Yesterday I gave you the bottom 15 albums on Blender magazine’s top 25. Today, we profile the top 10.

10. RILO KILEY

Under The Blacklight
Warner Bros

Since her band’s last record (2004’s More Adventurous), Rilo Kiley frontwoman Jenny Lewis has taken her one-time child-actress, pop-star status up a level, as her charismatic solo effort, Rabbit Fur Coat, was one of the top recordings of 2006. But those who feared she’d abandon her long-time mates to do it alone will be instantly comforted by a collection of songs so zestful and extravagantly produced that no less than four emerge tailor-made for pop radio. After the opener “Silver Lining” feeds off George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord” riff and some cajoling handclaps, Lewis reels in the glee with “Close Call,” where the lavishness of the melodies outweighs the foreboding lyrics. The bouncy “Breaking Up,” with the sun-splashed chorus “feels good to be free,” is so absolutely California-beach perfect, it’s ripe for a million-selling soda commercial, and then Lewis saves her vocal best for a trifecta near the end: Dusty Springfield soul (”15″), dancefloor power pop (”Smoke Detector”), and meltaway folk (”The Angels Hung Around”). Did it take their angel leaving the nest for a spell for Rilo Kiley to make their definitive record? The argument is futile, but the music is sublime. –Scott Holter

9. MIRANDA LAMBERT

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Columbia Nashville

There’s no sophomore slump for Miranda Lambert, who follows her chart-topping debut, Kerosene, with a knockout punch. Both the title cut and the album-opening “Gunpowder & Lead” (”what little girls are made of”) show that Lambert hasn’t lost her edge or her appetite for revenge. Yet the quieter “Desperation,” the more tuneful and tender “Love Letters,” the wistful “More Like Her,” and the primally intense “Down” show her emotional range and maturity. While her songwriting remains a strength, Lambert also displays superb taste in other people’s material, with “Dry Town” (by Gillian Welch), “Getting Ready” (a new song from Patty Griffin), and “Easy from Now On” (with the lyric that provided the title to Emmylou Harris’s classic Quarter Moon in a Ten-Cent Town) reinforcing the musical quality. There isn’t a throwaway cut here. –Don McLeese

8. AMY WHINEHOUSE

Back to Black
Universal Republic

Amy Winehouse’s second album, Back to Black, is one of the finest soul albums, British or otherwise, to come out for years. Frank, her first album, was a sparse and stripped-down affair; Back to Black, meanwhile, is neither of these things. This time around, she’s taken her inspiration from some of the classic 1960’s girl groups like the Supremes and the Shangri-Las, a sound particularly suited to her textured vocal delivery, while adding a contemporary songwriting sensibility. With the help of producers Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi, “Rehab” becomes a gospel-tinged stomp, while the title track (and album highlight) is a heartbreaking musical tribute to Phil Spector, with it’s echoey bass drum, rhythmic piano, chimes, saxophone and close harmonies. Best of all, though, is the fact that Back to Black bucks the current trend in R&B by being unabashedly grown-up in both style and content. Winehouse’s lyrics deal with relationships from a grown-up perspective, and are honest, direct and, often, complicated: on “You Know I’m No Good”, she’s unapologetic about her unfaithfulness. But she can also be witty, as on “Me & Mrs Jones” when she berates a boyfriend with “You made me miss the Slick Rick gig”. Back to Black is a refreshingly mature soul album, the best of its kind for years. –Ted Kord

7. THE DREAM

LoveHate
DefJam

The only positive byproduct of an industry asleep at the wheel is a dream. With over a decade of hit-making experience and a certified smash in Rihanna’s #1 single, “Umbrella” Terius “The Dream” Nash is stepping from behind the scenes with a wake-up call. The Dream was born in the Bankhead section of Atlanta and his debut CD, Love Hate, is a sonic gauntlet thrown down against complacent, cookie cutter music. Propelled by the first single “Shawty is a Ten” the mastermind behind the Britney Spears and Madonna collab, “Me Against The Music” will do nothing short of redefine RnB for 2007 and beyond. The Dream has combined all of his hit-making talents for his debut, Love Me All Summer, Hate Me All Winter. Throughout his career Terius has seen people change like the weather, but in the coming months he is forecasting a 100% chance of reign. The Dream says, “It’s more of what I’m giving other people. It’s like the 80s, it’s musical. I’m doing the `Umbrella’ routine to this whole album. All of my records are singles. I don’t think a record has been done this good since Thriller.” Songs like the soulful “She Needs My Love” will solidify Terius’ status as a triple threat, singer, writer and producer.

6. RADIOHEAD

In Rainbows
inrainbows.com

On the deliriously satisfying In Rainbows, Radiohead returns to a more straight-ahead (though subdued) rock sound. Much hubbub has been made about this record’s innovative release. Radiohead allowed fans to pay what they wished to download fairly low-resolution tracks from the band’s own website. Like so many innovations, it already seems funny both that it was such big news and that someone else of similar stature hadn’t done it sooner. Some pundits were appalled that it took awhile to download the tracks if you tried to do it at the same time as thousands of other people, while others decried that the group was trying to kill the music industry (or save it). Little of the press seemed to focus on the record itself, which actually made sense because it was so entertaining and inviting, the most low-key album Radiohead has made to date. There’s even a very straight-forward, simple, silly little love song, “House of Cards.” It might be a bit lethargic, but the simple instrumentation of electric guitars, bass, and drums is lovely as heck. A handful of these tunes enchanted fans for years before finally being committed to computer “tape.” This is particularly fitting as In Rainbows is the group’s most “band”-sounding album since OK Computer. This is not a record that hits you over the head with how far this group is pushing the envelope; it’s simply a phenomenal, well-crafted, and exciting album. As soon as it’s done, you’re playing it again. –Mike McGonigal

5. AGAINST ME!

New Wave
Sire

4. KANYE WEST

Graduation
Roc-A-Fella/DefJam

Kanye West’s third in a whimsical trilogy of “scholarly” albums, Graduation wears its predecessors’ badges of success on its sleeve. Matriculation has its rewards, apparently, and it’s time to take stock. Lyrically, there’s plenty of self-congratulation to attend to, but the real fun comes in the collabs, and West chooses co-conspirators like a kid in a candy store–John Legend (”Good Life”), Coldplay’s Chris Martin (”Homecoming”), Mos Def and the Section Quartet (both adorable choices for the foreboding “Drunk and Hot Girls”)–and plucks samples with A-list braggadocio: Elton John, Steely Dan, Daft Punk, Can, Michael Jackson, Public Enemy. Nothing here quite captures the superlative symbiosis of West’s past best beats (think “Gold Digger”), but the central motif remains: No one ever accused Kanye West of being too cool for school, and Graduation still knows how to party. True, Kanye West will happily whine about the pitfalls at the top of the heap, clear his throat and try to rhyme it with Barry Bonds, or diss fish in a barrel all day, but that can’t stop a shameless good time, and Graduation maintains an unshakeable knack for producing it. –Jason Kirk

3. LIL WAYNE

The Carter 3 Sessions
Mixtrap.com

In hip-hop, the one four letter word that no rapper wants to hear isleak. No rapper, that is , besides Lil Wayne. This summer, when 20-odd tracks planned for Waynes sixth album hit the Net early, he shrugged and compiled them on a free mix tape.

2. ARCADE FIRE

Neon Bible
Merge

For their second full-length, the Montreal-based seven-or-eight-piece Arcade Fire show themselves capable of Big Rock, as original, and as potentially marquee-topping as TV on the Radio and Sigur Ros. Regardless, the intentional murkiness of these pleasantly anthemic New Wave dirges makes it sound as if the music has already reverberated through a crowded cement stadium. Named after cult author John Kennedy Toole’s first novel, Neon Bible is smart and subtle enough to present itself as a personal discovery for every listener, every word to be pored over by fans (as with those of Tori Amos, Pavement, and Radiohead). Surely, lines like “The sound is not asleep/ It’s moving under my feet” have already been scribbled onto the margins of countless textbooks. Such words are delivered with less intensity this time, but no less import. For vocal influences, lead singer Win Butler seems to have traded his ’80s Bowie in for an ’80s Springsteen, at least on the songs “Antichrist Television Blues” and “Windowsill” (though “Intervention” sounds an awful lot like ’80s era Go-Betweens). The kitchen sink arrangements include the use of an Eastern European orchestra, pipe organ, hurdy gurdy, and a military choir. –Mike McGonigal

1. M.I.A

Kala
Interscope

Maya Arulpragasam, the British-based daughter of Sri Lankan refugees, delivered one of 2005’s eye-popping debuts, Arular. For an album that proudly flaunted tin-can production, indecipherable South London slang, and lyrical nods to suicide bombers, it brought the woman who records under the name M.I.A. unexpected mainstream success–she followed its release by touring North America with Gwen Stefani and recording with Missy Elliott and Timbaland, while the single “Galang” made its way into a car commercial. Kala (the first release was named after her freedom-fighting father, this one after her mother) throws Arulpragasam’s newfound pop credentials into the bustle of Bollywood rhythms, police sirens, 8-bit dancehall beats, Third World car horns, and street singers. Recorded across several continents, it presents a far more dynamic listening experience than her first album, especially with tracks like “Bamboo Banga,” “Jimmy,” and “Paper Planes.” It’s no less exhausting, though. What with the New Order sample, Timbaland cameo, and gunshot sound effects, there isn’t a moment when it doesn’t feel like you’ve unintentionally invited an entire carnival into your home. –Aidin Vaziri

So what do you think of the top 10? Do you agree? Who do you think should or shouldn’t have been on this list?