The best albums of 2007 - as told by David Downs

VVM Web Music Editor David Downs calls 2007 the year of rehab. "For LiLo, Britney, Amy, and America as a whole. It'll be remembered as the year we hit rock bottom, and the getting up wasn't going to be easy. Here's how it sounded."

Queens of the Stone Age
Era Vulgaris
"Turning on the Screw"
Because no one rocks harder while still pulling in the girls. This album has at least five epic, shredder songs that kept me awake during several 2 a.m. burns down the pitch-black California Interstate 5 through the Central Valley. This is extreme, inlander music. Butt rock with a heart.

Radiohead
In Rainbows
"House of Cards"

Partly because of the size of their balls, but mostly because the songs are as good as their balls are big. Take the glitchy "15-Step", add the technical "Faust Aurp", throw in the burly "Bodysnatchers", mellow it out with "House of Cards" and you have so much good music, the other songs are just the sweet, shiny coating on the prozac.

See the rest of Downs' picks over at SF Weekly's music blog.