Best Music Writing of 2007

This time of the year you start seeing a bunch of Best of books out there. I'm not sure how they can already put out a Best of 2007 anything before the year is even over with, but they do it. What happens if in the next few weeks someone writes something that is really good....ooops, too late you can't be the best of this year. Ok, besides the point I do like these collections, it gathers a lot of diverse writing that I would sometimes miss and puts it all in one place. I don't buy all these best of books, but one I always do is Dacapo's collection The Best Music Writing of whatever year. Like any collection of this type there are always some articles in it that I'm not fond of, but the good always outweighs the bad. And the thing that makes this volumes so indispensable is that I always end up discovering someone or some group that I wasn't that familar with and wanting to try them out. Sometimes its someone I might have heard a little about, but after the article in the book it will make me want to go give them a try. For instance after reading this year's volume I'm going to go try some Go-Betweens, a band I've heard about for awhile now and have always seen that they're a critic's favorite but after reading the tribute by one member of the band for his recent deceased friend and fellow band mate I want to give them a try.