Top 10 albums of 2007

Hello, I'm Nate Lanxon and welcome to a special edition of Encoded, where instead of telling you what great things are coming up in the world of music, we're going to look back on how great a year it's been by revealing our top 10 albums of the year.

To avoid the usual office arguments, we've decided not to name an overall winner. Believe me, if you're keen to see me on your screen next year, it's better this way – those boys in post-production can get a little bit 'over-keen' if they don't get their own way.

Anyway, in no particular order, here is Encoded's top 10 albums of 2007...

Our first pick is Ire Works by The Dillinger Escape Plan, their third full-length album, which was released in November. Managing to retain relentless creativity and holding on to their signature sound and complexity despite a major line-up change, the album ranks as one of the New Jersey-based mathcore pioneers' grandest achievements, and possibly their finest work to date.

Next up is New Young Pony Club and their debut long-player Fantastic Playroom, which came out in July and was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize. The album shows off the ultra-modern stylings of the London new-wavers, and includes the singles 'Ice Cream' and 'Get Lucky', both of which were big summer anthems and helped the band transcend the nu-rave neon they'd been painted.

Sound of Silver by LCD Soundsystem is the next to get our vote, appearing in our top 10 for the same reason it appears in everyone else's... because it's too damn good to ignore. With a modern maturity lacking on the first album, Sound of Silver is more than the banging dancefloor filler most people expected, showing a sickening awareness of the human psyche most of us miss by a mile.

Next up is the album everyone owns, but most won't have bothered listening to: In Rainbows by Radiohead. When this album was released for download in October, with fans able to name their own price, people cried 'gimmick' and assumed the worst. What they got for their penny or pound, though, was the band's strongest album in a decade.

Taking us in a completely different direction is our next choice Kala, the second album from West-London rude-girl MIA. Mixing dancehall, grime and electro, Kala expands on the bouncy body-pop of its predecessor, so despite lyrics that feel you've been here before, the album is more progressive and inventive and than anything else of its ilk in recent times.

Sticking with the dancefloor, our next selection is Cross, the pious debut from electro house twosome Justice. Signed to Ed Banger, and cut from very much the same cloth as their obvious heroes Daft Punk, Justice have made the French electro sound global once again, with chart-friendly singalongs like 'D.A.N.C.E.' sitting comfortably next to industrial clangers like 'Waters of Nazareth'.

Icky Thump, the sixth studio album by Detroit's White Stripes was released in June, showing no sign of regression from the world's most famous blues-rock band. Heavy, dirgy riffs sit next to 'Desperado' horns; chugging basslines clatter over a thumping bassdrum, while all the while Jack White howls about loves lost and those yet to come.

With their debut album Mirrored, Battles brought math-rock out of the cold and gave it an arena stage as a platform. The unsettling vocodered mantra of lead single 'Atlas' saw it assume an unlikely spot as a summer dancefloor classic, while the technical ability shown on album tracks like 'Rainbows' offered enough chin-stroke moments for the purists. It's a definite bona fide classic.

Out of the ashes of the much-missed McClusky and Jarcrew came Future of the Left, and out of the synthy, alt-rock vitriol of their live show came Curses, the potential albatross by which they'll always be judged. It's rare to come across a debut that knows itself as well as Curses, and the lack of pretentiousness is evident throughout the album.

Last but by no means least is Attack Decay Sustain Release from Simian Mobile Disco, which was released in June and continued to burn brightly throughout the year. Relentlessly intense from start to finish, the Simian boys showed that it wasn't just the French who could get kids dancing in 2007. Brilliantly eclectic and full of popular appeal, the album is a shining example of how not to be shackled by a genre.

So there you have it, Encoded's top 10 albums of 2007, in no particular order of course. I'll see you next year, so until then, be careful, look both ways before you cross the street, and don't steal from pensioners. Goodbye!