second floor

…that i’ve seen…

better late than never… (full disclosure: in the realm of “notable” movies, i haven’t seen the diving bell and the butterfly, the savages, margot at the wedding, atonement, or before the devil knows you’re dead)

honorable mentions go to 3:10 to yuma, into the wild, and persepolis

my picks for best actor and actress go to daniel day-lewis in there will be blood and marion cotillard in la vie en rose

10. the assassination of jesse james (written by ron hansen and directed by andrew dominik)

9. cassandra’s dream (written and directed by woody allen…technically 2008 but i’ll let it slide)

8. eastern promises (written by steven knight and directed by david cronenberg)

7. control (written by matt greenhalgh and deborah curtis; directed by anton corbijn)

6. la vie en rose (written by isabelle sobelman and olivier dahan; directed by olivier dahan)

5. rescue dawn (written and directed by werner herzog)

4. michael clayton (written and directed by tony gilroy)

3. the darjeeling limited (written by wes anderson, roman coppola, and jason schwartzman; directed by wes anderson)

2. no country for old men (written and directed by the coen brothers)

1. there will be blood (written and directed by paul thomas anderson)

in no particular order & assuming that they actually come out…

mos def - the ecstatic
erykah badu - badu iz um?
the roots - rising down
88 keys - death of adam
atmosphere - tba
ghostface & mf doom - swift & changeable
supreme team (madlib & karriem riggins) - tba
black thought & danger mouse - dangerous thoughts
lil wayne - tha carter III
nas - the n
q-tip - live at the renaissance
common - tba
andre 3000 - tba
gnarls barkley - tba
talib kweli & hi-tek - reflection eternal 2
mf doom & madlib - madvillain 2
dr. dre - detox

update for new entries: murs & 9th wonder - sweet lord

idle warship - party robot

i spent most of 2007 listening to music not from this year (or decade) so i don’t have enough confidence to flesh out a top ten list.

instead, i’ll just point out that it looks like you omitted the good, the bad and the queen.

i decided to link to random youtube videos of songs from each album…

10. blu & exile - below the heavens

9. lupe fiasco - the cool

8. arcade fire - neon bible

7. radiohead - in rainbows

6. spoon - ga ga ga ga ga

5. panda bear - person pitch

4. feist - the reminder

3. common - finding forever

2. lcd soundsystem - sound of silver

1. kanye west - graduation

honorable mentions go to 2007 releases from oh no, animal collective, of montreal, jay dee, justice, rilo kiley, and the cunninlynguists. hot chip would’ve made it if their album came out a bit earlier and amy winehouse would’ve if hers came out a bit later. i decided not to include compilations and mixtapes but honorable mentions in that realm go to stones throw’s b-ball zombie war, j*davey’s land of the lost, and dj soul & okayplayer’s assorted donuts.

figuring out a top ten tracks list is going to take me a while…

update: belated honorable mentions to waajeed’s the war lp, the good, the bad & the queen’s self titled album and the veils’ nux vomica even though that was officially 2006 i think…

some of the links are to unofficial/weird videos of the songs

10. burial - archangel
9. kanye west ft. t-pain- good life
8. arcade fire - neon bible
7. rihanna - don’t stop the music
6. feist - my moon my man
5. onerepublic - apologize
4. spoon - don’t make me a target
3. radiohead - videotape
2. m.i.a. - 20 dollar
1. lcd soundsystem - someone great