Best Music of 2007 The Top Ten Albums 1)Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV Vol 2 : No World For Tomorrow - Coheed & Cambria Claudio rambled on and on about all the new musical influences he was going to demonstrate on the new album, then you slide the cd into your player and it's just like they left the studio at the end of recording 'From Fear Through The Eyes Of Madness' and then five minutes later they walked back in and started on this one. It is classic C&C, prog with a hard rock edge, improbably high vocals, a couple of stomp and sing numbers, incomprehensible lyrics, lots of nods to Pink Floyd, stunning. 2) Back To Black - Amy Winehouse What a fantastic voice, although Winehouse seems to be sticking firmly to the Wildhearts career plan, her second album was awesome, a big and rich jazz voice that's just perfect for her drink and drug soaked lyrics. 3) The Wildhearts - The Wildhearts Without a proper record or distribution deal, Ginger put out a storming Wildhearts album on his own label. The Wildhearts self titled effort was a back to 'Earth Vs' and 'PHUQ' styled release, big riffs, and then some more big riffs, and then just enough space for some more big riffs all backed up by CJ & Ginger's wonderful melodies. Still the best British rockers around. 4) Life With You - The Proclaimers I love to hear different accents in music and I have always had a soft spot for the folksy Reid twins. In 'Life With You' they have produced a mature and thought provoking album, politics run rife whether it's the anti-sexism/stupidity/rap of Here It Comes Again or poking holes in the egos of establishment 'punks' and 'rockers' on In Recognition, the music is great, their accents are a joy. 5) Saints Of Excess - G U Medicine Holy mother of all things very heavy indeed !! G U Medicine's second album is an absolute rip snorter, heavy as really heavy things falling from a great height, but really tight and well played, there's even a solo or two for old school metal afficianados. 6) Music For Lapdancers - The Fighting Cocks Why arn't this band huge ? Oh, perhaps it's because they can't be arsed, perhaps they swear too much, but with their chaotic fusion of dance / rock / gypsy / electronica they are very much first in a field of one. Eclectic, bonkers, mad grin inducing. 7) United Abominations - Megadeth Megadave might have made a complete tit of himself when he appeared on Metallica's 'Some Kind Of Monster' documentary, but in United Abominations he has pulled the band back in musical terms to their finest hours (RIP, So Far So Good). Of course Dave is the only remaining member of the original 'Deth, this is because if left alone in a greenhouse Mustaine would soon be fighting with the potted palms, and his lyrics still display the same sort of dismal political ignorance that GW Bush pushes on the world but at least the new musicians have produced a damned and well controlled speed metal fest on this album. 8) Super Taranta! - Gogol Bordello Eugene Hutz and his merry alcohol fuelled band of gypsies released another storming set of laughs and dances. Not since Hawkwind warbled on about 'Quark, Strangeness and Charm' have particle physics and left field music been blended so seamlessly and hilariously, all together now....."My brothers are protons, my sisters are nuetrons..." 9) Hessian Mercenaries - Vallenbrosa Along with GU Medicine, Vallenbrosa represent a weighty return to form for real muscular British heavy metal, well structured songs, meaty riffs, listenable vocals and impressive solos to set your fingers twitching, powerful stuff. 10) In Requiem - Paradise Lost Another old school metal band returns to form, Yorkshire gloom and doom merchants Paradise Lost produce the finest and heaviest slab of undiluted misery since their stunning 'Draconian Times' album Just missing out on the top ten, Grinderman - Grinderman, So This Is Great Britain - The Holloways, Black Rain - Ozzy Osbourne, Elect The Dead - Serj Tankian, Yoni - Ginger. Just Not Cutting The Mustard Sorry to be not creaming my pants over Gallows, I've listened to an awful lot of hardcore and although Gallows might have got themselves splashed over every music mag from Kerrang to NME to Q, they just don't do all that much for me. The Arctic Monkeys, again I may well be in a minority but I thougt their second album was very dissapointing, it just seemed to lack some of the verve, passion and dry laconic wit that made their debut so fantastic. Avril Lavigne, as she gets older, her music takes steps backwards. This album may have been a commercial success, but so is McDonalds. Radiohead, I paid 10p for the download only album and it was 10p wasted. Dreadful, just absolutely dreadful, music for the deaf. 30 Seconds To Mars, Madina Lake, Circa Survive, Paramore and a hundred other pop punk / rock bands all doing the very same and it is all very, very dull indeed. Best Live Act I didn't see a lot of bands, but you just can't beat The Wildhearts. GU Medicine and Vallenbrosa also stood out. Worst Live Act I used to be quite keen on a local all girl band called Blood Sundae, then they changed their name to Severed Heaven, got rid of a singer who could really sing and employed one who sounds for all the world like a duck in extreme pain. We paid four pounds to four bands on this night and we should have demanded our money back.