Included in the bunch:

3. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion
2. Leonard Cohen – Live In London
1. Nirvana – Live At Reading

View the full rundown here.

Earlier this year, Leonard Cohen performed at NYC’s Radio City Music Hall.

MP3: Leonard Cohen – First We Take Manhattan

The Top 5 is as follows:

1. The Bug – London Zoo
2. Plush – Fed
3. Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago
4. TV On The Radio – Dear Science
5. Shugo Tokumaru – Exit

View the full rundown here.

MP3: Shugo Tokumaru – Parachute

June has arrived.

Time to take a look at this year’s best reviewed LPs:

1. Nick Cave – Dig Lazarus Dig
2. Robyn – Robyn
3. Hercules & Love Affair – Hercules & Love Affair
4. Portishead – Third
5. Mudcrutch – Mudcrutch

View all the rest here.

MP3: Hercules & Love Affair – Blind (Club Mix)

June has arrived.

Time to take a look at this year’s best reviewed LPs:

1. Nick Cave – Dig Lazarus Dig
2. Robyn – Robyn
3. Hercules & Love Affair – Hercules & Love Affair
4. Portishead – Third
5. Mudcrutch – Mudcrutch

View all the rest here.

MP3: Hercules & Love Affair – Blind (Club Mix)

June has arrived.

Time to take a look at this year’s best reviewed LPs:

1. Nick Cave – Dig Lazarus Dig
2. Robyn – Robyn
3. Hercules & Love Affair – Hercules & Love Affair
4. Portishead – Third
5. Mudcrutch – Mudcrutch

View all the rest here.

MP3: Hercules & Love Affair – Blind (Club Mix)

The Music Slut’s faves are on the way! In the meantime, check out the critical darlings of 2007 below. Les Savy Fav MP3 at bottom.

1. Burial
2. Stars Of The Lid
3. The Field
4. Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
5. Radiohead
6. LCD Soundsystem (45:33)
7. Les Savy Fav
8. Arcade Fire
9. Patty Griffin
10. MIA
11. LCD Soundsystem (Sound Of Silver)
12. Robert Wyatt
13. Panda Bear
14. Battles
15. The National

View the second half of the list here.

MP3: Les Savy Fav – The Equestrian

Metacritic is still going strong compiling the best reviewed albums of the year, thus far. Here’s the Top 20 as of today, August 30th – eight full months into 2007.

1. The Field
2. MIA
3. Battles
4. Arcade Fire
5. Patty Griffin
6. LCD Soundsystem
7. Panda Bear
8. The National
9. Elliott Smith
10. Miranda Lambert
11. Eluvium
12. Richard Thompson
13. Spoon
14. Suzanne Vega
15. Vieux Farka Toure
16. Caribou
17. Nick Lowe
18. The Besnard Lakes
19. Grinderman
20. Blonde Redhead

MP3s: The National – Squalor Victoria + LCD Soundsystem – Watch The Tapes

The last time we checked in with album review-aggregate, Music Slut-approved site, Metacritic, LCD Soundsystem & Panda Bear’s latest were riding high as two of the best releases of the year. Now, 3 months later, we take a look at 2007′s greatest, thus far.

1. The Field – From Here We Go Sublime
2. Battles – Mirrored
3. The Arcade Fire – Neon Bible
4. Patty Griffin – Children Running Through
5. LCD Soundsystem – Sound Of Silver
6. Panda Bear – Person Pitch
7. Elliott Smith – New Moon
8. The National – Boxer
9. Miranda Lambert – Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
10. Eluvium – Copia

For the rest of this year’s top records, to date, hop here. Anything you’d rearrange?

MP3s: Battles – Prismism + Panda Bear – Take Pills

It really surprised me upon glancing at the reviews for Rosie Thomas’ latest release, These Friends Of Mine, that she is far from a critical darling. Whereas her counterpart, Sufjan Stevens earned the highest ranked album of ’05 with Illinois, Rosie’s new album is being described as ‘a mixed bag’, ‘Starbucks’-y, and ‘one-dimensional’. Yikes!

We happen to think it’s a beautiful (and multi-dimensional) album; our review of it can be found here. To see what everybody else is saying about the LP, hop skip and jump over to MetaCritic’s Rosie Thomas page.

In unrelated Rosie news, while we were busy seeing Placebo at the much-dreaded Roseland Ballroom, our good friend Qbertplaya was at Rosie’s Southpaw gig, of which Sufjan himself made an appearance. We’re insanely jealous. Check out her review of that show, including some amazing pics and video HERE!

Yes, Metacritic is already ranking the best albums of the year, aka the most critically acclaimed LPs, thus far. Lots of Music Slut faves are gracing the upper echelons, but more importantly did your favorites make the cut?

1. LCD Soundsystem – Sound Of Silver
2. Patty Griffin – Children Running Through
3. Panda Bear – Person Pitch
4. Arcade Fire – Neon Bible
5. Eluvium – Copla
6. Low – Drums & Guns
7. Vieux Farka Toure – Vieux Farka Toure
8. Amy Winehouse – Back To Black
9. The Besnard Lakes – The Besnard Lakes & The Dark Horse
10. Patrick Wolf – The Magic Position

For the full list of Metacritic’s ’07 rankings, check here!