“Blender” Would Like To Remind You That It Really Enjoys Lil Wayne’s Music

noah | November 21, 2008 11:30 am

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the magazine in question’s penchant for featuring him in its pages, Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter III topped Blender‘s year-end list of albums, which has swelled from 25 contenders to 33 for reasons that probably don’t involve the vinyl revival (if they did, then where’s that extra 1/3?). Full list after the jump, but here are a few thumbnail reactions:

THE GOOD: It’s nice to know that someone remembered the early-’08 reissue of Robyn’s album (No. 6). THE BAD: More evidence that indie rock has become the “center” for the music-writing set comes from the 11-19 slots on the list, which (save Al Green) could have been cribbed in part from a the elbo.ws chart. (And yes, I include Katy Perry in that list. Haven’t you heard her MGMT cover?) Sure, Blender‘s initial mission of finding some sort of consensus in popular music, and covering every player within said group obsessively, is sorta quaint in the infinite-playlist era, but… I guess I just was hoping for something a little more curveballish than “no, really, My Morning Jacket is great,” is all. THE WHAAA? I would think that the atonal, grueling presence of “Moving Mountains” would disqualify Usher’s Here I Stand from any year-end lists that weren’t focused on disappointing sales figures from superstar artists. But I’m wrong: It’s No. 26 here, right ahead of the similarly soft-selling E=MC2.

1. Lil’ Wayne, Tha Carter III 2. Girl Talk, Feed The Animals 3. TV On The Radio, Dear Science 4. Metallica, Death Magnetic 5. Hot Chip, Made In The Dark 6. Robyn 7. Of Montreal, Skeletal Lamping 8. Randy Newman, Harps & Angels 9. Vampire Weekend 10. Fall Out Boy, Folie A Deux 11. Death Cab For Cutie, Narrow Stairs 12. My Morning Jacket, Evil Urges 13. Al Green, Lay It Down 14. Jenny Lewis, Acid Tongue 15. Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago 16. Be Your Own Pet, Get Awkward 17. Conor Oberst 18. Ponytail, Ice Cream Spiritual 19. Katy Perry, One Of The Boys 20. Wale, Mixtape About Nothing 21. Erykah Badu, New Amerykah Part I: Fourth World War 22. Coldplay, Viva La Vida 23. The Cool Kids, Bake Sale 24. The Roots, Rising Down 25. Santogold 26. Usher, Here I Stand 27. Mariah Carey, E=MC2 28. Stephen Malkmus, Real Emotional Trash 29. Raphael Saadiq, The Way I See It 30. Young Jeezy, The Recession 31. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! 32. Taylor Swift, Fearless 33. Hayes Carll, Trouble In Mind