Yes, I’ve been lax in keeping up with new album picks. Still, that’s no reason not to check out these excellent releases from the first half of 2007 (part 1 of 2):

• !!! (Chk Chk Chk) – Myth Takes
• Amandine – Solace In Sore Hands
• Amon Tobin – The Foley Room and Bloodstone (EP)
• Andrea Corr – Ten Feet High
• Andrew Bird – Armchair Apocrypha
• Animal Collective – Strawberry Jam
• Apparat – Walls (homepage)
  
• Architecture in Helsinki – Places Like This
• Basia Bulat – Oh, My Darling
• Bjork – Volta
• The Black Dog – Book of Dogma
• Blackfield – Blackfield II
• Blonde Redhead – 23
• Calla – Strength in Numbers
• Carla Bruni – No Promises
• Caribou – Andorra
• Charlotte Hatherley – The Deep Blue
• Christ – Blue Shift Emissions
• Cinematic Orchestra – Ma Fleur
• Clark – Ted EP
• Client – Heartland
• Cut City – Exit Decades (Myspace)
• Dog Day – Night Group
• Dora Flood – We Live Now
• Erasure – Light at the End of the World
• Explosions in the Sky – All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone
• The Fashion – The Fashion (BBC)
• Federico Aubele – Panamericana (homepage)
• Feist – The Reminder
• The Fiery Furnaces – Widow City (Myspace) ="http://www.myspace.com/thefieryfurnaces">