Do music best-of lists have any redeeming qualities?

Heading into the season of lists, we're about to find out. In the meantime...

The positives of music year-end lists:

• uncovering the overlooked albums;
• offering a review of the year in music;
• as this post demonstrates, lists are easy to read. 

The negatives:

• reducing a years' worth of music to 10 albums, one of which is usually taken by Radiohead;
• futile attempts at comprehensiveness, like including one hip hop album however undeserving;
• obscure picks for no other reason than obscurity;
• surface music criticism.

But one list that usually floats above the fray is local blog Chromewaves' top 10. This year's, released Friday, was no different. And it even added another point to the plus side: interesting artwork, in this case musical dinner plates.

Take a look.