Best music of 2007: A record year for the women

By Sean Daly, Times Pop Music Critic
Published December 21, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Getty Images] Rihanna's Good Girl Gone Bad is a smart, crazy-fun dance disc. [AP photo] Amy Winehouse's Back to Black earned those honors as breakout artist of '07.

Women are far more interesting than men. And I say this not just because I'm the only dude in a house full of magnificent, mercurial females. Or because my boss is a woman. Or because my mom is coming to visit and I'm a tremendous suck-up.

No, I'm heralding female dominance today because it's the absolute truth. And nowhere was that more obvious than in the world of pop music in 2007.

Looking back on the tops in pops for '07, I was struck at how testosteroney last year was. With the exception of Christina Aguilera, Fantasia and Gwen Stefani whose inclusion was based more on fandom than the strength of a so-so solo disc, the last best-of list was decidedly bearded.

But this year is totally different. Six out of my 10 best albums were made by the smoother sex. Seven out of 10 if you count Alison Krauss & Robert Plant's duets disc, Raising Sand. Eight if you consider that many of the guest vocalists on DJ Mark Ronson's Version album are women.

That's not to say there weren't great albums by dudes. There were, especially from such no-first-names-necessary vets as Springsteen, Fogerty, Vedder, Knopfler and Mellencamp. But for all their strengths, the boys were mostly relegated to the honorable mentions list.

Women delivered the most ferociously singular albums this year, celebrating their strengths by poking fun at braggart boyfriends (Lily Allen), shooting braggart boyfriends (Miranda Lambert) or cheating on braggart boyfriends with the hunk next door (Amy Winehouse).

My No. 1 album of the year is by a certain Sri Lankan hip-hop star whose musical template takes turning tables to a whole new level. Forget about boyfriends: This artist uproots the entire world order with nursery-school rhymes and jarring Third World beats. Wow.

So here we go, my best albums of 2007.

10. Alicia Keys, As I Am: This isn't the masterpiece she'll one day deliver. But the R&B star continues to take her prodigious skills to soul-kissed extremes.

9. Kanye West, Graduation: School's out, suckas. And despite the vainglorious tantrums, 'Ye is nothing less than hip-hop's envelope-pushing valedictorian.

8. Rihanna, Good Girl Gone Bad: This year's Off the Wall. A smart, crazy-fun dance disc.

7. Rufus Wainwright, Release the Stars: I'm not sure which is bigger: my crush on Keys or Wainwright, whose lazy-river malaise is a thoroughly unique pop instrument.

6. Lily Allen, Alright, Still . . .: The Brit brat and MySpace pixie blends ska and Piccadilly pop to make a snotty charmer. When Lily smiles, watch your back.

5. Mark Ronson, Version: Producer of the year, Ronson is the throwback guy who made stars out of Allen and Winehouse. Here he calls on his pals to flirt over funky horns, hip-hop beats and L.A.-cool soundscapes.

4. Amy Winehouse, Back to Black: She looks like Dorothy's house just dropped on her head. But before witchy Winehouse skidded out on drugs, the neo-girl-grouper earned those honors as breakout artist of '07.

3. Miranda Lambert, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Save your sugar and spice: This proudly psychotic outlaw is all parts gunpowder and lead. Looks like a pinup, bites like a pitbull.

2. Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Raising Sand: Buy your ticket and hop aboard this Southern Gothic tunnel of love. A lesson in chemistry that mixes twang, voodoo and 1,000 haunted, hopeful hearts.

1. M.I.A., Kala: Daughter of a freedom fighter, mother of invention: When Maya Arulpragasam was banned from the U.S.A., the hip-hop rebel scavenged exotic sounds and beats from the rest of the world. "Don't order me about," she barks at men trying to control her. "I'm an outlaw from the badland." You go, girl.

HONORABLE MENTIONS: Nicole Atkins, Neptune City; Rilo Kiley, Under the Blacklight; Patty Griffin, Children Running Through; Feist, The Reminder; Shooter Jennings, The Wolf; Bruce Springsteen, Magic; John Fogerty, Revival; Eddie Vedder, Into the Wild; the Hives, The Black and White Album; Mark Knopfler, Kill to Get Crimson; the White Stripes, Icky Thump; Jay-Z, American Gangster; John Mellencamp, Freedom's Road; the Arcade Fire, Neon Bible.

Sean Daly can be reached at sdaly@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8467. His Pop Life blog is at blogs.tampabay.com/popmusic.

[Last modified December 20, 2007, 11:11:18]