top 100 reasons that El Gran Silencio's Super Riddim Internacional Vol. 1 is the best album of the year, #'s 30-39

30. Because Susheela Raman's Love Trap is a really great record but not as punchy as it needs to be to hit #1 on Cibula's list. (I realize it's hard to do "punchy" when you're doing int'l-pop versions of 400-year-old Carnatic hymns to Shiva, but still.

31. Because Allison Moorer's Show and Charlie Robison's Live kinda cancel each other out, great live records by great songwriters (Moorer's more of a pure singer, Robison growls somewhat but it fits his stuff) but I'm already too familiar with the tighter studio versions of their best stuff. Shame, really, woulda given me some serious cool points to have a lot of country records on my list.

32. The one country record that DID make it onto my list, Country Music by Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives, is a skillful and soulful thing...but if any Stuart record was gonna be #1 for me, it would have been his last one before this, The Pilgrim, which accomplished the amazing feat of being a concept record with cinematic sweep that DIDN'T SUCK. That one, had it been released this year, mighta hadda shot. But this one is fun/goofy mixed with deep/resilient crossed with reverent/irreverent, a great thing, but not better than something that doesn't worry about categories like this at all.

33. Actually, I think Anthony Hamilton's album Comin' From Where I'm From is the best country record of the year. But I can't actually say that, especially now that I've been invited to vote in the Country Music Critic's poll. Yep, you heard me right, you sad bastards -- I have arrived! They must have read this, which I'm really proud of, or maybe this, or something. Anyway, the easiest way to get my ass kicked off the list would be to give Hamilton the nod here. And yet, even though Hamilton is a major talent and I love him, it's just his first album. No #1s for first album, methinks.

34. And I wish Lyrics Born hadn't ended Later That Day... with two kinda boring reggae traxxx. That kinda screwed him for #1 status--he still ended up at #5 on my list.

35. My number two this year is pretty much a perfect record: Phantom Power by Super Furry Animals. But although it's perfect, I picked Guerrilla as the best of that year, and I don't revere bands enough to give them two #1s in five years. So they were out.

36. I love year-end lists, but they kill me. But EGS was due. Since Guerrilla, my favorites have been Erykah Badu's Mama's Gun, the Circulatory System record, and Common's Electric Circus, so we were due for some Latin fire at the top of my personal chart.

37. And the records that I regret NOT choosing for #1 (Bersuit Vergabarat's Hijos del Culo, for example) are always Latin records, so I didn't want to make the same mistake.

38. So running to the east side Circuit City last weekend and buying Celso Pina y su Ronda Bogota's Una Vision wasn't stupid after all. And it was okay to buy Control Machete's uno,dos:bandera too...I just didn't wanna slight the Mexican market.

39. And the fact that Cafe Tacuba came back pretty but soft helped to make my choice super-easy.