In any year, it's a real challenge to pick ten albums that mark the best of the year. Comparing lists, you'll find several here that make many critical lists. You will also see some questionable choices. Selections were made for musical talent, challenging compositions, catchiness, and buzz-worthiness. If there's one thing Any Given Tuesday has learned in 2007, it's that it doesn't matter who you are or who your label is, it's all about how much buzz you generate around your album.

Since readers are likely to be soaking in lists from websites and magazines all over the internet and newsstands, we've kept it brief here, deciding to let the choices stand for themselves rather than re-write reviews. Where a review is available from Any Given Tuesday this year, a link is included for inquiring minds.

Here are AGT's favorite national releases for the year:

10) Lil Wayne - Da Drought 3 - Dude released about 11 albums this year, with Tha Carter 3 pushed into '08. To be this prolific and still hot, Wayne's gotta make the list.

9) Bruce Springsteen - Magic: Perhaps a bit of a backpedal from the post-World Trade Center The Rising, on which Bruce and the E Street Band bled blue for a country unified around a tragedy, Magic is the song of a country divided between that tragedy and a regime that has lied to its people and taken many sons and daughters to their deaths overseas. When Springsteen belts "Who will be the last to die for a mistake?" on "Last To Die," folks from all political camps can't help but wish there was an answer in sight. Optimism steps aside and makes way for criticism and suspicion. (read Any Given Tuesday's review)

8) Job For A Cowboy - Genesis: You're not going to find many top ten lists with metal albums on them, because critics still think metal is for disturbed youth and fiends. The disturbed youth that form Job For A Cowboy make better metal than those critics have ever taken the time to listen to, and that's a terrible shame.

7) White Stripes - Icky Thump: On their new album (and major label debut), The White Stripes break a few of their self-imposed rules, such as inviting collaborators and refraining from doing covers or using new/unusual instruments, by inviting guest artists, using trumpets and bagpipes, and recording a cover. (read AGT's review)

6) Dillinger Escape Plan - Ire Works: I hate to say math metal, but I understand what's going on here about as well as I understand calculus. The difference between Ire Works and calc class is that I actually stay awake for Dillinger, and I can't get enough of this lesson in metal.

5)  PJ Harvey - White Chalk: The strangely pleasant opener, "The Devil", introduces this higher register PJ Harvey, singing on the outer edges of her vocal range, perhaps as a complement to the piano that sparely drives the album. Only on "Grow Grow Grow" does the more baritone, deep-seated roar of classic PJ Harvey rear its head, and it does so over dancing piano and deceitfully limited percussion. But a strangely pleasant opening becomes quickly discordant with what follows. (read AGT's review)

4) Interpol - Our Love To Admire: Still bleak and dark like 3AM in my neighborhood, Interpol step up to a major and manage to show some humor ("There's No 'I' In Threesome"). More confident than prior efforts, Love puts Interpol into a new lease on life.

3) Radiohead - In Rainbows: Everyone has been talking about the release of Radiohead's In Rainbows in a pay-what-you-want digital-only format, and not many have talked about the music. The album opens up with a low-fi electronic beat a la Kid A, blending into an island guitar riff that leaves "15 Step" lazy and unassuming, contrasting starkly against the follow-up, "Bodysnatchers", a SNAFU of a jam, filtering around a mucky bog of noise and trading places with acoustic interlude. (read AGT's review)

2) LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver: James Murphy might be the only guy who has two amazing releases this year (also see 45:33). Silver is the better of the two, and almost the best album of 2007.

1) Arcade Fire - Neon Bible: A gang of seven can't go wrong (but watch out for Wu-Tang's 8 Diagrams; the Wu didn't come through on their latest to make the release, and there's nine of them in that group), and Neon Bible is intense. One of the best indie releases in recent history.

Honorable Mention:

Busdriver - Roadkill Overcoat: Rampaging through the underground of hip hop, Busdriver steps onto Epitaph Records with Roadkill. Strangely catchy, this release is a hidden treasure map to the future of the genre.

NIN - Year Zero: Not Trent's best, but valiant all the same. Read AGT's review. It's hard when you're competing against yourself to outdo some of the best industrial records on the market. Check out his work on Saul Williams' Niggy Tardust, too.

MIA - Kala: Recorded all over the world (including a stop in Baltimore with Blaqstarr), Kala is a glitchy collection of found sounds. Sampling New Order doesn't hurt.

Tags: any given tuesday, arcade fire, Bruce Springsteen, busdriver, dillinger escape plan, interpol, job for a cowboy, lcd soundsystem, lil wayne, mia, nine inch nails, pj harvey, radiohead, top ten lists, white stripes