There can be trillions of visionary and innovative musicians, but a songwriter will never write a great song unless he or she has felt what it's like to lose everything. Kinda the way a girl scout can't whip up a good glass of lemonade without lemons.

If anyone's rapped with unabashed heart in the hip-hop genre these past few years, it's Kanye West. After three impressive and well-received albums, there is no arguing that he is a visionary not just in his genre but in today's dry popular music climate. But has he written any GREAT songs? Not really, not Sam Cooke or Stevie Wonder great.

But things change quickly. Since last year's "Graduation," Kanye's been through a tumultuous break up with his ex-fiance, and also lost his beloved mother, whom died abruptly a year ago. And thus, his latest musical outing isn't informed by his heart, but by all this heartbreak he's lived in this short burst of time. And as sad as that all is, it's truly made for Kanye's greatest work yet.

Steeped in digital auto tune crooning and icy beats (it's got some glowing dance beats too which fit right into the mix), 808's & Heartbreak is as far away from hip-hop as hip-hop can get. It's more like Daft Punk covering Nina Simone's "Lady In Satin," and that is no exaggeration. The melding of techno, soul, and hip hop here is as smooth and exciting as when Ray Charles first married the sounds of gospel and blues to the world of rock n' roll, thus creating R&B.

I'm not saying Kanye's created anything super new with this album. Nor am I saying it's the album of the year. But Kanye's done something different, something raw, something honest, and something from the soul. More importantly, it's something that no one else in hip hop would ever have the guts to do. In that respect, Kanye is quite possibly this age's finest musical pioneer.

Chances are that Kanye's next album will be back to business with more straight forward hip hop, and that's why this album is all the more great. It's not just a glimpse into Kanye's darkest hour, it's also his finest, truest bid to be great. Every song he writes from now on will be coming from a whole other place.

Free mix of Scene & Heard's favorite songs of 2007. (zip file of 19 mp3s)

It's tough to say where music is at right now. There isn't really one landmark scene that has velcroed itself to this decade's generation. Instead, the musical landscape has settled into this big boiling crock pot of everything that was once big and exciting, with some minor hits here and there, but nothing sweeping the world up into an all-engulfing frenzy storm of noise and excitement. Think about it. When was the last time you got truly excited about a song you just heard?

The closest mainstream has gotten is the slick electronic pop/hip hop storm fanned by stars like Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, and Kanye--but all they're really doing is creating aural collages of rock, funk, punk, soul, r&b and hip hop; or pop with more ingredients and spice. Nowhere is there a song from some young unknown with a rallying cry to round up a generation of young souls looking for that voice that speaks directly to them. Most people making music today are just trying to 'be cool' or look cool. What we need are some new loud songs that make some real noise. Ones that crunch, bang, smash, and clobber everything your parents value. Songs that don't attempt to "be" cool, but just ARE cool.

Compiled here is a mix of some of Scene & Heard's favorite songs released in 2007. This is what Scene & Heard sounded like all year long. They aren't exactly the sort of songs I've been talking about here, but they're all steps in the right direction. They're all songs that share this same hunger and fire, from across all genres. From pop to hip hop to rock to gentler acoustic ditties. These are songs that want to shatter the world of music into billions of tiny little pieces, even if they didn't do it this year.

I've uploaded all 19 songs as a whole zip file for your convenience. Enjoy. Share your thoughts in the comments. (all songs are used here for promotional purposes. If you like what you hear, please support the artist, and buy their stuff. If you represent the band or label these songs come from and wish to see them removed, please email me and they will be removed from the mix immediately.)

1. LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends
Hands down, anthem of the year, if not the decade. It's like the "Stairway To Heaven" of 21st century dance funk.

2. Against Me! - New Wave
What sort of fiery underground punk band signs to a major label and flips off anyone crying "sellout" with lyrics like "We can be the bands we want to hear"? Green Day and The Clash come to mind. This song is 2007's rallying cry for something new.

3. Modest Mouse - Dashboard
Somehow, Isaac Brock enlisted ex Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr for the new Mouse album. What resulted was a fiery and bombastic album with excellent songs like this one about everything going down the flusher, but things will be okay because we still got our music.

4. Spoon - Underdog
There is no one writing catchier pop music in the indie music scene than Spoon. And this brassed up swinger is proof why.

5. Arcade Fire - Keep The Car Running
This anthemic song will ignite you. This could have fit on U2's Joshua Tree and may have even stolen the show. This group could become one of the most important bands of the rest of the decade.

6. The Fratellis - Chelsea Dagger
This is one of those songs that gets everyone shouting along in unison, waving big glass mugs of beer around when sitting at the bar with their mates. But even if you're sober, it makes you feel drunk.

7. Mark Ronson with Amy Winehouse - Valerie
Vintage soul made a little comeback this here ala tabloid trainwreck Amy Winehouse. But her best cut came from Mark Ronson's record of covers by reworking The Zutons' rocking anthem into a brassy funkfest of awesome.

8. Brand New - (Fork And Knife)
This was released in the form of digital single this year and is one of my favorite tracks to come from their "Devil and God..." sessions last year, but you can see why it was left off the album; Too beautiful a song to be on such a dark album.

9. Minus The Bear - White Mystery
With their latest album, "Planet Of Ice" The Bear did more than write songs about being cold and lonely. They actually make you FEEL cold, and a little lonely. Some of the most beautifully haunting songwriting of the year, right here.

10. Cassino - Old Year
This album was completely self-released, and is truly one of the year's hidden gems. And songs like this upbeat one are proof why.

11. Dustin Kensrue - Please Come Home
Who knew the wolf-like howler of Thrice had some Johnny Cash in him? There may be no other song in existance that lyrically illustrates the ultimate definition of love.

12. The Redwalls - Game of Love
This song gave me the same feeling "Hey Jude" gave me when I first heard it. I shouldn't have to say anything else about it.

13. SloMo - How Do We Win The War?
One of the year's most memorable songs came from one of Philly's most dynamic groups, led by slide-guitarist wizard, Slo-Mo and rapper Mic Wrecka. Wrecka usually handles vocals, but Slo-Mo took over on this one for this yearning gem of a song.

14. Kanye West - Everything I Am
While there are lots of great fun songs to pick from Kanye's catalog, this slower laid back jam is as honest and definitive as they come. It's a tribute song, to everything he isn't, because that's what made him what he is. When a performer can say that, and make a beautiful song out of it, that's when he's gone from performer, to artist.

15. Aesop Rock - None Shall Pass
But don't worry, I didn't forget about hip hop. Shows hip hop can still be wholesome, awesome, and frightening. As opposed to lame, substanceless, and a complete mockery of all hip hop was when it first blew up.

16. Radiohead - Reckoner
It was good to hear Radiohead throw in some of the most propulsive rock songs they've written in years on the headline-making "In Rainbows." But it was this gorgeous little diamond that stole the show. Who else could write a song that makes you ache, and stand in sheer amazement at it's lush perplexity and beauty.

17. Meredith Bragg - New York
I heard an earlier version of this song on a compilation 2 years ago, and I began an immediate Bragg fan. It finally found a home on his solo record this year, and it's just as perfect now as it was then.

18. Bright Eyes - I Must Belong Somewhere
I began this year wanting to be anywhere but here. So then, I went to Europe for a month. Then I came home and made plans to move to Florida. And before moving, I drove my brother out to Colorado and spent the 2 following weeks on the road, living in hotel rooms and my car. Then things fell through with Florida and I ended up back here, at home. It was an amazing journey of a summer, but it taught me that everybody and everything belong somewhere. I think I fit pretty nicely around here. So here is where I'm staying. For now, anyway. And this song helped me along the way.

19. Wilco - What Light
Bummed? This song will change that.

For a few years now, there has been this misguided notion that music is dieing. But don't confuse the business part of "the music business" with the music, because music is alive and well and getting along just fine. There may be no more smash blockbuster albums flying off shelves the way N*Sync and Beatles records used to, but think about how many kids have iPods and how much music they got packed in those little things. For a world that has so much going on at once nowadays, think about how prevalent music continues to be. The songs are still out there, my friends.

The art of the ALBUM, however, isn't doing quite as well. Songs have become the new albums. The power to choose songs only has come along with the listener's newfound power and control over what they listen to. So the albums I'm about to highlight aren't the ones that were packed with the most hit singles or most delectable tunes. These are full, bullet-proof albums that were perfect in songwriting, song order, packaging, and zeitgeist timing. These aren't albums that I found and liked, but albums that searched me out, swallowed me, and spit me out as a different dude than I was before I heard these songs or held their artwork in my hands.

Ladies and gentlemen, the five finest albums 2007 gave us;

5. Meredith Bragg - Silver Sonya
Headphone record of the year. Mr. Bragg ditched his band, The Terminals, for this one-off solo record, and it resulted in one of most dynamic, yet simple performances all year. Sonically, it's the reincarnation of Elliott Smith; sad, hopeful, blissful, scathing, heavy and gentle, all at once. Sync up tracks like "New York" or "Twin Arrows" and you won't be sure if you should be sad, or ecstatic for the rest of your life to unfold. If the future holds more records like this from Bragg, however, consider me ecstatic.
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4. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
One of the year's funkiest dance records to get down to with your bad self. Oddly enough, it's also one of the solidest records of the 21st century. James Murphy packs it all into this 8-song set. From the best song you'll hear all year (the anthemic "All My Friends") to massive blasts of shiny groove ("Someone Great" and "Time To Get Away") to punky hip-shakers ("Watch The Tapes") to goofy piano ballads ("New York I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down").
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3. Against Me - New Wave
This explosive record is this decade's equivalent to Nirvana's "Nevermind" and Green Day's "Dookie," or even The Clash's self-titled debut. The formula is the same; an angsty group of dudes become ignited by a generation gone bored, crank their amps up, tune their guitars to snarl, and let the mud hit the fan. It's not a cry for attention, but for connection, which so many young breaking artists screw up. When fluid records like this come along and work this genuinely well, it's rare. And with the state we're all in right now, this was the album 2007 needed. Thanks Against Me for stepping up.
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2. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
The underground indie music scene has coughed up a massive band with a massive sound that could easily become the biggest band in the world. This 2nd-full length of theirs is a strongly cohesive set of songs that serves as a solid 'state of the union,' stirring up a heavy sense of disillusionment with everything from music to patriotism to religion. Take U2's Joshua Tree and splice it's dominant genes with Bruce Springsteen's finest recordings and this fantastic album would be the result. It gets a little murky at times, but explosive songs like "Keep The Car Running" and "Windowsill" will keep you spinning over and over again, finding new things in every song with every listen.
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1. Radiohead - In Rainbows
One of the unfortunate things about being Radiohead is that BEING Radiohead overshadows the fantastic records Radiohead put out. They're like the Bob Dylan of alt-rock. And this is probably more true this year than ever before. They got everyone abuzz about what they're doing WITH their music when they put this album on their website for people to download at the price of their choosing, which many opted to do for free predictably. Fortunately, the music itself holds it's own quite well against all this 'changing the system' talk. In fact, it's the most perfect record of their career, running the stylistic gamut of adrenaline-laced alt rock ("Bodysnatchers" and "Jigsaw Falling Into Place"), soft soothing jazzed-up numbers ("House of Cards"), and achingly gorgeous songwriting ("Reckoner" and "Videotape"). Yet, every edge of every song fits perfectly together with every brushstroke of the artwork and every detail of production, painting the band's masterpiece of the decade, if not of their career. If you didn't download it when you had your chance, it will be commercially available on Jan 1... so record of the year for 2008 as well? Let's see what 2008 has in store, but I wouldn't be surprised.
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Honorable Mention: The Shins - Wincing The Night Away, Kanye West - Graduation, Bright Eyes - Cassadagga, Minus The Bear - Planet of Ice, Cassino - Sounds of Salvation, The Fratellis - Costello Music
Come back tomorrow for TOP FILMS OF THE YEAR. I'll be joined by my panel of Mercury staff film enthusiasts.

Don't forget to pick up The Mercury tomorrow for a chance to win some Police tickets! (more details here)

If you need more convincing, here's a video from this past summer's LiveEarth when The Police took to the stage with some pals to perform "Message In A Bottle." And by pals, I mean John Mayer on guitar and Kanye West jumping in to awkwardly add some freestyle to the classic anthem. Kanye seemed a bit out of place, but otherwise, pretty slick stuff. Enjoy!