Let's get right to it...  Before the new year (mercifully) rings in.

(you'll have to click through for numero uno...)

3.  Fleet Foxes: Fleet Foxes

So there I was singing Blackbird with Brian Wilson and I thought how many millions of other better singers could've been there at that moment and how much I would've cherished hearing any one of them.  But, alas, it was me. 

I had mentioned The Beatles tune in jest, really.  We were on the topic of songs about birds and I thought it would be cute to bring up the band who Wilson famously tried to one up.  But, I was talking to him after Smile had been completed and he seemed more than ready to forget about all that and break into song.  And, when I heard him start - "Blackbird singing in the dead of night" - I wished (you have no idea how much) that I could carry a tune. 

And even though I knew all the lyrics (which he liked), he wasn't going to take the duet seriously once he heard what came out of my mouth.

And, somehow this name dropping story brings me to Fleet Foxes and the most gorgeous album of the year. 

And, if I liked Pet Sounds more than Nevermind (I don't, but it's close), then White Winter Hymnal would be the best song of the year (see album #2).  I think I've played it so much that this beautiful song, full of harmonies, has grown a little tired for Mrs. Prophet.  And, for that, I apologize.  It should never have been that way.  There simply wasn't much else to listen to. 

White Winter Hymnal

2. No Age: Nouns

Remember the first time you heard Smells Like Teen Spirit?  I do. 

A few days after I tore up my parent's living room, my older brother came home from college break and I remember flipping through the radio dial on our '88 Buick La Sabre trying to find this new, unbelievable song on the drive back from the train station.

If you remember any of that, go out and listen to Nouns by L.A.'s No Age.  Go now.

Listen to Eraser.  Or as I like to call it, the best song of the year.  Let me repeat, the best song of the year!  I tore up my living room.

I expect big things from these kids.  Big things. 

And boys, it's not good to let prophet down.

Eraser

Can you believe there's no way to embed their music video without using an MTV link with a commercial for the Notorious movie?  So, instead, here's their performance on Craig Ferguson's show.  Before they play, Ferguson notes the minor controversy that broke out when guitarist Randy Randall was asked to take off his Obama t-shirt for the performance.

1. The Walkmen: You & Me

After an absolutely horrendous show at The Bowery Ballroom in support of their disappointing 2006 album A Hundred Miles Off, I had all but written off what was once my favorite New York band.  Let's just say Mrs. Prophet left the show in tears, literally.

It's, therefore, hard to imagine anyone is more surprised than I am to see The Walkmen reappear at the top of one of my year end lists.  Bows and Arrows - perhaps the finest hard rock album of the decade - landed in the top spot in '04.

Interestingly, You & Me sounds like it would've been a natural, and welcome, follow up to their '02 debut Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me is Gone.  It doesn't rock nearly as hard as Bows, but was the deepest album I heard this year and, perhaps, their best work.

And, to think, I ignored this album for the first month it was out.

I can't believe it.  I honestly don't know what to write.

Listen for yourself.

It's good, it's really good.

However, I still don't think I'm ready to go back to a concert.

In the New Year