The Top 50 Albums of 2007

1 M.I.A.
Kala (Interscope)
M.I.A.'s second album was an international block party with a sonic imagination nobody else could match all year. The Sri Lankan-born U.K. rapper's inspirations run all over the globe, with a Day-Glo sensibility rooted in the Native Tongues hip-hop of the Jungle Brothers and De La Soul, but with the political rage of Public Enemy. She dips into Sri Lankan temple music, Bollywood disco, the Pixies, New Order, the Clash, Wreckx-N-Effects — sometimes she even sounds like the old U2 record where they let the Edge rap. Kala explores worldwide war zones, talking about third-world democracy and "putting people on the map that never seen a map." Yet M.I.A. remains a criminal-minded art freak with a true rock & roller's love of flash and sensation and irresponsible shit-talking. And are those Pink Floyd's cash registers she samples? Cool.

2 Bruce Springsteen
Magic (Columbia)
Magic comes on like the album Springsteen's been building up to for the past five years, since he revitalized his sound on 2002's The Rising. These songs are Springsteen at his toughest and most focused, going for the grimly detailed style of Darkness on the Edge of Town and Nebraska. He's sung about some of these characters before; the Vietnam vet of "Born in the U.S.A." gets a bonfire funeral in "Gypsy Biker," and the New Jersey Turnpike loner of "State Trooper" seems to show up in "Radio Nowhere," still asking his car radio the question: "Is there anybody alive out there?" The big themes are marriage and America as well as the constant repair they both demand.