The Year in Music

Vampire Weekend.  OK, so this band of recent Columbia grads didn't officially release a record in 2007. But we got our hands on some demos last spring and have been listening nonstop ever since. Early notices always mention the group's WASPY Graceland vibe, and, yes, it's there. (Try "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa," which references Congolese pop and Louis Vuitton.) But don't let the labels distract. Their debut, which drops Jan. 28, is nothing more or less than good old-fashioned geek rock—think Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson and Marshall Crenshaw. It'll probably make our 2008 list, too. —AR

Wagonmaster: Porter Wagoner. The man who is best known now for having launched Dolly Parton, Porter Wagoner died this year. But before he passed away, he left behind this gritty hard-country album and introduced a new generation of fans to Nudie suits, pedal steel guitar and solemn recitations. "Eleven Cent Cotton" is a foot-stomper about poverty; in "Be a Little Quieter" he is haunted by memories of a lover who walked out--both would have sounded perfectly natural in Hank Williams's voice. The crown jewel is "Committed to Parkview," which Johnny Cash had always wanted the Thin Man from White Plains to record: it's a chilling tour through the real-life mental hospital that both men had the misfortune of being familiar with. —BB

With Lasers: Bond Do Role. Say you found the nastiest batch of baile funk—Brazil's gritty party music—and added a heaping dollop of 1980s Miami booty bass (and, fine, threw in some lasers). You'd get something close to Bond Do Role. Under the stewardship of American producer Diplo, the trio mixes hair-metal guitar, kazoos, bizarre samples, smutty lyrics and sheer playfulness on their first album. The highlight is the sing-songy "Solta o Frango," Portuguese for "Release the Chickens," meaning, basically, "Let Your Hair Down." If you want butt-bouncing world music without the heavy-handed messages of M.I.A. (who probably belongs on this list somewhere, so this will have to do), fire up the barbeque and release those chickens. —BB

© 2007