Listing season is in full swing, and later this week, DiS will reveal "Our 100 Favourite Albums of 2012", but before we get down to that, we wanted to share each staff members number one pick with you...

Hopefully this long list of names and releases gives you a clue about the individuals behind the screens at DiS. I've always thought of the site as being an aggregator of individual opinions, rather than some compromised coherent voice with a contrarian tone. It's near impossible to get music fans to agree on very much, which is why we do our album of the year list a little differently to most sites. We don't just tot up the votes and say what the most popular release was, as music to us isn't a popularity contest. Votes quickly become political, rather than personal and I hate the idea of mob rule.

I (DiS' editor) simply ask our staff for their lists, and make notes of what is popular with the regular contributors and then take into account the records that have been loved by the community, and then try to put together a list of albums that will reflect the tastes of the site, and perhaps turn a few people on to a few special records, which didn't quite get the attention they perhaps deserved. It's an imperfect system, but it seems to work. Although this year, as you can see below, there isn't a great deal of agreement in the ranks...

Senior Staff

Sean Adams - Founder/Editor: Chromatics - Kill for Love (Top 40 List here)
Cate Blanche - Features Editor: Fiona Apple - The Idler Wheel...
Andrzej Lukowski - Reviews Editor: Swans - The Seer
Dom Gourlay: The Lost Rivers - Sin & Lostness
Wendy Roby - Singles Columnist: Dirty Projectors - Swing Lo Magellan
Robert Leedham - Pop Columnist: Jessie Ware - Devotion
Kyle Ellison - Hip-Hop Columnist: Aesop Rock - Skelethon
Si Truss - Electronic Music Columnist: LHF - Keepers Of the Light
Al Horner - DiS News Digest Columnist: Japandroids - Celebration Rock

Contributors

Kevin Perry: Leonard Cohen - Old Ideas
George Bass: LV - Sebenza
Marie Wood: Sharon Van Etten - Tramp
Dan Lucas: Liars - WIXIW
Billy Hamilton: Chromatics - Kill For Love
Russell Warfield: How To Dress Well - Total Loss
J.R. Moores: Liars - WIXIW
Marcus J. Moore: Flying Lotus - Until the Quiet Comes
Josh Sunth: Chromatics - Kill For Love
Sean Thomas: Aesop Rock - Skelethon
Didz Hammond: The Cribs - In The Belly Of The Brazen Bull
Krystina Nellis: Frank Ocean - channel ORANGE
Aaron Lavery: Field Music - Plumb
Alexander Tudor: Swans - The Seer
Michael Brown: Deftones - Koi No Yokan
James Skinner: Andrew Bird - Break It Yourself
Darren Loucaides: Chromatics - Kill for Love
Andrew Kennedy: Django Django - Django Django
David Pott-Negrine: Kendrick Lamar - Good Kid, M.a.a.d. City
David Edwards: Richard Hawley - Standing at the Sky's Edge
Jonathan Falcone: And You Will Know Us By The Trail of The Dead - Lost Songs
Dan O’Dell: Cloud Nothings - Attack on Memory
Nick Hagan: Grimes - Visions
Noel Gardner: Black Breath - Sentenced To Life
Eli Lee: Anais Mitchell - Young Man in America
Hayden Wooley: Frank Ocean - Channel Orange
Elliot McVeigh: Julia Holter - Ekstasis
Andrew Wallace-Chamings: Cat Power - Sun
Jazz Monroe: Cloud Nothings - Attack On Memory
Suze Olbrich: Chromatics - Kill for Love
Marc Burrows: Darren Hayman and the Long Parliament - The Violence
Andrew Schagen: Swans - The Seer
Finbarr Bermingham: Seamus Fogarty - God Damn You Mountain
Bruce Porter: Grizzly Bear - Shields
Adam Bychawski: Swans - The Seer
Philip Bloomfield: Earth - Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light II
Dan Cooper-Gavin: Sharon Van Etten - Tramp
Robert Cooke: Cloud Nothings - Attack On Memory
Christian Cottingham: Efterklang - Piramida
Neil Ashman: Passion Pit - Gossamer
Amanda Farah: Cat Power - Sun
Alex Hegazy: Actress - RIP
Paul Stephen Gettings: Grimes - Visions
Adam Workman: Killer Mike - RAP Music

What was your album of the year? VOTE NOW IN OUR ANNUAL READERS POLL

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Related: Lost 12 of '12 // DiS albums of the year - compiled