The 25 Best Albums of 2007

5) Against Me!
New Wave Sire
Anarchy, woo hoo!
Punks have been mixing power chords and pinko politics since the invention of the black wristband, but these extremely agitated refugees from the moneyed wasteland of Gainesville, Florida, crank up the old-time religion like few rock radicals since the Clash. Singer-guitarist Tom Gabel, an anarchist squatter turned hardcore luminary, is wordier than any emo whiner, deploying his steel-cable vocal cords to shout against corporate oppression and military aggression. Dive-bomber guitar blasts and endlessly yellable choruses make taking to the barricades sound like a kickass party to which everyone’s invited. (OK, maybe not Bush.) If Karl Marx had made destroying capitalism seem this awesome, we’d all be speaking Russian and eating borsht. And loving it!

4) Kanye West
Gaduation Roc-a-fella/Def Jam
Next up: How the Hell Am I Gonna Pay These Student Loans?
As the Pantone-riot Takashi Murakami cover art suggests, this is the album wherein Mr. West re-envisions himself as hip-hop’s reigning Pop Artist. Gone are the political swipes and soul-scored paroxysms of his first two LPs; there’s one hand-wringing soliloquy (“Can’t Tell Me Nothing”), but the rest is pure celebration, a party where the surface, all gleam and gloss, is the substance. “Welcome to the good life,” West purrs, raising a glass of champagne. In the past, he might have burned that toast at the edges, inserting moments of self-doubt or guilt—this time, everything goes down smooth. 

3) Lil Wayne
The Carter 3 Sessions Mixtrap.com
Step 1: Make rap album of the year. Step 2: Give it away for free
In hip-hop, the one four-letter word no rapper wants to hear is leak. No rapper, that is, besides this New Orleans wonder. This summer, when 20-odd tracks planned for Wayne’s sixth album hit the Net early, he shrugged and compiled them on a free mix tape. (His label just released an official version.) On one hand this seems insanely profligate: From “I Feel Like Dying,” a creaky masterpiece of drug-rap surrealism, to the piano-bounce nostalgia of “La La La,” this is some of his finest music yet. On the other, it’s a brag: Another rapper’s triumph, the subtext goes, is Lil Wayne’s refuse.

2) Acade Fire
Neon Bible Merge
Bruce Springsteen’s new acolytes make a joyful racket
Arcade Fire proclaimed their mighty ambition with 2004’s Funeral, an album about redemption in a blizzard. Here Montreal’s world-savers drive into an even bleaker ice storm of the soul, where moons don’t glow and unwanted wars go on forever. They may not have much faith in mankind and its fallen gods, but their belief in the power of dark, orchestral-rock blazes on. This is as heroic as rock in the ’00s gets.