It’s hard to believe that this is the 24th annual fRoots Critics poll – it has been going so long that we actually lost count last year and billed it as the 22nd! We started it in 1986 when we thought that because some people out there hear a wider cross section of music than the average reader, through reasons of work or heavy involvement in the music’s infrastructure, the readers might in turn like to know what their consensus was on the previous year’s good stuff. Over the years it has grown in stature and winning the fRoots Critics Poll has become a treasured accolade for artists and their record labels. In 2001 it was incorporated into the BBC Radio 3 Awards For World Music and provided the Album Of The Year nominations for the next seven years.

Following Radio 3’s decision to axe their awards last year, our Critics Poll became independent again, still defining the Albums Of The Year in folk, roots and world music, with wide cross-industry voting and support. We all worked together to keep the momentum of the BBC years, and another ex-partner in the BBC Awards, Songlines magazine, launched a set of artist awards in 2009, voted online by the public, which happen in the summer. The two are complementary and now help to give a year-round focus on excellence with a bit of excitement injected too. Being independent again last year also meant that we were able to team up with Amazon.co.uk as retail partner, who put up a mini-site for the top-placed albums. That happy arrangement continues this year to the general benefit of artists, labels and CD buyers alike.

Last year we made a major change, for the first time going the route of other schemes like the Folk Awards and the Mercury Music Prize by announcing our front runners as nominees. It worked extremely well so we’ve continued to do that this year. The top 10 new albums and top 6 reissue, compilation or historic CDs were announced across the web on 16th November, which once again got some fevered speculation going.

Happily, BBC Radio 3 continue to support the fRoots Critics Poll Albums Of The Year, and this year’s winners were exclusively revealed by Lopa Kothari and fRoots Editor Ian Anderson on World On 3 on 4th December.

Here, you can find out all the year’s releases which gained significant votes from our international panel – we ask over 300 people with the knowledge including journalists, radio presenters, activists, event organisers and musicians, and always get a very decent turnout.

The usual process applied. They nominated up to six New Albums Of 2009 (newly recorded single artist or band CDs) which produced the fRoots Critics Award For Album Of The Year. Then they picked up to four CDs in our Reissues/ Compilations/ Historic section – collections of old or new material (anything that would be listed as ‘Various Artists’), reissues of older recordings and that newer animal, the remix album. And they could also nominate two beautiful artefacts in our Best Packaged Album category. Everything nominated got one point – we don’t ask our panel to order their preferences – and on the odd occasion where they misinterpreted guidance and voted in the wrong category, we simply accumulated all the votes in the correct one.

The main provisos were that the albums should have been first released since November 2008, though we do allow a bit of slack provided they weren’t listed last year too. And of course we require that albums fall into the areas of music we cover in fRoots – music from anywhere with roots in a tradition – and that people don’t vote for their own products. At some point in the New Year we’ll make the list of how everybody voted available here on the fRoots website as usual. Patience!

Last year, for the first time in a decade, the well deserved winner was a new English folk album – Jim Moray’s Low Culture – breaking what had seemed to be the sitting tenancy of West Africans in the top place. It was a cause for great celebration, lots of interest and the inevitable stirred-up controversy. With English folk on such a roll right now, four more such albums made the top 10 again this year, but on top by the narrowest of squeaks, just one vote over 2007 winner Bassekou Kouyate, was the debut by Congo’s extraordinary Staff Benda Bilili. Congratulations!

Once again this year, the fRoots Critics Poll is presented in association with Amazon UK.

New Albums Of 2009 winners

1. Staff Benda Bilili Très Très Fort (Crammed)
2. Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba I Speak Fula (OutHere)
3. Oumou Sangare Seya (World Circuit)
4. Martin Simpson True Stories (Topic)
5. The Unthanks Here’s The Tender Comin (EMI/Rabble Rouser)
6. Justin Adams & Juldeh Camara Tell No Lies (Real World)
7. Tinariwen Imidiwan (Independiente)
8. Jackie Oates Hyperboreans (Unearthed/One Little Indian)
9. Khaled Liberté (Wrasse)
10. Spiro Lightbox (Real World)