End of year lists

The end of the year bring a lot of lists...best dressed, worst dressed, year in photos, etc. However, my favorites are the best new bands, best albums or best tracks of the year.

The lists are a little difficult to handle, though. Every individual or magazine has their own agenda when creating their lists. Some deliberately don't pick mainstream albums or bands because they need to maintain their indie street cred. Some are only paying attention to mainstream so they miss out on great indie bands. The Last.fm list may be the most unbiased because it's based on what members actually listened to. Therefore, it could only be biased if the profile of members is skewed in one direction or another....plus I can vouch for a lot of the bands on that list. The Q Magazine list is also pretty good and down the middle of the road (in a good way).

Generally I think I should avoid these lists because they consume a lot of my time - surfing the internet to read about and listen to the bands I didn't already know about. Then I have to weed out the bands that other people think are cool but I'm still not into. But I just can't keep from reading them. I love finding new music. I always feel good if I have the albums or have heard of a lot of the artists, but inevitably I find something new that I love and some that I wonder how they could have ever made the list.

I'll be coming up with my list of favorite's sometime soon. I know you are dying to know.