Within the next week or two, music magazines and blogs will begin publishing their lists of the best albums of 2010, an annual ritual that provokes the type of debate among music diehards that Academy Award picks do for film aficionados. Much more interesting and informative than those magazine rankings, though, are the top 10 lists that individual fans compile, which are less shaped by critical consensus and more likely to offer outside-the-box recommendations. In Milwaukee, these personalized lists are particularly accessible and abundant thanks to the Pabst Theater Foundation's Matt Beringer, who hosts a communal blog where anyone can post their best of the year lists.
Instructions and some guidelines for the blog are posted here, as are details for the party that Beringer is once again hosting where fans can talk music, swap mixtapes and guest DJ. This year it's at the Milwaukee Ale House on Sunday, Dec. 26.
And in the meantime, here are some novel recommendations to tide you over until Beringer's blog begins to light up: In last week's issue of Madison's Isthmus, Rich Albertoni compiled the top Madison albums of 2010.
