The toppermost of the poppermost

The top albums of the year and the decade of the 2000s have been the focus of the magazines I've read recently. I've been back to Jarir bookshop twice now to get the new Mojo - each time it was - 'next week sir'. So in the meantime I had to buy Q and Rolling Stone. Blimin eck. I felt a little shoddy doing it but without the new Mojo - what was I to do?

I really don't like Q. Too smarmy, too try hardy, too cliquey, too ironic, too needy. I bet their list reflects all of those things. I generally only buy it if the Beatles feature in it somewhere.

Rolling Stone - I used to buy it a lot in the pre Mojo days but only because there was no real magazine for me (until Mojo came along). It's too American, too smug, too broad, too glossy, and too obsessed with celebrity. I bet their list reflects all of those things too.

It's an interesting exercise comparing the various lists. My thesis before I go in is that Mojo will have more albums on it that I either own and love or will own and love soon!

Q - The cover folds out three times and features a bunch of talented people with some overhyped people and no one (I've checked carefully) is smiling - not even close! The mirthless cover points to a fairly unfunny list of the decades top 100 albums. To be fair in the comparison I've only checked the top 50 for my purchases. With that I've bought 12 of them. The top ten was as follows:
10 Johnny Cash - American IV: Man Comes Around
9 Radiohead - Kid A
8 Jay-Z - The Blueprint
7 Green Day - American Idiot
6 Arcade Fire - Funeral
5 Coldplay - Viva La Vida
4 The White Stripes - Elephant
3 Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
2 The Strokes - Is This It

As well as a top 10 of 2009 (see below), Rolling Stone also had a top 50 of the decade thing going and I did about the same - 11 of their classics are in the lock up in Stratford. Their top 10:
10Kanye West - The College Dropout
9 M.I.A. - Kala
8 Bob Dylan - Modern Times
7 Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP
6 Arcade Fire - Funeral
5 The White Stripes - Elephant
4 Jay-Z - The Blueprint
3 Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
2 The Strokes - Is This It
1 Radiohead - Kid A (like I said - too American - this is the only Brit).

This edition of Mojo listed the top 50 albums of 2009. Of them I actually bought a measly 5. The top 10 are (with the RS top 10 next to them):
10 Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz (RS Sonic Youth = The Eternal)
9 Madness - The Liberty of Norton Folgate (RS The XX - The XX)
8 F**** Buttons - Tarot Sport (RS The-Dream - Love vs Money)
7 Florence and the Machine - Lungs (RS Neko Case - Middle Cyclone)
6 Bob Dylan - Together Through Life (RS Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca)
5 Tinariwen -Imidiwan: Companions (RS Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown)
4 The Horrors - Primary Colours (RS Jay-Z - The Blueprint 3)
3 Richard Hawley - Truelove's Gutter (RS Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix)
2 Bill Calahan - Sometimes I Wish we Were an Eagle (RS Bruce Springsteen - Working of a Dream)
1 Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion (RS U2 - No Line on the Horizon)