Blogs

Happy new year, everyone. A bit of housekeeping first: if you haven’t posted your 2011 Top Tens on this thread, please do so asap – I’m going to start adding up the votes end of this week.

An unsentimental tribute to the silent era...It is very easy to become consumed by a cosy nostalgia for the silent era. We all know Gloria Swanson’s anguished protest as the ageing silent queen from Sunset Boulevard: “We didn’t need dialogue. We had faces!” We’ve seen Chaplin’s bow-legged walk, Keaton’s stony-faced escape-artistry and Harold Lloyd dangling from the clock face.

Thanks for all your kind responses to my 100 Albums of 2011. In case you missed it the other day, one of the blog’s most diligent regulars, Nick, has put together a Wild Mercury Sound Spotify playlist with most of the 100 featured. Enormous thanks again, for that; let me know, of course, what you all think.

The last in our series of transcripts from the judges' discussions: Gillian Welch, "The Harrow And The Harvest".

This morning, a look at what the Uncut Music Award judges said about Paul Simon's "So Beautiful Or So What".

Today, the judges get to grips with Radiohead's "The King Of Limbs".

Today, the Uncut Music Award judges ruminate on the power of Josh T Pearson's debut solo album, "Last Of The Country Gentlemen".

In certain circles, it remains sacreligious to criticise Brian Eno. No matter how many awful records he’s involved with, his reputation seems undiminished; never mind the music, we’re advised, feel the ideas.

The latest transcript from the judges' meeting, as our panel get to grips with the second Bon Iver album.

Today the Uncut Music Award judges discuss the album that turned out to be their winner; PJ Harvey's "Let England Shake".