Is this site english? Because a lot of artists that get more kudos than they should are British based.

eg. Pulp, Underworld, Massive Attack, Radiohead, Blur, etc

I've always thought certain Australian or American bands should be rated a lot better

Well, Henrik lived in England for a couple of years, but AM isn't a "British" site; part of the reason British artists seem to "do better" on the site than they do in American critics' lists - Jeff, I'm going to assume you're American - is simply that Henrik includes a lot of English lists.

For most of the 80s and 90s, British rock and pop was overlooked to a fairly extreme degree over here; you'd occasionally see an Oasis or a Pulp in the Pazz & Jop top ten, but they were exceptions. This critical drought didn't really end until Radiohead came along, but there's still a lot of disconnect between U.S. and U.K. lists. Since Acclaimed Music tries to be all-inclusive, Americans like me will see a -lot- of artists on the site that are/were critical gods across the pond but never made much of a dent here, e.g., the Stone Roses, Primal Scream, the Boo Radleys, Doves, Supergrass, etc., etc. Even the mighty Blur only ever had one album that made the lowest reaches of the P&J top 40 (the self-titled one in 1997).

Yeah, it's mostly a matter of which lists get included (and I think Henrik's very good about including anything appropriate he can find).

For me, the test case is the Stone Roses. I was actually one of the nine Americans who bought their CD when it first came out...I thought it was OK, nothing special, and eventually it managed to wander away from my collection. Now it turns out that they were classic...who knew? The current equivalent, I guess, is Arctic Monkeys.

Under "Regional Analysis" on the main page there are interesting lists of albums as ranked by
-North American critics
-UK/Ireland critics
-critics from, um, everywhere else
Worth looking at. (Stone Roses are #166 in North America, #13 in UK/Ireland)

BTW, I'd love to learn about more Australian bands (about which I'm very ignorant). I'm not sure how many I can even name...let's see, INXS and Men at Work, obviously. I always liked Midnight Oil...there's Kylie...er, the Vines are Australian, right?

Arctic Monkeys aren't really a good comparison to Stone Roses, though - WHATEVER PEOPLE SAY I AM... may not have set the U.S. on fire commercially, but it was a huge critical hit here, landing at #6 on P&J. The Roses' debut didn't rank on the poll at all.

Schleuse, how could you forget AC/DC? Other acclaimed acts from Down Under include the Saints, Hoodoo Gurus, Radio Birdman, and Russell Crowe's 30 Odd Foot of Grunts.

Just kidding on the last one.

Ouch...forgot about AC/DC, and I didn't realize that Hoodoo Gurus were Australian.

I also forgot about 30 Foot Odd of Grunts, but I'm guessing they're not worth checking out...or are they?

There is absolutely no intention from my end to bring more attention to British music. In fact, it's rather the opposite, as non-UK/US music is definitely underrated at AM. And that's simply because I have relatively few non-UK/US critics lists.

If British music is particularly well-represented, that's probably because of Julian White's www.rocklist.net site, which was the main source for me when I started to collect lists in the 90s.

On the other hand, I think our forum lists are even more tilted towards British music. That puzzles me.

don't bother checking out australian music. sure, we (i'm from aus) have a few good bands (especially if you want to include nick cave and the birthday party.) but there's probably nothing outside what you already know who are worth checking out.

not that population has much to do with the number of good artists, australia has a population of only 21 million. the UK has triple that, and america has 15 times that amount!

It's very difficult to make a living out of music in australia. our music industry is far from healthy. even being signed to a major label here means very little. i have no idea why that is, but it seems to be true.

Having said all this, there are quite a few damn awesome bands mentioned an AM. apart from those? well i'm probably not the best one to ask, i don't think. However, check out this band:

http://www.theredsunband.com/

I used to know a few of the members... i'm keen to hear what you all think of them actually. i think they're pretty good. "sleep forever" is probably the best one to listen to.

Canada's similar. We're a bit bigger (35 million) but since we're so far spread out and the weather's so difficult touring is far from easy. Fortunately we're close to the States (though borders are a bitch) so many are able to jump ship and sign deals there.

Of course, Canada's already given the world Leonard Cohen, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell - so they can pretty much rest easy.

PS. Stone Roses rule!

This site doesnt even have a ranking for Savage Garden, Eskimo Joe, Grinspoon or Powderfinger.

Great Aussie Rock!!!!!

Criminal