This thread is for you guys posting your top 20s this early.

there are a lot of albums I still want to hear but HIGHLY unlikely I will get to them in the next 2 weeks.

there is nothing coming out this month that i'm really interested in hearing. all of the releases in my list have all been in almost constant rotation since i've purchased/dl'd them.

not sure what u mean Rads.

strike a lot and insert a small handful and this applies to me.

You've got 3+ weeks.

Yeah because I haven't listened to that Ke$ha album yet.

I bet you have.

It's morally bankrupt to pick top twenty albums this early.

yeahhhh man, it's like waaaaay cooler to like not do your list until after the new year maaaaan. i need an extra few weeks to soak it all in broooooo.

With two weeks left in the year, if I get infatuated with an album how will I objectively put it against an album I've loved all year long? For instance, Stu passed along the William Tyler record. Its fantastic, but I've only been able to listen to it these past couple of weeks. I've been listening to those other records for the better part of the year. Maybe if I go back and do a revisionist history account of 2010 I'll add it in. Until then, I'll just have to see if it goes the distance or falls away next week.

if this year has taught me anything with the plethora of lists i've made, it's how they don't mean shit. even since i've reviewed 2010 records and ended that last week, i feel like my top 20 is totally off and stupid.

don't expect the huge thing from me this year

I do thanks to some of you all like D, Rads, and Shiv and others that have brought out albums I missed broooooo. I hope to be done close to year end. I've been listening to a best of 2010 since June. I'm sick of the first 6 months already.

What albums did I introduce you to? I'm genuinely curious.

Taking your argument forward, those albums you got in November (October? September?) haven't been heard enough to judge... so a list compiled in early December is really a September to September list. There is a good argument for making a list (per your logic) in February for the past year. However, how music sounds changes over time anyway... Al Stewart's Year of the Cat was one of my favorite records for 1976, but I bet if I went back now I could find 150 records from 1976 that sound better to me now. So the arbitrary date for picking the best of the year? The end of the year.

agreed. that's it i'm posting in the last week of december.

I'm unable to focus until I go on holiday break on Dec 18. I usually use the long road-trip down to my hometown to listen to my Top 20 contenders and reevaluate where they stand. I do think it's a bit early for me to commit but I may, for better or worse, take the list a little more seriously(?) than those who are posting their lists last and this week.

nah, i got ya. was taking the piss.

only reason i did it early is because i had the time, and felt that, like last year, i probably wouldn't be in the mood later if i waited.

My list is ongoing until about March of next year in order to give enough listens to all the stuff I get late in the year, but I'll post whatever I have on Dec. 31st.

i find it hard to believe that anyone could like any album more than Year of the Cat.

If I remember correctly, last year there were many revisions done until February to lists, so I'm not sure why this is getting so much attention this year.

I usually like to do my list right before the new year, not because it's cool to wait, but because I procrastinate with everything. I haven't really been listening to much new stuff this year either, not sure why, but my interest in new music is decreasing. My list will probably consist of lots of bands/artists I know already....Spoon, The Walkmen, Big Boi, The Roots, LCD, Kanye....hopefully I can find some new stuff I've liked.

here's the thing about year-end lists:

if you wait until january, nobody cares anymore, because the focus has already shifted to the new year

that's why year-end lists are done in december

no shit

al stewart r00lz