By Sean Piccoli
Crisis? What crisis? The music industry's troubles only deepened in 2007, but shrinking sales and shuttered stores haven't rendered album-making obsolete. Old hands and new continue to justify faith in the long-form creativity of the CD.
Here are 10 standouts from a year of bad news for media corporations and good news for listeners.
1. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss,Raising Sand (Rounder)
An aging vocal warhorse and a bluegrass belle unite for the year's most unexpected and pleasurable record. With connoisseur of hip Americana T-Bone Burnett producing, Plant and Krauss create a kind of backroads tour through the rock-era songbook: They cover Tom Waits, Gene Clark and other songwriters who collectively make up an alternate, artistic vision of popular music. They harmonize beautifully, and Burnett wreathes their voices in mysterious cool. Here's hoping they hit the road together, as planned, in early 2008. Plant's other gig, a rumored Led Zeppelin reunion tour, can wait.
2. Jay-Z, American Gangster (Roc-A-Fella)
After last year's CD catalog of riches, Kingdom Come, Jay-Z gets back to earning instead of spending. Musically, American Gangster puts on some of Kingdom Come's vinylwear: cocktail funk and jazzy soul that no '70s-themed record party should be without. But the beats become starker as the rapper turns unsentimental, reliving his climb from pusher to pop star to record mogul. He describes drug dealing as an addiction in itself, and wealth as comical overkill. But he never repents or gives back a dime. Like most overachievers, Jay-Z is more focused and interesting at work than at play.
3. Against Me!, New Wave (Sire)
This Gainesville agit-punk combo started on street corners and in coffeehouses, then alienated some of its base by signing with a big label. But the move up the industry ladder hasn't robbed Against Me! of its righteous thunder. New Wave is a bracing call to attention and a roaring good time.
4. M.I.A.,Kala (Interscope)
More rhythmatist than rapper, the London-born Sri Lankan keeps finding inventive ways to sling words and notes over and under her beats. Sassy and exotic as 2005's Arular, but less immediately catchy, Kala has fewer dance-floor charms but more depth and musical muscle to go with its revolutionary, change-the-world fervor.
5. Calle 13,Residente o Visitante (Sony)
No disrespect to Daddy Yankee, but reggaeton doesn't run on Gasolina alone. The Puerto Rican duo Calle 13 takes Hispanic hip-hop beyond Latino gangsta scowls and brand-name borrowing, and uses wit and imagination to expand the genre's vocabulary.
6. Rilo Kiley,Under the Blacklight (Warner Bros.)
The latest album from ex-sweethearts Jenny Lewis and Blake Sennett isn't dependent on Fleetwood Mac comparisons, of which there have been many. Under the Blacklight stands on its own as a work of classic-minded pop and rock songcraft.
7. Deerhoof, Friend Opportunity (Kill Rock Stars)
This fractured mosaic of an album sounds like a celebration of attention-deficit disorder. In Deerhoof's world, impatience is a virtue, and the band achieves a kind of coherence by stringing together short bursts of pop inspiration.
8. Bruce Springsteen,Magic(Sony)
As enjoyable as 2002's The Rising was, Springsteen & the E Street Band seemed burdened by the need to address 9-11. Magic is a freer, less concept-bound CD. The Boss and the band just rock for rock's sake and find that's reason enough to play.
9. Lupe Fiasco, The Cool (Atlantic)
The young Chicagoan has created rap's equivalent of Ziggy Stardust with "The Cool," a vibrant title character who rises up from the streets to become a doomed phenomenon.
10. Lily Allen, Alright, Still (Capitol)
Allen's quietly cutting reggae-pop sounds fresher and more durable than Amy Winehouse's nihilistic neo-soul.
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