I spent almost all of 2007 buying old albums by classic rock bands and old musicals so I really sort of missed out on the entire year's worth of music.  So I guess I'll give a top three of the 2007 albums I still listen to:

1. Radiohead: In Rainbows
I guess it's fashionable for music geeks to not like Radiohead but in my opinion they're the best and most important rock band in the world.  A program on NPR that reviews new album releases actually referred to them as "an obscure art-rock band" which was actually pretty hillarious.

2. Rufus Wainwright: Release the Stars
Every Wainwright album gets progressively less pop-oriented and therefore more blasted by critics.  I think this was his lowest-rated album yet.  Personally, it's my favorite of his discography so far.  It's far more intimate and impressionistic than his other albums and I absolutely can't get enough of it.

3. Flaming Lips: At War With the Mystics
I can't believe nobody here likes the Flaming Lips?  I am not particularly fond of them but this album was a huge surprise.  Usually the Lips have neat ideas buried under too-dense production and songwriting that is not actually very good.  Their most recent release was a little more neat in its sound and the songwriting was much tighter, but their trademark personality was intact.
Otherwise while I could extol the virtues of Billy Joel and Andrew Lloyd Weber and The Hollys and all the other old crap I got last year I'm pretty sure that none of them released anything in 2007 so

In no particular order


August Burns Red - Messengers



Circa Survive - On Letting Go



Dance Gavin Dance - Downtown Battle Mountain



Every Time I Die - The Big Dirty



Memphis May Fire - Memphis May Fire

2006

Oh weird I saw them in concert like in November 07 or something and they were promoting this album so I thought it was new.

2. Rufus Wainwright: Release the Stars
Every Wainwright album gets progressively less pop-oriented and therefore more blasted by critics.  I think this was his lowest-rated album yet.  Personally, it's my favorite of his discography so far.  It's far more intimate and impressionistic than his other albums and I absolutely can't get enough of it.

Wainwright released a new one this year? I thought there was just that Judy Garland camp-fest this year?

Edit: OK, it got to #2 in the UK. How on earth did I miss this. 

Wainwright released a new one this year? I thought there was just that Judy Garland camp-fest this year?

Edit: OK, it got to #2 in the UK. How on earth did I miss this. 

It's okay I missed it too and bought it several months after release.  Maybe he doesn't promote very much in the US?

I didn't see anything in the UK so he probably doesn't promote at all.