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}