Yes, the best-of-2011 lists are already beginning to appear (way too early, if you ask me). I thought I'd open a thread for Henrik to post links to the updated EOY albums spreadsheet. I've already entered four lists into the spreadsheet (Rough Trade and The Fly from the UK, Sweden's Sonic, and Blitz from Portugal, all of which are available in the Critics' Lists forum); obviously that's not enough to post, but in case anyone's curious, here's the top 10 so far:

1. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
2. Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring for My Halo
3. James Blake - James Blake
4. Bon Iver - Bon Iver
5. Nicolas Jaar - Space is Only Noise
6. Metronomy - The English Riviera
7. Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes
8. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
9. Gillian Welch - The Harrow and the Harvest
10. Anna Calvi - Anna Calvi

Wow, pleasantly surprised at Kurt Vile's success.

As always, thanks for the effort, Harold! This is my favorite time of the year, and will be looking forward to the spreadsheet updates.

Also, per your "way too early" comment. The publications who make the lists in November are monthly mags. They want to have their lists out for the December issues. While early, they almost have no choice unless they want to be far behind the competition.

I reckon Kurt Vile may get a top 10 finish if he's lucky. Deservedly so!

Here is the link to the spreadsheet:



Many thanks to Harold for doing the work behind this spreadsheet another year!

The critics' lists so far:

USA & Canada
Decibel, Paste, Loudwire, American Songwriter, Filter

UK & Ireland:
Rough Trade, The Fly, Q, Uncut, Piccadilly Records, Mojo

Rest of the World:
Sonic, Blitz, Fasterlouder, Rumore

A lot of interesting placement for some veterans and legends.

It kind of sucks that Wilco probably won't improve their ranking; Beating Sky Blue Sky (their 6th highest ranked album) to improve their overall album score, will be no easy feat. If current rankings held, The Whole Love would wind up right around that 1100 mark, barely beating out SBS.

King of Limbs is probably not going to break into Radiohead's top 6 either. if it's ranking holds, it'll be around 1,000. A far cry from Hail to the Thief's 475.

PJ Harvey on the other hand, is not only guaranteed to break into her top 6 and improve her ranking drastically, but she might actually dethrone To Bring You My Love as her top album if U.S. critic scores improve. I can't possibly see this album placing outside of her personal top 3. Depending on song performance, Ms. Polly Jean might find herself in the top 50 artists of all time next update.

Nearly 40 years after his first album, Tom Waits seems set to improve his already outstanding album ranking with Bad as Me, which I see settling into the 700-800 range.

I agree about PJ Harvey. Critics seem to have forgotten about To Bring You My Love. They like to pick Rid of Me over it these days inside 90s list. The Slant list was a breath of fresh of air to include Love inside the top 20. I hope that album doesn't fall out of the top 200.

I hope Laura Marling hold herself this time around, because she always start pretty big because of UK lists and ended up out of the top 40. I also hope that Wild Beasts' doesn't slip out of the top 20. I expect St Vincent, Gillian Welch and tUnE-yArDs to improve with american lists. Adele and James Blake inside the top 10 is a travesty - and the latter is underperforming in England. Lots of indie artists out of the top 30 will have their ranking boosted by american lists.

I vastly prefer Rid of Me myself. PJ Harvey is the rare artist without any sort of consensus about her best album. If you asked 5 hardcore PJ Harvey fans, you'd get 5 different answers, and that's what makes her great.

Hello Harold,

Do you have any idea about when the excel-file will be updated? It will be posted here, right?

I am by no means complaining, I realize that there is a lot of work involved that you conduct in your free time. But I am currently obsessed with looking for the update... so I am trying to stop myself from doing this several times a day.

All the best,

d_R

heh, like dr Robert I'm checking at least a few times a day. But please take your time, Harold. Once a week is definitely fine with me. Accuracy over quickness. Thanks for the hard work. If I wasn't still in school I would help out. I'm thinking starting next year (by which time I'll be graduated) I will also join in the spreadsheet fun and lend a hand.

Also, my break begins on the 14th, so let me know if can help in any way at that time. I know that's probably when most of the lists will come.

New additions:

USA/Canada: Glide, NPR, Stereogum, A.V. Club, Exclaim
UK: Clash, BBC Music, Fact, NME, The Quietus
Rest of the World: Vibration, Magic!, Gaffa (intl), Dagbladet (intl), Rumba (intl), HotTracks, Intro

The current top 25:
1. Harvey, PJ - Let England Shake
2. Bon Iver - Bon Iver
3. Blake, James - James Blake
4. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
5. Vile, Kurt - Smoke Ring for My Halo
6. Waits, Tom - Bad as Me
7. Metronomy - The English Riviera
8. Radiohead - The King of Limbs
9. Wilco - The Whole Love
10. Welch, Gillian - The Harrow and the Harvest
11. Horrors, The - Skying
12. Adele - 21
13. Wild Beasts - Smother
14. Feist - Metals
15. Destroyer - Kaputt
16. Fucked Up - David Comes to Life
17. Yuck - Yuck
18. Jay-Z & Kanye West - Watch the Throne
19. St. Vincent - Strange Mercy
20. Weeknd, The - House of Balloons
21. Li, Lykke - Wounded Rhymes
22. Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost
23. tUnE-yArDs - WhoKill
24. Marling, Laura - A Creature I Don't Know
25. M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming

Thanks Harold!

It's great to see Wilco getting recognition for making a great album. The Whole Love might just break Wilco's top 6.

I agree about the Wilco. Also thrilled at both M83 and Girls being relatively high. However, Kate Bush?? At this point 50 Words for Snow would be little more than a bubbler, when most critics were calling it her best since the '80s. Most surprising though: Ry Cooder at 172! He had one of the year's best reviewed (and in my opinion an even better work than Chavez Ravine). Now it doesn't appear he'll even crack the top 100 of 2011.

None of the ones at the top surprising me but I'm surprised so little mention of Ry Cooder. It had such a high metacritic score, and it's the sort of album I'd think would be right up critics' alleys. I guess it's the album this year that very few critics review but all who do rave about.

What's so special about The English Riviera? I heard nothing about this album all year, and suddenly it's showing up top ten on every list. I gave it a listen and it didn't strike me as anything particularly noteworthy or unique enough to be getting this kind of acclaim considering the group isn't nearly as famous as the rest of the top players this year.

M83 in the top 25 is a joke. Seriously, it's a very very bad album.
And Let England Shake in the first place is, for me, unbelievable, and for the same reason...so pompous !

MEtronomy is a personal favorite since I listen "The english riviera" this summer. No bad song and a lot of "hits". Very catchy.

I also like "The English Riviera". Jackson, I understand that you don't like it, because it is completely inoffensive, but I am happy that such an album can get a lot of acclaim too.

And Romain, "Let England Shake" pompous? I would rather describe it as "held back", actually.

When I listen it for the first (and only) time, I just visualized a big creamy cake.
And I really love a lot PJ Harvey, it's the first time I found one of her album unlistenable. I have all her CDs in my discothèque.
I compare her album to the last Björk album. If it's was not Harvey or Björk who had made this, no one would speak about their new music.

Ugh, prepare for some grumpy-man style moaning. The new PJ Harvey album isn't her best work by any stretch bit it's fine record nonetheless, filed with plenty of memorable songs. After listening to many of the other albums it's up against in this list probably deserves such standing:

While still interesting and rewarding Radiohead, Tom Waits, TV on the Radio and Wilco weren't exactly hitting their 'A game' either, even less so compared to PJ. Worst still, I've felt that neither Fleet Foxes or Girls couldn't match their promising debuts and many of the highly-hyped newcomers have sadly failed to make any impression on me whatsoever - particularly acts I wanted to like such as James Blake or the Weeknd.

Still, it's not completely terrible - tUnE-yArDs and Wild Beasts seem like bands to getting better with each release. It's just that I'd struggle to see their respective albums edging out releases like "Cosmogramma", "Teen Dream" or "This Is Happening" in a regular rotation on my music player. It kinda makes 2011 feel underwhelming by comparison to previous years.

I'm going to have to agree with the "2011 bashing". 2011 is the first year since 1993 where no album cracked my top 100 albums. Also, (so far) only one song from 2011 is in my top 500 songs of all time, and it's not even in the top 250.

Now, maybe 2011 wouldn't seem so bad had it not followed the magnificently stunning 2010.

Here's my top albums of 2010 ranked with my top albums of 2011.

1. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy- 2010 (#29 AT)
2. This is Happening- 2010 (#89 AT)
3. The Suburbs- 2010 (#105 AT)
4. Teen Dream- 2010 (#107 AT)
5. James Blake- 2011 (#163 AT)
6. Let England Shake- 2011 (#165 AT)
7. The Archandroid (Suites II and III)- 2010 (#189 AT)
8. Kaputt- Destroyer- 2011 (#232 AT)
9. Treats- Sleigh Bells- 2010 (#270 AT)
10. Bon Iver- 2011 (#290 AT)

Side by side, the two years just can't compare.

well if you're going to judge the year solely on the top 10 alone it really is going to look like a terrible year. A bunch of 40 year olds and a 60 something and some forgettable male INDIE songwriters. Yeah that looks like a lousy list but there were some decent records worthy of some looking into. The critics seem off this year once again.

I thought it was an average year myself. Not bad by any means. Sure, it wasn't 2010 but not many years are.

It's pretty hard to compare PJ Harvey records because they are mostly so different from one another. I think Let England Shake was definitely worthy to join her discography. Bjork's Biophilia has grown on me. Now I'd put it above Medulla, Volta, and Debut. A mid-quality Bjork record, which translates to "excellent." I thought the new Wilco easily beat their last three albums. I LOVED the new Girls album, and I wasn't even a big fan of their debut. To me they matured wonderfully. I'm with Pitchfork when it comes to the new M83; definitely one of the year's best. Sure, there was filler, but most great double albums do. The only out and out disappointments for the big names were The Strokes, Radiohead and TV on the Radio. On the other hand, Battles, Fleet Foxes, Arctic Monkeys and James Blake met (high) expectations; didn't exceed them nor did they disappoint me.

But the cream of the year was actually the smaller stuff that's lying from the 20s to 70s in the spreadsheet. I really enjoyed, just to list a few: the new Decemberists, My Morning Jacket, Laura Marling, Beirut, Nicolas Jaar, Real Estate, Atlas Sound, Washed Out, The Antlers, Oneohtrix Point Never, Wild Flag, WU LYF, Florence + The Machine, Gang Gang Dance, Ry Cooder, and Rustie.

Of the top 20, most of them I enjoyed greatly, especially Welch, Vile, The Horrors, and Waits.

Definitely a good number of albums I regularly return to. But I do share the surprise at Metronomy doing so well. The reviews were pretty good, but nothing special. And I liked it, but nothing more, and it quickly wore off after a few spins. How it's making it on so many EOY lists is beyond me.

I have to agree about 2011 : not a good year, especially because no great new artist emerged.
All the albums I dig this year (Fleet Foxes, Ry Cooder, Anthony Joseph, Melingo, T Waits...) are by artist that are already among my favorites.
The only real discovery (so far)is sitting at #8 : Danish pop band Treefight For Sunlight (and James Blake is not very far). But december is the month when I catch up with all I've been missing, so I might discover new things till the end of the year

PS : about the new Fleet Foxes : just because it is not as good as the first one doesn't make it a bad record, faaar from that.
I had to review it for a site I'm writing for and so i spent time listening carefully to the songs, comparing it to the first, reading stuff that Pecknold wrote about the recording, etc... And now it's my favorite album of the year. I really LOVE that band.
So don't make that mistake of dismissing it because the first one is better, and because the surprise effect doesn't play anymore

I feel like i'm on an another planet when I read you.
I think the exact opposite.

I just take my list for 2011, none of my top ten of 2011 are below my top one of 2010. And I listen a lot of album these days and discovering excellent ones all the days (Mirrors and Smith Westerns the two last days).

1. Portugal.The Man - In The Mountain In The Cloud
2. Blood Orange - Coastal Grooves
3. The Black Keys - El Camino
4. Pete and The Pirates - One Thousand Pictures
5. The Kills - Blood Pressure
6. Cults - Cults
7. Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi - Rome
8. St. Vincent - Strange ercy
9. Metronomy - The English Riviera
10. Cascadeur - The Human Octopus
11. Herman Dune - Strange Moosic
12. Beirut - Rip Tide
13. Hubert Felix Thiefaine - Suppléments de mensonge
14. Cage The Elephants - Thank You, Happy Birthday
15. Black Lips - Arabia Mountain
16. The Drums - Portamento
17. Memory Tapes - Player piano
18. Alain Bashung/Serge Gainsbourg - L'homme à la tête de chou
19. Kaiser Chiefs - The Future is Medieval
20. dEUS - Keep you close
21. TV on the Radio – Nine Types of Light
22. White Denim - D

The real travesty of this year was James Blake. God awful album. And I can really see tUnE-yArDs' w h o k i l l improving its ranking over time: such a huge achievement from an up and coming artist. Perhaps the only album this year besides Let England Shake and Strange Mercy that was so inventive in its well execution.

I think critics are getting worse and worse. I would say of the top 9 albums the only one I think is worthy is the Fleet Foxes. I love old PJ Harvey but the one this year is nothing special. Seems a lot of artists are being measured on past success instead of what they did this year.

2010 had more classics than 2011, but the critics did a better job in 2011 sifting through them. (This year they formed there opinion of albums after listening to them.)

But, they were also pretty unadventurous, sticking mostly with established names and Pitchfork stuff.

James Blake really grew on me from when I first heard him. I'd place him in the top 30 or so this year.

M83's is a good album if you can get past the irritating whisper-monologues.

I do think PJ Harvey, Tom Waits, Ry Cooder and Gang Gang Dance all produced top 100 candidates. At the very least top 200, with a potential to rise to the 100.

Poor Ry Cooder. The critics heaped so much praise on Pull Up Some Dust upon its release, and now they’ve forgotten about it already. Did those critics who liked it forget to pass the office copy of the CD on to their colleagues? It’s the kind of album that won’t appear on a lot of year-end lists because too many critics will think it’s not hip or cool enough for 2011. The rootsy genres you can hear on the album are hardly very “now”: blues, norteño, folk, country. Maybe I’m just being facetious and unfair, but I don’t think many hipster critics would know how to cope with the norteño waltz that confronts them as early as track 2, El Corrido de Jesse James. If only they didn’t stop listening right there and then. If they listened to the whole album more of them might have been as amazed as me at how effortlessly and expertly Ry Cooder can shift from one genre to another and sound like he is re-inventing roots music.

At the moment Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down is my favourite album of the year. I’ve noticed support for it from other AMers too, so hopefully it won’t fare as badly when we do our own year-end poll next month.

I've just listened to the Ry C album this morning and I agree with you Dan
Corrido of Jesse J is one of the best songs on the album
The ballads are killers too. it will be in my top 5 for sure
As for the critics don't get me started I just don't want to talk about it
He who has ears...

Another update!

New lists:
USA: Rolling Stone, Amazon, NoiseCreep
UK: The Skinny, The Guardian (#6-50), Total Guitar, Wire, fRoots, Thrash Hits
France: Telerama

Thanks Harold!

Another thing. Black Keys - El Camino. Awesome record. It would appear here easily, except that it came out in December.

It also is the most popular hard rock album at least since Elephant, if not since the grunge era. I pray this starts a new trend in popular music.

Indeed, that and The Roots' Undun sadly won't get the EOY recognition they deserve because of their release dates.

Seconded. I'd go as far as to say both are better than some of the records listed in the last 2011 top ten update that Henrik posted above.

Ry Cooder at #108 ?? I can't believe that. Too many indie sources here

The fact that Cooder raised almost 70 places in one update gives me hope he can break the top 75 (my personal annual cutoff point for collecting). I also think it's impressive that, even with The Black Keys' regrettable release date, they are still in the 80s so far. As the mid to late December lists get added can they crack the top 50?

Updated with...

US/Canada: Magnet, Textura
UK: musicOMH, Jazzwise
Rest of the World: Aftenposten, The Yers, Club Fonograma, and the national lists from Gaffa, Dagbladet, Rumba, Blitz

Thanks Harold!

I'm surprised Metronomy is still that high. To me it just seems, well, plain. Indie by numbers. (Notice, not on a single US list yet)

I'm also surprised Gang Gang Dance isn't a lot higher. I think Eye Contact is this year's Silent Shout.

There also seems to be pretty much no rap toward the top. Why are critics so willing to rate genres other than American indie highly?

Are you basing the score just on the straight average of US/UK/ROW? Maybe that's why. Plenty of other kinds of music gets fanfare, but indie's the only one that gets it in all three.

I think this is the first time that I'm actually appalled by what the critics are doing. Kurt Vile, Metronomy, Radiohead, and Adele all in the top 10? What the fuck; they're all the very definition of mediocrity in their respective genres.

I'll echo the sentiments on Ry Cooder and Gang Gang Dance (even though I'm not the biggest fan) and add Josh T. Pearson and The Antlers among artists that should really replace those four.

Also, a little late, but I wanted to respond to this:

I like the Metronomy album, particularly "The Bay", "The Look" and the 3 synth-heavy blitzes at the end.

I definitely agree about Gang Gang Dance. That and Atlas Sound's low ranking both perplex me deeply. It's not like they are obscure artists. Deerhunter has gotten tons of love during other years, and GGD's Saint Dymphna was top 20 in 2008. Their albums this year were praised. What gives?

And that's a good call about the proliferation of indie rock, Bill. It's the only genre that gets equal recognition from around the world, so it will dominate the spreadsheets. I've learned to have my own sources for other genres (jazz, electronica, rap...). similarly, I'm sure we are missing out on a ton of great European music.

I wish I could get behind Gang Gang Dance, but I've tried Eye Contact about five times now, and it simply falls short of the standard they set on Saint Dympha. That album was so smooth and creative, featured less annoying vocals, and was less 80s-influenced. I like the song "Glass Jar," but not much else.

As far as the critics lists are concerned, FACT, The Wire, the Quietus, and Gorilla vs. Bear put out interesting, varied lists like they always do. I would suggest listening to albums from those lists as a reprieve from indie rock.

@Stephan

I believe if it weren't for the name 'Kanye' attached to it, it would have easily made top ten, maybe even top five, but it wouldn't have garnered that level of superlatives, or eclipsed the many other great albums of the year. It would have just been one more album in the AOTY conversation, not the one dominating it.

Back to 2011, yes, it is a pretty sad comment on the state of criticism that in order to get critical praise, you have to either have a well established name, or fit a very specific mold of vocal idiosyncratic pop. Even from four or five years ago the standards have really tightened.

New lists:

US: PopMatters, Prefix, Spin
UK: Gigwise (plus #5 in The Guardian)

Thanks Harold!

Considering all the album lists that are being rolled out by the end of the week, I won't send another spreadsheet update until sometime this weekend.

Now that more USA lists are being added - most of the UK sources are accounted for already, I think - it's fascinating to watch how the overall list is changing, with the fortunes of some albums rising (WhoKill, David Comes to Life, Watch the Throne) while others begin to sink (The English Riviera, Smother). It would not surprise me to see Bon Iver overtake Let England Shake for the #1 spot at some point.

OMG
Ry Cooder is going down #127... I can't trust critics as a whole anymore
I'm sure the vast majority of them didn't even hear his album
Or maybe as Dan said that is music for older people

Thankfully, Yuck's s/t seems to rise slowly but steadily too. I'd love to see it in the Top 20 sometime. Just sayin'...

Another big update from Harold!

New additions:
USA/Canada: Treble, Antiquiet, Billboard, Resident Advisor, Slant, Pitchfork, OneThirtyBPM, Spinner, Pretty Much Amazing, Tiny Mix Tapes, Consequence of Sound
UK/Ireland: The Guardian (complete), Drowned in Sound, This is Fake DIY, No Ripcord
Rest of the World: Jenesaispop, Playground, MuzikExpress, Laut, The Age, Nojesguiden (national & international)

The current top 100:
1. Harvey, PJ - Let England Shake
2. Bon Iver - Bon Iver
3. Blake, James - James Blake
4. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
5. St. Vincent - Strange Mercy
6. Weeknd, The - House of Balloons
7. Vile, Kurt - Smoke Ring for My Halo
8. tUnE-yArDs - WhoKill
9. Destroyer - Kaputt
10. Waits, Tom - Bad as Me
11. Radiohead - The King of Limbs
12. Metronomy - The English Riviera
13. M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
14. Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost
15. Li, Lykke - Wounded Rhymes
16. Jay-Z & Kanye West - Watch the Throne
17. Fucked Up - David Comes to Life
18. Adele - 21
19. Horrors, The - Skying
20. Shabazz Palaces - Black Up
21. Wilco - The Whole Love
22. Wild Beasts - Smother
23. Feist - Metals
24. Antlers, The - Burst Apart
25. Drake - Take Care
26. Welch, Gillian - The Harrow and the Harvest
27. Yuck - Yuck
28. SBTRKT - SBTRKT
29. Real Estate - Days
30. EMA - Past Life Martyred Saints
31. Ocean, Frank - Nostalgia, Ultra
32. Jaar, Nicolas - Space is Only Noise
33. Mastodon - The Hunter
34. Washed Out - Within and Without
35. Florence + The Machine - Ceremonials
36. Foo Fighters - Wasting Light
37. Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica
38. Hecker, Tim - Ravedeath, 1972
39. Bjork - Biophilia
40. Decemberists, The - The King is Dead
41. Gang Gang Dance - Eye Contact
42. Wild Flag - Wild Flag
43. Calvi, Anna - Anna Calvi
44. War on Drugs, The - Slave Ambient
45. Maus, John - We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves
46. Beirut - The Rip Tide
47. Marling, Laura - A Creature I Don't Know
48. Beyonce - 4
49. Panda Bear - Tomboy
50. Bush, Kate - 50 Words for Snow
51. My Morning Jacket - Circuital
52. Atlas Sound - Parallax
53. Arctic Monkeys - Suck It and See
54. Katy B - On a Mission
55. Kills, The - Blood Pressures
56. Scott-Heron, Gil & Jamie xx - We're New Here
57. Pearson, Josh T. - Last of the Country Gentlemen
58. TV on the Radio - Nine Types of Light
59. Simon, Paul - So Beautiful or So What
60. Cults - Cults
61. Gallagher's High Flying Birds, Noel - Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds
62. Iceage - New Brigade
63. Elbow - Build a Rocket Boys!
64. Zomby - Dedication
65. Rustie - Glass Swords
66. Little Dragon - Ritual Union
67. Callahan, Bill - Apocalypse
68. Battles - Gloss Drop
69. Peaking Lights - 936
70. King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - Diamond Mine
71. Cut Copy - Zonoscope
72. Black Keys, The - El Camino
73. A$AP Rocky - LIVELOVEA$AP
74. Lady Gaga - Born This Way
75. Adams, Ryan - Ashes & Fire
76. Bright Eyes - The People's Key
77. WU LYF - Go Tell Fire to the Mountain
78. Black Lips - Arabia Mountain
79. Clams Casino - Instrumentals
80. Wye Oak - Civilian
81. White Denim - D
82. Wilson, Jonathan - Gentle Spirit
83. Stetson, Colin - New History Warfare, Vol. 2: Judges
84. Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Unknown Mortal Orchestra
85. Brown, Danny - XXX
86. Tyler, the Creator - Goblin
87. Beastie Boys - Hot Sauce Committee Part Two
88. Iron & Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean
89. Austra - Feel It Break
90. Malkmus, Stephen and The Jicks - Mirror Traffic
91. Smith Westerns - Dye It Blonde
92. Barwick, Julianna - The Magic Place
93. Dum Dum Girls - Only in Dreams
94. Low - C'mon
95. Woon, Jamie - Mirrorwriting
96. Coldplay - Mylo Xyloto
97. Field, The - Looping State of Mind
98. Moore, Thurston - Demolished Thoughts
99. Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will
100. Strokes, The - Angles

indie rock and whitey rap

no Ry Cooder



well at least FF and Waits in the top 10

Thanks Harold!

Awesome, Gang Gang Dance, Kate Bush, Atlas Sound and Tim Hecker all shot up. And Coldplay dropped. I am content.

Pity that my absolutely favorite album of the year has dropped down 10 places since the first update. It was slowly rising up till this point but I'm afraid "Yuck" won't probably enter the Top 20 again. The best album on the Top 10 so far is number 12 now (haven't heard "House Of Balloons" yet though). Beyonce lies above Black Keys and Noel Gallagher And "w h o k i l l" is No.8 and rising. Oh well... At keast Adele is dropping down.

but Resident Advisor is not american (originally australian) and now British-German

Another BIG update!

USA: Under the Radar, The Owl, Complex, Little White Earbuds, The Agit Reader, Austin Town Hall, CokeMachineGlow
UK: Muso's Guide, Word, Bowlegs (plus Resident Advisor moved to correct section)
Ireland: State
France: Les Inrockuptibles, New Noise
Belgium: Humo
Spain: Muzikalia (intl)
Germany: Spex
Norway: Dagsavisen
The Netherlands: OOR
Argentina: Indie Hoy
Hungary: Quart

Thanks Harold!

New additions:
USA: XLR8R, The L, Epitonic
UK: The Line of Best Fit
France: Indiepoprock, Mowno, Chronicart
Spain: Scanner FM
Finland: Soundi (intl)
Italy: Kalporz, Sentire Ascoltare
Chile: Super 45
Germany: Rolling Stone Germany

Thanks Harold!

I think this list supports my theory about my female artists don't get critical praise.

Which female artists get critical praise? PJ Harvey and St Vincent, the noisy experimental ones.

Which don't? Laura Marling, Kate Bush.

And Ry Cooder at 193? Why he's not noisy and experimental at all, just rootsy and parody-political.

The Ry Cooder ranking is a shame and a sin and a reason why I'm very suspicious about those very indie rock oriented lists. Most of the hipsters critics didn't even hear this major album

The first update of the year, in which Liturgy moved up from #159 to #113 and Ry Cooder moved up from #193 to #180.

New lists:

USA: Altered Zones, HipHopDX, eMusic, Rhapsody
UK: Kerrang!, The Sun
France: Fluctuat
Spain: Muzikalia (natl), MondoSonoro (intl), Rock De Lux (intl)
Finland: Soundi (natl)
Germany: Visions, Zundfunk
Belgium: Digg
Netherlands: Heaven
Italy: Ondarock, Storia della Musica
Hungary: Recorder

Thanks again, Harold!

Two times in the spreadsheet:



Altar of Plagues - Mammal
Anthrax - Worship Music
Aurelio - Laru Beya
Benvegnu, Paolo - Hermann
Brutal Truth - End Time
In Solitude - The World, the Flesh, the Devil
Parlato, Gretchen - The Lost and Found
Prince Rama - Trust Now
Prurient - Bermuda Drain
Pure X - Pleasure
Skeletons - People
YOB - Atma
Zun Zun Egui - Katang

Thanks for your great work Harold!

Another update. Harold, I can't tell you how pleased I am that you are doing all this work! Thanks!!!

USA: AllMusic
Ireland: Hot Press
Spain: Intl lists from Tentaciones and Go Mag; national lists from Playground, MondoSonoro, Rock De Lux, Tentaciones and Go Mag

Additions:

USA: Rap-Up, Guitar World
UK: Boomkat
Australia: Rip It Up
Italy: Blow Up
France: Rock First
Germany: Plattentests

Worth noting: The Roots' Undun is now #83; Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down by Ry Cooder has moved up to #163.

Thanks Harold!

BTW I have a couple lists to post

Besides Cooder, the most criminally underrated album of the year is Machinedrum's Room(s). It is, imho, the best electronic album of 2012, and by extension one of the very best overall (it's in my personal top 5 of the year). It was also highly rated by the experts of the genre: #2 for Resident Advisor and #1 for Little White Earbuds. And it's further proof that serious electronica isn't yet getting the attention it deserves. The only electronic artists that make the main lists are the overly hyped (James Blake and Nicolas Jaar) or the established (Four Tet and Caribou).

I like to analyse these lists and what strikes me is the difference in perception of albums between different countries (considering countries providing enough lists). Of course sometimes its genre related and new and upcoming artists do usually better in local lists first (Metronomy?), but I would expect big institutional names in global genres to fare similarly cross the continents. Biggest separator (no pun) must be Radiohead this year. american and english critics lists combined put them at 8, whereas french and spanish at 248 and all 10 french international lists leave them out while mentioning 253 albums.
I wonder whether the writers from the same countries influence (copy :-) ) each other, or maybe there is different atmosphere surrounding some artists, or is it really matter of different tastes?

147 year-end lists in the spreadsheet- CRAZY how the Internet and the growing number of outlets has done to the boost the number of year-end lists.

Thanks for the efforts, Harold.

Updated with:

USA: SputnikMusic, Village Voice Pazz & Jop
Canada: ChartAttack
Poland: Porcys

Thanks again, Harold! Do you think there will be (many) more lists coming in now?

Henrik, if you want, you can put the three lists by "Les Chroniques Electroniques".
No more to come by this site.

And for the lists to come : PopNews and Top des Blogueurs will arrive....I hope soon.

I see Village Voice positions below the top 50 are in the spreadsheet- but only the top 50 get added to AM, correct? I'm pretty sure, just clarifying. Thanks- and thanks Harold for the continued updates. :)

Jr, that's correct.


Here's another update from Harold, including

USA: Passion of the Weiss, The Silent Ballet
Canada: La Presse
UK: Mixmag, The Milk Factory
France: PopNews, Chroniques Electroniques, AlbumRock
Poland: Screenagers
Sweden: Dagensskiva

Harold, I forgot to upload yesterday. Sorry.

I have added one new list to the spreadsheet since the last upload, a top ten from Belgium's Knack. I'm fully prepared to send Henrik this last update and call it a day, unless anyone has any last-minute additions. Thanks again to everyone who's contributed lists, links, and transcriptions. This has been exhausting (at times) but great fun.

Harold decided not to wait. There is one new list in this update:

Belgium: Knack

Here's the new (final?) top 100 from the spreadsheet:

1 / Harvey, PJ / Let England Shake
2 / Bon Iver / Bon Iver
3 / Blake, James / James Blake
4 / Fleet Foxes / Helplessness Blues
5 / Destroyer / Kaputt
6 / Waits, Tom / Bad as Me
7 / Weeknd, The / House of Balloons
8 / M83 / Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
9 / tUnE-yArDs / WhoKill
10 / St. Vincent / Strange Mercy
11 / Vile, Kurt / Smoke Ring for My Halo
12 / Girls / Father, Son, Holy Ghost
13 / Radiohead / The King of Limbs
14 / Metronomy / The English Riviera
15 / Wilco / The Whole Love
16 / Horrors, The / Skying
17 / Shabazz Palaces / Black Up
18 / Jay-Z & Kanye West / Watch the Throne
19 / Adele / 21
20 / Fucked Up / David Comes to Life
21 / Wild Beasts / Smother
22 / Li, Lykke / Wounded Rhymes
23 / Drake / Take Care
24 / Jaar, Nicolas / Space is Only Noise
25 / Oneohtrix Point Never / Replica
26 / Real Estate / Days
27 / SBTRKT / SBTRKT
28 / EMA / Past Life Martyred Saints
29 / Yuck / Yuck
30 / Antlers, The / Burst Apart
31 / Mastodon / The Hunter
32 / Hecker, Tim / Ravedeath, 1972
33 / Feist / Metals
34 / Welch, Gillian / The Harrow and the Harvest
35 / Gang Gang Dance / Eye Contact
36 / Maus, John / We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves
37 / Ocean, Frank / Nostalgia, Ultra
38 / Black Keys, The / El Camino
39 / War on Drugs, The / Slave Ambient
40 / Washed Out / Within and Without
41 / Calvi, Anna / Anna Calvi
42 / Foo Fighters / Wasting Light
43 / Beirut / The Rip Tide
44 / Bush, Kate / 50 Words for Snow
45 / Callahan, Bill / Apocalypse
46 / Decemberists, The / The King is Dead
47 / Wild Flag / Wild Flag
48 / Florence + The Machine / Ceremonials
49 / Arctic Monkeys / Suck It and See
50 / Atlas Sound / Parallax
51 / Marling, Laura / A Creature I Don't Know
52 / Zomby / Dedication
53 / Battles / Gloss Drop
54 / Pearson, Josh T. / Last of the Country Gentlemen
55 / Elbow / Build a Rocket Boys!
56 / Peaking Lights / 936
57 / Bjork / Biophilia
58 / Beyonce / 4
59 / Low / C'mon
60 / Iceage / New Brigade
61 / TV on the Radio / Nine Types of Light
62 / Panda Bear / Tomboy
63 / Stetson, Colin / New History Warfare, Vol. 2: Judges
64 / Katy B / On a Mission
65 / Rustie / Glass Swords
66 / My Morning Jacket / Circuital
67 / Field, The / Looping State of Mind
68 / Scott-Heron, Gil & Jamie xx / We're New Here
69 / Cults / Cults
70 / Kills, The / Blood Pressures
71 / WU LYF / Go Tell Fire to the Mountain
72 / Gallagher's High Flying Birds, Noel / Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds
73 / Roots, The / Undun
74 / Cut Copy / Zonoscope
75 / Toro Y Moi / Underneath the Pine
76 / Simon, Paul / So Beautiful or So What
77 / Austra / Feel It Break
78 / Tyler, the Creator / Goblin
79 / Dum Dum Girls / Only in Dreams
80 / Lamar, Kendrick / Section.80
81 / Other Lives / Tamer Animals
82 / Zola Jesus / Conatus
83 / Wye Oak / Civilian
84 / Brown, Danny / XXX
85 / Adams, Ryan / Ashes & Fire
86 / A$AP Rocky / LIVELOVEA$AP
87 / Smith Westerns / Dye It Blonde
88 / Pains of Being Pure at Heart, The / Belong
89 / Barwick, Julianna / The Magic Place
90 / Mogwai / Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will
91 / King Creosote & Jon Hopkins / Diamond Mine
92 / Beastie Boys / Hot Sauce Committee Part Two
93 / Black Lips / Arabia Mountain
94 / Clams Casino / Instrumentals
95 / Iron & Wine / Kiss Each Other Clean
96 / Little Dragon / Ritual Union
97 / Balam Acab / Wander/Wonder
98 / Wilson, Jonathan / Gentle Spirit
99 / Ghostpoet / Peanut Butter Blues & Melancholy Jam
100 / Friendly Fires / Pala


Many thanks again, Harold!!!

I guess the big question after we've had our own poll is: Why wasn't PJ's album the most acclaimed in the US? (And why didn't she do better in the songs lists?)