The website's poll of critics - yes, I voted - wound up with this solid top 10

1 LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
2 M.I.A. - Kala
3 Radiohead - In Rainbows 
4 Arcade Fire - Neon Bible 
5 Amy Winehouse - Back To Black
6 Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
7 The National - Boxer 
8 Kanye West - Graduation 
9 Panda Bear - Person Pitch 
10 Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? 

Amazon's editors are among the first group out of the block with their top picks of the year, annointing Feist's "The Reminder" album of the year.
Fascinating, though, that a website that makes its money from albums that actually sell, the top 20 portion of the list is full of discs that have had, at best, moderate sales success."The Reminder," for example, is a breakout hit with sales of 359,000 through Nov. 18 and only two of the top 20 have topped the million-sold mark. Amazon is suddenly looking like the one retailer willing to place the praiseworthy alongside the commercial, a differentiation that is disappearing in the cyberspace chase for the quick buck.   
A further breakdown of the online retailer's top 20:
MAJOR LABEL RELEASES: 10
INDIE RELEASES:10
DEBUTS:1
MAJOR LABEL DEBUTS:1
U.K. ACTS: 6.5*
U.S. ACTS: 9.5*
ROCK: 4
RAP: 2
COUNTRY:1
R&B:0
POP: 2
DEAD GUYS: 1
ALTERNATIVE SOMETHING-OR-OTHER: 11
TOP SELLER: Kanye West's "Graduation" (No. 3) with 1.7 million units sold.
NO. 100: Neil Young's "Chrome Dreams II"
SURPRISES: Daniel Johns, Beyonce, Britney Spears, Hilary Duff, Mark Knopfler

*Alison Krauss and Robert Plant's album causes the half point

Pop Matters has decided that Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" is the greatest country song of all time. Naturally, the pop music  website celebrates icons (Cash, Willie, Patsy and Waylon account for a lot of entries) rather than songs - how else could you count "Hurt" as a country song? Nothing from the last three decades makes it into the upper reaches of the list. Charlie Daniels' "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" makes a curious landing at No. 11 - perhaps that's some sort of hipster irony - but the real question is why they honor  Cash's version of "Orange Blossom Special." Flatt & Scruggs, kids. Go with the real deal.