Idolator

Well, that's it. Tag it and bag it. Unless I happen to notice a late-breaking entry from the Burlington Community Times tomorrow while getting my coffee, the publication of the Village Voice's Pazz And Jop poll marks the last of 2007's year-end lists, headed up by LCD Soundsystem (album) and Amy Winehouse (singles). Now let us never speak of either again.

THE GOOD: 2007 is over! Also Feist and Wilco were both kept out of the albums Top 10, plus an honestly surprising, kinda heartening Winehouse-over-Rihanna singles upset, if only by 4 mentions. (And even if No. 2 Rihanna spanked No. 3 "All My Friends" by a whopping 32 mentions.)
THE BAD: As with the Idolator Pop Critics Poll, Peter Bjorn and John earn a Top 10 placing on the singles list despite the evil "Young Folks" first whistling its way into our lives in 2006. Damned twee Swedes.
THE WHAAAA? Radiohead beats M.I.A. to the No. 2 albums spot despite an equal number of points, thanks to four more ballot mentions that break the tie. Not quite fraud at the polls, but clearly the electoral college is not the only voting system that needs reforming.

Like many other publications featured in our ongoing Year-End Analysis series, Brit music mag Fact placed LCD Soundsystem in its top single slot of the year, but they chose neither "North American Scum" or "All My Friends." And though left-field faves like Panda Bear and consensus picks like M.I.A. dot the magazine's albums list, the Arcade Fire, Radiohead, and (yes) LCD Soundsystem are nowhere to be found. Fact's actually turned in a pair of the most idiosyncratic year-end wrap-ups of 2007 so far, and they're speckled by blog faves including our (cough, cough) fave band of 2007, Black Kids. Fact's Top 100 tracks and Top 20 albums are after the jump, but first our thoughts on two lists that remember people still go out to dance clubs (or at least download MP3s of records that get played in dance clubs).

THE GOOD: Dance music! Lots of it! And not just Justice! Fact's Top 100 singles list is filled with dance 12s and EPs, from underground disco edits to Internet-hype picks to deep Germanic techno to dubstep, and their albums list is similarly foot-friendly. Totally refreshing, and making me think I should have paid closer attention to dance music this year.
THE BAD: Like a lot of (seemingly) dance/electronic-focused magzines, Fact's taste in guitar-based music sometimes feels a little shaky. Vampire Weekend released the best rock single of the year? If you say so, you crazy Englanders.
THE WHAAAA? On "Umbrella": "Just compare this take on a loved-up R&B ballad against, say, Beyonce's recent efforts, and you'll quickly see how special Rihanna is." Did the U.K. suddenly forget "Irreplaceable"? Has the planet gone mad? Am I still the only person alive who dislikes "Umbrella"?

LCD Soundsystem's Sound of Silver—which, based on my rough estimation of the number of times we've had to use the album cover illustration over the past few weeks, seems to be running away with this year's top-albums lists, at least in the UK—topped the Guardian critics' poll, with its now-familiar listmates Radiohead, the Hold Steady, M.I.A., and the Klaxons rounding out the top five. Full list after the jump.

THE GOOD: Because the Guardian's list reprinted lines—and star ratings—from each ranking album's original review, we can all see that either the music writers have changed their stance on the Klaxons or the Guardian's fired the person who gave Myths Of The Near Future one star, saying that "Indie chancers trying to pass this ropey stuff off as a dance revival is insulting and pointless." But maybe I appreciate this because Myths grew on me over the course of 2007, too.
THE BAD: Feist's The Reminder at No. 10. Britney Spears' Blackout at No. 17. Hey, if you're going to have the year's most talked-about dance-pop album on your list, why not get really ballsy and put it ahead of the snoozy dinner-party music?
THE WHAAA? "Like a hunk of blue cheese, Tennessee's Kings of Leon seem to be getting better with age." Really, Guardian? Really?

Omnivorous online music mag Stylus sadly shut down several months before we started our Year-End Analysis series, but they helpfully published their 2007 Top 50 albums and singles lists before bowing out. So welcome to the first retroactive installment, where LCD Soundsystem once again tops both lists. (And they got the right single this time.) Both lists are after the jump if you missed 'em, but first an adieu to the site by way of our summary thoughts.

THE GOOD: Hey, look, the first list that actually remembers that electronic/dance music still exists, and/or that Justice wasn't the only dance act to release an LP this year. Plus stuff that gets played on the radio that's not "Umbrella" or Kanye West! It's like popular music actually has some breadth or something.
THE BAD: We actually have little in the way of beef with these lists, though they do confirm that Miranda Lambert, a very goood singer who made a solid album, has found herself turned into the Muzik Mafia of '07 by the planet's rock critics.
THE WHAAA?: Vampire Weekend's single ahead of Rihanna, R. Kelly, Lil Mama, and the best song off the Kanye LP? Also we're starting to feel like the only people on Earth who got a rah-rah rash whenever Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend" came on MTV. Even Stephen King liked it!

British music mag Uncut may advertise a mind-numbing recycled feature in the form of John Lennon's "30 Greatest Songs" on the cover of of its year-end issue, but much like how the magazine's reviews section stays doggedly up-to-date even as the rest of the book flogs seemingly exhausted rock icons, its year-end list names LCD Soundsystem's Sound Of Silver the best album of the year and LCD's "North American Scum" the best song. (Even more surprising for a mag that trades so heavily on "worthy" rock music for grown-up boys, Rihanna's "Umbrella" sits just behind James Murphy at No. 2 on the songs list.) You know the full lists are after the jump, but an advance preview for now.

THE GOOD: PJ Harvey's astounding White Chalk makes a surprisingly high appearance at No. 3, not that we're complaining. Also Uncut's got to be the only relatively high-profile music mag in the world, other than The Wire, that would put Robert Wyatt's art-drunk album about sobering up, Comicopera, in its Top 10.
THE BAD: People really did love that Wilco album, didn't they? Things get a bit flabby in the AAA-friendly mid-section of the albums list with the exception of Les Savy Fav's very fine comeback. Also the Arctic Monkeys at No. 2 seems a bit of a stretch for an album where even fans grumbled and whispered about sophomore slumps.
THE WHAAA?: As Maura wondered, how do EPs count as "songs"? With the format enjoying something of a minor resurgence, is it time to bring back the EP category across the board when it comes to best-of lists?