From M.I.A's "Kala" to Radiohead's "In Rainbows" and every musical tidbit in between, XL Recordings has released a cavalcade of music in the last year or so. Obviously, they're real darn excited over at XL, because they've put out a compilation, "08/09", of tracks they've been tinkering with and some they are prepping for release later this year.

Highlights include the oft-overplayed (hello KEXP) Peter Gabriel/Hot Chip collab, who render Vampire Weekend's "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" into a much more enjoyable form than it's original, and the surprising soulfulness of the Raconteurs "Many Shades of Black" with Adele at the vocal helm. Damon Albarn's new endeavour with Jamie Hewlett, Monkey, also has a track on this comp. "Heavenly Peach Banquet" is surprisingly delicate and enchanting, like an emotionally stable Coco Rosie or a more youthful, playful Air.

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Watch as Doug Martsch skillfully axes his way through "Paper Planes."

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It turns out Sri-Lankan hip-hopper DeLon seems to think she's more into "blowing up" than you think.

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Sing-alikes M.I.A. and Santogold Collab

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Of course, this year's nominees were picked by a guy from Snow Patrol, a guy from the Killers, a guy from CMJ and a guy from KCRW ... and I suppose it reflects that diverse group (note the sarcasm).

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Sometimes I think it takes me waaay too long to come up with my Top 20 albums of a given year. There are a lot of internal debates and arguments that really have no right answer. Really, you reach a point where all the albums are good but how to rank them gets to be quite the challenge. This year was chock full of good music (not matter what the naysayers might groan). I counted something like 175+ albums worth mentioning in 2007, and that is only a tip of the iceberg when it comes to everything that was released in the year. However, I did whittle it down to 20... well, 22 if you count my 2 EP exception (EP's don't count as real albums).

If you're interested in some sub-lists, like my albums "with apologizes" (albums I didn't hear but should have) or "best imports" or "most disappointing" (hint, the band who made it rhymes with Milo Biley), check it out here.

So, here we go:

#21 The EP's - Two EP's made me happy this year, and really, they would be in the top 20, but it seems unfair to me to include EP's versus albums. They're both UK pop, and they're both brilliant in their own cute way.

Los Campesinos! Sticking Fingers Into Sockets (Thanks to igLiz for this band!)

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at Showbox Sodo

A sold out SODO crowd experienced all that is the amazing live M.I.A production.

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Wouldya get a load of those pants?!?!

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Today the Guardian posted an article titled "Brits keep out, unless you're old and boring" that exposes US Immigration department's efforts to keep out all the great UK bands with scheduled tours (Lily Allen!) while allowing the Police and (Sir) Elton John to traipse all over our fair land.

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Who knew that the soundtrack to the first High School Musical was the #1 selling album of 2006? Crazy

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