As with last year, Sunbleach is foregoing the publication of a formal end-of-the-year list in favor of hosting community-made lists. Last year’s announcement stated that “Most ‘top’ lists in music media are pretty easy to anticipate, and the need for a cohesive “ranked” document risks foregoing or being ignorant of experimental, lesser-run, or otherwise unknown releases with which fans may be more in tune” – and Sunbleach still agrees with that statement. As of today, we are opening submissions for hosting end-of-the-year write-ups and/or lists for releases made in 2017. The timetable is as follows:

1 December: Submissions open.

31 December: Submissions close.

2 January: End-of-the-year lists published.

Depending on the amount of lists received, there might be additional posts spread throughout the month of January to make sure that those who submitted were able to be featured.

Since albums that are submitted at the end of a year are a bit awkwardly placed for recognition, Sunbleach is allowing albums that were released from 24 December to 31 December 2016 to be featured in the year-end write-ups in addition to those released through December 2017 – as long as the 2016 albums are clearly labeled as such. Lists may be submitted to Sunbleach through the official Twitter account (@Sunbleach_Media), through messaging the official Facebook account, or through the “Contact” field accessible here. Following the end of receipt, Sunbleach will tally multiple artist, album, and/or label mentions in an attempt to deduce particularly recognized creators and their works.

Submissions may be written text paragraphs, lists with accompanying blurbs, or full lists. Sunbleach requests that any submission in list format be restricted to twenty-five album entries at maximum, but by no means do writers have to include twenty-five albums in their lists; a “Top Ten” list is just as valid as a “Top Twenty-Five”. Superlatives and other subjective awards are welcome. To get ideas of how you might like to write your submission, check out our community lists for 2016 and the quarterly features from Channeled Era.

There is no formal form that needs to be filled out or formal categories that need to be satisfied in order for a list to be featured. Submitters will be informed of any edits outside of formatting that are made to the list or to any accompanying text that the author would like to write. Submitters are welcome to request anonymity or pseudonymity for publication.

Thank you for reading Sunbleach, and we hope to hear from you!