The Top 50 Albums of 2007

33 Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Ray Price
Last of the Breed (Lost Highway)
The antique glow of this collaboration — which opens with the three singers swapping lines at a vintage Bob Wills gait in "My Life's Been a Pleasure" — is etched with the grizzly candor of old country-music soldiers who know the road behind them is longer than the stretch ahead. The harmonies are weathered, sometimes wandering, and there is an old-photo-album lyricism to the Floyd Tillman, Cindy Walker and Lefty Frizzell songs on these two CDs. But Nelson, Haggard and Price revisit them with confidence and an affection for the truths and memories they still hold. This is country music with none of the modern trimmings — no Kiss-style power chords or SUV-cowboy flash. But it is big and rich in every other way.

34 Chris Brown
Exclusive (Jive)
The day Chris Brown was born, the Number One song was Madonna's "Like a Prayer," and that's the level of hyperemotional pop he reaches for on Exclusive. He begins with a shout-out to the old-school D.C. go-go scene in "Throw'd," and then he settles into his T-Pain-assisted tenderoni jam "Kiss Kiss," a fantastic blast of teen steam. The "Irreplaceable" sound-alike "With You" is a ballad that coasts on acoustic guitar and Brown's heart-on-sleeve vocals — this sophomore album is where an R&B prince hitherto known best for his dancing stakes his claim as a singer. He's the only pop star out there right now who can both hang with T-Pain and show up on Sesame Street, and he's going to be around for a while.