Thumbing their nose at British legends, Canadian upstarts, and America in general, the NME has named the clattering debut from dance-rockers the Klaxons as the best album of the year and the band's "Golden Skans" as the year's best single. (But don't worry, because Radiohead and the Arcade Fire both find their way into the Top 5.) The tabloid's picks for its 50 favorite albums and 50 favorite songs are after the jump, but first our thoughts on a publication that really liked the nu-rave.
THE GOOD: Les Savy Fav's Lets Stay Friends, an unexpected comeback from a favorite band that I initially filed away as "pleasantly non-embarassing" but that sounds better with every spin, makes a surprising (but not undeserved) appearance at No. 5.
THE BAD: Even accounting for my age and citizenship, the singles list is something of a foreign language. Totally willing to give it a fair shake, of course, but given the NME's blog-shaming track record for mercurial hype and band names like the "Ting Tings," I feel more comfortable than usual with my cranky suspicions.
THE WHAAAA? "Umbrella" is once again a rock mag's only cop to radio pop (as defined in the U.S.) or R&B (unless you count Ms. Winehouse). Did everyone just raise the white flag during its reign of terror earlier in the year?
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The nearly completely useless NME Cool List hit the internet today and while most of the list is predictable (M.I.A. and Lil Wayne are cool? This is entirely new information!), one inclusion/exclusion seemed a bit odd. Most people have likely made up their minds about MGMT at this point—especially since their music has been difficult to avoid in late 2008—and their inclusion in an arbitrary list makes sense. But what made Andrew VanWyngarden the "cool" half?
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Nu-rave banner-hoisters Klaxons win the Mercury Prize, the award given to the best British or Irish album of the last 12 months. Yes, really. OK, OK, "Golden Skans" is a pretty good song. But really? Klaxons? Did Natasha Khan run over someone's bunny with 
Welcome to another edition of Track Marks, in which your Idolators perform an autopsy on the latest whisper-down-the-lane Internet-sensation of the moment. Today's entry:
