Idolator

Pitchfork makes it easy when it comes to guessing its Top 50 albums of the year in advance, thanks to the "Best New Music" and "Recommended" stickers it slaps on the records it likes best. So if you've been paying attention to the bottom-left corner of the site for the last 12 months, P-fork's 2007 list, headed up by Animal Collective member Panda Bear's Person Pitch, should feel like a bunch of old friends getting one last shout-out before the end of the year. That, or it's another chance to curse the site for over-praising a bunch of records that don't really deserve the dap.

THE GOOD: U.K. post-punks Life Without Buildings' career-capping live album and Stars Of The Lid's six-years-in-the-making follow-up to a sleepy ambient classic sneak into the upper reaches. Plus all the other records everyone else with even a toe dipped into indie rock liked this year.
THE BAD: Way too much tooth/brain-rotting twee Nordic indie pop/dance. What's that you say? That's only like three or four albums out of 50? It's still too much.
THE WHAAAA? "With Burial's 2006 debut, it helped to have some investment in dubstep; Untrue is for everyone." Really? Everyone?

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"?