Remember when we did this last year? It was kind of a flop, but because of the way we did it.

If you weren't here last year, here's what happened:

A group of highly respected, musically literate ATRL posters were chosen and we, as a consensus, chose the best of 2011's offerings.

It was ... a BIT too top 40 driven, and not what I had in mind. How do we fix it?

We'll be holding a Tinychat THURSDAY NIGHT at 8 PM.

Here are the categories:

Album
Single
Track (Album track, b-side)
Song (Lyrics/Music)
Male Artist
Female Artist
Group
Music Video
Breakthrough Act
Collaboration
Comeback
Producer
EP
Singles Run

Pop
R&B/Soul
Urban Alternative
Rock
Alternative
Independent
Country
Rap/Hip-Hop


(I've decided to scuttle the international categories; should make things more interesting!)

Who's up for it? I will be selecting the majority of voters, but you're free to apply here!

I'm up for it

Want me to PM you my Top 20 for 2012 to see if you think I qualify?

I'm interested!

I'd be interested, if you allow me to participate.

And why not make it Friday night instead? That way most of us don't have school/work the next day.

Seems interesting.

I would be interested (despite my irrelevancy) Thursday night I won't have my laptop though I'm not sure if tinychats work on iPads..

Interesting. Can't wait to see what you will show!

Looks cool! I probably don't have enough ATRL influence to choose, but it'd probably be for the best since I'd mostly wanna see what gets chosen.

We can at least start Thursday - maybe split it over two nights?

So, we're doing it in Tinychat because we are APING the way real critics organizations (New York Film Critics Circle, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, Boston Film Critics, National Society of Film Critics) work.

Everyone will arrive to the chat with three choices for each category. When a category comes up, we will all announce are three choices. If an artist gets an overwhelming amount of number one votes, they are the winners - if not, we go to a second ballot.

I'm up for it too! If y'all want objective point of views, I'm here!

I'm interested!

Sounds good.

But I don't think I'll be able to come up with choices for EVERY category.

I like the names so far! When thinking of voting, I would urge everyone to be CREATIVE and STRATEGIC. For instance:

Best Female for me would go to Taylor Swift. But my two other favorites, Jessie Ware and Fiona Apple, need more support - so my ballot will actually look like:

1) Jessie Ware 2) Fiona Apple 3) Taylor Swift

I'm up for it if you're up for selecting me.

I assume you mean 10 pm EST, yes?

You can definitely abstain. Besides Frank and Miguel (and I only like one of them), I cannot for the life of me think of a GOOD male solo artist this year.

Yep!

Sounds like fun, I'll try to make it. I'll be free so I'm up for it!

I'll get this done, I have ideas already

Is there any specific requirement for a release to count as a comeback? Like, does there need to be a certain length of time since their last release, or is it fully subjective?

Run some ideas by me.

Three years since their previous album, maybe?

I assume Fiona Apple will definitely win, anyway.