It’s unanimous, at least among NoDepression.com’s critics and readers: Alejandro Escovedo’s Real Animal was the best album of 2008.

Many of you responded to the early-January posting of our annual ND Critics Poll by saying you were interested in having us continue the Readers Poll equivalent that we’d tried out for the first time last year. We complied, you participated, and the resulting rankings are below.

Not only did our readers and critics both put Escovedo’s album at the top of their respective lists, they were also in agreement about #2, Hayes Carll’s Trouble In Mind, and #3, Drive-By Truckers’ Brighter Than Creation’s Dark. After that, things diverged a bit, although there were two other records (Lucinda Williams’ Little Honey and Kathleen Edwards’ Asking For Flowers) that also appeared in the both top-10s.

A couple of prominent divergences: Both Ben Sollee’s Learning To Bend and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds’ Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! made the critics’ top-10 but failed to place in the readers’ top-40. By contrast, Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson’s Rattlin’ Bones and James McMurtry’s Just Us Kids made the readers’ top-10 but failed to crack the critics’ top-40.

In cases where we’ve posted a review of an album to NoDepression.com, we’ve linked to that review in the list below. And, as always, you’re welcome to add your comments below. Without further ado, here’s the list:

1. Alejandro Escovedo, Real Animal (Back Porch/Manhattan) — 214 — 29
2. Hayes Carll, Trouble In Mind (Lost Highway) — 180 — 26
3. Drive-By Truckers, Brighter Than Creation’s Dark (New West) — 166 — 27
4. Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson, Rattlin’ Bones (Sugar Hill) — 137 — 23
5. James McMurtry, Just Us Kids (Lightning Rod) — 106 — 15
6. Lucinda Williams, Little Honey (Lost Highway) — 105 — 18
7. Kathleen Edwards, Asking For Flowers (Zoe/Rounder) — 98 — 21
8. Bob Dylan, Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Vol. 8 (Columbia) — 92 — 10
9. Justin Townes Earle, The Good Life (Bloodshot) — 78 — 14
10. Tift Merritt, Another Country (Fantasy) — 73 — 11
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11. Hold Steady, Stay Positive (Vagrant) — 69 — 12
12. Old 97’s, Blame It On Gravity (New West) — 64 — 15
13. Randy Newman, Harps And Angels (Nonesuch) — 60 — 11
14. Fleet Foxes, self-titled (Sub Pop) — 53 — 9
15. Ryan Adams & the Cardinals, Cardinology (Lost Highway) — 51 — 8
16. SteelDrivers, self-titled (Rounder) — 50 — 9
17. Rodney Crowell, Sex & Gasoline (Yep Roc) — 48 — 11
18. John Hiatt, Same Old Man (New West) — 46 — 7
19. John Mellencamp, Life, Death, Love & Freedom (Hear) — 44 — 6
20. Arty Hill & the Long Gone Daddys, Bar Of Gold (Cow Island) — 44 — 5 — fed to the lions
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21. Chris Knight, Heart Of Stone (Drifter’s Church) — 43 — 10
22. Felice Brothers, self-titled (Team Love) — 43 — 6
23. My Morning Jacket, Evil Urges (ATO) — 42 — 8
24. David Byrne & Brian Eno, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today (Todo Mundo) — 41 — 6
25. Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago (Jagjaguwar) — 40 — 7
26. Jenny Lewis, Acid Tongue (Warner Bros.) — 39 — 8
27. Emmylou Harris, All I Intended To Be (Nonesuch) — 38 — 8
28. Shelby Lynne, Just A Little Lovin’ (Lost Highway) — 38 — 8
29. Matthew Ryan, Vs. The Silver State (00:02:59) — 36 — 5
30. R.E.M., Accelerate (Warner Bros.) — 34 — 9
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31. Eliza Gilkyson, Beautiful World (Red House) — 34 — 6
32. Hank Williams, The Unreleased Recordings (Time-Life) — 34 — 4
33. Old Crow Medicine Show, Tennessee Pusher (Nettwerk) — 32 — 8
34. Neil Young, Sugar Mountain: Live At Canterbury House 1968 (Reprise) — 30 — 5
35. She & Him, Volume One (Merge) — 28 — 5
36. Raconteurs, Consolers Of The Lonely (Warner Bros.) – 28 — 4
37. Paul Thorn, A Long Way From Tupelo (Perpetual Obscurity) — 28 — 3
38. Cowboy Junkies, Trinity Revisited (Zoe/Rounder) — 27 — 4
39. Okkervil River, The Stand Ins (Jagjaguwar) — 27 — 4
40. Band Of Heathens, self-titled (self) — 27 — 4

SCORING: On each ballot, 10 points were given for a #1 ranking, 9 for #2, and so on down to 1 point for #10. Only complete ballots with 10 records listed were counted. The numbers noted after each title are: 1) total points; and 2) number of voters who listed the record. Ties were broken by the greater number of voters who listed the record; if still tied, then by whichever record was listed highest on any individual ballot.