Albums Winner:
Merriweather Post Pavilion
Animal Collective
Domino
1794 Points/154 Mentions

Essays

Jay-Z's 'Empire' Strikes Back at Last
His first #1 song is his first Pazz & Jop chart-topper as well. Go Yankees.
By Sean Fennessey

Where the Wild Things Want to Be
Animal Collective tangle messily with impending adulthood
By Mike Powell

Lady Gaga Approximately
You can't be a fabulous pop star like her, no matter what she tells you
By Rich Juzwiak

The Year of Too Much Consensus
Indie rock is the new Springsteen, but not in the way you think
By Chuck Eddy

Michael Jackson and the Endless Summer of Death
What the King of Pop left behind, and what he took with him
By Zach Baron

Down With Music-Racism
On covering 'Stillness Is the Move' and the perils of genre
By Maura Johnston

'1901' > 2009
On Phoenix and the euphoric charms of utter inscrutability
By Rob Harvilla

The-Dream Syndicate
Lovers of r&b already love him. Time to wake up everyone else.
By Mikael Wood

Bad Girls Gone Worse
Rihanna, Mariah, and Gaga seethe and snarl; Taylor Swift emasculates with a smile
By Clover Hope

Thanks, Internet!
Das Racist have a few thoughts on their online celebrity
By Das Racist