High Notes of 2007Jody Rosen takes readers' questions about this year's musical hits and misses.

Slate music critic Jody Rosen was online on Washingtonpost.com on Thursday, Dec. 20, to take readers' questions and recommendations on the best music of 2007 (the topic of discussion in Slate's ongoing " Music Club" back-and-forth).

Jody Rosen: Hi, everybody. I'm excited to chat a bit about the year in the music.

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Boston: Jody, I wrote you last year after your dis of Daughtry. It is awesome when a writer can admit a mistake and correct it. I applaud your about-face! Not a rocker easy to please, when I went to Daughtry's first show at the Paradise I was very impressed. Like you state, Chris Daughtry is the real deal. He has taken post-grunge to the for front with big vocals, catchy hooks and gawd is he fun to watch on stage.

It has been such a drought for rock. Daughtry has found a way to rock hard enough for us die-hard rockers but be melodic enough for the pop audience. I have seen Daughtry now five times and they never disappoint. The crowds just love Chris. At a Daughtry show the age range is vast—pre-teens to those in their 50s. All races, creeds and colors. Everyone is singing along and totally entranced by this newly appointed rock star!

The three American Music Awards and four Grammy nominations are well-deserved. Daughtry himself jokes that, as he is up against the boss, it is like a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest, LOL! But the nominations are deserved. All a skeptic needs to do is go and see Daughtry, and they too will become a believer. Thanks again.

Jody Rosen: Yeah, as I said in the Slate Music Club conversation, it was a live show that made me a grudging Daughtry convert. I'm only partially converted. I'm not crazy about his songwriting or the stolid beat in his songs. But he is a great, muscular singer and has an undeniable rock star stage presence. Anyway, he doesn't matter what critics think: he was the people's choice this year, at least in terms of CD sales.

You're right, by the way, to point to the age-range of Daughtry's audience: I was struck by the number of pensioners mixed in the with screaming teens when I saw him in Denver. That's the Power of American Idol for you...

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Washington: Two nominees: the comeback of The Police and the soundtrack of The Walker with Bryan Ferry.

Jody Rosen: Funny, I don't know who exactly would get my Comeback of the Year vote (definitely not Jay-Z.). I haven't spent enough time with Bryan Ferry's record.

As for The Police, I saw one of the first shows on their tour and was quite blown away by the band's musicianship. I had forgotten that they were essentially prog-rockers with a little reggae overlay. It was like a regular jazz odyssey up there! As I remember, "Driven to Tears" in particular got taken pretty deep into space-jam territory. They had big movie screens flanking the stage, and there were long, lingering close-ups of fingers on fretboards, which seemed totally appropriate. Sting especially sounded great. He has that totally unique vocal tone—can still hit the high notes—and wow, what a bass player. I interviewed Andy Summers and he told me the band was considering (big maybe) a new album. So maybe next year they'll make a real, full-fledged comeback, with new songs and everything.

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Manassas, Va.: Hey! I thought it was a particularly good year for music, and there was an unusually large number of albums that I bought this year that I really grew to love. I was wondering how you thought this year in music stacked up?

Jody Rosen: I'm not sure there's ever a bad year for music. There's always someone somewhere doing something new and fantastic. Usually thousands of someones. This is perhaps especially true these days, with so damn much music available, in record stores (do those still exist?), online, in clubs, and elsewhere. A feast for the greedy music nerd. It's part of a critic's job at this time of year to provide an overview—to a pantomime of a comprehensive look back at the year. But the truth is, I'm still catching up with 2007. In 2027 I bet I'll discover something great that I'd slept on for 20 years. One recent example: I'd never given a proper listen to Brad Paisley's 2005 album Time Well Wasted until a few months ago—and now I like it better than all the records on my 2005 Top 10 list! Anyway, the short answer is: I think the year in music stacked up well. Wish there had been more good hip-hop, though...

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Country Fan: What are your picks for the best in country music this year? There have been lots of good ones. Josh Turner gave us an awesome CD. 1990s legend Garth Brooks gave us another greatest hits collection. Sugarland delivered. The list goes on and on...

Jody Rosen: The Sugarland album is technically a 2006 release. But I dug it. They had a couple of killer singles this year. (Did you catch their performance of "Stay" at the CMAs? Lovely stuff.) My two favorite country releases were Miranda Lambert's Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Brad Paisley's 5th Gear.

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Washington: I must agree that Kala is an awesome album, though I'd disagree on "Bird Flu" being the best. I didn't really like "Bird Flu" at first, but it has been growing on me a lot, especially after seeing the video on YouTube from some concert where she just invites a bunch of people up on stage to dance around all crazy with her during it. "Bamboo Banga" gets my nod for best, and "XR2" as the least favorite. Road runna road runna! What's with all the critics hating on "Come Around"? Me and you ... need to go to your teepee.

Jody Rosen: Yeah, M.I.A.'s whole album is amazing. Except, I'd argue for "Come Around," the Timbaland track you mention. I think most critics weren't nuts about that song because it sounds a little tossed-off productionwise, compared to the rest of the record. God knows Timbaland's stretched himself a little think this year. It's hard when you're expected to supply 10-20 of the Top 40 singles in any given week...

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Dewey Cox: Jody, are you familiar with the music of Dewey Cox? Is there something wrong with me if the Walk Hard soundtrack is my favorite album of 2007?

Jody Rosen: Familiar with Dewey Cox? Who isn't? The man, the myth...

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