Year-End Analysis, Part 452: “Entertainment Weekly” Is Surprisingly Non-Surprising

More “Best of 2006” lists popped up over the weekend, including this round-up from Entertainment Weekly, the magazine that makes you squint to see its tiny little JPEG cover (and that doesn’t put its music selections online):

THE GOOD: Two lists–one by music staffers, and one by Chris Willman–with few unworthy choices: The main Top 5 features Gnarls Barkley, TV On The Radio, My Chemical Romance, Justin Timberlake and Clipse. And the singles list is pretty spot-on, with T.I. and Hot Chip in the Top 10. THE BAD: Since the main EW list features a consensus of nine writers and editors instead of one lead critic, there’s not one unexpected entry. So while most of the magazine’s other 2006 round-ups have at least one or two left-field choices, this feels like it was hand-picked by RoboCritic5000. THE WHAAAAA?: Why waste the “worst” list on easy targets like Clay Aiken and Kevin Federline? Is EW unwilling to acknowledge the turdiness of 2006 cover subjects like Gwen Stefani and Jay-Z, or were they really surprised that Playing With Fire was so bad?