In my spreadsheets, I keep track of all recommended songs in all critics list. I have also kept track of every album appearance in all all-time and decade lists, but I haven't included the EOY albums lists.

This means that every time I include a new album at AM (based on its appearances in all-time lists, AMG rating, etc.) I need to find out if the album has also been included in any EOY lists. I have stored web pages of most of the EOY lists on my computer so usually I do a computer scan to find those EOY appearances. However, this is both inefficient and unreliable, so I am planning a new way of doing this.

I will create a new forum called "EOY archive" where I will post all the EOY lists, with one thread for each year. By doing this, I could search the treads instead of scanning my computer. I also think that this archive could be a welcome feature for AM visitors.

More help wanted:
After I have posted the EOY lists, you are most welcome to create EOY spreadsheets per year, similar to the EOY spreadsheets I have made for 2007 and 2008. Then I would of course add them to the "lists by year" page and it would make AM an even better place!

A small note: The oldest EOY list I have is from 1970. From 1970-73 I only have 1 or 2 EOY lists per year. Then there are suddenly 5 EOY lists from 1974 so that might be the place to start with the spreadsheet summaries (if anyone feels called upon).

Sounds great. I might be able to help when I finish the current block of albums I,m working on for you. I think I might need a break from All Music, Rate Your Music and Mrs Scaruffi and Christgau's sites for a bit. Speaking of which, better get back to it

Henrik, about the EOY Excel lists: Despite the limited time available for me, this just sounds very much like the right task for me

I know my way around these lists and formulas already, so that's no issue. And I would use RYM to a) check the artist's country, b) check the release year and c) double check the correct artist and album names.

I do have one question: What rule or principle do you use for ranking albums that do not make it to an EOY list? Example for 1974: "Sailor - Sailor" was #1 in OOR's list, but is not mentioned on Village Voice's list. What rank does this album get for the latter list?

Now about the timing: In about a week I go on vacations, so it would be realistic to send both 74 and 75 lists beforehand for you to review. Would that be okay with you?

That sounds great, Andre! You sound very ambitious, I would say that country is optional and if you want to check release dates that's awesome, but I was just thinking that each year's critics lists could be summarized in spreadsheets, without bothering about the actual release dates for the albums.

I have created a template, with some of the 1974 EOY data added and short instructions in column DQ. If anyone has any questions about this template, please ask them here in this thread.

EOY template

Henrik, thanks for the template, that works fine. I could already finish 1974, including most of the artist countries and release years checked. The perfectionist in me still wants to finish that completely, so the final result is coming to your e-mail inbox by tomorrow. This weekend I'm at my mother's place and she needs all my devotion for today.