do you guys find that if you finally hear something right around now (early december) that it could unfairly rank too high on your year-end lists just because it's fresh and new?

how do you guys keep your "late year listening" ranked fairly?

I'd say if you want to be truly fair; you need to narrow down your choices and then actually LISTEN to them; thats the idea right?

-BTW, can i put International Noise Conspiracy - "Armed Love" on my year end lists even though its not out yet? Ive had it so long it seems like it should get some props. And I really like it.

i dealt with this last year when i thought i was overrating most autumn releases only because they were most recent. so i listened to everything i owned from 2003 again in about ten days, just one album after another in random order. i'm still not sure it was totally unbiased, but a few releases from the spring jumped out to me, whereas they hadn't originally.

What's fair? It's a snapshot of how you feel when the list is made, just like any other award/plaudit. Hopefully you've got perspective, but chances are your opinions will still shift as the years march on.

Case in point: Rapture getting best album honors on Pitchfork last year. Tell me at least a few people in Chicago weren't wringing their hands over giving that honor to such a craptacular pile of shite. Seriously, I can think of 10 local bands who came out with superior releases, but waves of hype landed the New Yawkers on list after list.

What was the question, again?