I did this last year (Click!) and it got some good responses so I figured I'd do it again for '07.  Basically, since a little more than half the year is over now, let's sum up the "best of 2007" in VGM so far.  From #5 to #1, here goes mine..

5) Extra - Official Compilation
While hearing the live versions at the actual event would have been about 800% cooler, this CD will do.  Iwata, Sakimoto, Namiki, Hosoe, Koshiro, Hibino, Ito, Furukawa.  The list goes on.  All these guys arranging their own tracks from earlier works and even a couple new tracks just for this CD.  Lots of quality arrangements here, I highly recommend checking this one out.

4) Sekaiju no Meikyuu Original Soundtrack
Yuzo brings back the PC-88!  This albums proves that the man hasn't lost touch with his old-school chiptune roots, and boy does it prove it.  First time I heard it, I instantly had a flashback of Misty Blue.  Includes both the DS and original PC-88 sound spanning 2 discs.  The man does Wangan 2, then this, and now he's working on Wangan 3.  God I love Yuzo. 

3) Gyakuten Saiban Jazz Album ~Gyakuten Meets Jazz Soul~
This is exactly what the title says.  Phoenix Wright music meets real jazz.  This CD (arranged by Iwadare) has a 100% authentic jazz sound to it.  In other words, you can close your eyes and pretend you're in a real jazz club.  Props to everyone who worked on this album.  If you like real jazz, pick this one up.

2) Akumajo Dracula Gallery of Labyrinth Original Soundtrack
Yamane and Koshiro join forces to bring us my favorite handheld Castlevania soundtrack to date (yeah, even topping Dawn of Sorrow).  Yuzo only had a handful of tracks but he owned every single one of them.  While playing this game, I found myself loving every single piece of music, humming and whistling my way through corridor after corridor.  We really need to see more VGM team-ups like this.

1) Armodyne
Ahh, number one.  Mitsuda delivers one of his finest performance since Chrono Cross.  It's kinda Xenogears meets Xenosaga, if you will, with a little more bang.  He says he was inspired by 80's mech stuff, and it definitely has that feel to it.  I've listened to this whole album several times through and have yet to get bored with it.  You wouldn't think so, but it makes some excellent driving music.  Keep it up Mitsuda!

Overall, not nearly as strong of a first half as 2006 had, but there is some quality stuff to be heard here.  Let's hope part two of 2007 brings us many more great VGM albums to enjoy!  And if you're keeping score, Yuzo Koshiro participated in 3 out of 5 here.  Hmm, the master of 80's VGM is still going strong in 2007.  Many props to Yuzo.

-Mike

So far, so "meh". I haven't really dug into too many new releases this year, but there were some goodies for me...

#05 - Ridge Racer 7 Direct Audio
While there are some really good songs on here, I'm putting RR7 at the bottom of my list because of how repetitive the songwriting is on the album. The lack of progression is prevalent throughout both discs, with some songs reaching six or seven minutes that could have been wrapped up in a much more enjoyable fashion in under four. It's just too f'n repetitive for my tastes, even though there's a lot of potential that's marred by boring repetition. On the bright side, Korean newcomer (to the series) ESTi rocks a couple of goodies and the old Sampling Masters team fires up some tunes like "Shut Up Baby" and "Listen Up!" in the style of older RR tunes. "Combustio" by Hosoe is one of my favorite songs from the album ("YAY!" for progression and faux-hardcore breakdowns), as is Nakatsuru's pretty chilled out "Calm" and Tohyama's bumpin' "Turn Me On". Too bad the same thing loops over and over and over before making much progression... but once you hit the three minute mark in "Turn Me On" it gets golden.

#04 - Armodyne
Mitsuda delivers a solid album that reminds me of a mix of Xenogears and Xenosaga (like Mike said) but with the composing solidity of an cinnuint. The styles are much different, but the comfortable compositions that seep in after a while remind me of how I felt about an cinnuint at first. There are a couple of real treats where Mitsuda extends himself moreso than usual, like the electronic manipulation in "Beautiful Day" and the light rock of "Lur Xecran" and "Black Wraith". "Valiant Souls" is delicious.

#03 - Final Fantasy XI Premium Box
Yeah, most of this was released before and, yeah, I know Mizuta puts a lot of people to sleep, but I love this boxset dearly. This delivered exactly what I expected and then some. Art Urghan's OST is tasty (I hadn't heard it before), and the Piano Collections is not nearly as bad as you would expect; it beats the banality of the FFIV/V/VIII/IX collections, I'd say. This gets a surprising amount of playtime on my iPod; according to my iTunes, I've listened to the Unreleased Tracks album 75 times. Yowza.

#02 - Nanosweep 4
Ah, the little $4 CD that could. This pseudo-EP packs some serious heat; there's a lot to like here, especially Ryo Watanabe's groovy piano-infused jam "Blaze Out" and Ayako Saso's nasty "Revival V". Yousuke Yasui comes out of nowhere at the close of the disc with the infectious "Expressive Air 06" that will bring your sorry ass back to the disco era in three minutes or less. Great stuff, great price - this comes highly recommended.

#01 - The Silver #02+ PARADE
There are only six tracks on this Grasshopper Co.-released album, but they are all awesome. Fukuda waxes some bizarre shit with his "SUPER MIKUMO BROS" remix, and Takada brings back the main theme from the Silver Case with the sharp, re-recorded "The Silver Case 2000". But the real treats are at the end of the album - three songs performed by a full band. There are studio cuts of "Matchmaker" and "The Silver Case" and a 12 minute LIVE mini-medley from Hopper's Vol.1. of those two songs. Man, it's great. Takada is in my top 5 composers, and this is a very, very solid bookend to the Silver Case trilogy - all of which are excellent albums. This is just icing compared to the other two Silver Case albums, but it gets my highest vote here because it is the only one that was released in 2007

Hopefully things will shape up later this year with some more tasty albums. I'm probably going to pick up Pheonix Wright 4's OST sooner than later (those samples get better with each listen). I'm hoping that No More Heroes has an OST release before the year is up, and I have high hopes for Ace Combat 6's OST (the demo music was definitely Kobayashi and it was definitely awesome). I'm a little weary about Beautiful Katamari's OST considering the touch-and-go nature of the series since We <3 Katamari's, uh, interesting soundtrack. The trailer music wasn't so awesome at all, so we'll see what happens with that.

Same here, but I worry it will be published in 2008 in a worst case (it took about 3 months for ACzero to be released due to postponement). Either way, though the first level theme was somewhat repetitive (3 to 4 mins drumloops + a dull execution of the main theme), I've been hearing the footage theme on my iPod for weeks but could never be bored with this. It has a very high chance of being more than a good OST and I don't think any other albums will ever interest me in this year. Compared to a year ago, 2007 is very boring IMO. Grim Grimoire, Wizardry PoB, FFXI boxset and blah...

I've only heard two VGM releases so far this year, and they're both winners in my book.

Seiken Densetsu 4 Original Soundtrack ~Sanctuary~ - My first VGM soundtrack purchase of the year could very well end up being the best.  It's been a very long time since I've been so satisfied with a RPG score.  Composed by a dream-team of Square-Enix folks, the vast diversity of styles, strong melodic compositions, and newly-arranged selection of Mana pieces of old make this a fan's dream come true.  I'll likely never play the game, but at least one great thing came out of this project: the music.   

Gyakuten Saiban Jazz Album ~Gyakuten Meets Jazz Soul~ - Phoenix Wright gets more arrangement love with this surprising release, and I've enjoyed it immensely.  There's certainly a higher ratio of live instruments involved (it's all live), which gives off an air of authenticity that some might feel was absent from the orchestra album.  The Metamorphosis Jazz Band plays up the interpretations loose and lively, slow and easy.... with just enough of the original PW to keep them well-grounded.  Their playing bodes well with Iwadare's arrangement style, but while all the songs are generally well performed, a reasonable piece of criticism would be the material feels too familiar to the orchestra album.  While hearing the "Objection!" medley again - naturally done up in jazz style this time - is pretty neat, it isn't arranged differently.  The "Court Begins Blue Note Scale" suites don't steer too far from the orchestrated versions of the Court Suites, and even decides to forgo the accentuation of the Examination and Cornered themes.  On the other hand, "The Great Revival" sounds spectacular here, and "Godot - Fragrance of Dark Coffee" is on par with the already jasstastic orchestra version.  The new material yet to be arranged up till now are welcome additions; "Swingin' Zenitora" from GS3 and the newly-composed "Minuki's Theme" from GS4 are definite album highlights, with the former's original gangsta-blues melody exploding with all matter of jazzy goodness, and Minuki's breezy lite-fusion arrangment being one of the most pleasant surprises.

Short version: Lackluster year thus far. Lots of consistancy, few surprises and the ones that were surprises were nasty ones (their names were Musou Orochi and Sonic and the Seven Rings).

So, the big 5:

Battle Gear 4
Wild Arms Vth Vanguard
Mana Khemia
Sekaiju MeiQ (also known as Etrian Odyssey)
Sonic the Hedgehog (360/PS2)

And a shout-out to Monster World Collection (finally!), Yuzo's Collection Vol. 1 and Soul Cradle's arrange album. Ys Origin, Armodyne and Heroes of Mana were about par with what I was expecting. Thumbs way down to Seiken 4 (sorry Angela! The arranges on the 4th disc were the best part for me, but I didn't like Ito on autopilot or Sekito's ambient tracks), Hudson Premium (bleh...so much wasted potential) and Ys Origin Super Arrange, a huge disappointment and full of lackluster arranges. I was really hoping for more from this instead of the tepid go-between of orchestral and rock music on the album.

Looking forward to the second half and more specifically, these:

Rockman ZXA Remastered
King of Fighters Maximum Impact Regulation A (please don't suck like Maximum Impact 2 did...please be good like Maximum Impact 1)
Wild Arms Crossfire (not hugely excited, but curious how it turns out).
Dokidoki Majou Shinpan (thanks to knurek for the rip...very surprised at the quality of this)
Black Mages III (the next Chinese Democracy perhaps?)

Is there a release date for that yet? I'm pretty curious about it, but I haven't found any info online.

Yeah...Latter part of last year. Which means we can assume it's been pushed to this year...Hopefully.

Mushihimesama Futari
This is by far my favorite soundtrack to come out so far.  It still has the same unique Mushi sound as the original.  Which is a good thing and the original was in fact my favorite OST in 2005.  Awesome tunes in Futari's soundtrack and overall Manabu Namiki rocks.  And as far as the pakaging goes it's beautiful, awesome case and artwork contained inside and out.  Badass tunes from the OST are as follows "Departing Two (Stage 1)", "Sea of Frozen Crystal (Stage 2), "Is Shinju in the Forest Rebel Army (Stage 3)", "Jet Black Beast King (Stage 4)", and "At the Maddening Gate (Stage 5)".  Well pretty much every stage music is very well done and I love them all.  Wicked OST.

Ys Origin
Another awesome soundtrack by Falcom.  But in my opinion it doesn't beat out Ys: The Oath in Felghana's OST.  Origin is still a great soundtrack though and deserves to be mentioned as one of my fav. OST's out this year so far.  Some songs that I really enjoy are "Roda", "Controntation", "Oboro", "Water Prision", "Devil's Wind", "Tension", "Scars of the Divine Wing", "Prelude to the Omen", "Beyond the Beginning", "Over Drive", and "Genesis Beyond the Beginning"

I have Hudson Premium Audio Collection in the mail and Trusty Bell Original Score preordered.  So hopefully those turn out great.  Other releases that I have that have come out this year so far is Yuzo Koshiro Best Collection Vol. 1 which was worth getting because of Actraisers OST was included in the set and I don't have to pay an insane amount of money for it's OST now.  Then I have Dead Risings OST which came out this year.  It isn't all that bad but I wished some of the tracks were looped at least once or twice.

Thats all of the releases I have so far from this year.  But I plan on getting Ys Origin Super Arrange Version next month.

Armodyne = Front Mission + Xenogears

Sadly, I didn't find this score particularly engaging; "Beautiful Day" is awexome for the jittery guitar and electronically-induced warbling effects, but other than that...

Mana Khemia

I've only heard two tracks from gameplay footage on YouTube, but I'm already excited for this, if only because all of the past Atelier Iris and Ar-Tonelico scores have been great; the three Atelier Iris scores and Ar-Tonelico are clearly my top four of all time.

Murmur

Here's some awexome, soft, premium J-Pop stuff from instrumentalist Yoko Shimomura and Chata. "Spring Breeze" is nice and upbeat, "Walking Weather" is bouncy, rhythmic, and danceable, "Transparent Wheel" and "Spirited Away" have some awexome guitar lines and melody, and sound very mysterious.

Nanosweep 4

"Blaze Out" has good rhythm, and "Eve" is some nice, ethereal white noise, but Nanosweep 3 had far more tracks that really stood out to me.

Seiken Densetsu 4 ~ Dawn of Mana (Sanctuary)

I'm actually pleasantly pleased with this score; the audio quality and mastery are some of the best I've heard out of a PS2 OST, but when I think back to Romancing SaGa ~ Minstrel Song, why SHOULD I be surprised? Best part - remixes of themes from past Seiken Densetsu games on the last disc!

Senko no Ronde ~ Carpe Diem

Easily my most favorite release of 2007 thus far; you've good some good, sophisticated techno, and some good, sophisticated jazz. My highlights include "Link," "You and I," "Imitation Blue," and "Portrait." Definitely something I like to listen to when I go out on the town for the night.

Sonic the Hedgehog

Probably my second favorite, and definitely my selection of choice when having to blaze around expressways during the day; I can't help thinking that most of the stage themes are lost tracks from a new F-Zero game...

Vielen Dank

A clear replacement for the SaGa Frontier II Piano Pieces album.

I haven't actually been impressed by anything this year. Armodyne and Seiken 4 both had their moments but weren't good enough for me to put on a top 5 list.

At EXTRA, Uematsu stated that the album will most likely come available at the beginning of 2008.

I'm actually quite surpised about what I've seen witten about this soundtrack - I was pretty much expecting people to bash it to high heaven because Ito has a lot of work on it - but I've seen many people, even people just reviewing the game mention the soundtrack in a good light.

I've listened through Armodyne with such high expectation that I might have missed it all together.  I'll go back and see if I can't find some tracks that are worth while.

Seiken Densetsu 4 ~ Dawn of Mana was a pleasant surprise, but when you think about the people behind it, not really.  Kenji Ito almost always delivers especially since the fantastic Romancing SaGa ~ Minstrel Song.

Senko no Ronde -Carpe Diem- surprised me as well.  I hadn't heard anything by Yasuhisha Watanabe before, but this makes me want to explore the artists further.

Of course, I can't get enough Vielen Dank.

I can't say I was impressed with Mushihimesama Furtari.  I wish I could especially because the original Muhihimesama turned me on to Namiki in the first place.  It's probably worth another listen just to make sure I'm not missing anything.

I don't think you did (miss anything). It's a disappointing release, overall. I was expecting fresh new melodies from Namiki but it's basically a Mushi' remix CD. My favorite track, "Sea of Frozen Crystal", didn't borrow as heavily from the first OST as other tracks. ESPGaluda II will have to suffice until Namiki's next masterpiece.

Futari is a great soundtrack and one of the better ones to be released this year, maybe a bit disappionting compared to the first Mushi OST.  But not compared to whats come out so far this year.  Shame a few of you didn't enjoy as much as I do.  But oh well.  Namiki still rules.

Gonna do this in two parts. I'm separating these three albums because I don't really feel right including them with the rest, but they do need to be mentioned:

MONSTER WORLD COMPLETE COLLECTION ORIGINAL SOUND TRACK
OutRun 20th Anniversary Box
SUPER HANG-ON 20th Anniversary Collection

I absolutely love Wave Master for releasing these older materials. Monster World had been critically overdue for an OST; probably the best OutRun tracks had already made it onto albums previously but such a staggeringly large compendium of the series's music is awe-inspiring; and even though most/all of the tracks on the Hang-On album have appeared elsewhere, the awesome new arrangements show they're serious and not just trying to milk us. Galaxy Force II/Thunder Blade should be great, and I look forward to whatever WM's cooking up next.

Now the five real ones, alphabetically.

Burn My Dread -Reincarnation:PERSONA3-
Yeah, I'm going to Hell for saying this, but I really, really liked this one. I thought the arrangements were mostly good, and since I liked the OST to begin with, I loved this album

Yeah, straight to the fiery depths with me, I know.

Gyakuten Saiban Jazz Album ~GYAKUTEN MEETS JAZZ SOUL~
I have a jazz bias, so I thought this was better than GYAKUTEN MEETS ORCHESTRA. I'm agreeing with Angela with the top two picks from the album, Toranosuke Shibakuzou ~ Swingin' Zenitora and Minuki's Theme ~ Child of Sorcery. The slow, emotive take on Oo-edo Soldier Tonosaman was a nice one too. I thought a couple of the arrangements dragged on for too long, but overall I'm quite pleased I picked this one up and find myself listening to it quite a bit.

Mushihimesama Futari Original Soundtrack
I thought the first Mushi soundtrack was decent enoughi, but the Futari OST was a cut above. Sea of Frozen Crystal is a grandly entertaining track.

Senko no Ronde -Carpe Diem- sound tracks vol.2
Yack is my homeboy. I thought Watanabe hit top form with this album, with the unique groove he makes like no one else and wicked instrumentation.

Wild Arms the Vth Vanguard Original Score Vol. 1 & 2
These count as one. Really, they do. I like Agematsu much more than I like Naruke, so I didn't mind that it sounded a lot different than previous WA albums. Kouda's tracks were pretty good too. I thought the quality overall all six discs was pretty consistent, and so they're probably my pick for the best overall releases.

I myself do concider the recent WaveMaster "SEGA Direct specials" releases as new ones (these aren't simple re-release of existing albums anyway), so here is my list.

1) OutRun 20th Anniversary Box

2) Super Hang-On 20th Anniversary Collection

3) Hudson Premium Audio Collection

4) Monster World Complete Collection Original Soundtrack

5) Akumajou Dracula: Gallery of Labyrinth Original Soundtrack

Not much to comment, but i guess it shows i'm still more oldskool oriented eh?