As time passes by I try to fit more and more new music into my ears. New in the sense that I've never come across it before as well as recently released albums. Here's some thoughts about some of the stuff I've spun lately.

James Morrison.
On Songs For You, Truths For Me James Morrison simply exudes quality. His soulful vocals underpin some marvellous piano-centric songs like 'You Make It Real' and 'Save Yourself'. He also produces an excellent slice of pop with the Nelly Furtado duet 'Broken Strings'. A classy album. He also impresses on Undiscovered where he again straddles soul and pop and bringing out the best from both those worlds. His voice particularly sparkles on the the hit 'You Give Me Something' and the track 'Undoscovered' and his songwriting skills shine through on tracks like 'The Letter' (which I've been humming all week) and the emotional 'The Last Goodbye'.
Unfortunately only a single vote has been cast for James Morrison in the chart so far.

Gwen Stefani.
Gwen Stafani, the chick that was in that rock band right? You know, they did that catchy rock tune 'Don't Speak'? Well in 2004 she ditched rock and produced a stunningly good bubblegum POP album full of catchy, cool, well produced pop numbers. 'What you waiting for' is a strong opening to Love Angel Music Baby and defines the rest of the album, sharp melodies, pumping pop beats, Gwens strange lyrical imagery and with 'The Real Thing' she produces quite a beautiful little pop ditty. The album currently sits just inside the top 1000.
The Sweet Escape continues where L.A.M.B. left off and I've read that most of it is from the same sessions which doesn't surprise me. That said however she works with some decent producers (e.g. Akon) and pulls out another load of catchy and fresh tunes. Not as strong as L.A.M.B, it does however contain the beautiful 'Early Winter' and the cool title track 'Sweet Escape'.

Hard-Fi.
'Stars of CCTV' by Hard-Fi is an excellent album. I've heard people describing this album as Ska or Punk (or Ska-Punk), I've no idea what they're on about as it sounds nothing more than catchy lager pop-rock to me. Containing the anthems 'Living For The Weekend' and 'Hard To Beat' this album also throws up some quality songs such as the catchy 'Middle Eastern Holiday' and the sublime and heartfelt 'Move On'.
Again only a solitary vote so far for these guys.

Joss Stone.
The powerful soulful vocals of Joss Stone along with some decent funky tunes give 'Introducing Joss Stone' a nice consistent feel which is well produced and I do like the Lauryn Hill duet 'music'. Stone has three albums in this chart and Introducing.... is highest placed just inside the top 1000.

Eminem.
Eminem strikes gold again with his 'Relapse' into music making. He revisits some of his common themes from previous albums but retains a dark and sinister vibe especially on tracks such as '3AM' and 'Same Song and Dance' yet he always retains his humour like on 'Insane' ("Then he played ping pong with his own ding dong"!) and in general the album is catchy as hell.
Relapse has a long way to go if it's to catch The Eminem Show though which is inside the top 350.

Gabriella Cilmi.
After the massive almost soulful hit of Sweet About Me, Gabriella goes off in a different direction and produces a bit of a dance/pop album in Ten. It begins strongly with the likes of 'On a Mission', 'Hearts Don't Lie' and 'What If You Knew' but I think the second half of the album isn't so strong. Gabriella is still yet to get a vote in this chart so to cheer her up (and myself) here's her amazing video for 'On a Mission'.

I also recently stumbled across a new ranting site called myrantis.com, maybe perfect for ranting about The Cure hogging the top of this chart?? :--)

VOTE NOW!

{Greenster}

Another year, another Brits. Personally I wasn't too blown away by any of the performers this year. I think Lady Gaga's outfit(s) was what stole the show, well that and Liam from Oasis swearing like a muppet (some things never change).
I have finally got around to listening to The Fame and it's excellent! Containing strong pop tunes such as 'Just Dance', 'Starstruck' and the massive hit 'Poker Face', Gaga writes fresh, funky syth pop in the mould of Madonna back in the 80's. But wait! Then Gaga goes all 70's disco near the end and even sounds a bit like Deborah Harry on 'Summerboy'. The Fame is currently a strong 160th place in this chart.

But what about the other Brit winners I hear you ask? How do they fare in this truly democratic music 'chart of charts'?

I've made a few tweaks to the software this week. We now have a search box top right allowing you to search for bands and artists. I have moved this blog to a dedicated page away from the home page and I'm toying with the idea of maybe scrapping the home page and just showing the TOP TEN straight away?
I have added album thumbnails to many of the pages including the vote pages, hopefully to aid people when choosing the right album! I've also gone round tidying up a few annoying bugs! You can also now follow me on Twitter!

At the time of writing we are 26 votes away from 13,000, it's creeping ever so closer! The deluge of Britney Spears votes appears to have subsided leaving the way for a nice balance of recent votes including nominations for Bjork, Kate Bush, Frank Zappa, Jean Michelle Jarre, Shania Twain and the Christmas Number One X-Factor killers Rage Against the Machine who's epnonymous album now holds position 188 in the chart.

The only other significant movement in the chart recently has been REM's Murmur creeping back into 110th position and pushing The Top by The Cure off the end of the chart leaving our perennial chart toppers with only eight albums in the Top 100!

VOTE NOW!

{Greenster}

We are only 100 votes away from reaching a new milestone in true album vote democracy - 13,000 votes!
Britneys assualt on the chart continues as her fourth album IN THE ZONE breaks into the TOP TEN and even overtakes the mighty NEVERMIND by NIRVANA. The POP assualt continues with Birtney's BRITNEY and Christina Aguilera's STRIPPED both in the high teens also pushing on towards the TOP 10. Despite this, it's Britney's 2007 album BLACKOUT which is album of the moment currently in 33rd place.

The votes have really ramped up this month with a couple hundred in the last 3 weeks alone. This has prompted Christina Aguilera's wonderful album STRIPPED to break into the TOP 20 and become album of the moment as well! Personally I think this POP album is a welcome addition to the current top twenty which is still dominated by rock bands like THE SMASHNG PUMPKINS, PEARL JAM and THE CURE.
Christina's other albums are also getting lots of votes lately with BACK TO BASICS breaking into the TOP 30 hot on the heels on BACK IN BLACK by AC/DC. Her debut CHRISTINA AGUILERA has breached the TOP 80 one place above APPETITE FOR DESTRUCTION, with MI REFLEJO completing a quardruple of TOP 100 albums for her in 95th place. Elsewhere BRITNEY's IN THE ZONE has climbed above SGT PEPPER by THE BEATLES into 22nd place although THE BEATLES trio of albums ABBEY ROAD, WHITE ALBUM and REVOLVER are continuing their surge towards to TOP TEN. It's not that I like this chart to be too obvious or typical of a critics top 100 but it would please me immensly if we could get a BEATLES record into the TOP 10!

Other popular bands and albums this month include current pop princess RHIANNA pulling in 15 votes for GOOD GIRL GONE BAD, LOOSE by NELLY FURTADO climbing to 426th with 36 votes and PINK's I'M NOT DEAD sitting on a half-century of votes in 352nd place. Classic albums such as THRILLER, RAY OF LIGHT and JAGGED LITTLE PILL have also seen a good selection of votes this month cementing their places in the top 300. THRILLER especially has been slowly climbing up towards the TOP 100 but is still some 300 points off the pace (50-60 more votes would probably break it into the top 100).

Keep the votes a-comin'!

{Greenster}

I've been cramming in a lot of new music lately, maybe because any day now they might turn on that Black Hole machine in Switzerland and we could all get evaporated by a miniscule dense star (or something).
I've been listening to "Chase this Light" by Jimmy Eat World (you must check out this band!) it's sort of retro-contemporary rock (what isn't these days?).
Pink's Funhouse is pretty cool in that it continues where she left off with the previous 3 albums, basically pop/rock with awesome vocals except this time in between all the bumblegum rock goodness there are some stripped down songs such as "One Foot Wrong" and "Glitter in the Air". Whilst these are decent songs which shine with Pinks continously impressive vocals, I personally wanted more of the I'm Not Dead party pop which this album only delivers in spurts with "So What", "Funhouse" and "Why Did I Ever Like You?".

After the amazing Sam's Town I expected big things of "Day & Age" by The Killers. However, they seem to be treading a mysterious retro path that sees them sound like U2 one minute and Pet Shop Boys the next. This indifferent album suffers from a weak opener, careers into two strong pop tunes "Human" and "Spaceman" before wibbly wobbling all over the shop with some bizarre style changes (Caribean steel drums, 80's Sax and the overly long and boring "Goodnight, Travel Well"). I think I prefer Duffy's fresh Rockferry, the little Welsh sexbomb more than deserved her massive sweep of awards at the Brits, it's a cracking album.

I went to see the mighty Alkaline Trio a few weeks back at Southampton. They rocked hard! It was a brilliant gig from three highly accomplished musicians. They did pretty much all my favourites from "All On Black", "This Could Be Love", "Private Eye" and the brilliant "Sadie". I especially liked the accoustic rendition of "Blue In The Face" which Matt duly forgot the words to before announcing to the crowd "I fucked that up, shall I start again?". You should check out their new album "Calling All Skeletons".

An album that is really growing on me at the moment is Keane's third effort Perfect Symmetry. These boys keep producing songs that, at first sound a bit bland but then creep up on you with catchy choruses leaving you gasping for more listens. I think their latest album is better than Under The Iron Sea.

Oh yeah, about the chart! Well votes have been slim recently but more balanced - check out the latest voters page here.
I noticed that "HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED" by BOB DYLAN has burst into the top 300 and NEVERMIND THE BOLLOCKS by THE SEX PISTOLS is only 20 odd points away from breaking back into the hallowed TOP 100. I swear, any day now this chart will get mentioned on a radio show or a facebook/twitter post or the BBC homepage and we'll get a flood of votes which will truly make this the most accurate and definitive popular music album chart IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD. Maybe I should write a personal letter to Chris Moyles or something?
Take it easy people!

{Greenster}

It's that time of year again voters where the X Factor returns with that smug git Simon Cowell. Despite its severe lack of any real musical merit this show is worth watching simply because of the hilarious auditions, the scathing put-downs and the sheer irony of Danni Minogue telling people that their voice 'is'nt quite good enough'. Well, she'd definitely know wouldn't she?
The best quote I think I've heard about the X Factor was when Noel Gallacher said "yeh I think it's great that some kid from Tescos can make a million quid because he sounds like Ottis Redding, just don't call it 'music'". He has a point with the show being more about Karaoke and less about making music. Most of the contestants themselves pull out endless delusional quotes about how they want "a number one", or they "wanna be famous" but criminally none of them say they want to 'make music'. Then again it's actually more a TV show with an accompanying CD as 10 times more people WATCH the show than purchase the winners album. I have to admit that there are some decent singers in this years show though but alas millions and millions of people can sing in tune but only 1 in a billion can write something like 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds'.
The MTV music awards are being held in Liverpool this year with Coldplay and Duffy both recieving a couple of nominations each. Should be an interesting affair and I'm sure the usual suspects will turn up. Russel Brand's weird sense of humour (how does he pull so many women? The blokes a mess!), hopefully Amy Wino will be able to stay sober and drug free (for at least the first 15 minutes), Oasis should be there and I'm sure they'll roll out some old rockers (Keith Richards anyone?) and some old English actors (Judy Dench and that bird that played the Queen are surely gonna be giving out some awards?). But if Michael Jackson does turn up lets hope security take care of Jarvis Cocker this time.
Currenlty Kings Of Leon are topping charts all over the place with their new album 'Only By The Night', however their most popular album on this chart is still 'Youth And Young Manhood'. The success of the 'camp it up-athon' that is 'Mama Mia' is pushing sales of Abba records through the roof whilst Abba's 'Waterloo' is in an impressive 55th place on this chart. Other new albums out this month are Metallica's 'Death Magnetic' (note: I'll be buying it legitimately so that Lars & co don't sue me....), Queen and Paul Rodgers recently released 'The Cosmos Rocks' (a reference to brainy Brian's obsession to astrophysics you think??) and The Killers have a new album coming soon.
Before I sign off make sure you either check out or actually purchase David Gilmours latest DVD 'Live at the Gdansk'. This bloke is pure class! Clip below:

{Greenster}

Sorry for the lack of updates recently but I've been spending all my time playing Mario Kart on the Wii!! What a fantastic game! I'm also highly addicted to Wii Sports Tennis which has to be the best example of virtual game control realism ever seen!
Anyway, back to the chart and the votes continue to roll in and so do the complaints! Yes I removed Britneys greatest hits album from the chart as it didn't adhere to the rules and I got hate mail!!!
Britney's In The Zone is still the album of the moment after flying up the chart into a strong 33rd position and she is still getting a lot of votes lately so there is no reason to HATE me Britney fans!! There have been no other significant chart movers lately although the Smashing Pumpkins' Siamese Dream and Floyd's Dark Side are still pulling votes in a bid to move into the hallowed top five!
No votes yet for Coldplays new album Viva la Vida (strange name) but Parachutes remains their most popular album and is in a decent top 170 placing.
Also no votes yet for One Republic although their Apologize song seems to be everywhere at the moment. I've bought their album but I'm still waiting for Amazon to deliver it.........
I recently discovered a fantastic band called 3 Doors Down (way down in 1,792nd place on this chart) who are the same kinda hard rock as Nickelback but more 'edgy' - check out their fantastic "Kyrptonite" below:

{Greenster}

HAPPY NEW YEAR from Vote World the premium FREE VOTE website for album popularity! It's FREE to vote and you are given a 'free vote' no precompiled lists here, NO NO NO. You vote for ANY album in the world. If you love it and it abides by our qualification rules then we will enter it into our chart!

If you haven't voted yet then don't delay, VOTE NOW , all you have to do is nominate your ten most favourite albums of all time and enter them into our chart. The chart will change in real time to reflect your choices, watch your favourite albums move up the chart as soon as you've voted!

December was a bit slow for votes but they are still creeping upwards towards the next landmark figure of 13,000 (THIRTEEN THOUSAND VOTES!). The minmial changes to the chart recently have seen Exile On Main Street creep back onto the Top 110 board , Pink Floyd's The Wall has broken into the TOP 20 and Britney's second album 'Britney' still lays claim to 'album of the moment' after rocketing up to 38th.

We all know that sales don't necessarily show how popular an album actually is, mainly because people may buy albums before listening to them and after listening to them they might actually dislike them (or like them less than other albums they already have)! Therefore this chart is a truer reflection of album popularity because people nominate the albums that they love!
With that said I recently saw a list of the biggest selling albums of all time and thought it would be interesting to see where these albums sit in the VoteWorld chart!

Worldwide best selling albums
1. Thriller Michael Jackson ( Reported Sales: 42,537,000 ) Voteworld: 160th.
2. Greatest Hits The Eagles ( Reported Sales: 31,934,000 ) Highest album at Voteworld: Hotel California 211th.
3. The Bodyguard Whitney Houston ( Reported Sales: 31,698,000 ) Voteworld: 313th.
4. Come on Over Shania Twain ( Reported Sales: 30,460,000 ) Voteworld: 623rd.
5. Led Zeppelin IV Led Zeppelin ( Reported Sales: 28,627,000 ) Voteworld: 32nd.
6. Jagged Little Pill Alanis Morisette ( Reported Sales: 27,664,000 ) Voteworld: 156th.
7. The Dark Side of the Moon Pink Floyd ( Reported Sales: 27,629,000 ) Voteworld: 8th.
8. Rumours Fleetwood Mac ( Reported Sales: 27,008,000 ) Voteworld: 138th
9. Back in Black AC/DC ( Reported Sales: 25,215,000 ) Voteworld: 23rd
10. 1 The Beatles ( Reported Sales: 23,769,000 ) Highest album at VoteWorld: White Album 15th

source ukmix.org as at october 2007

Now I find this very interesting because as much as some people like to bitch about the chart featuring some questionable entries these mega selling albums are actually pulling in a good proportion of the votes.
Three of the albums (four of the artists) on the list are in the TOP 50. Floyd, AC/DC, The Beatles and Led Zepellin. With another four inside the top 200 in the shape of The Eagles, Alanis, Michale Jackson and Fleetwood Mac (well Hotel California is almost in the top 200!). Whitney is verging on breaking into the top 300 and Shania Twain's Come on Over is the only one that I would consider to be 'struggling' for votes way down in the mid 600's.
This suggests (to me anyway) that my chart is working and one day when I have millions of votes this chart could truly be the DEFINITIVE popular album poll of ALL TIME.
Before I sign off, enjoy the Rock maters Led Zeppelin performing the legendary Stairway to Heaven at their recent O2 gig and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

{Greenster}

Voteworld is the largest democratic free album vote ever seen (probably).
The Cures' Disintegration is still miles clear! Click here to see the current TOP TEN ALBUMS OF ALL TIME.

Went to see the brilliant My Chemical Romance last week at the O2. The O2 is a great venue and those boys make a great noise. Highlights were definitely "Mama", "Helena" and the rocking encore "Famous Last Words" from the Black Parade (currently 710th in the chart).

Back to the chart and the Pink Floyd masterpiece The Wall has broken into the Top 20 at last, displacing Faith by The Cure.
The Floyd are doing rather well in the chart with four albums within the top 150. Dark Side Of The Moon, The Wall, Wish You Were Here and Animals.
Meanwhile, Dirt by Alice In Chains has re-entered the chart (120th place) and the brilliant What's The Story by Oasis continues to climb toward two other classic albums positioned right above it in the shape of Bowies' legendary Ziggy Stardust and London Calling (40th, 41st and 42nd respectively).
The POP votes may have receeded but Britney still lays claim to 'Album Of The Moment'.

On a slightly unrelated note I recently discovered a gem of a cover version by The Killers (The awesome Sam's Town is way down in 1,657th place.) doing Romeo & Juliet by Dire Straits (highest album in this chart Brothers In Arms at 323rd)

Keep the votes coming - see you around!
{Greenster}

We have finally exceeded TWELVE THOUSAND VOTES !!!
The democracy of the internet after 12,000 votes says that The Cures' Disintegration is the best album of all time! But will it still be there after 15,000 votes? Only time will tell.

Meanwhile the battle of the Pop Divas Britney and Christina still rages! ( Thanx for QTKidds for finding this image!)

Britneys' "In The Zone" has penetrated the top 50 overtaking landmark albums such as Automatic For The People, Who's Next, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, Appetite For Destruction and Blood On The Tracks. Christinas' "Stripped" is on the verge of breaching the top 70. Britneys' popularity can't be knocked, despite her recent problems, she now has all 4 of her studio albums in the top 100!

Recent additions to the chart:

Voteworld is being dominated by a single battle between two artists at the moment, it's:

Vs.

Yep, it's a battle between the stunning vocals of Dirrty Girl Christina and the catchy tunez of pop princess Britney.
Both artists have entered the top 110 and are set to break into the top 100 if they carry on receiving votes at such a furious pace.
Elsewhere: Mariah Careys' The Emanicipation of Mimi, No Doubts' Tragic Kingdom, Michael Jackson's masterful Thriller and Pinks' brilliant new album I'm Not Dead have all been getting a lot of votes this month. Tragic Kingdom being closest to breaking into the top 110. I think that if Thriller were to break into the top 100 it would give this chart a lot more credibility!
In terms of movement within the top 100, a lot of the albums have begun to spread out and require a 'burst' of votes to move any significant distance. The Beatles, U2, The Beach Boys and Pink Floyd have all received votes for some of their top 50 albums this month but none have received enough to push them up any places. However David Bowies' Low has re-entered the top 100 but I have a feeling Britney and Christina aren't far behind !

We are now within reaching distance of TWELVE THOUSAND VOTES!
Please keep the votes coming people.................

{Greenster}

Well, well, well, at last it looks as though POP is about to be properly represented on this chart, sure it's still ROCK that dominates the top 100 but we've had shedloads of votes for some of the biggest names in POP recently.
Britney Spears is the new album of the moment and has come charging up the chart into an impressive top 250 placement.
Christinas' wonderful album Stripped has risen up to 369th.
The likes of Destinys Child, Lindsey Lohan, Ashlee Simpson, Madonna, The Spice Girls, Kylie, Shakira, Holly Valance and even Paris Hilton have all been getting votes this month.

New entries to the chart this month include the recent Alanis Morissette album So Called Chaos and the slightly bizarre Aerial by Kate Bush which contains a song about her washing her clothes and another where she recites the number Pi for 6 minutes ! Weird.

On my radar this month is Snow Patrols latest effort Eyes Open which I think contains some smashing music especially the wonderful duet Set the fire to the third bar. Unfortunately Eyes Open is currently in a lowly position in the chart with only 9 current votes. Search for your fav. bands by clicking here.

Keep the votes coming people.................

Ironically it's Keane that are gathering a fair few votes lately pushing the tremendous "Hopes and Fears" into the top 450. In the top 10 "Dark Side Of The Moon" looks like it's on the brink of overtaking Radioheads' "OK Computer" into seventh place, that would be the first movement inside the top ten since Pearl Jam took third place back in October 2006! Floyds masterpiece "The Wall" is also poised to break into the top 20 whilst Dylans "Blood On The Tracks" sneaks into the top 90 and Joy Divisions' "Closer" re-enters the chart in 108th place!!

Latest votes (you can view a selection of them here) have definitely been skewed towards a more POP orientated stance, with the likes of Christina, Madonna, Britney, Take That and the very weird Mika all receieving votes this month.

Talking of Take That, I thought they did a good job performing the classy "Patience" at the Brits 2007. Barlows' songwriting skills have obviously not left him - a cracking tune! Best performance at the Brits tho has to be the awesome Killers doing "When You Were Young" from the stunningly brilliant "Sam's Town"

Till next time !!!

{Greenster}