Best-selling albums of 2011, according to the Official Charts Company
vs
HMV Poll of Polls
Poor Adele. Not a phrase you hear often, as she had been having such a good year: grabbing every award going, conquering America and selling millions of records.
But she is not even a contender for the prize that money can’t buy – the critics’ choice of album of the year. Instead, the anointed arbiters of good music have proclaimed P J Harvey’s Let England Shake as the best album of the year.
The only trouble is that hardly anyone would agree with the sentiment, even though Harvey has already picked up the 2011 Mercury Prize. For the latest album from the gloomy indie songstress has managed to sell barely 130,000 copies – a fraction of the 3.5 million-plus that Adele has managed with her latest album, 21.
No matter, for the result is from the annual HMV Poll of Polls, officially announced tomorrow – a ranking drawn from 35 polls by magazines, national newspapers and websites.
Don’t expect to see any big names, let alone ones you might recognise. For Britain’s music critics have outdone themselves in finding some bands so obscure they wouldn’t even be famous in their own homes.
One, tUnE-yArDs (sic), has sold just a few thousand copies of its Whokill album. And the back catalogues of acts such as Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes, Wild Beasts, Kurt Vile, James Blake and the Horrors are not exactly troubling the bestseller charts.
It’s a slap in the face for such music juggernauts as Coldplay, Lady Gaga and Rihanna, who are conspicuous by their absence.
P J Harvey is just grateful for the exposure: “The response to this album has heartened me, and given me great hope for the future.”
John Hirst, HMV’s music manager, commented: “Musically, the album is untouchable, combining deceptively simple songwriting with sublime musicianship and sparse production to great effect.”
But whatever Christmas bonus Harvey reaps from “serious” music fans rushing out to buy her album, it will be small change to Adele. In the Top 10 that really counts – sales – her first two albums have sold more than any other record in Britain this year.
i messed up the other one by including the actual albums. If noones interested in voting on it a mod can delete it
Anyway I thought the independent was supposed to be a quality newspaper? I assume The Sun and The Star and Daily Record are better newspapers as they sell more copies?
you can vote here dmac
being an adele fan you voted public?
g I wonder who I’ll vote for
are you a punter or a pundit?
i wonder if the guy who wrote the article really thinks Radiohead and Tom Waits are obscure.
130,000 for a new pj harvey album seems pretty good
especially if that’s just UK Sales
but adeles 2 albums have sold over 3 million copies so are automatically better according to the article writer.
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
the excitement
i wonder how all the ilx pundits will vote
lol 8–5
Automatic thread bump. This poll’s results are now in.
lurkers love adele?