Wilco's latest Nonesuch release, Wilco (the album), has been named Album of the Year by the Independent, which has an exclusive interview with Jeff Tweedy as well. In a year that has been "a fine year for albums," the paper's Andy Gill calls Wilco's newest "an extraordinary achievement." Also on his list of favorites is Oh My God, Charlie Darwin from The Low Anthem, "this year's most intriguing new Americana-indie offshoot." The Boston Herald concurs, placing both albums on its Top 10 of 2009.

Rolling Stone has announced its 100 Best Albums of the Decade, and five Nonesuch releases have made the list, including two albums from Wilco and one each from The Black Keys, Amadou & Mariam, and Brian Wilson. Wilco is also on the magazine's list of the decade's Top 100 Songs, for "Jesus, Etc.," joined by Randy Newman, for his Harps and Angels track "A Few Words in Defense of Our Country." OMM includes the Amadou & Mariam album and Ali Farka Touré's Savane on its list of the decade's Top 50.

The Times (UK) weighed in on the decade's best music late last month, including Nonesuch albums in each of four categories. Now, the Sunday Times  offers its list of the best albums of 2009, and Nonesuch artists are one again represented across genres: Wilco for Wilco (the album) in rock/pop, Kronos Quartet's Floodplain in world, and Allen Toussaint's The Bright Mississippi in jazz. SPIN includes Wilco (the album) and Amadou & Mariam's Welcome to Mali on its own list of the year's best.

The nominations are in for the 52nd Grammy Awards and include five Nonesuch artists: Allen Toussaint for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, The Bright Mississippi; Wilco for Best Americana Album, Wilco (the album); Shawn Colvin for Best Contemporary Folk Album, Live; and, for Best Contemporary World Music Album, both Amadou & Mariam (Welcome to Mali) and Oumou Sangare (Seya). Steven Epstein was nominated as Producer of the Year, Classical, for work including John Adams's Doctor Atomic Symphony.

Three Nonesuch albums have made the list of the Best Albums of 2009 from David Dye, host of NPR's World Cafe: Wilco's Wilco (the album) ("a masterpiece that felt both ambitious and lived-in"), Dan Auerbach's Keep It Hid, and Allen Toussaint's The Bright Mississippi. Dye also picks "You and I," Jeff Tweedy's duet with Leslie Feist off Wilco (the album), among his choices of the year's best songs.

The Times (UK) has had its say on the best albums of the decade, covering the best in classical, jazz, world music, and pop, and Nonesuch artists are represented in every one: John Adams at No. 1 on the classical list with Doctor Atomic Symphony; Brad Mehldau and Bill Frisell in jazz; Youssou N'Dour, Orchestra Baobab, "Cachaíto" Lopez, and Amadou & Mariam in world; the Malian duo in pop as well, along with Brian Wilson and Wilco.

Wilco has just completed its tour of Europe that included a London show the Independent called "one of the best gigs of the year, by one of the best bands in the world." The band tours North America in February and March and has now added a number of dates in Japan and Australia starting in April. The Vine says the band was "reliably excellent" when last in Australia, in "that hypnotic, skillful vein of Americana that suggests the band could play pretty much any style of music they want and still be better than most everyone, in any era."

NPR's All Songs Considered has compiled a list of The Decade's 50 Most Important Recordings. Among them are three Nonesuch recordings: John Adams's On the Transmigration of Souls, Ali Farka Touré and Toumani Diabaté's In the Heart of the Moon (World Circuit/Nonesuch), and Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. "These are the game-changers," says NPR of the 50, "records that signaled some sort of shift in the way music is made or sounds, or ones that were especially influential or historically significant."

Wilco's European tour comes to a close this week with two shows in the Netherlands. Tonight's concert at the Paradiso in Amsterdam will be webcast live on the band's site. There are already more live performances planned for next year, including a gala benefit honoring Neil Young as MusiCares Person of the Year during Grammy week, a Canadian tour, and, now, the End of the Road Festival in England, which the band will headline next September.

Wilco's European tour concludes in the Netherlands next week, where the band will webcast Monday night's show in Amsterdam live. The group's much-anticipated contribution (with Feist and Jamie Lidell) to Beck's Record Club is now available: "Little Hands" from the 1969 Skip Spence album Oar. Also on the covers front, Peter Gabriel's forthcoming covers album will include songs by The Magnetic Fields and Randy Newman.

As Wilco’s European tour continues, the vinyl reissue of the band's catalog is now complete with today's release of Being There, the band's second studio album. Upon its original release, The Independent's Andy Gill compared it favorably to the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street. Today, Gill praises Wilco's recent London show, which closed with a special take of a song off Being There, "a magical, moving conclusion to one of the best gigs of the year, by one of the best bands in the world."

Just as Wilco begins its tour through Europe in the UK tonight, the band's 2002 album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot has nabbed the No. 2 slot on the list of the 50 Best Albums of the Decade according to Paste magazine and claims the No. 1 spot in a poll of the magazine's readers. "Through its circuitous provenance and runaway success," says Paste, "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot proved that great art—even in difficult times—will find the light of day."