The 30th P&J Albums Poll!

Oh god.

Yep...it's time for that one alright.

This isn't a very fun list. I voted for Murray Street, which is my favorite Sonic Youth record, but I don't listen to many of these anymore. I liked a lot of these dour albums at the time but I think it was post 9/11 gloom that gave them what appeal they had.

"Yoshimi" wins narrowly ahead of "Sea Change".

Ha! I was gonna go with either Shadow or the mekons (most likely Shadow, though), but decided to vote for The Best Bootlegs in the World Ever instead. What can I say; it's fun...still.

Yeah I really think this might be the worst P&J top 40 ever. Murray Street easy, with The Fix a close second.

Shocking, Geir!

xp

the Mekons made my list that year; The Private Press and One Beat get the most play now. Voted for Shadow.

lol i just voted for Interpol.

I own TWO other albums here in their entirety, one of which is Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. The other is an EP.

That vote for Radio Soulwax was pretty easy.

Got quite a few tracks from the QOTSA, Bright Eyes, Sonic Youth, Hives, DBT (if my best-of SRO CD-R was nominated I might have voted for it) and Clinic. Really wanna hear Scarface, and I love every other Hives album (even Barely Legal) enough that I want to re-check out the songs I didn't keep from that. But then White Blood Cells is my second least favorite Stripes album so maybe my taste just don't click with Rock Is Back breakthroughs.

No love for AWK, Anthony?

I always petered out by the end, "Party Hard" was enough for me.

this was my big pop-punk P'n' ballot year

1 Desaparecidos Read Music / Speak Spanish Saddle Creek 15
2 Good Charlotte The Young And The Hopeless Epic 14
3 The Distillers Sing Sing Death House Hellcat 12
4 Donnas Spend The Night Atlantic 11
5 Weezer Maladroit Geffen 11
6 Rocket From the Crypt Live From Camp X-Ray Vagrant 10
7 Kelly Osbourne Shut Up Epic 9
8 Wilco Yankee Hotel Foxtrot Nonesuch 8
9 All-American Rejects All-American Rejects Doghouse 5
10 Local H Here Comes the Zoo Palm 5

The order's changed but the only one I wouldn't vote for now is Local H. Replace them with...Interpol! I also hadn't heard Bowling For Soup's Too Drunk To Dance, which is another great pop-punk album. I kinda wanna pretend I'm Chuck and put McLusky in my pop-punk invasion too.

even tho it's probably only my 3rd or 4th favorite spoon album, i'm voting for KTM.

KTM's another "side 2 is worthless why do people go nuts for that album" deal for me. Spoon got EPs I'd take over it.

i don't nec go nuts for it, but idk this is a pretty awful list. i considered voting for interpol, n.e.r.d. and maybe the hives, but idk none of those really excite me at all (not that KTM does that much either).

actually there is some real good stuff buried in this list (yeah yeah yeahs, sigur ros, scarface) it's just the top that's really dispiriting. i can't think of a more bland top three than wilco, beck and flaming lips.

I wasn't accusing you, Jordan. You probably qualified your praise. I like "Brain" and the singles from NERD.

PROPERLY qualified, sorry.

Desaparecidos and GC made me think pop-punk was really coming into its own, but then phhhhhbbbbbt emo-metal uggggghhh. One reason I can't expect to much will come from Against Me breaking through.

The Flaming Lips album is so ridiculously overrated ("the greatest album of Uncut's lifetime" etc) - it's only got four or five good songs. SFA get my vote but I don't even care for that much.

Went with Orchestra Baobab.

I just realized When I Was Cruel actually made the top 20! yow. i bet more critics still listen to that fuckin Norah Jones than the EC disc now.

CUM ON UP FOR DA RIZANG!

thanks to his new wife, EC probably listens to fuckin Norah Jones instead of Cruel.

christ RFTC got ROBBED when it came to post-9/11 boohoo albums.

This isn't a very fun list.

Are you kidding? This year was fantastic...

Best-of-career albums: Wilco, The Streets, Sleater-Kinney, The Roots, QOTSA, Spoon (arguably), Interpol, Neko Case.

Really good albums: Beck (who I otherwise can't stand), Flaming Lips, Costello, Super Furries, Common, Clinic, Mekons.

...and that's just from the P&J list, and within my tastes. Supposedly the Missy Elliott is great, and maybe the Bright Eyes, but I'm not about to find out.

Only one of those I'd call a best-of-career album is Interpol and Bright Eyes, but those fresh-faced poonhounds may still have some glory left in 'em!

ones of those

Off the top of my head, a bunch of great albums not on P&J this year, alphabetically:

...Trail of Dead - Source Tags and Codes
Boards of Canada - Geogaddi
Cinerama - Torino
Comets on Fire - Field Recordings from the Sun
The Delgados - Hate
Guided by Voices - Universal Truths and Cycles
Low - Trust
Mclusky - Mclusky Do Dallas
The Mountain Goats - Tallahassee
Primal Scream - Evil Heat
Secret Machines - September 000
Smog - Accumulation: None (b-sides compilation)
Tom Waits - Alice
Tom Waits - Blood Money
The Walkmen - Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone

One Beat

But The Mendoza Line Lost In Revelry is the best record that came out that year.

KtM over One Beat, narrowly, but yeah, if Alice had made the list, it would have been a no-brainer for me.

Yeah I don't think there's a single best-of-career album on this list by an artist who's made more than 3 albums.

Drive-By Truckers, easy (their best album, and they've made way more than three), though I'm pretty sure I voted for them the year before this poll.

Probably wouldn't hate the Streets, 2 Many DJs, Queens of the Stone Age, Soundtrack of Our Lives, the Hives, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Spoon, Andrew WK, Missy, or Cee-Lo if I went back to listen to them, but I don't know that I ever will again, at least for most of them. (New Hives album is really good!) Not sure if I ever heard Best Bootlegs. Probably some other okay stuff up there too. (I dunno...Solomon Burke, maybe? Shadow? Clinic?? I liked their first one at the time; which one was this? I liked a track or two on that Roots album, too, I guess.) So yeah, not the best list, though I'm not convinced it's the worst ever either. Probably in the bottom 50 %.

What I actually voted for (including Drive By Truckers, it turns out -- I assume it got a couple carryover votes from the year before, though):

1 Rocket from the Tombs The Day the Earth Met The Rocket from the Tombs Smog Veil 15
2 Drive-By Truckers Southern Rock Opera Lost Highway 14
3 Lifter Puller Soft Rock Self-Starter Foundation 13
4 Styrenes It's Still Artastic ROIR 10
5 Epop Version_01: Point of View Epic 10
6 Northern State Dying In Stereo Northern State 9
7 Field Mob From tha Roota to tha Toota MCA 8
8 Gore Gore Girls Up All Night Get Hip 8
9 Toby Keith Unleashed DreamWorks 7
10 The Streets Original Pirate Material Locked On/Vice 6

ROIR were still putting out new(?) stuff as late as 2002?

I think they were, actually, but that may well have been an expanded reissue on CD of a previous reissue that had only come out on cassette at first, or something. Still the best Styrenes album I own (and I think the Mirrors just missed making my ballot.)

Yeah, what do ya know; they're still around:

http://www.roir-usa.com/

I remember in 2002 deciding that I wanted to keep up with albums that were critically acclaimed but not necessarily within my comfort zone. I'd sort of dismissed Wilco in the past but found myself listening to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot a lot. I thought I should get into Sleater-Kinney, and I did. And Interpol wasn't really my style, either (despite being on Matador), but man oh man, Turn on the Bright Lights really left a mark. It was my #1 then, and it's my #1 now.

For the record, I also heard a lot of this list just because it was in my comfort zone: as a teenager in the '90s, I was a fan of Beck, the Flaming Lips, Sonic Youth, and DJ Shadow -- although none of their 2002 releases I found to be their best work. (I find Murray Street just a tad overrated -- critics wanted to proclaim "Sonic Youth is back!" and managed to overlook how the last third of the album kind of collapses. Sonic Nurse struck me as a superior refinement of the sound they developed on Murray Street.)

2002 also is probably the first Pazz & Jop list I really paid much attention to: I discovered ILX by googling for discussion about the P&J results.

My top 10 at the time, as posted on this thread:

1. Interpol - "Turn on the Bright Lights"
2. Do Make Say Think - "& Yet & Yet"
3. ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead - "Source Tags & Codes"
4. Wilco - "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot"
5. Mum - "Finally We Are No One"
6. Archer Prewitt - "Three"
7. Pretty Girls Make Graves - "Good Health"
8. Notwist - "Neon Golden"
9. Flaming Lips - "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots"
10. Enon - "High Society"

Understand, I probably only heard about twice that. Maybe 25, but that's a stretch.

I'll go with Orchestra Baobab (though more the Pirate's Choice reissue than Specialist In All Styles).

Sonic Nurse struck me as a superior refinement of the sound they developed on Murray Street.

^^^

I like Murray Street now more than I did then for that reason.

I should perhaps go back to it. I haven't heard it in a long time.

I don't think there's a single best-of-career album on this list by an artist who's made more than 3 albums.

I actually think Yeah Yeah Yeahs peaked with (or were at least most entertaining on) their debut EP, too, though I doubt anybody agrees with me. (By the way, is this the only time an EP ever placed in the actual P&J album top 40? Or am I forgetting one?)

And how many albums does Andrew WK have? (I stopped paying attention after his boring second one.)

I said "3 albums," and I'm pretty sure the Yeah Yeah Yeahs haven't gotten to that many full-lengths yet. Didn't know the size of Drive By Truckers' catalog, nor what their best is, so I'll concede being wrong on that. My point still stands though that most of the albums on here are like the 3rd of 5th or 10th best album by the artist, and most of the exceptions are artists that haven't been around for too long yet.

Yeah, I don't disagree with your basic theory, actually.

And I guess Yeah Yeah Yeahs only have three (or four) albums if you count their EPs, so they're a tossup.

AMG is listing Andrew WK as having five actual albums (says I Get Wet was his third -- were those first two Wolf Eyes collaborations or something?) But I'm skeptical.

Yeah I don't think there's a single best-of-career album on this list by an artist who's made more than 3 albums.

I probably wouldn't be alone in arguing that the Wilco is a best-of-career album.

I think Murray Street holds up well. The last third has got "Sympathy for the Strawberry", which I love. I find myself wanting to listen to Murray Street more than Sonic Nurse.

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot has got some good songs on it, but I think it's hard to listen to it straight-through - the first song drags a little bit and their are some other boring stretches. It would probably make a very good 30 minute album if edited right.

Under Construction is not one of my favorite Missy albums - though it has one of her best singles on it. As albums, I like the next two much better: This is Not a Test and Cookbook (when is she coming out with something new, btw?).

Other very good albums not on this list: Astrobotnia, FM Knives, Ellen Allien, Archie Shepp & Mihaly Dresch, Opeth.

norah jones inclusion baffles me fwiw.

The VH1 block never fails to strike. That said, Norah Jones is pretty damn good as far as coffee house drivel goes.

is it really? ill take your word for it, but i'd have imagined that the hives would be bigger w/ the vh1 set than norah jones.

cuz wasn't vh1 still on that indie tip in 2002 compared to the trad singer-songwriter thing they do now?

I dunno, I can't ever recall them being on that indie tip. I've always associated them with trad AC stuff.

I haven't heard her albums, but "Don't Know Why" and "Sunrise" are good singles.

ok maybe i'm just conflating them w/ mtv in my head. i didn't pay that much attention when i was 14, but i just figured they had gradually glided into this belinda carlisle pimping type shit.

All I know is in 96-97 they were playing Sheryl Crow, while MTV was playing Ma$e or whatever.

hm ok.

easy. NERD - In Search Of...

(before they re-recorded it with real instruments)

and, yeah, whoever mentioned Comets of Fire's absence, fucking bullseye.

glad you agree. that six organs record is great too!

M.I.A.: Amerie, All I Have

It looks like the tracks on that Missy best-of are pretty evenly spread out over her career, with perhaps a bit more emphasis on the early albums. By my count:

Supa Dupa Fly - 4
Da Real World - 3
So Addictive - 3
Under Construction - 2
This is Not a Test - 2
Cookbook - 3

I think their choices are pretty defensible, though I haven't heard the remixes they chose.

Ha! The split between albums basically matches my opinion of those albums!

Knock each one up a notch and that would be my "star" rating for them.

I basically agree with that, except that what that doesn't show is that Missy's rapping has also improved steadily with time - so if you factor in her improved mic skills, I tend to notch the last couple albums a bit higher.

the running order of that comp is kinda weird to me, newer stuff so frontloaded that there's nothing before 2001 until track 10. I'd have to listen to it or shuffle it around to be sure, but I think Missy's the kind of artist that would benefit from the chronological approach.

missy best of is zzz

Absolutely! Also, I think I'd take This is Not a Test over Da Real World (which is probably my least favorite of her albums), but the above rankings are otherwise OTM.

xp

the first three records i still listen to sometimes. kind of overplayed miss e though.

the songs im most likely to want to hear are the ones that weren't hits at this point. the singles are kind of like the rap equivalent of classic rock radio to me at this pt.

Da Real World = underrated Missy, it's so fucking dark/heavy in a way that none of her others are.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

As far as Norah Jones doing well in P&J, it seemed at the time like a lot of roots/alt-country writers/fans were into her that year, especially at SXSW.

Wow! The Streets barely squeak into the top ten? This is ILM? Really???

1. I knew I should have voted for Shadow dammit!
2. Bet I can guess who voted for Common.
3. Rawk iz bach (2002 stylee)!

The fuck what? Lurkers, out yourselves.

Common = Cibula?

Does anyone (other than Matos, I guess) still rate the Streets?

the only streets song i like is the one from the first album that is like :37 seconds long. that's about the max length i can stand dude for.

Yeah, that's my guess.

xp

Sure, lot's of people do. OPM would probably still make my top ten, easy.

this is a pretty reasonable outcome nonetheless.

Well, the top four are at least amusing. Also, I do love that the original top three received only one vote each.

this have be the fewest no-voted-for albums of any year yet

Queens of the Stone Age: Songs for the Deaf (Interscope)

great record, awful production ^^

I love the production on it. It's the 2nd best Qotsa album after the 1st.

The middle drags enough for long enough that it's my least favorite (excepting the first album, which I haven't heard much and can't find a copy of in town), but omg so many good songs. Never understood the production complaints, its obv a conceptual choice and I totally don't think it gets in the way of the rock.

It's a terrific album. Complaints are usually about the mock radio things. I definitely think it's better than rated r.

Also forgot to mention Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Ensemble - another good one from '02.

It's kinda funny that the chat on these threads die when the poll results are in. No one likes discussing results?

Those who would be most apt to do end-zone dances over the poll winners are invariably ILM lurkers.

I think there's a general sense that the results aren't necessarily very truthful/representative of the general feeling of the board, since they're skewed by the polling system and the short timespan in which people are able to vote. So the results are more interesting to debate in theory, when arguing for or against certain options can at least possibly influence votes, than after they roll in and there's a couple "oh, that's a surprise" comments and not much else to say (and this is one of the more surprising poll results). But I became a zing target for talking about polls with any degree of interest or seriousness the other day, so I'll stop now.

Imagine if we were all drinking.

Yeah, but the results are never the most interesting aspect of these (or most?) polls really. Plus we never really get enough votes to justify a more detailed analysis of said results.

And I do agree with you, Alex, more options would make for better, or at least more interesting, polls.

Also: I would really like it if we could somehow see who voted for what by simply clicking on each item to receive a vote. Therefore, hopefully mitigating any chance of ballot stuffing and/or voter fraud, ya know.

xp

You mean we're not?!?!

would really like it if we could somehow see who voted for what by simply clicking on each item to receive a vote.

That way we could heckle them.

yeah i don't really see the point of seeing who voted for what. probably half the people say what they're voting for in a post anyway, and the other half would probably be lurkers whose names we'd barely recognize. and in the past when people speculated about ballot stuffing/voter fraud in polls mods have posted to note that they'd notice if there were suddenly a bunch of new dummy accounts just to vote in that one poll, so i'm assuming they know how to prevent that.

http://www.atlasblogged.com/archives/voter.bmp

Damn straight, Ace! Heck, how many of us were traumatized by those "I don't happen to care for..." (or however in hell they were worded) votes on the favorite Sabbath/Zeppelin album polls? Oh the humanity of it all!!!

xxp

Not necessarily. One could just delete one's ILX cookies in order to vote repeatedly.

I think the "none of the above"/"these all suck" option should be mandatory in all polls, to provide proper perspective if nothing else.

Oh I generally agree with you there, but that option wouldn't really make much sense on these particular polls.

I just don't find the results as interesting as the discussion or the opportunity to revisit records....for instance, a little something I like to call BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB!!!

there's already a thread for discussing them, Kevin: OPO: artist not canonized/liked/taken remotely seriously by ILM that you love