Best of 2007: the beginning

Whadda year, whadda year....from NYC to Myrtle Beach to a hair-raising car accident that is still causing me to drive like a little old man. It's also the year that music literally seemed to explode all around me, so many choices, so little time. Countless are the promos and such that I haven't even had a chance to listen to yet (still haven't heard Radiohead), and albums of much acclaim that I know I'm going to enjoy (Robert Wyatt, Okkervil River, PJ Harvey) are waiting their turn in the CD player. Still, as always, I've gone beyond saying it wasn't as good a year as last, or remember when, I'm happily resigned to the fact that music is good and I love the next new thing just as much.

So these end-of-year wrapups (on the Spotlight Review, this will be the 19th one we've done!) are more of a personal thing than any attempt at a critical outlook. As I keep reminding everybody in this blog, I'm not a critic, despite what the WBER website decries. I've got my little show, though, and have the opportunity to share what made me happy by listening to it, it's a hope to turn somebody else on and get them to think about their own listening as well.

In the previous post, I linked back to the mid-year favorites and honorable mentions, many of which still hold up, but the year end seems to include ones that actually made me go back and look at the oeuvre of the artists in question and reassess those works, a renewed sense of purpose as it were. So there's actually going to be a theme of sorts for this years list, and it is....

...of course you'll have to wait til next Monday, natch, when I reveal them on the air, why tip the hand now, though if you're unbelievably enterprising, I actually published it in the comments of an entry in one of my favorite blogs a few weeks back; good luck finding it.

Tomorrow, we hope, a look at some more honorable mentions, releases that really didn't fit the final template; then later in the week, some guilty pleasures. Full list next Tuesday. Be safe tonight, please.