Pazz & Jop, TIRBD diverge wildly in taste

Posted by John Kenyon

This year’s Village Voice Pazz & Jop music poll is out, and it shows me to be increasingly out of step with what is considered hip. Not only have I not even heard the poll-topping My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West (nor, to be honest, do I have much desire to), but I’ve found most of the top 10 to be pretty dull and uninspiring. Perhaps 2010 was the year when I finally quit worrying about what the tastemakers thought and spent more time with what I liked.

The Voice top 10 is rounded out by (and my take):

LCD Soundsystem – puzzlingly bland
Arcade Fire – unfun
Janelle Monae – haven’t heard it
Vampire Weekend – disappointing
Big Boi - haven’t heard it
Beach House – not as good as the live show
The National - on my list
Sleigh Bells – intriguing but grating
Black Keys – Good, but far from their best

The National, at #8, is obviously the highest finisher among my own top 10. I didn’t rank my picks within the 10, but Voice voters did it for me. Here, in decreasing order of voters in the poll, are my picks:

The National – 97
Titus Andronicus – 75
Superchunk – 49
Teenage Fanclub – 11
Steve Wynn – 6
Besnard Lakes – 5
Devo – 5
Josh Ritter – 4
Brad Mehldau – 4
Crowded House – 3

Meanwhile, 266 critics voted for the Kanye West album. That seems like a lot compared with the paltry 3 that gave Crowded House some support, but it’s still just a fraction of the 708 who participated this year. That leaves room for a boatload of diversity, which is represented by the 1,839 albums selected by voters. That’s 2.6 unique records per voter, pretty staggering when you consider the consensus apparently represented by West’s win. According to the Voice, West’s win was by the largest margin ever, and his third #1 out of five albums.