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)