Animal Collective top end-of-year album poll Merriweather Post Pavilion by Animal Collective has been named album of the year in the annual ‘poll of polls’ conducted by HMV.

The music retailer collated the end-of-year opinions from 34 different magazines and websites in the UK and Ireland to produce the rankings, which saw Yeah Yeah Yeahs take second place with It’s Blitz.

Animal Collective’s eighth studio album, which was released in January and has featured on the band’s T-shirt designs, received 13 nominations as album of the year.

Meanwhile, the self-titled debut album from London fourpiece The XX appeared at number three in the poll of polls.

Eight of the top ten records were produced by bands on independent labels, while New York-based artists accounted for four of the top five.

“It’s encouraging to see indie labels doing so well, which reflects on the vibrant state of our music right now,” commented HMV’s John Hirst.

Last year, Elbow’s Mercury Prize-winning album The Seldom Seen Kid took the top spot in the HMV survey.
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