Youssou N'Dour's Rokku Mi Rokka (Give and Take) has made the Best of 2007 list from Siddhartha Mitter, a Boston Globe contributor and a reporter for WNYC, New York Public Radio.

The Tim Burton–directed film adaptation of Sweeney Todd is "cause for celebration" among both film and musical theatre buffs, says the Phoenix New Times (AZ). "Nearing the end of an uncommonly strong year for American movies, he's taken a hallowed classic of the modern musical theater ... and somehow managed to produce something magical ... as fully satisfying a screen version of [Sweeney] as I can imagine. And of all the new-millennium Hollywood musicals ... it's the only one that succeeds both musically and cinematically. It breathes new life into the genre."

Wilco's Sky Blue Sky has made the Best of 2007 list from WFUV, 90.9 FM, in New York. "Another great album from Wilco," writes WFUV's music director, Rita Houston, "Sky Blue Sky doesn't hit a wrong note."

Alex Ross, the New Yorker's classical music critic, has posted on his blog, The Rest Is Noise, his Apex 07 list—some of the best performances and recordings he's heard this year. Among the best on CD: Wilco's "On and On and On," from Sky Blue Sky. And among his favorite performances of 2007 are the Disney Hall performance of John Adams's Naive and Sentimental Music by Esa-Pekka Salonen and the LA Philharmonic, and Audra McDonald in a Valentine's Day performance of Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny at LA Opera.

The LAist calls Tim Burton's film version of Sweeney Todd a "wonderful, hilarious, inspired" work. "[L]et there be no doubt that Tim Burton has crafted a true piece of musical cinema from Stephen Sondheim's bloody masterpiece." In the title role, Johnny Depp is "magnificent," his performance "so powerful as Todd that you eventually begin to relish his countless murders." Ultimately, "Sweeney Todd joins Ed Wood and Edward Scissorhands as Burton's finest work."

In his review of There Will Be Blood for Reuters news service, John DeFore writes that Jonny Greenwood's "captivating" score is an important player in the film, "greatly contributing to the sense that tectonic forces lie beneath the drama." 

"[W]hen you hear something as audaciously new as There Will Be Blood," writes iF magazine, "it’s a listening experience akin to coming across an oil gusher in a movie theater—the kind that blows your seat (and ears) to the ceiling with the sheer, often-insane beauty of what you’re hearing." With an originality that "spurts in spades," Jonny Greenwood has created an "entrancing" score. "Greenwood shows he can do orchestra with the same innovative quality that he approaches Radiohead’s trance-rock with ... And like P.T Anderson’s best soundtracks, Greenwood achieves a musical f-you wallop that grabs our attention ... [W]e feel that Anderson and Greenwood have taken us on a journey into sound that’s truly new for film scoring." The film "offers a major discovery in the talents of Jonny Greenwood."

Giving Youssou N'Dour's Rokku Mi Rokka (Give and Take) four out of four stars and naming it the CD pick of the week, the Toronto Star says the new album is "another breakthrough" following Youssou's string of groundbreaking records with Nothing's in Vain and Egypt. Writes the Star's John Goddard, Rokku Mi Rokka features "rich, instrumental textures and soaring melodies" and should bring Youssou the "smash, crossover success" he deserves.

Sufjan Stevens, when asked at the PENultimate Lit event last night in Park Slope, Brooklyn, to name his top five albums of all time, named just one: Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians. The event was organized by the PEN American Center to examine the intersection of literature and the arts; hosted by Rick Moody, it featured a Q&A with Sufjan and fellow writer/singer-songwriter Wesley Stace (aka John Wesley Harding), as well as a performance by each. The "top five albums" question came from an audience member.

In a four-star review of Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood, Premiere magazine says the film is "entirely extraordinary" and "inspired," from the "perfectly conceived and structured narratives" through the "meticulously and beautifully detailed" production design to Daniel Day-Lewis's performance as the maniacal oilman Daniel Plainview, a character who is "nothing like anything you see in films today." An integral part of the film is the "remarkable score" by Jonny Greenwood, which is "often reminiscent of composers Penderecki, Ligeti, and Bartók."

Wilco's Sky Blue Sky was the BBC Radio 6 Album of the Day today, as part of the station's weeklong run-down of the year's best according to its various presenters. Shaun Keaveny, host of the weekday Breakfast Show, named the album his pick for the year's best.

It was a powerhouse line-up when SFJAZZ gathered Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau, Christian McBride, and Brian Blade at San Francisco's Herbst Theatre with a tribute to Thelonius Monk on May 4 of this year, so it's no surprise that the Contra Costa Times says it was one of the best jazz concerts of the year.