Starting today, various Bloglinites are going to post a variety of Top Ten lists for 2007. We’ll probably have some repeat lists that reflect each individual Bloggers personal Top Tens on certain subjects. I’m going to kick things off with my list of the ten best albums of this past year. Go out and buy some of them.

10) Bonde Do Role – With Lasers
Probably my favorite all-out party record of 2007. I always have one; last year it was C.S.S. and in a way, this album doesn’t stray too far from that same feel. This is good times, dance all night to breakbeats, booty bass, chanted Portuguese vocals, and metal riffage.

9) Municipal Waste – The Art of Partying
Sludgy stoner metal has seen a nice resurgence in 2007, but where’s my thrash!?? Sadly, thrash has not been blessed with a legion of hipsters laying down allegiance in the way they have to High on Fire or Mastadon (and deservedly so) with their sludgy, ear drum-rupturing riffs and live shows. And unfortunately, thrash isn’t experiencing a rise of upstart bands who are taking the sound, style, attitude and ideals back to what made the genre so great in the first place, the way stoner/doom metal has experienced. But thankfully, Municipal Waste were back this year with another face-peeling album.

8) Meneguar – Strangers in Our House
Building on one of my favorite records of the past few years (I Was Born at Night EP), Meneguar continue their assault with catchy guitars licks, toe-tapping beats and hooks so infectious that even the most jaded of hipsters will wave their fists in their air and chant along. This is exactly what great indie rock should sound like, and thankfully, some bands out there are still making it.

7) Deerhoof – Friend Opportunity
Deerhoof have been one of my favorite bands for a long time now and it’s been really amazing hearing them evolve from a noisy no-wave outfit into this bombastic, indie rock version of a prog/krautrock band with cute Japanese vocals. While my favorite aspect of Deerhoofs’ ever-evolving sound can be found on the Apple O and Milkman albums, where their no-wave met pop structure, I still can’t help but be bowled over by how successful they are in doing something as ambitious as this album to take the next step in their evolution. It’s lush and each song has twists & turns that weave on a grander scale than Deerhoof has ever attempted. This album is probably their full evolution into a new band from who they were. It’s only singer Satomi’s delivery and cuddly voice that not only softens the imposing sound they’ve created here, but hearkens to the Deerhoof of old.

6) Big Business – Here Come the Waterworks
Big Business are no novices to making killer metal. Jarred Warren was in Karp, and both members of Big Business joined the Melvins ever-revolving cast to make the best Melvins’ album since Houdini, (A) Senile Animal. Here Comes the Waterworks is a never ending assault of thick heaviness. This is doom metal at its best, because it sounds like an impending apocalypse by a typhoon of bong water.

5) Justice – †
I don’t know if there is much to say about this album that hasn’t already been said. Justice shot so far into the public spotlight this year that I’m sure they’re going to get whiplash from how quickly the backlash starts/has started in already. But this is what it is: an amazing dance record and an amazing debut akin to Daft Punk’s Homework. Justice work their beats so heavily and bombastically, it’s like Iron Maiden doing electro. And if you’re keeping up with my musical tastes, then you can easily see why I would love this album.

4) Of Montreal – Hissed Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
In college, The Elephant 6 collective were the Big Thing–the next huge indie rock movement. It’s really funny, considering that 10 years later, most–if not all–of those bands basically sputtered out with whimpers instead of the impending bang everyone was predicting. All but one: Of Montreal, which in itself is kind of funny, considering how low on the totem pole Of Montreal ranked during Elephant 6’s hayday. That fact, and also just how weird and un-listenable their earlier albums were; it was like 60’s-70’s psyche being arranged by a lunatic. To be honest, that assessment of their sound hasn’t really changed that much, they’ve just evolved and learned how to present their style amazingly well over the course of their past 3 albums, which is when they began tinkering with synth-pop as a method of delivering their psychedelic madness. Hissed Fauna is the apex of that trip. I have to be honest, I though Sunadelic Twins (their previous album) was going to be the apex, but Kevin Barnes is just full of surprises. Hopefully the next surprise won’t be converting more Of Montreal songs into Outback Steakhouse jingles.

3) The Chromatics – Night Drive
I almost feel inclined to write the entry for numbers 3 and 2 together, since both albums and bands have gone through similar changes, share members and have similar sounds. But I’ll break it up! I’m starting to notice my top ten list for 2007 is full of bands who have drastically evolved from who they were years ago, and the Chromatics are no exception. I was actually shocked when I heard them on the awesome Italians Do It Better – After Dark compilation and then on this album. These were the same Chromatics as from earlier years? I was a fan of their first two releases, which were great art-damaged psyche rock being channeled via Chrome (which may be where they took their name from, I don’t know). But since I stopped paying attention to the Chromatics, they added a female vocalist (one album ago on Shining Violence) and Johnny Jewel from Glass Candy. The band had changing members between the first two albums, with only founding member Adam Miller ever remaining, but their sound didn’t change much. This album, on the other hand, is a world of difference. The Chromatics are now a full-fledged, cold/darkwave dance band, and an excellent one at that. It’s keyboards and production are seductive without ever falling into the trap of being overly cheesy that hinders many synth-pop revivalists. And that’s really it, this album doesn’t sound like they’re reviving or homaging a long dormant genre, they just belong to it.

2) Glass Candy & The Shattered Theater – B/E/A/T/B/O/X
If Johnny Jewel was the genius behind the change in the Chromatics (3), then he still had enough left in his tank to save the best for his original band Glass Candy & The Shattered Theater. Like the Chromatics, Glass Candy were a band I used to like way back when and just kind of grew out of them. They put out one “real” album, which, much like the Chromatics, was staggeringly different from this album. They’ve since toured endlessly and made a slew of tour-only releases (B/E/A/T/B/O/X being the most recent one). While the jump in sound and style wasn’t as dramatic with Glass Candy as it was with the Chromatics (thanks solely to Ida No still doing all the vocals), it still made me do a double take when I heard them on the same Italians Do It Better- After Dark compilation that reacquainted me with the Chromatics and found out that this was in fact Glass Candy. Regardless of it being a full length or not, B/E/A/T/B/O/X is an amazing album in the vein of traditional Euro cold/darkwave. It actually sounds so authentic and awesome that it could go head-to-head with Snowy Red, Holy Toy and any of those classic bands from the 80s. This IS that good.

1) A Place to Bury Strangers – S/T
And now onto my number 1. When I first heard the name “A Place to Bury Strangers,” all I could think was that I hoped they sounded half as awesome as their name was. Thankfully, they do sound every bit as awesome as their name would imply. I have to admit that my recent re-awakening to shoegaze is probably why this edged out the other releases for #1. Regardless, the album is fantastic: the fuzz of the guitars is an absolute blanket of sound, the feedback is mesmerizing, and the melodies and arrangements bring back fond memories of Spaceman 3 and The Jesus and Mary Chain (but not in that paint-by-number way The Raveonettes did a few years back). Fuck, if I was still playing guitar, I’d be frantic to know their effects rig! (Thankfully, those who still play and want that sound can simply hit up frontman Oliver Ackermann’s Death by Audio and get their own custom effect pedal rig). Unlike most shoegaze and dream-pop, A Place to Bury Strangers does something I always wished more shoegaze bands of the 90s would have pursued: getting more aggressive with the sound. It doesn’t just wash over you, it drowns you. And the undertow drags you down and keeps hitting you over the head with an almost industrial, “Ministry’s Land of Rape and Honey-style” assault, all the while keeping the sugary melodic arrangements that dream-pop is known for. I can’t wait for another album, and I usually dread follow-ups to albums I love.

Honorable Mentions: Deerhunter - Cryptograms, Battles - Mirrored,  Italians Do It Better: After Dark Compilations, Pinback - Autumn of the Seraphs, Les Savy Fav - Let’s Stay Friends, Prodigy -Return of the Mac, PigDestroyer - Phantom Limb, High on Fire - Death Is This Communion