The Top 50 Albums of 2007

35 Feist
The Reminder (Cherry Tree)
The most eagerly awaited folk-pop album of the year, in the weird-Canadian-girl division, The Reminder is like a summer of discovery at art camp, and it does a whole lot more than live up to the promise Leslie Feist showed on Let It Die. She broke on through with "1234," written for her by New Buffalo's Sally Seltmann, which got her into coffee shops and upscale shoe stores everywhere. Feist reaches out with gorgeously lovelorn ballads, including "The Park" and "My Moon My Man." "I'll be the one who'll break my heart," she sings over wild-card acoustic strumming on "I Feel It All": "I'll be the one to hold the gun." The girls cheered and the boys swooned. And then on "Sealion," she turns an old Nina Simone song into a modern-day ring shout with hand claps, cheap electronics and crescendoing guitars.

36 Alicia Keys
As I Am (J. Records)
Keys' ever-deepening vocal power is the first thing you notice on As I Am. When she's on, she makes all the other girls on the radio sound like they're yakking away on The Hills. As I Am, her third album and the third she's named after herself, is predictably introspective and mellow. It sounds like she's spent quality time lately with Aretha's Spirit in the Dark and decided to make her own version. "Wreckless Love" floats on soul clouds, "Teenage Love Affair" gives new meaning to "feeling you," and "Go Ahead" is a killer. But for most of the album, Keys is happy to get over on her voice, and that's exactly what makes As I Am such a physical pleasure.