So here it is, at long last, our 2007 yearbook. Many of these will have appeared in the magazine on our Hot Tunes lists (or elsewhere), but it’s the perfect way to celebrate the newsstand release of our March music issue, featuring the results of our annual readers poll on music. Be forewarned—there are 51 songs in all, in no particular order. (Albums of the year coming soon in a separate post.)

“New York I Love You,” LCD Soundsystem
This is such a great song, and its slow, wistful tone is totally unexpected from LCD. Of course, the misplaced nostalgia for a New York fixed in some idealized 1980s East Village past gets grating if you listen too hard, but the way it’s expressed makes it work.

“You Know I’m No Good,” Amy Winehouse
This girl can belt it out, and this track—even more so than “Rehab”—showed the potential of the whole neo-soul thing: horn flourishes, super tight backbeat, and then Ghostface rolls in to make sure you know this isn’t just a nostalgia act. Nice.

“Ice Cream (Comets remix 2),” New Young Pony Club
The sexualized electro-inflected indie style typified by this single dominated the clubs all year, and this remix—with lots of 1980s funk and cheese, and breathy vocal panting used almost as percussion—is ace.

“Coogi Sweater,” Boom Bip
On the surface this is virtually the same song as the one above—sexy female vocals, almost spoken rather than sung, squeaky electro-funk noises, 1980s drum machine tones. But even though the songs would blend seamlessly at a hipster disco, each is well worth listening to on its own. Brilliant.

“Acceptable in the 80s,” Calvin Harris
Another memorable trashy electro anthem, this one even more influenced by dodgy 1980s funk like Cameo or “Controversy”-era Prince. Cheap recording options—Harris is a bedroom producer—are clearly the best thing ever to happen to music.

“Young Folks,” Peter Bjorn and John
The little whistling song that could somehow took these three goofy Swedish guys who were just having a laugh to the top echelons of the pop world. The trio’s other whistling song, “Amsterdam,” is damn good, too, actually.

“Sea Monuments,” Sea Wolf
Buoyant indie-pop built on acoustic guitar foundation, this would have been the year’s most infectious classic song in any year except the one in which “Young Folks” emerged.

“I Sing I Swim,” Sea Bear
From the Icelandic Airwaves Eruption compilation that celebrated this year’s lineup at the Reykjavic-based festival, this is hushed and wonderful, with triangle, fiddle and banjo helping to highlight the melancholic beauty created by these Americana-obsessed Icelanders.

“80’s Life,” The Good, The Bad & The Queen
Damon Albarn can’t miss. Whether it’s Blur, the Gorillaz, or this mellower project. I don’t listen to the words closely enough to know what he’s on about, but despite the 80s in the title, this owes more to the 50s, all crooning, twanging and rudimentary piano banging.

“Paper Planes,” M.I.A.
The best track on her second album is this track, which, though chilled out by her standards, still features gun shots in the chorus. You cannot escape this track. And don’t fret over the Clash sample. This is punk as fuck—in a Sri Lankan dancehall kinda way, of course…

“The Magic Position,” Patrick Wolf
If you like Jens Lekman, you’ll love this uplifting chamber-pop confection—complete with toy strings, toy piano (or xylophone?), kids voices, hand claps, horns, the works—from this eccentric six-foot-four redhead.

“Not What You Wanted,” Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Maybe these guys were uncomfortable with the Jesus & Mary Chain comparisons after their debut—which, in fairness sounded like a J&MC tribute—but that’s what BRMC does best. Thank god they’ve come to the same conclusion, and gone back to that sound. The result? This song is one of the best things the Jesus & Mary Chain’s ever done.

“Kamera Song,” The Inner Space
Spaced out, slinky psych-pop with sexy girl vocals from volume two of the In-Kraut compilation, subtitled “Hip Shaking Grooves Made in Germany 1967-1974.”

“Hang Me Out To Dry,” Cold War Kids
Helium-pitched frontman works surprisingly effectively with the dark blues riff, tinny piano and gritty chug of the second single from Robbers & Cowards.

“Troubled Son,” Working For A Nuclear Free City
Man, this is so menacing—and yet so groovy. The deep, loping bass, muddy vocals and totally dialed-in krautrock aesthetic also make this sound epic—though after less than three minutes of an intense musical rush, it’s over just like that.

“You Don’t Stand A Chance,” Robbers On High Street
The tinkling piano, organ and sax—not to mention the melody and vocal delivery—make this sound like John Lennon’s solo forays into blue-eyed soul.

“Try Love,” Detroit Cobras
The Cobras aren’t the type of band you expect to, you know, evolve. The are unapologetically rock—gut-busting, beer-swilling, bar-fighting rock and roll. And yet somehow, their amazing take on this classic soul ballad has a soaring beauty able to make you weak in the knees.

“Veni Vidi Vici,” The Black Lips
Psych-punk with enough Sun Records twang to remind you of Jon Spencer’s Heavy Trash project.

“K.I.D.S.,” Tiny Masters Of Today
Thrashy guitars and lines—sung by kids—like “Kids didn’t make no atom bomb, kids didn’t start no Vietnam” make for genius novelty tune.

“Run Into Flowers (Midnight Fuck remix by Jackson),” M83
Jackson infuses a bit more propulsion into a typically atmospheric M83 tune from the fourth volume of the Standard hotel’s 4:19 compilation.

“Crossover Appeal,” Guns N’ Bombs
Holy crap was the Kitsune Maison’s fourth compilation good. This buzzsaw electro stands alongside Crystal Castles’ “Knights” and Dragonette’s “I Get Around (Midnight Juggernauts remix)” as the best tracks.

“Atlantis to Interzone (Van She remix),” Klaxons
Takes the air-raid sirens and guitars out in favor of chiming tones—it’s a real change of pace that allows thesong to retain the basic nu-rave flavor while gently nudging it over into equally-trendy but smoother 1980s electro-funk territory.

“Baby, It’s You,” Smith
From Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof soundtrack comes this slice of rare groove heaven. You know the Beatles version of “Baby It’s You” from their “Please Please Me” LP? This is that same song, belted out in the funky style of Booker T & the MGs, Sam & Dave, or—perhaps more to the point given the female vocals—Ike and Tina.  

“If I Knew You Were Coming I’d’ve Baked A Cake,” Eileen Barton
This is corny 1940s-style fun from John Waters’ compilation, A Date With John Waters. A girl with all the vocal subtlety of Lucille Ball discusses the way she would have prepared for a visit while a big band blares away with the swing of popular music just on the eve of rock.

“Flunky For Your Love,” Pieces Of Peace
Rare groove DJ secret gets reissued. This is hard 1970s jazz-funk in the vein of Funk, Inc.

“We R The Handclaps,” Junior Senior
The return of the Danish duo famous for “Move Your Feet” didn’t generate the attention it warranted—this sounds like a cut n’ paste version of the Jackson 5.

“Can’t Stop Moving,” Sonny J
Another slice of Jackson 5 bliss filtered through something very close to the Go Team’s zany, treble-happy, kaleidoscopic sensibility.

“Pearl,” Chapterhouse
With the shoegazing sound still gaining ground as a retro flavor, it was good to hear this fairly rare song from the original shoegazing era again on Rhino’s  multi-CD Brit Box.

“Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” Hanoi Rocks
Another rarely heard track, this is perhaps the best proto-hair-metal song ever, from pioneering glam rockers loved by Axel Rose, among others. It’s part of Rhino’s Heavy Metal box set.

“Dismissed,” Uffie
From the sick second volume of the Ed Banger Records compilation. Uffie’s best known for the single before this one, “Pop the Glock,” but this is even tougher and tighter. Throbbing, wobbly electro beneath and Uffie herself talking all kinds of shit on top.

“Patty Hearst,” Stereo Total
The band likes to call their current sound “electro-chanson,” but there are many more words you need to deploy to have any idea what really makes them tick: punk, lo-fi, surf, rockabilly, girl groups, Brigitte Bardot, Gainsbourg, disco…are you getting the idea that they are wildly eclectic? This tune shows off a bit of their punky side—though there are trashy analogue synth effects here, too. Tough to describe, easy to love.

“Omaha,” Moby Grape
San Francisco generated a lot of great music in the late-1960s, though forty years later that scene has been distilled—at least at classic rock radio—down to Jefferson Airplane, Janet Joplin and the Grateful Dead. The reissue of the Moby Grape’s output should help remedy the situation beginning with this great 1967 single.

“All Rights Reversed,” Chemical Brothers
The whole new rave thing is cool, but you have to wonder about the movement when the premiere band—the Klaxons—does its best work as guest collaborators with Tom and Ed Chemical. These guys just never stop developing, and this off-kilter anthem is a new height of accomplishment.

“Tonot (The Field remix),” Battles
Hotly-tipped math rock band gets blip and bleep makeover from one of the best acts in the Kompakt records stable.

“Our Life Is Not A Movie Or Maybe,” Okkervil River
By far the best Arcade Fire song of the year, their own album notwithstanding.

“Baby,” The Brunettes
By far the best Belle & Sebastian song of the year—one to rival the best stuff from The Life Pursuit.

“Nag Nag Nag Nag,” Art Brut
The best Libertines’ song of the year.

“Dreamworld,” Rilo Kiley
From an otherwise disappointing album, this Fleetwood Mac homage makes a great way to take the edge off.

 “Soft Rock Star (Jimmy Vs Joe Mix)” Metric
Ah, Metric. This is from the reissue of Grow Up And Blow Away. Beautiful, with Emily Haines singing at the high end of her range and the band cranking out a pretty mid-tempo ditty. Toronto, man: There’s something great going on up there.

“Stop Me,” Mark Ronson
Of all the cover choices on Ronson’s neo-soul album, this call—a radical reworking of the Smiths—took the most balls. Best of all, it’s a rewarding experience. The true test of any great song is that it isn’t dependant on one single performance, and—naysayers be damned—it’s really a tribute to Morrissey and Johnny Marr that a Smiths song shines with horns and strings and funky bass.

“Idealistic,” Digitalism
There are so many great tracks on this album it’s tough to single out just one. But even among the bouncy electro of “Digitalism in Cairo,” “Jupiter Room,” and “Zdarlight,” this track—with its shouted vocals—cannot be ignored.

“Funk (the Bloody Beetroots remix),” Etienne de Crecy
Yikes. This guy basically invented French house—you know, like, back in the 90s—and yet he can still make stuff to show the kids how it’s done in the electro arena.

“Don’t Stop Believin’,” Petra Haden
This song was exhumed—or rather, pried from retro radio and back into mainstream consciousness—by the Sopranos finale. But Petra’s new a cappella version puts a highly improbable but totally enjoyable spin on Journey’s anthem.

“Bigger Hole To Fill,” The Hives
The latest album dropped without a sound, but there are great songs on there. This one ditches some of their earlier histrionics in favor of a chugging beat and a touch of twang—but there’s still a huge chorus.

“The Sprawl,” Sonic Youth
The 20th anniversary reissue of the landmark Daydream Nation reminded everyone how seminal this NYC noise outfit was to the rebirth of American indie rock. And while you may still find yourself humming “Teenage Riot,” songs like this one may have slipped your mind.

“Sheila,” Jamie T
Genre-busting folk-hop masterpiece from a storytelling troubadour who also loves the Beastie Boys and vintage reggae. A genius missing link between the Streets and Billie Bragg.

“Anyway You Choose To Give It,” The Black Ghosts
Uptempo update of New Romantic sound—picture ABC or Heaven 17 with some of the grit of Madchester acts like Happy Mondays. This the faction of Simian that didn’t become Simian Mobile Disco.

“Kingdom,” Wolf & Cub
In a year with a lot of krautrock and Hawkwind influenced music, this track stood out, unwinding nice and slowly over a woozy bassline into a full-blown psych epic.

“Forever Young,” Youth Group
Bummed out cover of the 1980s prom-theme classic by Alphaville from Australian indie kids. You might say it sounds a bit like the Shins pretending to be the Smiths.

“The Plot,” White Rabbits
Pitch perfect power pop with just the right amount of acerbic guitar crunch to offset the sweet melody and vocal harmonizing. Instead of the Shins pretending to be the Smiths, this is the Shins after a few cans of Red Bull.

“From A to I,” Jarvis Cocker
OK, “Black Magic,” with its “Crimson and Clover” sample, is bigger—the “Disco 2000” of his solo album. But this is Jarvis at his absolute best, sending up English fears of being overrun by Polish workers in an expanded EU, and doing so with whip-smart humor and a pretty pop melody.