Well, it's been quite a year for music, and quite a year for retailing too, but in a different way. Real indie bands (on actual independent labels) have been riding high on the Billboard charts in the U.S., as Spoon, the Shins, Bright Eyes and Arcade Fire all scored top ten albums in 2007 ... and now Leslie Feist from Broken Social Scene has four Grammy nominations! (Who remembers Feist rocking the drums at BSS's 2003 Other Music in-store?!) And as music migrates to the internet and diverse sounds more and more frequently drive commercials, films and TV shows, it seems that new bands break at the speed of light, and interesting and eclectic sounds are embraced by the mainstream at an alarming and truly exciting pace. Whether or not you are actually buying all that great music is between you and your conscience, I guess.

Which brings us to the other side of the equation: music retailing is in a freefall. 2007 began with Tower Records officially closing up shop all over the U.S., and there have been a ton of great indie shops going the same way this year. Other Music is trying to stave off the impending storm by jumping into digital retailing with both feet, having launched our MP3 download shop in late April, and throwing a lot of resources into our new online video series and all things digital. Hey, if you can't beat 'em, download 'em, or something like that. But it's not so simple as CD and vinyl customers suddenly pointing their dollars at downloads... this is a time of dramatic change for retailers, labels, artists, fans, and really anyone with an ear for music.

One thing that is not changing, though, is all the great music. There is still a ton of it, more than ever really, and Other Music still takes seriously our mission to sort through the sounds and help you find the best music out there. We will publish an in-depth recap of the best of 2007 just after the new year, featuring more than 200 releases sorted by genre, but here we have our 25 favorite new releases and 25 favorite reissues of the past year. Have a look, have a listen, and support underground music!

-Josh Madell

Hardly a new group, Tinariwen have been churning out their signature brand of desert blues for more than twenty-five years, albeit in the relative obscurity of the dusty south Sahara, but the story of the Malian musicians has caught on significantly over the past few years both here and abroad. Their history is dramatic; while serving time in Algerian military training camps, singer and leader Ibrahim Ag Alhabib became mesmerized by the "new" sounds of Led Zeppelin and Santana. Inspired to pick up a guitar, he and his band (who were also militants) developed a sound that brought the blues back to Africa from whence they came, combining traditional African singing and percussion with electric guitars and an intense rock and roll attitude. Drawing on the experiences of the fiercely nomadic Tuareg people, Tinariwen writes of unemployment, social oppression, rebellion and subjugation, first by French colonizers and later by the Malian government. It's trance inducing yet extremely well-grounded music, alive with the spirit and struggle of life in this trying world. Although they have been releasing CDs to international audiences for several years, Aman Iman is the perfect distillation of their powerful sound, and their recent touring, including an electrifying in-store performance at Other Music that created more excitement than any gig we've seen in quite some time, made a deep connection with the staff and customers, and catapulted this album to the top of a lot of our best-of lists. Tinariwen are a timeless, truly thrilling group that remind all of us of the transformative power of music.

Last year, mystery dubstep revolutionary Burial knocked us all out with his self-titled debut. In 2007, his second album, Untrue, repeated that knockout twice over. Burial's overall palette and scope move far beyond his peers, allowing him to craft full albums that are more about the overall journey than the stops along the way; a deep, mysterious and dark world of mood music, of cold city streets and streetlight burn, of endless drives through vacant urban overpasses at 4 A.M. Burial's melodies are still steeped in the two-step/garage formulas that birthed dubstep, but carry a distinct Detroit techno feel that makes his works sound expansive, open, and wondrous.

Pop iconoclasts Animal Collective brought across their clearest distillation of sound and structure to date with Strawberry Jam, in which their attempts to shed their sounds of old met with thunderous, gleeful success. While many elements of their sound on Strawberry Jam leaned towards indie rock, the group's shared influences of tribal drumming, tropicalia and psychedelia, as well as nods to electronic composers like Kraftwerk and Brian Eno, are all strikingly present, with unexpected clarity. Adding a more purposeful use of rhythms and textures to the atmosphere of their songs, the group proved that a push towards new and more widely accepted songs didn't have to come at the cost of their rampant streaks of experimentation, all adding up to their best record to date.

2007 saw the highly-anticipated, much-lauded sophomore album from Pantha Du Prince hit our shelves. While his first album, Diamond Daze, turned heads with its uniquely manicured textures, This Bliss followed suit with an even more pronounced feel, at times slightly edgier production, and characteristically unique atmosphere, all united by an overall, undeniable "personality" that is sorely lacking in recent techno releases. Gripping, evocative tracks unfold with unexpected gravity and fragile beauty, placing his works in a class truly on its own.

Dean Spunt and Randy Randall were two-thirds of the insanely great (and ridiculously unheralded) Los Angeles art-punk band Wives. Emerging from the same all ages scene that also brought us folks like the Mae Shi, 400 Blows, and Mika Miko, their new project No Age retains that same unbridled spirit fully intact, only now the two have opened up their sound equally to noisier passages and to melodic songcraft. Now signed to Sub Pop with a debut album set for 2008, Weirdo Rippers collects tracks from the group's five vinyl-only singles and EPs, showcasing the band's sometimes taut, often loose punk thrash and heady dream pop into wholly cohesive bursts of manic grandeur, recalling a more easygoing Lightning Bolt or a melody-driven take on Black Dice.

The heavier-than-heavy dubstep label Skull Disco brought us Soundboy Punishments, compiling the label's first five 12-inch singles. Culled primarily from the work of Shackleton, as well as a few selections from Appleblim and Gatekeeper, this is a mysterious yet engaging collection of deep, dark and danceable dub. As the title suggests, it's punishment for any sound boy expecting the same ol' thing, and worth it to everyone from the curious to the aficionado, especially for the now-legendary 18-minute Ricardo Villalobos remix of Shackelton's "Blood On My Hands."

M.I.A.'s sophomore effort was well worth the wait, buzz and backlash. Over the minimal yet throbbing, building mix of bass thumps, live and programmed drums, odd keyboards and tons of weird world culture samples (soundtracks, field recordings, in-studio chatter), she's singing wild and free and rebellious jams, in a league of her own. It sounds like nothing else, honestly. The textures and overall mixes shift from polished PlayStation sheen and big arrangements to grittier lo-fi techniques, all enhancing the shifting climates and cultures. It's a melting pot of a lot of things that really has nothing to do with America, yet it's definitely a pop record that confronted American consumer culture and its all-encompassing presence head-on.

Blood Visions technically came out in late 2006, but truth be told, we were so put off by its awful cover, that it took a few months before one of us dared to play it on the shop stereo. Needless to say, we thought Jay Reatard's songs were bloody great and we obviously weren't the only ones. Commanding major label attention while watching his audience grow tenfold, this was certainly Reatard's year. This Memphis denizen has been banging away at the hallowed halls of garage punk (and its corollary of goth-tinged synth punk) for well over a decade with the Reatards, Lost Sounds, Bad Times, Terror Visions and several other outfits, but his recent forays into solo territory unleashed a knack for relentlessly catchy, songwriting that no one could have anticipated. Ricocheting between the fast and the faster, Blood Visions channeled Adam Ant through the Futureheads and vintage Sparks, showing a personal side to the genre that few are able to successfully harness.

If this New England noise/improv group's chaotic, occasionally unstable live shows and countless tales of free-form scrape scattered across over two dozen albums, CD-Rs, and cassettes had scared you away in the past, then 2007 found Magik Markers doing a complete 180 turn and crafting a song-based work that's as affecting as it is solitary. Not that anyone was expecting the group to produce such a mature album, but BOSS proved that the group could fuse emotional volatility across a new and completely accessible approach. It's a POP album, and it will undoubtedly make you see the Markers in a different light.

King Khan, thee baddest French-Canadian Indian exiled in Germany, at least that we know of, returned in 2007 with yet another new album, here backed by an incredible eight-piece band, with a full brass section. On What Is?!, Khan channels Paul Revere & the Raiders, the Stones, the Stooges, Jacques Dutronc, Johnny Thunders, Dylan, and Sun Ra (no, wait til you hear "Cosmic Serenade") all in the space of one album, rooted in an authentic '60s style recording and gut-shot production values. Khan howls, preaches, and confesses like James Brown raised on Nuggets and Pebbles compilations, and if you don't love this record, you are sick of rock 'n' roll.

The After Dark compilation was originally compiled and pressed in an edition of 200 copies as a label sampler/promo for a Glass Candy tour, but an unexpectedly massive response to the sounds contained herein has brought it out of limited edition limbo and into wider availability for the general public. It's an oft-stunning mix of airy, synth-soaked dance glee and low-slung grooves that samples key 12" singles and demo tracks from a whole host of different Giorgio Moroder-loving bands, such as Glass Candy, Professor Genius, Chromatics, Farah and Mirage.

Formed from the ashes of Seattle's Pretty Girls Make Graves and Hint Hint, the Cave Singers debuted this year with Invitation Songs, an album that is just that: an irresistible offer to join them in the dark and dreamy world that their music inhabits. Built around finger-picked acoustic guitars, brushed drums and intimate, emotional vocals, the trio transcended folk music, blues, bluegrass and country, with a singular focus that belied its members' punk rock backgrounds.

At age 62, Robert Wyatt continues to be a refreshing voice in music, and there's no doubt that avant-pop's elder statesman is as much of an adventurist and pioneer today as he has ever been. This man belongs in the same pantheon of innovation as Arthur Russell, Tom Waits and of course, Brian Eno. His latest, Comicopera, unfolds over three acts, its tales of "human foibles" spelled out with contributions from Eno, Anne Whitehead, Paul Weller, Karen Mantler, Yaron Stavi, Orphy Robinson, and Monica Vasconcelos. It's a fresh take on Wyatt's classic sound, his latest ranking right up there with other great releases like Rock Bottom, Shleep, and, of course, his work with Soft Machine and Matching Mole.

The first solo album from Eric Copeland, a member of Black Dice and Terrestrial Tones, delivered heavily rhythmic electronic pastiche, unafraid to wander into more abstract territory; the 12 songs gathered herein find Copeland reflecting on his past work while exploring wholly new ideas, sonics, and textures. More than just a simple side project created in the gaps of his main band's recording schedule, Hermaphrodite is an assured and thoroughly bizarre debut, one that showcases Eric Copeland's ability to transform strange and oft-indescribable sounds into compelling, original, and endlessly listenable pieces.

Band of Horses' second effort plays as hopeful as it is downtrodden, and perhaps that's why their musical landscapes wear the promise of nostalgia so well. Whether or not you were one of the believers drawn in by 2006's Everything All the Time, you'll no doubt be won over by the stirring, vibrantly layered epics of Cease to Begin. Frontman Ben Bridell and his bandmates once again layer desperation across songs so poetic and charged, you'll feel hope swell within you, despite the fact that many of the songs here are about people who have no such thing.

Atlanta's notoriously rambunctious garage rockers, Black Lips continued their ascent up through the ranks with Good Bad Not Evil, their fourth studio album. Following the evergreen template of noise, hooks, bluesy undercurrents and primal psychedelia that powered all the bands on the legendary Nuggets collections, Black Lips skillfully managed to improve and further their stereophonic excesses with this go around, as evidenced by the frenetic guitar basher "Cold Hands," the boozy "Lock and Key," and the surprising slow gem, "Veni Vidi Vici." Their edges were a little less rough this time, but their sound remained exciting and raw.

Earlier this year, we were thrilled to have the opportunity to debut the first release from one of our favorite new local groups, Vampire Weekend, with this now out-of-print EP. Since then, the band scored a contract with XL Recordings, toured the US and Europe, and with their album still a month off, they seem poised to take over the world. The group of four Columbia grads traffics in African Paul Simonisms as they pertain to the indie rock that many of us live and die by, with all of the quirks and nuances you'd anticipate from a band that drew well-earned comparisons to the best material of the Police, the Teardrop Explodes, Orange Juice, and the Talking Heads. Look for their debut full-length, out January 29.

Even if we told you that Efdemin made some of this year's most non-retro-nostalgic Detroit, efficient, deep, on-point electronic jams, all full of warmth and slowly-rising energy, it still wouldn't really do this brilliant album justice. The nom de techno of one P. Sollman, Efdemin's tracks are strangely blissful (in a "house" way) and muscle-y (in a "Detroit" way) and sophisticated in a way very specific to the Dial label, on which Sollman has previously released some gorgeous ambient installation soundtracks. On the darker side of the coin as labelmate Pantha du Prince, but no less incredible.

Originally released last year as a super-limited LP, West Coast, by Swedish duo Studio, quickly became a DJ favorite, even finding DJs like Prins Thomas and Todd Terje remixing the album's "Life's a Beach." Though their connections to the Scandinavian bent for neo-space-disco are evident, Studio sticks closer to the cosmic blueprint of Italian DJ Daniel Baldelli's legendary sets, with their slo-mo tempos and an assimilation of diverse and often disparate styles, one which will also appeal to Krautrock aficionados.

Chromatics' transformation from seditious no-wave punk bash to warm, pulsating Italo disco finally peaked in 2007 with Night Drive, an imaginary soundtrack helped out by Glass Candy's mastermind Johnny Jewel, contributing a battery of bleak but glimmering keyboard melodies and eerie drones. The group's icy version of Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" really pushes this effort over the top.

Annie Clark, a 23-year-old from Dallas, has seen the world while slinging axe for the Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens. Yet her association with those two overachieving entities scarcely prepared one for the sheer ambition and accomplishment of Clark's Marry Me album, a gorgeous, precocious and often stunning debut released under the name St. Vincent. Like Bjork, Clark is clearly an intense, iconoclastic, fiercely independent and hugely talented artist, whose vision and drive makes her music almost unclassifiable. Channeling Antony and the Johnsons, Cat Power, Feist, Rufus Wainwright, Kate Bush, and Joanna Newsom, Marry Me is in a much different league than 99% of the "indie" records released year, and probably this decade. Plus, her CMJ in-store at OM was the debut release in our new "Live at Other Music" video series!

Madlib's lil' brother Oh No borrowed a crate of vinyl from Now Again honcho Egon's collection -- all rare music from Greece, Lebanon, Italy, and Turkey -- and chopped, looped, layered, and reshaped these various bits into a whole new composition of his own imagination, combining them with his own programming and playing. It's a psychedelic funk response to Madlib's Beat Konducta series or, of course, Dilla's Donuts.

Hands down the best rock and roll reissue of the year, Jim Ford's The Sounds of Our Time will be absolutely essential for anyone who has ever dug Exile on Main Street, Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham, Dr. John, Link Wray's three track shack recordings, gritty southern soul, driving with the windows down etc., etc. It is THAT GOOD! Including his classic Harlan County album in its entirety as well as 15 more tracks that are just as great, if not better, this collection was culled from some 300 hundred hours of reel-to-reel tapes found under the Ford's bed in a trailer park in Northern California. And his story is every bit as incredible as his music. Sadly, Jim Ford passed away last month.

There's probably little that will prepare you for this stunning and outright jammin' full-length from maverick composer and philosopher Henry Flynt's short-lived boogie-rock band, Nova'billy. Originally recorded between 1974 and '75 but never released, H.F. and Nova'billy, while surprising, is not by any means unprecedented in the Flynt catalogue. While most ostensibly an extension of Flynt's radical reconfiguration of Southern music, one can also sense a smart and seamless synthesis of many of his ideas and experiments with rock, free jazz, North Indian, and ecstatic musics. Guitar, saxophone, keyboards and, of course, Flynt's unmistakable violin playing -- here in particularly fiery form -- wail, blast and even trade hot licks over a rhythm section that varies from the "Wipeout" style intro of the opening "Conga" to firmly in-the-pocket back beats to unhinged percussive battery.

Formed in the late 1970s around a core of University of Georgia students, Pylon were instrumental in establishing Athens, GA as a hotbed of bizarre punk rock activity. Supported by new wave darlings the B-52s, Pylon stayed active until 1983, acting as a fundamental influence to a then nascent R.E.M., who championed the band during their rise to mainstream success. It's fitting that the DFA found time to reissue the band's debut album, Gyrate, with a host of singles and unreleased tracks in 2007 as Gyrate Plus. Pylon's slash-and-burn dance-punk is in retrospect a prime influence on that label's main activities, and a fitting tribute to an essential band, all but lost to time and history.