10. Tie: Lil’ Wayne, Da Drought 3 (self-released); Radiohead, In Rainbows (self-released)
Ties are cop-outs only when they fail to tie together. Aside from junior statures and jacked-up grills, Lil’ Wayne and Thom Yorke revealed that they have at least one more thing in common: Both raised the question of what quality music in 2007 is really worth. Wayne’s cursive, Web-streamed slurs confirmed the Cash Money grad as the Greatest Rapper Alive, while Yorke mocked the RIAA by letting downloaders pay whatever they wanted for his serene, sublime In Rainbows, effectively reverting 20 years of padded price structure by dropping a tip into the hat of the World’s Finest Rock Band.

9. The Tough Alliance, A New Chance (Sincerely Yours)
Back in October this spot was occupied by fellow Swede and lite-pop sideswiper Jens Lekman. But then the Tough Alliance’s undeniable mix of pre-nightfall Knife and post-adolescence Architecture in Helsinki came along and picked Lekman’s already-bare pockets. He’s probably writing a sad song about it right now. Read the rest of this entry »

Much has been made recently concerning Mitt Romney and his Mormon faith. Romney tried to put the matter to rest with his speech at the George Bush Presidential Library, but apparently some Americans wanted to know more than just what Romney thought about Jesus. Many were curious why Romney took the time to invoke religious tolerance in his speech and his support of racial equality — including how he “saw” his father, George Romney, the late Michigan Governor march with Martin Luther King Jr. — but he failed to point out that his own Church of Latter Day Saints (LDS) were themselves guilty of racism by not allowing African American men (and not to mention women, who still can’t be ordained) to become lay priests in the church until 1978. As Frank Rich wrote in his “Latter-Day Republicans vs. the Church of Oprah” , it does raise the question why Romney didn’t come out against his church’s discriminatory practices before they were revoked? Read the rest of this entry »

One of life’s most awkward situations occurs after discovering a friend owns a non-iPod mp3 player.

The scene is common: friends in a casual setting, conversing in iPod vernacular (“Dude, I can’t sync my iTunes tracks from my Nano to my Shuffle because I already authorized them on my old MacBook”). A friend who has been unusually quiet during the conversation finally contributes:

“Well, I’ve got one of these things …” Friend then produces a bulky object bearing an unfamiliar logo. Is it a Texas Instruments graphing calculator circa 1999? No — apparently it’s an mp3 player. Read the rest of this entry »