Streets ahead for Best Album award

The Streets rapper Mike Skinner has come top of a poll to find the best album of the year.

A Grand Don’t Come for Free has been placed ahead of albums from the likes of U2, the Scissor Sisters and Eminem.

Keane’s Hopes and Fears came second in Q magazine’s list, followed by Franz Ferdinand’s album of the same name.

Skinner, from Birmingham, raps about everything from gambling and drink and drugs to falling in love, in his second album.

Q Magazine said: “A Grand Don’t Come for Free captured the country’s mood in a way no one could have predicted.

“Featuring a loose narrative which sees the Mike character misplacing a thousand quid, falling in love, larking about on holiday, being unfaithful and having his heart broken, it managed to muse on gambling, drink, drugs and the nature of friendship along the way.”

The magazine calls the runners up, Keane’s Hopes and Fears, a “revelatory debut” which showed “they had songwriting flair to spare.”

Franz Ferdinand’s album, in third place, sounds “natural, unforced (and) under-produced”.

Others Britons on the list include Dizzee Rascal (12), The Zutons (20), 24-year-old Estelle (39th) 17-year-old Joss Stone (40th) and Jamelia (44).

U2’s How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb comes fourth “a quintessential U2 album”, followed by Razorlight’s Up All Night in fifth place.

The Killers, Snow Patrol, the Scissor Sisters, Prince, Gwen Stefani, Usher and Norah Jones are also on the list.

Jeff Buckley, The Clash, The Kinks, Nirvana and the Pixies also get a billing for the five best reissues of the year.