Infamously cantankerous studio rat/national treasure Steve Albini doesn't like to be called a record producer. He prefers the term "recording engineer." That's a dry, clinical term for what Albini…   Read Story »

The Brit Awards are the UK's annual equivalent to the Grammys, and our British friends have a way of making their award-nominations lists look just slightly cooler than ours. And this year's list of…   Read Story »

It's been fun, but now it's time to wrap up the Gummy Awards with the big final list: your picks for the year's top 10 albums! And the final result is: You guys more or less agree with us! Every…   Read Story »

After Rolling Stone, NME is now the second major music magazine to reveal its year-end top-50 list today. And following Uncut and MOJO, it's also the second British rock rag to name PJ Harvey's Let…   Read Story »

Following Q and Uncut, MOJO is the third major British rock magazine to reveal its year-end list of its top 50 albums, and a pattern is emerging. British critics love the shit out of PJ Harvey's Let…   Read Story »

Hey, another year-end list! Today, we've already seen Paste and Q name their 50 favorite albums of 2011. Now the British rock mag Uncut also chips in, giving a list that's heavier on doom-and-gloom…   Read Story »

Great Britain's annual Mercury Music Prize is a lot of fun. In the annual ceremony, a panel of music-business figures decides the best British album of the year. They often pick grand-consensus…   Read Story »

This year's shortlist for the Barclaycard Mercury Prize Album of the Year was announced in London this morning. A group of industry experts will select the winner, who will be announced in a ceremony…   Read Story »

The Italian festival Ferrara Sotto Le Stelle is underway in the square within Ferrara's Castello Estence, and last night PJ Harvey performed with her band (John Parish, Mick Harvey, Jean-Marc Butty).…   Read Story »

We still have plenty of time and music left in 2011, but since we're at the halfway (or so) mark, we thought it made sense to pause and take stock of the best albums of the year so far. There was…   Read Story »