Idolator

Paste's 2008 best-of isn't unlike the magazine itself: largely predictable, but with a few surprises seemingly thrown in to confuse or distract. The list hews rather closely to their adult alternative aesthetic, but as likely obligated by law, they threw in Lil Wayne (No. 29). He's not quite as good as MGMT, in case you were wondering.

THE GOOD: It cheered my heart to see that Ida Maria's Fortress Round My Heart placed highly (No. 13); the odd, but charming acknowledgment of Torche (No. 34) elicited a similar reaction. For the Christian rock enthusiast portion of my heart, seeing Sandra McCracken buried near the bottom of the list was nice, although almost a wink and a nod to those who wonder if Paste is a undercover Christian rock mag. They may recommend Lil Wayne, but don't worry, true believers. They still have room for Jesus rock.
THE BAD: Im sure any Idolator reader could pick out a record they don't particularly care for and go all critically nutzoid, but Girl Talk at No. 7 seems like an odd slap in the face to the parade of "real musicians" who fall afterwards. I like Girl Talk; I downloaded the disc, and it stayed in my car stereo for a few months. But the question ends up being whether these best of lists are really running down the "best" of the year, and that the idea of lasting value and meaning is taken into consideration, or whether a disc's inclusion just means that it was awesome to hear at parties.
THE WHAAA? Although I was surprised not to see Al Green on the list, and to note that Santogold's Diplo mixtape outranked her actual album, nothing could top my shock to see She & Him at No. 1. The magazine defends the selection: "Maybe it’s just a sweet little folk record—a tiny, flawless diamond. Or maybe it’s a pristine distillation of harmony and craft; 50 years of songwriting experience served up on a spinning silver platter. Either way, it’s our album of the year." To my ears, neither assertion is true. Volume One is a cute novelty record that has more preciousness than innovation, skill, or any other sort of metric people tend to judge great albums by. Last year's number one was the National's Boxer... this year's pick is a long slide down in quality.

In the annals of popular music, certain albums stand out for their sheer percentage of hit-bound material. Michael Jackson’s Thriller is the most famous, not just because it spun off seven Top 10 singles—the first album to do so—but because the whole disc had only nine tracks. That’s a stunning 78% hit ratio. Shania Twain’s Come on Over, roughly 70% of which charted on the country and pop charts over the course of two years, is nearly as legendary. More recently, Rihanna has mined just over half of Good Girl Gone Bad for a string of hits.

Normally, feats like these are the result of months of patient promotion, as singles are promoted one by one—lined up for release to radio like planes on a slow-moving runway.

When you’re an 18-year-old country-pop phenomenon, however, things move a lot faster.

For the first time in months, the most oft-recurring name on Billboard's Hot 100 isn’t ubiquitous rapper Lil Wayne. It’s Taylor Swift, who appears with seven songs this week, six of them brand-new to the chart.

We’ve seen this chart ubiquity happen several times this year—not just with Weezy but with American Idol winner David Cook and the Jonas Brothers. What’s unprecedented is just how much of an individual Swift album has now made the chart.

Eat your heart out, Michael: just one week after it debuted in stores, Swift’s Fearless is 85% hit.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the magazine in question's penchant for featuring him in its pages, Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III topped Blender's year-end list of albums, which has swelled from 25 contenders to 33 for reasons that probably don't involve the vinyl revival (if they did, then where's that extra 1/3?). Full list after the jump, but here are a few thumbnail reactions:

THE GOOD: It's nice to know that someone remembered the early-'08 reissue of Robyn's album (No. 6).
THE BAD: More evidence that indie rock has become the "center" for the music-writing set comes from the 11-19 slots on the list, which (save Al Green) could have been cribbed in part from a the elbo.ws chart. (And yes, I include Katy Perry in that list. Haven't you heard her MGMT cover?) Sure, Blender's initial mission of finding some sort of consensus in popular music, and covering every player within said group obsessively, is sorta quaint in the infinite-playlist era, but... I guess I just was hoping for something a little more curveballish than "no, really, My Morning Jacket is great," is all.
THE WHAAA? I would think that the atonal, grueling presence of "Moving Mountains" would disqualify Usher's Here I Stand from any year-end lists that weren't focused on disappointing sales figures from superstar artists. But I'm wrong: It's No. 26 here, right ahead of the similarly soft-selling E=MC².