So, Pitchfork has handily given you the top 20 worst album covers of the year, and in the spirit of the season (and listicles!), we’ve been similarly inspired to come up with our picks for the ten worst band names — for ten great bands. Don’t hold their monikers against them! After the jump, with help from fellow in-house music dorks, we count ‘em down. Read More »

Year-end list time is here, and Mike at Idolator did us a favor by throwing together the album picks from New York, The Guardian and Time. Wait, Time? Since when did their music picks become relevant? Since their Top 10 started looking more like someone hit the random shuffle on our iPod and less like someone hit the random shuffle on our mom’s iPod:

(1) Lil Wayne and (6) Kanye West, both obvious but completely relevant, choices. (2) TV On The Radio, (4) Girl Talk, (5) Vampire Weekend and (7) Santogold — someone has been reading their Stereogum. (3) Metallica, (8) Portishead and (9) Lucinda Williams are oldies but goodies, and while VH-1 friendly talent like (10) Duffy is just the kind of artist who we’d expect to see Time salute, we’ve always liked her.

Obviously list author Josh Tyrangiel is much cooler than we would have thought — but is he working off from some weird formula? Call us really crazy conspiracy theorists — because in this case we are — but in many ways this could be a replay of last year’s list. Sure the names are different, but they are similar ideas at work.

Take a look at the eerie parallels we’ve unearthed after the jump and see if you agree.

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