I was researching the scores for our final four today and discovered this. It is fairly intriguing. The top five for each year

2000
1 Stankonia by OutKast 95
2 XTRMNTR by Primal Scream 90
3 Bachelor No. 2 by Aimee Mann 89
4 Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea by PJ Harvey 88
5 Mass Romantic by The New Pornographers 87

2001
1 Love And Theft by Bob Dylan 93
2 Canto by Los Super Seven 91
3 Is This It? by The Strokes 90
4 Since I Left You by The Avalanches 89
5 Miss E... So Addictive by Missy Elliott 89

2002
1 Original Pirate Material by The Streets 90
2 Alice by Tom Waits 90
3 Songs For The Deaf by Queens Of The Stone Age 89
4 Kill The Moonlight by Spoon 88
5 Yankee Hotel Foxtrot by Wilco 87

2003
1 How The West Was Won by Led Zeppelin 97
2 Elephant by The White Stripes 92
3 Speakerboxxx/The Love Below by OutKast 91
4 Rounds by Four Tet 89
5 Neon Golden by The Notwist 89

2004
1 SMiLE by Brian Wilson 97
2 Van Lear Rose by Loretta Lynn 97
3 Madvillainy by Madvillain 93
4 The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads [2004 Version] by Talking Heads 93
5 Boy In Da Corner by Dizzee Rascal 92

2005
1 Illinois by Sufjan Stevens 90
2 Z by My Morning Jacket 90
3 Wearemonster by Isolée 89
4 Hypermagic Mountain by Lightning Bolt 88
5 The Woods by Sleater-Kinney 88

2006
1 Savane by Ali Farka Toure 94
2 Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards by Tom Waits 92
3 Modern Times by Bob Dylan 89
4 Hell Hath No Fury by Clipse 89
5 Return To Cookie Mountain by TV On The Radio 88

2007
1 From Here We Go Sublime by The Field 90
2 Untrue by Burial 90
3 In Rainbows by Radiohead 88
4 Person Pitch by Panda Bear 87
5 Raising Sand by Robert Plant And Alison Krauss 87

2008
1 London Zoo by The Bug 90
2 Fed by Plush 89
3 Dear Science, by TV On The Radio 88
4 Exit by Shugo Tokumaru 2008 88
5 For Emma, Forever Ago by Bon Iver 88

Funeral finished 7th in 2004
Kid A finished 28th in 2000
It Still Moves did not finish in the Top 30 for 2003

What a great way to illustrate the dull-witted, sheep-like nature of most mainstream music critics.

I mean SMiLE is a neat concept, a great story, and has its moments but 97?

IMO, the critics didn't do to well in 2004 and 2006 after looking at the top 30 for the year.
2008 just seemed to be a shitty year looking at the top 30 list.

I have a few issues with every other year, but they don't seem to be criminal mistakes.

pretty ridiculous statement given the variety in these lists

Eh, I was just picking on a few of the choices, and a couple of general trends that crop up (like older artists getting the highest scores).

But I don't think it's a ridiculous statement at all, even still.

Barring a few exceptions, my, how utterly horrible this list is. Ugh.

it's not that bad, but it's metacritic.

these are all awesome

Kyle, just go ahead and say it. It sucks. It sucks balls.

the bug?

Yeah, it isn't good sign when I can barely recall an album from the year before that was supposed to be the best album of the year.

Good on seeing Zep & Diz in the rankings.

pretty much. Parts of that one song are kinda cool though, for like 30 seconds at a time.

Dylan over Strokes?

I, for one, like Madvillainy that much.