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One, two, three, four; tell her that you love her more.

Actually, you couldn’t if you tried. In a year dominated by historically avant-garde rockers’ shrewd cyber-marketing schemes (Radiohead’s In Rainbows, 2007’s top download and No. 4 album), post-colonial dancefloor mayhem (M.I.A.’s Kala came in at No. 5 on our album list, while two tracks, “Paper Planes” [8] and “Boyz” [12] ranked in 2007’s top 15 singles), post-ironic hipster boogie (LCD Soundsystem, the year’s third best album and single) and, er, shaggy white dudes with guitars (Spoon’s Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga was first runner-up on our album list, while “You Got Yr Cherry Bomb” made it to 15th place in the singles roundup), some ex-Calgarian chick with really good bangs totally owned 2007 in music.

OK, so the Apple-assisted mainstream crossover of li’l Leslie Feist also earned her the dubious honour of being crowned the year’s most overrated artist (ain’t it always the way?) but indie-pop’s reigning chanteuse blew her competition out of the water, winning album of the year accolades by a staggering margin and comfortably knocking the “Umbrella” out of Rihanna’s hands.

Other key trends: continuing the rockist/anti-pop consortium of last year’s Cross-Canada Music Critics’ Poll, bubblegum blows. Hey, hey, Avril Lavigne — critics didn’t like yr “Girlfriend” (2007’s worst single). Unless, of course, you’re celebrating your walking-time-bomb tendencies in a media-excoriating dancefloor burner, as prodigal pop tartlet Britney Spears did in her troubling “Piece of Me” (13). Further evidence that train wrecks = tops: all the coke-encrusted nostrils in the world couldn’t keep Amy Winehouse from soul-sister success — Back to Black, technically released Dec. 19, 2006, made it to No. 15 on our album chart; though only the foreshadowy “Rehab” (4) placed in the top 20 singles. And, hey, 2007 in hip-hop? Apparently it didn’t exist so much, at least not according to Canada’s critics. In spite of his faceoff with Fiddy, Kanye West’s Graduation just barely made the cut, though singles “Stronger” and “The Good Life” scored well on our chart. Beyond Mr. West, rap didn’t really rank.

And O, Canada, ’07 was a year for true patriot love! Our national pop and rock ’n’ roll crusaders fared remarkably well in this year’s roundup. In addition to Feist’s top finish across the board, Arcade Fire (2007’s second most overrated act) delivered the sixth best album and 13th best single (“Intervention”). Caribou’s Andorra ranked eighth on our album chart, while the artist formerly known as Manitoba’s deliriously hooky “Melody Day” was the 10th best single. Polaris nominees Joel Plaskett Emergency (No. 9 album) and Miracle Fortress (No. 11 album) scored highly, while local hero Sandro Perri got some of the recognition he so richly deserves, with his Tiny Mirrors disc making it to No. 12 on the album list.

Patriotism also shaped participants’ crystal-ball predictions for the future, with frenetic Midland-bred pop squad Born Ruffians leading the largely Canadian pack. 2008: the year Canadian indie-rock stays on the map? 

 
HOW THE POLL WORKS
In Dec. 2007, EYE WEEKLY sent out ballots to music critics, broadcasters and bloggers across Canada and asked them to list their top 10 albums/singles and award them a score out of 100. The rankings were automatically scored by increments of 10: 100 points were awarded for a No. 1 ranked album, 90 points were awarded for a No. 2 album and so on. The scores for were then tallied to determine the top 20 lists (with the number of voters for a particular album/single listed in parentheses). Rankings for other categories were simply determined by the number of votes received by each. 

CONTRIBUTORS
A special thanks to all the critics who participated in this year’s poll: Bill Alexander (SoundProof Magazine), Jason Anderson (EYE WEEKLY, Toronto Life, Swerve), Michael Barclay (EYE WEEKLY, Exclaim!, radiofreecanuckistan.blogspot.com), Adrien Begrand (PopMatters.com, Decibel, Metal Edge), Stuart Berman (EYE WEEKLY, Pitchfork, Magnet), Chris Bilton (EYE WEEKLY), David Boyle (FFWD Weekly, Open Your Eyes, CFMH St. John), Aaron Brophy (Chart), J.D. Considine (The Globe and Mail, Bass Guitar, Blender, Guitar World, Revolver), Del F. Cowie (Exclaim!, EYE WEEKLY), David Dacks (Exclaim!, EYE WEEKLY, AOL Canada, Paste, CIUT, Abstract Index), Phil Dellio (Rockcritics.com, Stylus), Shawn Despres (Chart, The Japan Times), Mary Dickie (Elle Canada), Noel Dix (Exclaim!), Mike Doherty (National Post), Kerry Doole (Exclaim!, Tandem, Words & Music), Jonny Dovercourt (Wavelength, EYE WEEKLY), Howard Druckman (EYE WEEKLY), Cam Gordon (Chart, Peace, Toronto Special), Jason Grimmer (Panpot.ca), Peter Hemminger (FFWD Weekly), Paul Isaacs (EYE WEEKLY), Nicholas Jennings (Inside Entertainment, Words & Music, The Globe and Mail), Kevin Kelly (Newfoundland Herald), Liisa Ladouceur (Gasoline, EYE WEEKLY), Jill Langlois (EYE WEEKLY, Chart, Exclaim!), Bruce Leperre (Winnipeg Free Press), Matt Littlefair (Chart), Steve McLean (Chart), Chuck Molgat (Thickspecs.com, Exclaim!, CKLN, Prairie Dog, Planet-S), Dave Morris (EYE WEEKLY), Richard Moule (Signal To Noise, Grooves), Joshua Ostroff (AOL Canada), John Papamarko (Chart), Sofi Papamarko (Exclaim!), Brian Pascual (Chart), Travis Persaud (EYE WEEKLY), W. Andrew Powell (The Gate, www.thegate.ca), Chris Randle (EYE WEEKLY), Ben Rayner (Toronto Star), Bill Reynolds (Swerve), David Ryshpan (Panpot.ca, CKUT FM), John Sekerka (Ottawa Xpress), Tabassum Siddiqui (EYE WEEKLY), Helen Spitzer (EYE WEEKLY, Exclaim!), Jordan Timm (Maclean’s), Ryan Watson (EYE WEEKLY), Brad Wheeler (The Globe and Mail), Shannon Whibbs (Chart), Carl Wilson (The Globe and Mail, www.zoilus.com), Scott Woods (Las Vegas Weekly), Frank Yang (www.chromewaves.net).