HMV's Poll of Polls

The listing was created each December by collating year-end polls from approximately 30 music magazines, newspapers and guides to determine the most critically acclaimed albums of the year.

[6] Subsequent polls were topped by acts such as Daft Punk, Queens of the Stone Age and Kanye West.

[7] The only act to top the listing more than once was Canadian band Arcade Fire, who were number one in both 2005 and 2010 with Funeral and The Suburbs respectively.

[1] Albums released through independent (indie) record labels often performed well in the poll.

In discussion of the 2008 chart, John Rostron of Cardiff's The Point remarked that he had "seen a rise in the quality of independent music and of bands signed to small record labels".

Colour photograph of Arcade Fire performing live in 2007.
Canadian band Arcade Fire are the only act to have topped the Poll of Polls more than once.
Colour photograph of Beastie Boys performing live in 2007.
American hip hop group Beastie Boys were the inaugural winners of HMV's Poll of Polls in 1998.
Colour photograph of Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe of Basement Jaxx sitting on a sofa.
British duo Basement Jaxx topped the poll in 1999 with Remedy , and came third with Rooty in 2001.
Black-and-white photograph of Queens of the Stone Age performing live in 2007.
Queens of the Stone Age were number one in 2002 with Songs for the Deaf , and number five in 2000 with Rated R .
Colour photograph of Kanye West performing live in 2008.
American hip-hop artist Kanye West topped the Poll of Polls with his 2004 debut album The College Dropout , and came third with Late Registration in 2005.
Colour photograph of LCD Soundsystem performing live in 2010.
American band LCD Soundsystem were number one on the chart with Sound of Silver in 2007, and number three in 2010 with This is Happening .