Idolator

It's still a little strange to see top 10 lists now, but if it's not too early for the onslaught of Christmas music to invade every public space I seem to go to, I suppose it's OK to start trying to wrap 2008 in a cute bow. Which brings us to what's apparently British music mag list day, with the once-entertaining Q and the real-rock bible Mojo battling it out to see, once and for all, which publication has better taste in American music.

THE GOOD: Both lists feature titles I assumed would have been on more lists already (Coldplay, Hercules & Love Affair, Drive-By Truckers, Portishead), so it's nice to be validated a bit. Personally, I was happy to seerecent Pitchfork discovery The Gaslight Anthem on the Q list (No. 20), although the violent involuntary headshaking that ensued upon seeing Razorlight a spot below erased that brief moment of joy. Also, the Mojo list has a good number of British acts I've never heard of that I can proceed to champion for a few weeks to my unsuspecting friends on the basis of their American obscurity alone.
THE BAD: I suppose this is going to be a trend, but seeing the Fleet Foxes disc ranked near the top on both lists (Q, No. 2; Mojo, No. 1) makes me think that at some point in the near future I'm going to refer to 2008 as "The Year of the Bland." I don't mind the Fleet Foxes as much as some around here, but it's hard for me to swallow the idea that this is the shining example of what's great, exciting, and/or wonderful about music in 2008. When Rough Trade (the store) called the band "Seattle's answer to CSNY," they hit on an appropriate and damning description. (Even if the store's list had Fleet Foxes at No. 2 as well.) I'm not someone who expects every bit of music I listen to be challenging aesthetically, but at very least, I expect it to be sorta moving. (See also Bon Iver: Mojo, No. 4; Q, No. 34.)
THE WHAAAA?:I say this as someone who actually enjoyed both of their previous releases to differing degrees, but having Keane's Perfect Symmetry place as high as No. 12 seems like Q is trying to ham-fistedly apologize to British musicians for the deluge of American acts surrounding them. Speaking of Q and American musicians: John Mellencamp (No. 41)? Huh.

Brit rock mag Q gives countrymen Radiohead the gas face (by daring to stick them at No. 4!), choosing 2007's first universe-altering rock release, the Arcade Fire's Neon Bible, as the best album of the year. Their picks for more or less every middle-of-the-road rock album released in 2007the Top 50 albums and the Top 10 singles of the year are after the jump, but first a quick survey of the fallout from this bold snubbing of In Rainbows.

THE GOOD: Roisin Murphy's second solo album, the dizzying disco-pomp of Overpowered, sneaks in at No. 29, with Robyn, PJ Harvey, M.I.A., and a handful of others doing their best to keep this list from being entirely made up of boring-ass, dude-centric indie rock.
THE BAD: The rest of the list is nearly all boring-ass, dude-centric indie rock. And they don't even bother to include Wilco like every other similar list this year!
THE WHAAA?: Once again, Justice are a rock-friendly publication's token dance pick, i.e. why even bother pretending to keep an ear to the clubs? And speaking of blatant tokenism: Hey, there's Common, way down at No. 36! That fills the annual quota for one acceptably "conscious" album made by a black person. We guess C was Q's clever way of avoiding the default Kanye inclusion.