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World Cafe 30th Anniversary Playlist: 2007

World Cafe celebrates 30 years with a 2007 playlist.
WXPN
World Cafe celebrates 30 years with a 2007 playlist.

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of World Cafe, we're looking back and posting playlists from each year of the show. As music has evolved over the years, so have our playlists, which have grown to reflect a much wider range of music than when we first set out.

While the music business in 2007 was not in the greatest shape, the music itself was fantastic. We got an album from Wilco, Sky Blue Sky, that included the epic "Impossible Germany"; LCD Soundsystem delivered the absolutely incredible Sound Of Silver; Robert Plant and Alison Krauss released their collaborative debut, Raising Sand, and two years later deservedly won five Grammys, including Album of The Year; Radiohead went full-on disruption with the release of In Rainbows; a sample of The Clash's "Straight to Hell" fueled M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" from the amazing Kala.

We also loved Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings' 100 Days, 100 Nights, and musicians including Bon Iver, Brandi Carlile, The National, Arcade Fire, Spoon, and Alicia Keys released records that now, 13 years later, sound as good as they did when we first heard them. Let's recall.

Copyright 2022 XPN

Bruce Warren is assistant general manager for programming of WXPN in Philadelphia. Besides serving as executive producer of World Café, Warren also contributes to Paste magazine and writes for two blogs: Some Velvet Blog and WXPN's All About The Music Blog.