a belief with some critics that whatever one particular act puts out, it's brilliant- some of those acts would be Bjork, Radiohead, U2, PJ Harvey, etc. Madonna, I would not count among those, though- look at American Life. You don't see it on this site, now do ya? :) For the others mentioned, no matter how mixed the reviews may have seemed, almost all of their recordings are present.

Loretta Lynn's album is pretty darn good- the Jack White factor definitely added to the "hip/cool" factor, though.

I would love to secretly monitor critics for like 6 months and see what they listen to most. It would be interesting to see if they ever listen to KID A...and whether N Sync ever creeps in :)

Who the hell is this Tom Waits guy? He gets so much praise but I've yet to hear a single song that has truly captivated me. Quit putting him on top 20 lists. He's ALWAYS on them no matter what. I'd also like to see Nick Cave off the top 10 and to see Modest Mouse into the top 10. It was pretty obvious that Elliot Smith was going to make the list no matter what. I also don't think Wilco should be so high up there either. There are more deserving albums. I'm tired of singer songwriters getting more praise than they deserve. Critics tend to judge more on lyrics than melody nowadays, unless you're Radiohead or Bjork. This list needs improvement!!!!!!

I agree - lyrics are given too much attention. Songwriting is about a lot more than lyrics, but I rarely see critics recognize that. The reality is that few songwriters have great lyrics, anyway.

Most of Q magazine's Top 10 of 2004 are over-rated. imo.

The Streets "A grand don't come from free"
The Walkmen "Bows+arrows"
Modest Mouse "Good news for people who love bad news"
Interpol "Antics"
Animal Collective "Sung tongs"
Bjork "Medulla"
The Libertines "The Libertines"

I'm with Moonbeam on the above. I like a track here and there from some of these acts but the only one of these I *might* eventually buy is The Libertines and that's somewhat doubtful.

Reading this old conversation about Björk's voice, I think one of the most interesting polls we could do in the future would be about our favourite singers. And yes, Björk would definitely be in my list, up there with Ella, Scott, David and others.

Uh, I only said that The Killers were overrated, not any of those others! I actually quite love Medulla.

Sorry meant to say I agree with Dumbangel.

Sorry about that, Moonbeam. And I actually do like Bjork sometimes but I couldn't get into MEDULLA other than "Where is the Line?"

what about overrated albums of 2008? i'd say these three so far -

WE STARTED NOTHING BY THE TING TINGS Look, these guys suck. They're funny, but they're songwriting is just balls and they're not great musicians either. They're just 'hip'.
FLEET FOXES BY FLEET FOXES Look, it's a good album. But 5 stars?? Sweet jesus, it's not that good. A lot of people seem to be praising them because it's folky, but trust me, only people who don't know anything about folk say that Fleet Foxes are folk.
PARTIE TRAUMATIC BY THE BLACK KIDS Crotch obsessed indie with irritating tuneless voices. And the critics PRAISE this?

Fleet Foxes is not folk, no, but it's definitely one of the best albums of the year.

Islands and Black Kids albums this year are just awful. Borderline unlistenable. The Islands are trying to make twee sound grandiose and epic, and The Black Kids just sound like the New Pornographers if they were really terrible songwriters.

There are also a lot of just-decent albums that are getting massive praise. Like, Harvey Milk. Lil Wayne. Health.

I really liked The Islands album. I loved The Unicorns and then was disappointed by the first Islands album.

Kiran, I don't think the Ting Tings are trying to be anything more than fun and they succeed at it. Not every band has to have deep meaning or amazing musicians. Music can be fun without having much to it. I think most of us here disagree with you about Fleet Foxes.

If anything Good News by Modest Mouse is incredibly underrated. Hardcore fans couldn't take that it was a hit so they picked the Moon and Antartica to be their cult classic. Before Good News nobody thought of the Moon and Antartica as the best albums of 2000. It wasn't until they finally got a hit that fans rebelled and declared the Moon as their best record.

I think the Ting Tings album is OK- nothing spectacular, but fun nonetheless.

they sound like every other british girl songwriter or pop group coming out with their their rudegrrl accents with watered down hip hop. Same old stuff. Braitain is releasing some terrible music lately.

I think it would be interesting for those who are still around to revisit their list of overrated albums from 2004 in 2008 and see if they've changed their opinions any.

If anything Good News by Modest Mouse is incredibly underrated. Hardcore fans couldn't take that it was a hit so they picked the Moon and Antartica to be their cult classic. Before Good News nobody thought of the Moon and Antartica as the best albums of 2000. It wasn't until they finally got a hit that fans rebelled and declared the Moon as their best record.

This just isn't true. Moon was on quite a few indie EOY Top 10 lists for 2000, including No. 3 on Pitchfork. As a result, Good News was HIGHLY anticipated in the indie community. As far as backlash over "Float On" breaking, there may be something to that.

Either way, I'm no fan of Modest Mouse, but I certainly remember huge hype at the time of Moon (mainly because Lonesome Crowded West was already a beloved album).