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Top 10 of the Top 10s

Almost the last batch of votes are in, from Tiny Mix Tapes, Under The Radar, Pretty Much Amazing, Bowlegs, The Guardian and God Is In The TV, so it's time to run through the AnyDecentMusic definitive summary of the Best Albums Of 2011 lists.

We've compiled the rankings from 30 magazines, newspapers and websites from our sources to provide a comprehensive reflection of the critical favourites of the year. It's the ultimate "Best of the Best Albums of 2011" chart.

So here's the rundown of the top 50 albums of the year as seen by music reviewers in the UK, US, Canada, Australia and Ireland. And below we give our appraisal of what it all means.

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1. 1.  432 PJ Harvey Let England Shake
2. 2.  335 Bon Iver Bon Iver 
3. 3.  247 St Vincent Strange Mercy 
   
4. 4.  214 Tune-Yards WhoKill 
5. 5.  179 The Horrors Skying 
6. 6.  178 Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues 
7. 7.  171 Wild Beasts Smother 
8. 8.  152 Metronomy The English Riviera 
   
9. 9.  145 James Blake James Blake
10. 10.142 The Antlers Burst Apart
    
    
11. 11. 117 Girls Father, Son, Holy Ghost
    
12. 12. 117 Radiohead The King Of Limbs
    
13. 13. 114 M83 Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
14. 14. 113 The Weeknd House Of Balloons 
    
15. 15. 103 Shabazz Palaces Black Up 
16. 16. 98 Kurt Vile Smoke Ring For My Halo
17. 17. 97 Fucked Up David Comes To Life
18. 18. 94 Adele 21 
19. 19. 90 Destroyer Kaputt
    
20. 20. 89 Tom Waits Bad As Me
    
    
21. 80 Katy B On A Mission
22. 76 Real Estate Days
23. 72 Jay-Z & Kanye West Watch The Throne
24. 72 EMA Past Life Martyred Saints
25. 60 SBTRKT SBTRKT
26. 59 Yuck Yuck
27. 55 Tim Hecker Ravendeath 1972
28. 53 Drake Take Care
29. 52 White Denim D
30. 51 Battles Gloss Drop
    
    
31. 49 Anna Calvi Anna Calvi
32. 49 Lykke Li Wonded Rhymes
33. 49 King Creosote & John Hopkins Diamond Mine
34. 49 Wilco The Whole Love
35. 47 Arctic Monkeys Suck It And See
36. 47 Gang Gang Dance Eye Contact
37. 46 Wild Flag Wild Flag
38. 44 The Decemberists The King Is Dead
39. 43 Josh T Pearson Last Of The Country Gentlemen
40. 41 My Morning Jacket Circuital
    
    
41. 40 Kate Bush 50 Words For Snow
42. 40 Lady Gaga Born This Way
43. 40 TV On The Radio, Nine Types of Light
44. 39 Beyonce 4
45. 39 Florence And The Machine Ceremonials
46. 39 The War On Drugs Slave Ambient
47. 38 Wu Lyf Go Tell Fire To The Mountain
48. 38 Wye Oak Civilian
49. 37 Oneohtrix Point Never Replica
50. 37 Low C’mon
    

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Declared: Uncut, Mojo, Q, The Fly, BBC, Clash, AV Club, Faster Louder, The Skinny, The Quietus, Rolling Stone, Paste, NME, music OMH, Pop Matters, Spin, Prefix, This Is Fake DIY, Pitchfork, No Ripcord, One Thirty BPM, Consequence Of Sound, Tiny Mix Tapes, Under The Radar, Pretty Much Amazing, The Guardian, Bowlegs, God Is In The TV

* How the chart is calculated: We award a corresponding number of points (20 for No.1, 19 for No.2 etc) to the top 20 albums from each source.

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So what conclusions can we draw about the way the critical mood has swung this year?  What seems clear is that alternative rules the roost. A good seven from the top ten would fall into that loose category, be it alt.rock. alt.folk or alt.pop, with only The Horrors and Fleet Foxes as representatives of what could be termed mainstream / indie music.

This compares markedly with last year, when Arcade Fire, The National, Kanye West et al held sway.
At the top of the chart, we would have been happy to place large amounts of ADM cash sometime back in June on the leading places being claimed by perennial critics' darling PJ Harvey alongside Bon Iver, a more latterday critical favourite.

Despite the strong showing for The Horrors, it has been an otherwise meagre year for bands who make a lot of noise with guitars. And reviewers seem even less drawn to electronica in any form, with M83 the sole representative of the laptop / keyboard manipulating classes figuring in the top 20.

After a strong showing last year with Kanye West, Big Boi and Janelle Monae all figuring in the top 10, hip-hop and R&B are also seriously under-represented - although The Weeknd would appear to have a golden future ahead of them given the acclaim heaped on House of Balloons which, as a giveaway mixtape, it could be argued is not actually an "album" at all.

In the dance world, all the talk has once again been about dubstep and its myriad underground bass music offshoots, while the most overground of dubstep's practitioners,  James Blake and Katy B, are the ones who have taken the plaudits.

The two most surprising omissions from the higher echelons of the chart come from the blues / roots end of the music spectrum: Ry Cooder's Pull Up Some Dust And Sit Down and Gillian Welch's The Harrow And the Harvest, both of which feature not far behind PJ Harvey in our all-time chart while barely mustering a handful of nominations.

So in the eyes of the scribbling classes, 2011 has been the year of the quirky, the off-beat, the unconventional, the experimental, as personified by the likes of St Vincent, Tune-Yards, Wild Beasts and their ilk.