Village Voice have revealed the results of their annual 'Pazz & Jop' critics poll, where music writers and the like across the USA are asked what their favo(u)rite records and songs of the year are, before all of the results are collated, totted-up and generally worked out. The results are mostly uninteresting, but there are some half-decent bits of writing to accompany it, read all about it here.
Top 10 records of the year are below:
1 - Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasty
2 - LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening
3 - Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
4 - Janelle Monáe - The ArchAndroid
5 - Vampire Weekend - Contra
6 - Big Boi - Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty
7 - Beach House - Teen Dream
8 - The National - High Violet
9 - Sleigh Bells - Treats
10 - Black Keys - Brothers
Beach House?! Fully deserved. Here are the Top 10 tracks, which don't differ all that much from the albums, in truth.
1 - Cee Lo Green - 'Fuck You'
2 - Janelle Monáe - 'Tightrope'
3 - Robyn - 'Dancing On My Own'
4 - Kanye West - 'Runaway'
5 - Kanye West - 'Power'
6 - Kanye West - 'Monster'
7 - Big Boi - 'Shutterbugg'
8 - Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - 'Round and Round'
9 - The National - 'Bloodbuzz Ohio'
10 - Sleigh Bells - 'Rill Rill'
This may not seem very interesting in itself, but it's possibly part of a larger discussion going on at the moment on our boards about music criticism and music writing in general, which you can partake in here. That said, you could just listen to some of these records that you may not have heard, rather than reading about writing about writing about writing about music. Your choice!