So, the usually reliable All Songs Considered asked it’s listeners to rate the best albums of the year so far and the results were, well… let’s say, a little bit controversial. Panic! At the Disco apparently is tops among NPR listeners, beating out such vaunted indie acts as Vampire Weekend and Bon Iver. The results, however, were influenced by mass voting campaigns launched by both the winner, Panic! at the Disco, and the eventual runner-up, Death Cab for Cutie. Here’s what Bob Boilen had to say about the whole thing:

Panic at the Disco put out a good record this year, and for a while they were in the lower end of the top 20. But less than a week before the polls closed, a banner went up on their MySpace page encouraging fans to vote. The website said, “they need your vote to help take the lead!” Within a few days, Panic at the Disco had almost 6,000 more votes than anyone else. [All Songs Considered: The Blog]

All Songs Considered Best CDs 0f 2008 (So Far)
1. Panic! At the Disco, Pretty, Odd
2. Death Cab for Cutie, Narrow Stairs
3. Vampire Weekend, Vampire Weekend
4. Coldplay, Viva La Vida
5. Juno, Original Soundtrack
6. Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago
7. The Raconteurs, Consolers of the Lonely
8. Flight of the Conchords, Flight of the Conchords
9. My Morning Jacket, Evil Urges
10. Fleet Foxes, Fleet Foxes
11. Weezer, Weezer (Red Album)
12. MGMT, Oracular Spectacular
13. She & Him, Volume One
14. The Hush Sound, Goodbye Blues
15. Sigur Ros, Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
16. Portishead, Third
17. REM, Accelerate
18. The Black Keys, Attack and Release
19. Mariah Carey, E=MC2
20. The Ting Tings, We Started Nothing

Check out the rest of the poll results over here.