The Onion's AV Club launched its best albums of the year list today, and it's topped by the Arcade Fire's Neon Bible, with the National, Radiohead, LCD Soundsystem, and Band Of Horses bringing up the top five's rear. The usual-suspect-studded full list is after the jump, but for now, some initial reactions...
THE GOOD: Tegan and Sara's sharp, spunky The Con (No. 8) is a nice addition to the top 10, which, if I didn't mention before, is full of the usual suspects. (Let the fighting over Wilco resume!) Also, I think this might be the first Feist-free list I've seen yet.
THE BAD: Band Of Horses over Kala? Really?
THE WHAAAA? So along with each ranking album's spot on the chart, readers were made privy to the number of points each record received, as well as how each critic broke down his ballot. Critics were allowed to give each album they voted for a maximum of 15 points, and the albums in the Nos. 24 and 25 slots—the Murphy/Mahoney FabricLive36 and Iron & Wine's The Shepherd's Dog—each received 20 points from two voters. Which illustrates an eternal critics'-poll conundrum, and it's only accentuated by the fact that 2007 is shaping up to be a pretty lackluster year as far as critical consensus goes: Nos. 21-25 on the list (which also included Grinderman, Bat For Lashes' Fur And Gold, and Fall Out Boy's Infinity On High) certainly represent more interesting choices than the swath of rock-critic-beloved meh ahead of them, but if they were voted for by two or three critics out of a 19-critic panel (which each of them were), are they really among the "best," or were they just the most beloved by a select few (with good taste)? I guess this is where Matos' Enthusiasm 40 comes in.
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Idolator
The social conscience and strident voice of Bono has influenced many a singer over the last few decades. The U2 frontman successfully melded the earnest social conscience of Bruce Springsteen with the self-glorifying pomp of European arena acts, realizing that both the Common Man and King Dick were below Jesus on the food chain. Sure there was precedent, but Sting is handicapped by his ego (and jazz bass), while Ian McCullough wanted to be a romantic poet/sex object more than the messiah. Here are ten singers who, at their best (or worst), have aspired to the Almighty's throne.
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As several Idolator 
