Metacritics Top Ten albums Of 2009: eh?

In my contiuing efforts to be completely baffled by the rock critics of the USA here is the Top Ten albums of 2009 as compiled by Metacritic. Metacritic links to album reviews of every new release, rates the review (ie if a reviewer gives an album 4 stars out of five stars, Metacritic gives it an 80). Metacritic put it this way: “All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review”

1: Raekwon Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt. II 91
 
2: Leonard Cohen
Live In London 90
 
3: Animal Collective
Merriweather Post Pavilion 89
 
4: Sunn O)))
Monoliths & Dimensions 86
 
5: Amadou & Mariam
Welcome To Mali 86
 
6: Grizzly Bear
Veckatimest 86
 
7: Manic Street Preachers
Journal For Plague Lovers 85
 
8: The xx
xx 85
 
9: Mount Eerie
Wind’s Poem 85
 
10: The Antlers
Hospice 85

OK pop pickers, i’ve heard of six of the albums and enjoy, to varying degrees, four of them, and not only haven’t I heard the other four albums I haven’t even heard of the other four of them (though I may check em out later if I can get the virus out of my home pc). I took a look at which magazines the reviews come from. for The Antlers they include Lost At Sea; Delusions Of Adequacy; Popmatters and the largest one I can find Spin. I think that explains the esoteric nature of of the choice of album, and one would be hard pressed to complain about the thorough job Metacritic perform. I had the idea of doing the very same thing as Metacritic do in 2006 and one look at the website and I figured it wasn’t worth the effort of another one. Still, the ratings are completely skewered without mainstream newspapers or multi-cultural magazines like Time and Time Out. Hospice?

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