I realize I’m probably picking a bad time (entire Replacements discography and all) to trot out a laundry list of random-seeming records that you just Have to Download Now! but… let’s just call it Save For Later-bait? Ok, cool. I’ve posted here before about leaning on lists to augment my all-consuming music nerd habits, but [...]

eMusic’s User Poll for the Best Albums of 2009 is going on right now! Take a few minutes to review your playlists, scan your hard drive, search the site and scratch your head, then VOTE HERE for your favorites. The ballots have been flooding in this year, and we’re just as curious as you are [...]

(Tinariwen; photo by Dennis Stempler) We’re more than halfway done with our Best of the Decade countdown now, and starting to hit the big names. Here’s where the rubber meets the road, where we move past minor personal faves and into the game-changers (which leads me to the following confession: I’m responsible for the R. [...]

So I have to be honest: assembling our Best of the Decade list was incredibly intimidating. Best of each year? No problem. The scope is smaller, we all have a fair idea of which records should be included, and the squabbles about placement are more fun, more relaxed. But Best of the Decade? Man oh [...]

It’s been up over the weekend, so I’m sure quite a few of you have already seen what came out of our member (hi Tim) poll of favorite, underrated and overrated artists and albums. The real treat? Bon Iver is apparently all three, and indeed there was a lot of crossover between all three results. [...]

The conclusion below the cut!

For perhaps the first time in a long time, I didn’t really obsess over compiling my year-end Top 20 this year. There are a number of reasons for this — I felt like most of my choices were pretty well-represented by the eMusic list, and I felt like every other year-end albums poll was declining [...]

The Users’ Poll countdown continues! First, I just wanted to say that rifling through the comments so many users included with their polls was awesome and enlightening. Picking comments like this one (about Spiritualized): “I saw them live at ACL and rocked out literally so hard I threw up my hands during their last song [...]

As a flurry of music best-of lists are slowly unveiled on eMusic throughout December, I figured I’d throw my book picks at you today in one swoop. You can find the complete list of 21 titles here. It seems that my philosophy about what makes for a good audiobook has changed over the course of [...]

Today we begin unveiling the user poll results, and here’s our first batch of records: 100 Grouper, Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill 99 Port O’Brien, All We Could Do Was Sing 98 Jason Collett, Here’s to Being Here 97 The Whigs, Mission Control 96 Passion Pit, Chunk of Change EP 95 Stereolab, Chemical [...]

Earlier folks asked the process by which we decided this year’s list. Above you see the evidence of our very first session. As you can see, some things changed, but that was it!

05 Various Artists, Miles From India: We almost forgot about this record. Earlier this year, Miles From India hit the site, and everyone got really excited. What a fun concept, and it’s done well! But then it got taken down just as quickly, and it vanished from our memory. Well, it came back, of course, [...]

Before we get to tomorrow’s Top Five unveiling, I wanted to share a quick run of stats in terms of what kind of records make up this list. Here’s the breakdown: 36 Indie (Indie here meaning basically stuff Pitchfork would review) 10 Electronic 9 Classical 7 Jazz 7 Rock 5 Hip-Hop 5 World Music 4 [...]

10 Thao, We Brave Bee Stings and All 09 Frightened Rabbit, The Midnight Organ Fight 08 The Walkmen, You and Me 07 Terakaft, Akh issudar 06 Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago The only real surprise here is the Terakaft record, which I have been madly in love with for most of the past three [...]

This morning we crack the Top 20. 20 High Places, 03/07 – 09/07 19 Hauschka, Ferndorf 18 Portico Quartet, Knee-Deep in the North Sea 17 Jay Reatard, Matador Singles ’08 16 John Eliot Gardiner, Brahms Symphony No. 1 15 Siah & Yeshua dapoED, The Visualz Anthology 14 Santogold, Santogold 13 Deerhunter, Microcastle 12 Shearwater, Rook [...]

Here’s what went up today and over the weekend: 48 Seun Kuti & Fela’s Egypt 80, S/T 47 Top Choice Clique, Reel Chemistry 46 Army Navy, Army Navy 45 Chris Knight, Heart of Stone 44 Paul Lewis, Beethoven Piano Sonatas Vol. 4 43 Elzhi, The Preface 42 Fuck Buttons, Street Horrrsing 41 Avishai Cohen Trio, [...]

New Additions: 58 Johnson & Jonson, Johnson & Johnson 57 Okkervil River, The Stand Ins 56 The Kills, Midnight Boom 55 Kurt Vile, Constant Hitmaker 54 2562, Aerial 53 Breathe Owl Breathe, Ghost Glacier EP 52 The Fireman, Electric Arguments 51 Titus Andronicus, The Airing of Grievances 50 Blacklisted, Heavier Than Heaven, Lonelier Than God [...]

Here are today’s additions! 68 Black Mountain, In the Future 67 Cut Off Your Hands, Happy As Can Be 66 Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson at Emmanuel 65 John Ellis, Dance Like There’s No Tomorrow 64 Boduf Songs, How Shadows Chase the Balance 63 Huun-Huur-Tu, Mother Earth! Father Sky! 62 Headlights, Some Racing, Some [...]

Where we are to date: 88 DJ/rupture, Uproot 87 Benoit Pioulard, Temper 86 Bobby Watson, From the Heart 85 Mr. Scruff, Ninja Tuna 84 Friendly Fires, Friendly Fires 83 The Avett Brothers, The Second Gleam 82 Zomby, Where Were U in ’92? 81 Olof Arnalds, Vio og vio 80 Jenny Scheinman, Jenny Scheinman 79 The [...]

Today we began unveiling our choices for the best albums of 2008. As I’ve repeated numerous times, it’s a weird list. And not really on purpose, either. As I explained to flamgirlant in one of the comment strings, we — we meaning myself, Alex, Anna, Jayson, Joe and Maris — each came up with our [...]