So Now Then.

That's a clip from last night's Conan O'Brien of She & Him, my favorite group of the moment. They're seen here getting a little background help from friends Yo La Tengo.

Last night's She & Him show at Webster Hall, their first major performance, was amazing. Zooey Deschanel had lost her voice the previous night, so there was no between-song chitchat sadly, but it was made up in spades by her winning smile and her outward enthusiasm to be on stage in front of a packed house of very ardent admirers. I think I heard everyone around me comment on how cute she was.

2 more days till Europe! It was a great way to get me in the mood.

I am here in my apartment in Brooklyn on the phone with my friend Emily. I'm not talking to her, though. She has her phone positioned so I can hear Jens Lekman sing "It Was A Strange Time In My Life" LIVE at a free show. This is one of many breathless, giddy reports I've been sent from Austin, TX friends at the SXSW music festival, now in full-swing.

Yesterday, Stefanie texted me: "I just hung out with Elijah Wood," and "I just hung out with Kim from Matt and Kim, in line for the restroom."

The Envy I'm feeling has no bounds!

From Tito: "Going to see Of Montreal play a DUMPSTER on Sixth St.! God, I love SXSW!"

Is it too soon to buy my tickets for next year?

Feist, the artist who put out the best album of 2007, has just released her new music video for "I Feel It All" - another one-take-only masterpiece. This time there's fireworks, which had to be technically difficult to synchronize to the music. Impressive, fun and fiery:

This list is coming to you a little late, but here are my ten favorite albums of 2007:

1. Feist - The Reminder

There isn't a false note on this, the most perfect album of last year. Leslie Feist, a past member of the Canada indie-rock collective Broken Social Scene, has grown leaps and bounds since her debut a few years back - in conception, in songwriting and in music videos. This whole album carries a big, heavy heart and, to me, made this year an exciting one to be alive.

P.S. - Her show in Brooklyn's McCarren Park Pool last summer was one of the best concert-going experiences I've ever had.

Key Tracks: "My Moon My Man," "How My Heart Behaves"

2. Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala

"It was a strange time in my life," sings Jens Lekman. And oh, how I wholeheartedly agree. We tend to like music that reminds us of our own lives. If that's the case, then his fanciful (yet simplistic) lyrics hit home with me probably the most out of any record on this list. It's no surprise that people compare his music to the likes of Belle and Sebastian and Stephin Merritt from The Magnetic Fields - and it's an even lesser surprise that I would fall for it so completely as I did those two beloved acts. But let me assure you one thing: Night Falls Over Kortedala is an instant classic.

Key Tracks: "Your Arms Around Me," "It Was A Strange Time In My Life"

3. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible

There are few bands as passionate, as rowdy and as over-the-top-wonderful as Arcade Fire. And that especially goes for the show I attended last May at the United Palace Theater on 175th St in Harlem. When you have the incredible sound of a band like this paired with the inside of an opulent, gorgeous church like this, it creates an experience you have to see to believe. Their second album, Neon Bible, follows up on the unbelievable first record to cement the place of these Candadian wizards in the upper echelons of indie rock heaven.

Key Tracks: "(Anti-Christ Television Blues)," "No Cars Go"

4. Bright Eyes - Cassadaga

I've always been an ardent supporter of Conor Oberst. Mainly because I think he's writing stuff with the wisdom and clarity of someone twice his age. And although he doesn't quite deserve the emphatic Dylan comparisons, in a few more records it might not too big of a stretch. His latest album has more of a studio polish than previous efforts, but I don't see that as a bad thing - I see it as a logical progression of an artist on the rise from his DIY roots. The last track, "Lime Tree," decidedly different from the country-tinged, upbeat songs that come before - is a showstopper, and a master class of mood.

Key Tracks: "Make A Plan To Love Me," "Lime Tree"

5. Radiohead - In Rainbows

What a revolutionary concept one of the biggest bands in the world brought us! Whether they wished it or not, these lads have brought a serious change in the music industry with their ingenious plan to sell their record on their own website for whatever we wish to pay. But I feel that whole shebang overshadowed the most important thing - that this album is their best in years, and easily their most accessible since OK Computer. This album reminds us how good Radiohead can be when they strip all the noise away and focus in on Thom Yorke's wonderful, intoxicating voice.

Key Tracks: "All I Need," "House of Cards" and "Videotape"

6. Bat For Lashes - Fur and Gold

She's been compared to another eccentric female performer - Bjork - and deservedly so. But where Bjork takes her emotion to the outer extremes of weirdness (Volta was a huge disappointment), Bat For Lashes keeps it closer to the vest. She knows a good hook when she hears one, and thus hooks us in for this episodic, strange delight.

Key Tracks: "What's A Girl To Do," "Trophy"

7. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga

Another consistently great album from a band that knows what its doing, knows where its going and is having some fun while doing it.

Key Tracks: "The Ghost Of You Lingers," "The Underdog"

8. Aimee Winehouse - Back To Black

Tabloids aside, this Brit has pipes that can bend steel. Her "Rehab" was the song of the year, a radio-friendly ditty about staying sober and staying in love. She hearkens back to the best of the 60s, with an old-soul, world weariness that makes her songs, in a way, timeless.

Key Tracks: "Rehab," "Love Is A Losing Game" and "Back to Black"

9. Junior Boys - So This Is Goodbye

Best party album of the year.

Key Tracks: "In The Morning," "So This Is Goodbye"

10. The Shins - Wincing The Night Away

Picture this: The first track of the new Shins albums comes on your headphones. You're on the subway, approaching your stop. It starts out quietly. The subway doors open. You climb the escalators. The pace of the song quickens. You stop to get coffee - PAUSE - take your first sip, walk into the main concourse at Grand Central Terminal in New York City and BOOM! The chord strikes you. The song lets loose. You're running, late, running. People everywhere. Track 27. My train. I make it - a deep sigh of relief.

That song by The Shins single-handedly took my morning commute to an operatic, heart-pounding fever dream.

Key Tracks: "Sleeping Lessons," "Phantom Limb"

RUNNERS UP: The New Pornographers, Challengers; Stars, In Our Bedroom After The War; Rufus Wainwright; Release The Stars

FIVE GREAT SONGS of 2007:
1. "Rehab" by Aimee Winehouse
2. "1234" by Feist
3. "Umbrella" by Rihanna
4. "Stronger" by Kanye West (with Daft Punk, special guest)
5. "Anyone Else But You" by The Moldy Peaches (from the film "Juno")

The BEST LIVE SHOW of 2007:
1. Sufjan Stevens "BQE" at Brooklyn Academy of Music

You've probably heard all about I'm Not There, the audacious, challenging new biopic about Boy Dylan (in theaters Nov. 9). Todd Haynes, director of "Far From Heaven," attempts to capture "the man, the myth and the legend" with the help of several actors who all play Dylan from different stages in his life. The performance from Cate Blanchett is quite expectedly getting the most buzz. She seems to have captured the mercurial musician to a T.

Oh, and the soundtrack listing has been released. Normally, under most circumstances, I blanch at the idea of cover songs for movies. Case in point: The disastrously overwrought 1999 movie "I Am Sam," with its heavy-handed Beatles covers. But this movie, giving the artifice and approach by Haynes, it seems more vital for the story, and because of the talented collaborators he's gathered: Sufjan Stevens, Jim James, Sonic Youth, Stephen Malkamus, Cat Power, Yo La Tengo, Karen O, Jeff Tweedy. Etc. Etc. The list goes on an on; the soundtrack is two discs of Dylan covers, people - you can bet on an Oscar nomination for the music, if not for best original screenplay.

What do you guys think? Does this look like art-house pretentious gunk, or an inspired destined-to-become-a-classic? I'm hoping for the latter. It'll be interesting to see if this experiment works or not.