
Just like the stable of artists on Wild Records (see #1), Crazy Joe Tritschler tore it up at the big rockabilly fest in Green Bay, Wisconsin this year. The album is just as good as the live show. 

4. Los Straitjackets - Rock En Espanol (Yep Roc)
These famed masked rock instrumentalists make a strong vocal album of rock & roll standards sung en espanol, featuring Cesar Rosas (from Los Lobos), Little Willie G (from Thee Midniters) and Big Sandy (usually seen fronting the Fly-Rite Boys).

5. Jimmy "Duck" Holmes - Done Got Tired of Tryin’ (Broke & Hungry)
Now that the Fat Possum label has quietly abandoned Delta blues for alt-rock, a new company called Broke & Hungry turned up to fill the gap. One of their big finds was acoustic bluesman Holmes, whose trancelike rhythms are the perfect lazy summer soundtrack.

6. Pine Leaf Boys - Blues De Musicien (Arhoolie)
The folk/roots festivals at both the Old Town School and the University of Chicago selected this band to play their Cajun dance segments. No accident.

7. Bobby Osborne - Bluegrass Melodies (Rounder)
After all this time, this singer/mandolinist can still nail those high notes and hold ‘em.

8. Earthless - Rhythms From a Cosmic Sky (Tee Pee)
This San Diego band goes to town on the psychedelic drones, but with a higher energy level than most in that field.

9. Gore Gore Girls - Get the Gore (Bloodshot)
Never thought I’d wanted to hear another Detroit garage band trying to be punks again, until the Gores showed up and did it right.

10. Saturna - Some Delicious Enemy (Nexus Underground)
Well-done space-rock in the Silversun Pickups vein.

Antonia Simigis, Music editor:

1. Marnie Stern - In Advance of the Broken Arm (Kill Rock Stars)
The self-taught one-woman shredder has much more than chops: Her looping, scrambled songwriting is wholly original and requires multiple listens to fully absorb. The chorus on album outro “Patterns of a Diamond Ceiling” still gets me choked up.

2. Panda Bear - Person Pitch (Paw Tracks)
This one-mammal Animal Collective side project takes Beach Boys pop and gives it an eerie, timeless feel.

3. Battles - Mirrored (Warp)
“Complex” and “innovative” are words that can’t do justice to this supergroup, which has created a genre of music all its own.

4. The Good, the Bad and the Queen - The Good, the Bad and the Queen (Virgin)
The pedigree of this band—Damon Albarn (Blur/Gorillaz) Paul Simonon (the Clash), Simon Tong (the Verve) and Tony Allen (Fela Kuti)—is interesting enough. But the group also succeeded in sublime synthesis on record.

5. ADULT. - Why Bother? (Thrill Jockey)
The Detroit duo sounds dirty, dark and synthy as ever.

6. Elvis Perkins - Ash Wednesday (XL)
The fact that he’s Anthony Perkins’s son is a footnote to this guy’s Roy Orbison–styled talent, and his debut is tragic and beautiful.

7. Justice - † (Downtown/Ed Banger)
Electronic music purists have knocked this album for being almost tacky in its abuse of full-throttle beats, but I don’t care. This is an album that’ll make you drive fast.

8. Boris with Michio Kurihara
Rainbow (Drag City)
Japan’s Boris is one of my favorite heavy-psych bands from any nation, and this collab Michio Kurihara of the band Ghost is an awesome mindfuck.

9. Tinariwen - Aman Iman (World Village)
The Tuareg group’s latest album ups the rock factor on their ever-powerful protest songs. For the uninitiated, it’s a fine introduction to Malian desert rock.

10. Amy Winehouse - Back to Black (Island)
I’m not intentionally playing the “I knew her when” game, but I actually did become aware of Amy Winehouse (pre-beehive) around the fall of 2006, back when this album was released in the U.K. Her subsequent personal life hoopla still can’t tarnish its excellence.