This week, we'll be counting down DiS' favourite 75 albums of 2011, with our top 5 revealed on Thursday. Before we do so, we thought you might find it interesting to see what each of our staff members named their number one record of the year.

As you can see from the photo above, Polly Harvey is grinning, partly because she's currently top of the Metacritic album of the year list-of-lists but also due to hearing that seven of our sixty-two staff have named Let England Shake their favourite album of the year.

Whilst we're on the subject of stats: seven of these number ones didn't feature at all on any other staff members' lists. The second most numbered one'd album was Kaputt by Destroyer, who had four votes, closely followed by Antlers and Wild Beasts, with three. However, this may not give you too many clues as to what is our album of the year because although this votes will be taken into account, we once again won't be totting up the staff votes, like some sort of staff popularity contest because we're well aware that what's most popular isn't necessarily the bestest of the best (see also: Rebecca Black, Jessie J and Coldplay).

DiS' year-end list form of democracy is approximated. It's a bit like a ouija board guided by our core team who've had the benefit of investigating a helluva lot of records these past twelve months, as well as by some of our genre specialists. Yes, I guess you could say it works a bit like the House of Lords. However, we also like to take into account what our readers have been loving throughout the year, and also what you've all been voting for as your DiS users' album of the year (you have until Jan 1st for vote for your top 5 over the boards). It's an imperfect science but this human 'curated' and approximated way of working seems to have made for our interesting albums of the year lists over the past three years and even in a time before that, we used to thrash out the top 5 over beer and biscuits until there could be only one...

Here are our staff number one favourite albums of 2011. Feel free to share your number 1 below.

Senior DiS Staff

Sean Adams, Founder/Editor: Antlers Burst Apart
Andrzej Lukowski, Reviews Editor: PJ Harvey Let England Shake
Cate Blanche, Features Editor: Nils Frahm Felt
Luke Slater, News Editor: Destroyer Kaputt
Wendy Roby, Singles Columnist: Colin Stetson New History Warfare Vol. II: Judges
Dom Gourlay, Senior Contributor: The Horrors Skying

All Contributors

Marie Wood: Antlers Burst Apart
Kevin Perry: Tom Waits Bad As Me
Robert Leedham: Metronomy English Riviera
David Edwards: Josh T Pearson Last of the Country Gentlemen
Dan Lucas: Tom Waits Bad as Me
Noel Gardner: Iceage New Brigade
Krystina Nellis: Wild Beasts Smother
Bruce (Oceanrain): Destroyer Kaputt
Simon Jay Catling: The Field Looping State Of Mind
Billy Hamilton: SBTRKT SBTRKT
James Skinner: Bright Eyes The People’s Key
Al Horner: St Vincent Strange Mercy
Patrick Smith: Bon Iver Bon Iver
Nick Neyland: EMA Past Life Martyred Saints
Alexander Tudor: EMA Past Life Martyred Saints
Jazz Monroe: Okkervil River I Am Very Far
George Bass: Riz MC MICroscope
Aaron Lavery: The Wave Pictures Beer In The Breakers
Paul Brown: PJ Harvey Let England Shake
John Calvert: Destroyer Kaputt
Jonathon Falcone: Young Galaxy Shapeshifter
Dan Cooper-Gavin: Panda Bear Tomboy
David Pott-Negrine: The Weeknd House Of Balloons
Thomas Perry: True Widow As High as The Highest Heavens and From the Centre to the Circumference of the Earth
Andrew Schagen: PJ Harvey Let England Shake
Michael Brown: Thrice Major/Minor
Sean Thomas: PJ Harvey Let England Shake
James Lawrenson: Tune-Yards W H O K I L L
Neil Ashman: Wild Beasts Smother
Christian Cottingham: Wild Beasts Smother
Robert Cooke: Dutch Uncles Cadenza
Brad Barrett: Thursday No Devolución
Russell Warfield: Girls Father, Son, Holy Ghost
Josh Suntharasivam: The Antlers Burst Apart
Eliot McVeigh: Gang Gang Dance Eye Contact
Andew Wallace Chamings: J Mascis Several Shades Of Why
Philip Bloomfield: Demdike Stare Triptych
Amanda Farah: MEN Talk About Body
Bronya Francis: PJ Harvey Let England Shake
Andrew Kennedy: Pete & The Pirates One Thousand Pictures
Sam Lewis: Ducktails Arcade Dynamics
Dannie Leivers: Friendly Fires Pala
William Grant: Bon Iver Bon Iver
Kyle Ellison: Frank Ocean Nostalgia / Ultra
Sam Cleeve: A Winged Victory for the Sullen S/T
J.R. Moores: Metallica and Lou Reed Lulu
Adam Bychawski: Bon Iver Bon Iver
Eli Lee: Destroyer Kaputt
Finbarr Bermingham: King Creosote & Jon Hopkins Diamond Mine
Sam Walby: Zomby Dedication
Alex Hegazy: Peaking Lights 936
Si Truss: Frank Ocean Nostalgia/Ultra
Keiran Goddard: Josh T Pearson Last of the Country Gentlemen
Rob Webb: Smith Westerns Dye It Blonde
Kevin Eddy: PJ Harvey Let England Shake
Kate Hutchinson: PJ Harvey Let England Shake

Lists: Drowned in Sound's albums of the year 2001-2010.

DiScuss: Which of these number one album choices do you think didn't feature on any other staff members' lists?