Idolator

As part of Idolator's continuing effort to geekily analyze every music chart known to man, we present a new edition of Project X, in which Jackin' Pop editor Michaelangelo Matos breaks down rankings from every genre imaginable. After the click-through, he [hilariously] examines the results of the Idolator Pop Critics Poll Tracks Top 10 with some special help:

By now you've seen the critics' lists of the year's best music. But what about the folks who really count—the people? In interest of fairness and balance, I've decided to take the critics' choices to some regular folks. That's right: it's time once again for this column to exploit my family.

The only real consistency across these three lists of the year's Top 10 albums, as compiled by the Times' pop critics, is the appearance of Leslie Feist: She lands at No. 2 on Jon Pareles' list, places No. 6 on Ben Rattliff Ratliff's rundown, and takes the top spot for Kelefa Sanneh. (Look, Idolator just refuses to believe we're the crazy ones; that album is a nap-and-a-half.) Looking past the fact that the Times can't even get a dude's name right these days, we'll momentarily drop the grousing, brought on by year-end exhaustion, in interests of holiday cheer and note that these are interesting, diverse lists (look, jazz and music made by people outside of the Anglophone world!) with the bonus of nary a Neon Bible in sight.

THE GOOD: Queens Of The Stone Age finally make a year-end Top 10 that doesn't have the word "hotties" in it. And perhaps a well-placed Times endorsement will finally break that Tracey Thorn solo album out of sales purgatory.
THE BAD: Blah blah Feist blah blah shrug. No real beef here. It's the Christmas miracle.
THE WHAAAA? "In a year with shockingly few big albums..." Sales-wise, perhaps true. (Perception-wise among the mass public, perhaps also true, since pop perception is always tied to sales to some extent.) But allowing for us having to redefine the world "big" in a niched-to-death music industry, didn't most of the high-placers on 2007's year-end lists (Radiohead! Arcade Fire! M.I.A.! Bruce!) prove we had the usual crop of traditionally crit-friendly, statement-making, and/or zeitgeist-exploiting/exploring "Big Albums"?

Stereogum released the results of its reader-voted "2007 Gummy Awards" today, and once again the winners in "Ms. Indie Rock" prove that when it comes to wank-mining material, your average indie-rocking male is looking for (gasp!) a skinny white girl with a shaggy haircut. Emphasis on the "skinny." And did we mention the "white"? Aside from a few notable tokens exceptions, there are enough pointy elbows and too-sad-to-leave-the-house complexions here to fill up a year's worth of American Apparel advertisements. Way to reject mainstream standards of beauty, dudes! The guy hotties list also features many downy, bony gents, yet somehow offers a slightly wider range of body types than the chick list's parade of waifs. The full lists are after the jump, but first our thoughts on the least sexy year-end round-up of 2007.

THE GOOD: Not even going there.
THE BAD: Sure, you could pen a 10,000-word rant on how this list of female fantasy objects reflects indie rock's insular ideals even when it comes to sex, but we'll just say that sexism, stereotyping, and body image issues will no longer be a concern in indie culture when a lady who looks like Dan Deacon makes it into the Top 20.
THE WHAAAA? R&B queen Sharon Jones deserves to be on this list if anyone does, but aside from wrecking the curve in terms of both age and ethnicity, who in their right mind would class Ms. Jones as an "indie rock" hottie? (Also whoever voted for Natalie Portman needs their life changed with a boot in the ass.)