The perils of publications releasing their EOY lists too early are being vividly illustrated today with the releases of The Black Keys' El Camino and Undun by The Roots. Both are already accumulating hugely impressive Metascores; is there any doubt that if they had been released earlier in the year they would have made many of the lists that have already been released? (In fact, both HAVE appeared on at least a couple of lists.) I'm fairly sure that both albums will end up doing very well on the EOY spreadsheet when all is said and done, but it's still kind of a shame that their end-of-the-year release dates are hurting their standing.
I like the way AV Club kinda solve this issue by including any albums released after their last votes for EOY lists, even if they were released the previous year. It's ok if you vote in November, you have to if you want to release your list in December or early January, but in this case you have to remember the albums of Nov/Dec for the following year's list.
I hope Undun is able to get some recognition in the later lists. Listened to that album today and it did not disappoint. Between this new album and How I Got Over, the Roots are on a roll right now.
