This is always a snapshot, but due Dec. 24, I decided to go ahead and send in what I had a wee bit early. Only change due to recent listening was that Wainwright cracked the list -- he may eventually rise a bit higher. Brooke is a 2008 release, but got no mentions in my 2008 meta list (unlike 1508 other new releases), so I don't feel bad about having missed it back then. I usually don't put reissues on this ballot, but made an exception for Franco. For some reason I was feeling that the list would be weak on top, although at ten deep that's hardly ever a problem. What is a problem is spending enough time with with records to let them really sink in. I took Lily Allen with me on every trip I made this year, and got to love every song. Can't really say that for the rest of the list -- except for Leonard Cohen, where I already knew every song.

1. Lily Allen: It's Not Me, It's You (Capitol) 18
2. Franco: Francophonic, Vol. 2 (Sterns Africa, 2CD) 12
3. Leonard Cohen: Live in London (Columbia, 2CD) 10
4. Willie Nelson/Asleep at the Wheel: Willie and the Wheel (Bismeaux) 10
5. Matthew Shipp: Harmonic Disorder (Thirsty Ear) 10
6. Oumou Sangare: Seya (World Circuit/Nonesuch) 8
7. Jonatha Brooke: The Works (BDR -0 8
8. K'naan: Troubadour (A&M/Octone) 8
9. The Fully Celebrated: Drunk on the Blood of the Holy Ones (AUM Fidelity) 8
10. Loudon Wainwright III: High Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project (161, 2CD) 8

Only two jazz records, down from the last few years. Only one rap record, also down. Three African is a up, but counts the rapper (who, by the way, topped last year's ballot). I count Brooke and Wainwright as folk, which hardly ever appears this high, although one country album is about the norm. I file Allen and Cohen under rock, which won't much impress the rockists. I like guitar bands fine, but I'm rarely impressed enough with one to budget a ballot slot for one. (Franco may have initially bumped Yeah Yeah Yeahs out of the bubble spot, but in the end I had several options.)

My A-list is very much in flux right now. It currently numbers 101 records (excluding Franco), of which 55 are jazz, 46 something else. Of those, 23 owe their grades to fleeting acquaintances on Rhapsody, and they tend to be bunched near the bottom of the list, including a disproportionate share ofthe rock, rap, and country. (Another dozen were first heard on Rhapsody then begged or bought.) Since 2006, A-lists have run 117, 108, and 101 records long (including 9, 8, and 16 late adds), so this year's is similar -- fewer full-A records at the top, a bit more A- than usual.

I didn't do a songs ballot. I don't keep track of songs, don't really think of music in that way, and it seems like a bad time to try to hack something together. Website is a little out of sync right now, with the year-end list research both volatile and prone to breakage. The research suggests that the only record on my ballot with much chance of finishing in the top 40 is Lily Allen, somewhere around 20. K'naan and Cohen are outside shots, probably closer to 60 than 40. Nelson, Wainwright, and Sangare could finish in the top 100, but I wouldn't bet much on it. Brooke is the one most likely to be on nobody else's ballot, followed by the Fully Celebrated (probably on 2-3 ballots). Glenn McDonald has a scheme for processing Pazz & Jop data to show "critic similarity" -- the inverse of this ranking scheme shows obscurantism. I usually wind up about 3/4 down the list, and that's what I expect here: well out of the critical mainstream, but not totally in my own little world. I think that's about right.