So yeah, it's over. Audioslave wins.

So final random thoughts on the albums in a loosely ranked way:

Kid A - Big album and hugely influential. Radiohead was the closest thing to a modern day Pink Floyd moving from The Bends and OK Computer, and doing a completely different experimental album. It's for the record RS's top album of the 00's.

Third - Big favourite of critics when it came out. I'm not a huge Portishead fan, but the few albums they actually released over the decades were very strong. There was a big gap between this and their second, comparable to the gap between UYI and Chinese Democracy. The difference being that this was loved.

Elephant - Not the greatest album, but it was very good and hugely successful/influential. On various lists.

Hybrid Theory - I really liked it as a kid and it sold massively. It was a big album with several memorable tracks. I wouldn't say it was that great, but was at least justifiable on the list.

Chinese Democracy - I love the rough mixes, but what was released was flawed and talked about to death.

Songs for the Deaf - I like it. It was a cool album worth of an album of the year list at the time, but it isn't one off the best. That said I did nominate it.

American Idiot - Not my cup of tea, but was a big album and at least made the RS Top 100 of the first half of the decade.

Audioslave - As said before, outside this forum and fringes on the net... it is not that highly regarded or on any major top 10 lists I've seen. Objectively, the best album of the past 20 years? Not a chance.

Hardwired to Self Destruct - Repetitive and the winner of receny bias. It's just not that great, though the sound quality is great.

Higher Truth - Only made it due to so few nominations.