Music: Top 40 Albums of 2007 34-30

30) The Field – From Here We Go Sublime
Musical chill pill - hypnotic repetition builds Philip Glass like patterns -- some of which you can dance to.

Here’s “The Little Heart Beats so Fast” live at Monterrey


31) Kings of Leon – Because of the Times
The Kings get complex -- Lynyrd Skynyrd force fed Pixies dynamics with lyrics that lead you down the garden path.
Here’s Kings of Leon doing “On Call” on Letterman:


32) Mark Olson – The Salvation Blues
Welcome to 1970. Superior country rock from ex-Jayhawk with sparkling melancholic tunes.
Here’s Mark Olson doing “Carol” live in Toronto:


33) Iron & Wine – The Shepherd’s Dog
Sam Beam broadens his folky palette taking in elements of afro-pop, Deadhead jams, and tempo variations. His best yet.
Here is Iron & Wine on Letterman doing “The Devil Never Sleeps”:


34) Animal Collective – Strawberry Jam
Contempo freak jammers continue to add songcraft to their Beta Band on acid crazy quilt:
Here’s the video for “Peacebone”

This Weeks Chart Beat: West Bests Gritty Fitty

Hot Hot Heat: Someone always insists on looking in the wrong direction, wearing a different outfit and throwing off all sense of perspective with their freakishly tiny proportions...

By now we all know who came out on top in this week's Billboard Top 200 shootout: Black Francis. Hah, I wish! Kanye West wins fair and square with his Can and Daft Punk sampling Graduation logging almost a million units. 50 Cent has to settle for number two and a set of steak knives. Riding in at number three is Kenny Chesney, representing for the hat act brigade. Further down the big chart Feist proves once again that Madison Avenue is the new MTV as her Apple ad sends The Reminder back up from 95 to 44. Psych-jam weirdos Animal Collective storm the big time at number 72 with Strawberry Jam followed by Hot Hot Heat's Happiness LTD. at 86. Despite all this action sales are still down from the same week last year.