1. Radiohead – In Rainbows
The album that you downloaded for free (and later felt guilty about).
2. Of Montreal – Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
The album that made chemicals fun.
3. LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver
The album that made "North American Scum" into a term of endearment.
4. Justice – †
The album that you still want to hear at every dance party.
5. MGMT – Oracular Spectacular
The album that college kids did drugs to.
6. M.I.A. – Kala
The album that still sounds as fresh today as it did the first time you heard "Paper Planes."
7. The Go! Team – Proof Of Youth
The album that inspired everyone to make up their own choreography.
8. Arcade Fire – Neon Bible
The album that proved Funeral wasn't a fluke, but the start of something beautiful.
9. Feist – The Reminder
The album that sold so, so many iPod Nanos.
10. Animal Collective – Strawberry Jam
I don't know if there's ever been a better album with a worse album cover. This is just nauseating.
11. Panda Bear – Person Pitch
The album that your stoner friends were in love with.
12. Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago
The album that made Wisconsin winters sound romantic and beautiful instead of freezing and terrible.
13. The Twilight Sad – Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters
The album that confirmed that, yes, Scotland is probably as cold and drizzly as you imagine it to be.
14. Andrew Bird – Armchair Apocrypha
The album that made you feel self-conscious about your whistling ability.
15. Bloc Party – A Weekend in the City
One of the most divisive sophomore albums of 2007.
16. Arctic Monkeys – Favourite Worst Nightmare
The album so good that America almost forgave the band for spelling "favorite" with an extra "u."
17. Deerhunter – Cryptograms
The album that finally scratched your mid-2000s psych-pop/shoegaze itch.
18. Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
The album with the title that you hated having to say out loud. Good trolling, Britt.
19. The Shins – Wincing the Night Away
The album that mega-Shins fans couldn't get enough of. (The rest of us, though. Meh.)
20. Band of Horses – Cease to Begin
The album that you really wanted to blast into a canyon to hear it echo for miles.
21. Stars – In Our Bedroom After the War
The album that made you want to stay young forever.
22. The National – Boxer
The album that made made the cool kids start smoking cigarettes and dressing in all black.
23. Battles – Mirrored
The album that all the music theory nerds loved but found difficult to sing along to.
24. Les Savy Fav – Let's Stay Friends
The album that made us feel pretty relieved that the future of punk was in good hands.
25. Caribou – Andorra
The album for people who thought Person Pitch was a little too boring and slow for their tastes.
26. !!! – Myth Takes
The album that everyone danced to even though it made them feel weirdly dirty.
27. Dan Deacon – Spiderman of the Rings
The album that parents just really didn't get.
28. Klaxons – Myths of the Near Future
The album that made raving kind of cool again.
29. Beirut – The Flying Club Cup
The album that got kids hype for their post-graduation Euro-trips.
30. Black Lips – Good Bad Not Evil
The best album for being up to no good.
31. No Age – Weirdo Rippers
The album that tested everyone's patience by making them wait through a 90-second intro for a 60-second song.
32. Modest Mouse – We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
The album where Modest Mouse went full-on Adult Contemporary.
33. Okkervil River – The Stage Names
The album for people who needed a little pick-me-up. It still works, too!
