The Top 50 Albums of 2007

47 Band of Horses
Cease to Begin (Sub pop)
In indieland, 2007 was a year when skinny ties and wiggy haircuts gave way to the time-honored beard and flannel. As befits beard-and-flannel guys, Band of Horses promise heartfelt songs, but unlike so many of their peers, they have the craft to deliver. This music is simultaneously downcast and sky-cresting, the guitars tangling with sad melodies as if it really matters. And in songs like "Is There a Ghost" and "Cigarettes, Wedding Bands," it does.

48 Mavis Staples
We'll Never Turn Back (anti —)
Half a century after the Staple Singers scored a hit with the gospel promise "Uncloudy Day," equal rights is still a relative concept in America. Here, Mavis Staples measures how far we've come and have yet to go in these hymns and blues, many of them traditional civil-rights anthems like "We Shall Not Be Moved." The dirt-road feel of Ry Cooder's production and the argumentative stab of his Pops Staples-style guitar suit the purpose in Mavis' voice and the emancipation spirit she brings from the records she made with her family years ago, at the height of the fight.