This was our second readers poll, and it was much more comprehensive and detailed than the one we put together at the end of 2008. This time out, we received more than 30,000 ballots. It's always fun for us to see what the readers are into; as you'll see, there's a lot of overlap between the following lists and our big year-end features, which are drawn from polls of our writing staff. And that makes sense-- there's a reason you're visiting Pitchfork. But there are some differences, too, and for us these are especially interesting, giving us some insight into records that we love that didn't necessarily resonate with as many readers, and reader favorites that we never quite warmed to.

This is a long feature with a lot of media, so grab a cup of coffee and dig in.

Album of the Year

As with our list, the polling for the top spot wasn't even close: this was Animal Collective's year. Grizzly Bear ranked higher here than it did on our list, but beyond that, the results are pretty similar, give or take a few slots. The biggest difference was Sunset Rubdown at #16, which didn't make our lists this year (we received a lot of mail about that one!).

01. Animal Collective: Merriweather Post Pavilion

02. Grizzly Bear: Veckatimest

03. Dirty Projectors: Bitte Orca

04. Phoenix: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

05. The xx: The xx

06. Girls: Album

07. The Flaming Lips: Embryonic

08. The Antlers: Hospice

09. Fever Ray: Fever Ray

10. Yeah Yeah Yeahs: It's Blitz!

11. Passion Pit: Manners
12. Atlas Sound: Logos
13. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
14. St. Vincent: Actor
15. Japandroids: Post-Nothing
16. Sunset Rubdown: Dragonslayer
17. Dan Deacon: Bromst
18. Fuck Buttons: Tarot Sport
19. Bat For Lashes: Two Suns
20. Raekwon: Only Built Cuban Linx... Pt. II
21. Dinosaur Jr.: Farm
22. Neko Case: Middle Cyclone
23. Wilco: Wilco (The Album)
24. Wild Beasts: Two Dancers
25. Andrew Bird: Noble Beast
26. The Horrors: Primary Colours
27. Bill Callahan: Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle
28. The Decemberists: The Hazards of Love
29. Camera Obscura: My Maudlin Career
30. Various Artists: Dark Was the Night
31. Arctic Monkeys: Humbug
32. Cymbals Eat Guitars: Why There Are Mountains
33. Mastodon: Crack the Skye
34. Neon Indian: Psychic Chasms
35. Antony and the Johnsons: The Crying Light
36. Morrissey: Years of Refusal
37. Mos Def: The Ecstatic
38. Bibio: Ambivalence Avenue
39. jj (Sincerely Yours): jj n° 2
40. Real Estate: Real Estate

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Top Metal LPs

The top five selections here all made the top 100 overall, and they were way out in front as your favorite metal albums this year. From Kylesa down, there wasn't nearly as much consensus.

01. Mastodon: Crack the Skye

02. Converge: Axe to Fall

03. Baroness: Blue Record

04. Sunn O))): Monoliths & Dimensions

05. Isis: Wavering Radiant

06. Kylesa: Static Tensions

07. Zu: Carboniferous

08. Om: God Is Good

09. Slayer: World Painted Blood

10. Nadja:When I See the Sun Always Shines on TV

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Top Hip-Hop LPs

This list tracked our year-end list pretty closely, with the major exception of DJ Quik and Kurupt's BlaQKout. We had that at #24 of the whole damn year, and it didn't make your top 10 hip-hop albums, finishing even below Eminem's Relapse. We're pretty confident though that if people knew it was around and gave it a chance, it would have placed much higher.

01. Raekwon: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt. II

02. Mos Def: The Ecstatic

03. Jay-Z: The Blueprint 3

04. Kid Cudi: Man on the Moon: The End of the Day

05. DOOM: Born Like This

06. P.O.S.: Never Better

07. Drake: So Far Gone

08. Brother Ali: Us

09. Eminem: Relapse

10. K'naan: Troubadour

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Top Dance/Electronic LPs

For this selection we focused on records that could generally be lumped under the dance end of the spectrum, while steering clear of the lo-fi end of things (Nite Jewel's Good Evening would have finished after Hudson Mohawke if we included it) or vocal-heavy electro-pop (Junior Boys' Begone Dull Care would have won this if that were the case). In cases where the artist in question is a favorite of club DJs (i.e., Basement Jaxx), we made exceptions.

01. The Field: Yesterday and Today

02. Moderat: Moderat

03. The Juan MacLean: The Future Will Come

04. Dâm-Funk: Toeachizown

05. Hudson Mohawke: Butter

06. Basement Jaxx: Scars

07. Lindstrøm & Prins Thomas: II

08. Matias Aguayo: Ay Ay Ay

09. Shackleton: Three EPs

10. Zomby: Where Were U in '92?

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Top Leftfield LPs

For this chart we focused on the experimental end of the spectrum, including dubstep and post-rock.

01. Tortoise: Beacons of Ancestorship

02. Jim O'Rourke: The Visitor

03. Do Make Say Think: Other Truths

04. Tim Hecker: An Imaginary Country

05. Broadcast & the Focus Group: Investigate Witch Cults...

06. Nosaj Thing: Drift

07. Tyondai Braxton: Central Market

08. Black Dice: Repo

09. Various Artists: 5: Five Years of Hyperdub

10. Ben Frost: By the Throat

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Song of the Year

Photo by Abita Jefferson

So you all like Animal Collective I guess: Four of the top nine spots went to their songs, with another AC-related track in at #11. Considering that "What Would I Want? Sky" basically leaked right as this poll went live, its placement is particularly staggering. (Other impressive out-of-the-blocks showings: Yeasayer also cleaned up with its shiny new track "Ambling Amp", and Lady Gaga did awfully well with "Bad Romance", a pop track that had yet to peak on the charts.)

01. Animal Collective: "My Girls"

02. Grizzly Bear: "Two Weeks"

03. Dirty Projectors: "Stillness Is the Move"

04. Phoenix: "1901"

05. Animal Collective: "What Would I Want? Sky"

06. Grizzly Bear: "While You Wait for the Others"

07. Girls: "Lust for Life"

08. Animal Collective: "Brother Sport"

09. Animal Collective: "Summertime Clothes"

10. Phoenix: "Lisztomania"

11. Atlas Sound [ft. Noah Lennox]: "Walkabout"
12. Bat For Lashes: "Daniel"
13. Grizzly Bear: "Ready, Able"
14. Jay-Z [ft. Alicia Keys]: "Empire State of Mind"
15. Bon Iver: "Blood Bank"
16. Animal Collective: "In the Flowers"
17. Girls: "Hellhole Ratrace"
18. xx: "Crystalised"
19. Japandroids: "Young Hearts Spark Fire"
20. Yeah Yeah Yeahs: "Zero"
21. Passion Pit: "Little Secrets"
22. The Flaming Lips [ft. Karen O]: "Watching the Planets"
23. The Antlers: "Two"
24. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart: "Young Adult Friction"
25. Animal Collective: "Bluish"
26. Yeah Yeah Yeahs: "Heads Will Roll"
27. Yeasayer: "Ambling Amp"
28. Washed Out: "Feel It All Around"
29. Dan Deacon: "Snookered"
30. Camera Obscura: "French Navy"
31. Dirty Projectors and David Byrne: "Knotty Pine"
32. Passion Pit: "The Reeling"
33. Julian Casablancas: "11th Dimension"
34. Neon Indian: "Deadbeat Summer"
35. Atlas Sound: "Shelia"
36. Fuck Buttons: "Surf Solar"
37. Andrew Bird: "Anonanimal"
38. Arctic Monkeys: "Cornerstone"
39. Lady Gaga: "Bad Romance"
40. Sunset Rubdown: "Idiot Heart"

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Top Chart Pop Songs

Looks like Gaga owned it as far as chart pop. Her three best singles made your top 100-- well ahead of the next track in this vein: Shakira's "She Wolf". And apparently not everyone found Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling" annoying (more on that later).

01. Lady Gaga: "Bad Romance"

02. Lady Gaga: "Poker Face"

03. Lady Gaga: "Paparazzi"

04. Shakira: "She Wolf"

05. Beyoncé: "Halo"

06. Maxwell: "Pretty Wings"

07. The-Dream: "Rockin' That Shit"

08. Taylor Swift: "You Belong With Me"

09. Beyoncé: "Sweet Dreams"

10. Black Eyed Peas: "I Gotta Feeling"

Next> Best New Artist, Most Over- and Underrated Albums, Best Reunion/ Comeback, and more