Rolling Stone have just released the yearlist of the 50 best albums of 08:

1 | TV on the Radio: Dear Science

2 | Bob Dylan: Tell Tale Signs — The Bootleg Series Vol. 8

3 | Lil Wayne: Tha Carter III

4 | My Morning Jacket: Evil Urges

5 | John Mellencamp: Life, Death, Love and Freedom

6 | Santogold: Santogold

7 | Coldplay: Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends

8 | Beck: Modern Guilt

9 | Metallica: Death Magnetic

10 | Vampire Weekend: Vampire Weekend

11 | Fleet Foxes: Fleet Foxes

12 | Guns n' Roses: Chinese Democracy

13 | Blitzen Trapper: Furr

14 | Ryan Adams and the Cardinals: Cardinology

15 | The Black Keys: Attack & Release

16 | Randy Newman: Harps and Angels

17 | B.B. King: One Kind Favor

18 | Lucinda Williams: Little Honey

19 | Erykah Badu: New Amerykah: Part 1 (4th World War)

20 | Kings of Leon: Only by the Night

21 | Kaiser Chiefs: Off With Their Heads

22 | Jockson Browne: Time the Conquerer

23 | Conor Oberst: Conor Oberst

24 | Girl Talk: Feed the Animals

25 | The Magnetic Fields: Distortion

26 | Mudcrutch: Mudcrutch

27 | Brian Wilson: That Lucky Old Sun

28 | The Knux: Remind Me in Three Days...

29 | Bon Iver: For Emma, Forever Ago

30 | Duffy: Rockferry

31 | MGMT: Oracular Spectacular

32 | Jamey Johnson: The Lonesome Song

33 | Ne-Yo: Year of the Gentleman

34 | Stephen Malkmus: Real Emotional Trash

35 | Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!

36 | The Hold Steady: Stay Positive

37 | Nine Inch Nails: The Slip

38 | Ra Ra Riot: The Rhumb Line

39 | Taylor Swift: Fearless

40 | Jonas Brothers: A Little Bit Longer

41 | AC/DC: Black Ice

42 | David Byrne and Brian Eno: Everything That Happens Will Happen Today

43 | Nas: Untitled

44 | The Raconteurs: Consolers of the Lonely

45 | Be Your Own Pet: Get Awkward

46 | The Academy Is...: Fast Times at Barrington High

47 | Of Montreal: Skeletal Lamping

48 | Raphael Saadiq: The Way I See It

49 | Hot Chip: Made in the Dark

50 | No Age: Nouns

Wow. No argument from me with #1, and most of the favorites-so-far are represented, but EVIL URGES at #4? Really? And the Mellencamp album - which I don't remember anyone ever talking about, at all - at #5? REALLY?

Henrik, have you decided definitively not to include the Dylan collection?

P.S. Oh, sweet Christ, I just noticed the Jonas Brothers. Taylor Swift I can sort of understand - that record actually did get a fair amount of acclaim. But the JB's? RREEAALLYY?!?!?!?

"And the Mellencamp album - which I don't remember anyone ever talking about, at all - at #5? REALLY?"

Sorry Harold, I like what you write here, but that sentence is weird. I would say typically rock critic.
You don't need to hear someone else speaking about a record to love it and defend it.

I too was surprised about the Mellencamp album but I heard a song and it was really good.

Why do EOY lists should repeat the others ? Why do critics need to hear what their colleagues are thinking before they make up their mind ?
Are we like a 3-year old child who wants to be told the same story ever and ever ?

I'm just saying that because I am rally stunned by the lack of diversity in these EOY lists. And I'm sure you probably didn't mean that Harold but it was so representative of what I heard a zillion times in critics meetings.

Sometimes you really think that some of them write for themselves and the other writers rather than for the readers.

Hmm, I was expecing Weezy at #1 from RS. And what is up with Mellencamp at #5? Another prime example of RS fogeyism.

And Harold, RS also gave the Jonas Bros. 4 out of 5 stars, and I think they called them like "the saviors of power pop" in their review.

Still, decent list.

a little fogeyism isn't so bad sometimes in the realm of snobbism

I mean you don't always have to pick modern stuff or young artists.
I really don't know if that album is good (I wouldn't be surprised if it was), but why is it such a black sheep ? is it political ? something to do with the guy 's conservative views ? the GM commercial?
I think that RS does a decent job of conciling popular bands and tongue in cheek acts.

I am just glad Dear Science got #1, I think its their first so far...

Nicolas, I have nothing at all against Mellencamp - I think it was just a knee-jerk reaction of surprise upon, as you indicate, seeing an album ranked so high that hasn't been one of the "usual suspects" so far. (Speaking of which, I realized after sending my initial post that the one glaring omission here is Portishead.)

BTW, JCM is as far from "conservative", politically, as you can get - he was one of the biggest Obama supporters in show business, which is saying something. (It's possible you mean MUSICALLY conservative, which is another matter entirely.)

At least there's nothing here as egregious as the time RS (read: Wenner) ranked Mick Jagger's WANDERING SPIRIT at #3 for the year ...

Q: What do you think of Mick's new solo album?
A: Oh, you mean DOGS**T IN THE DOORWAY?
-- Keith Richards, critically assessing his partner's GODDESS IN THE DOORWAY, yet another Jagger platter that had its ass kissed in print courtesy of his buddy Jann

jem, OOR magazine also has Dear Science at #1, so that already makes two.

"I'm just saying that because I am rally stunned by the lack of diversity in these EOY lists"

Nicolas, I totally agree you about this !
Almost all the lists look the same : TV On The Radio, Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes, MGMT, Kings Of Leon, Vampire Weekend,...
And it's the same thing every year. Boring.
That's why I'm more interested in personal lists that are made by RYM users for example.
Considering my personal top 10, excepted the Cut Copy album that has been listed in official sources a couple of times, none of my other 9 favourites has been mentioned even 1 time. It's very strange because I'm not considering myself as someone especially eclectic and I have not the chance to listen to as many albums as Pitchfork writers...

yes, but you are just in another "niche"
by the way, I'd love to know which albums are your favorites
i always appreciate your recommendations (on my wishlist of 2008 albums, there's an entry called "Dumbangel groups "
For my part, I have only Fleet Foxes and Nick Cave in my top 10 so far but that might change

I'm released to hear that JCM is a liberal guy; I don't know why I thought he was conservative, maybe because Randy Newman scolded him once for this GM commercial he did.
Mellencamp was a teenage idol for me in the 80's but now I consider him as a lesser Springsteen and he wouldn't make my top 100.

nicolas and Dumbangel,

y'all are speakin' the truth.
i'm definitely guilty of fogeyism. especially these days.
and yes, personal lists are always where you find the interesting stuff.
i like nj's list for its uniqueness, although i probably wouldn't actually like any of the music on it - it's all weird/noisy/dark/arty/experimental stuff, right nj?

I knew Rolling Stone were the archaeologists of rock, but come on, freaking Lucky Old Sun? It's just plain bad.

I also don't get why Randy Newman's album gets such great reviews. You'd think at his age after singing about politics all his life he would have acquired at least some non-superficial understanding of it.

You don't want to see the same albums over and over, but you don't want to be different for the sake of different either. You want to listen to everything and honestly evaluate them all, not leave stuff off just because other lists have it on.

If I only see an album on one list, and can't find anybody else who's said a single good thing about it, it's not going to stand out to me. A single inclusion on a single list is no help to me. What helps me is seeing what comes up multiple times.

With the fogeyism obviously intact, and the stellar review it received, I'm shocked not to see R.E.M. not only on the list, but not in the top 10.