In the never-ending quest to turn Cafe Society into nothing but music polls, I’m starting a new one for the Pazz & Jop Critics Poll albums. For those unfamiliar, these are year-end polls given out by the Village Voice to a bunch of music critics to determine a consensus on the best albums of the year. These lists are generally much more in line with my tastes than the charts, so I thought it would be fun to do. Also, I thought it would be cool to do polls for albums as opposed to songs. We’ll see what the interest level is. Anyway, this was the first year of the poll - I’ll list the top 15 picks for each year.
I see you have them already numbered in the correct order for us. Very thoughtful of you!
(Mostly joking, but 1 and 2 are correct, for me.)
It sounds like fun, but people should be warned that although this year’s poll matches up fairly closely with the Billboard best-selling albums chart, that will become less and less true over time. By the mid-1990s, it will mostly show 3-4 big sellers, and a bunch of indie albums. It will be hard for people to vote for records they don’t know.
For me, the top three this year are the albums by The Who, Carole King, and Joni Mitchell. I think I will agree with the critics and pick “Who’s Next”.
Yeah, it definitely becomes more esoteric, but there are plenty of indie/underground fans on the boards, so I imagine there will still be participation. And there’s always the chance that those unfamiliar with the choices can check out Youtube clips and discover some music they weren’t aware of.
Who’s Next is one of the greatest albums of all time. Easy choice.
Sticky Fingers, it’s the Rolling Stones in their prime, and it’s going to take a lot to get me to vote against that line up.
There are some heavy hitters in that lineup – it’s a shame they’re going to get blown out of the water by Who’s Next, but yeah, I have to go along with the crowd.
It’ll be interesting to see how many of each year’s list are in my collection… if I recall correctly, I have 12 of these… this was my era musically.
For many years, I would have named Who’s Next as my favorite album of all time. Unfortunately, I burned out on that album long ago, to the point where I change the station when “Won’t Get Fooled Again” or “Baba O’Riley” comes on the radio.
Of the albums on that list, the one I love most (except for “Maggie May,” which I never liked) is Rod Stewart’s*** Every Picture Tells a Story.***
Sticky Fingers for me. I’m not even much of a Stones fan, but this album is pretty much perfect. The Who would probably be my second choice. Funny enough, I’m not much a fan of theirs, either, but that album is iconic, too.
I voted for Tapestry, but could have gone with The Who or the Stones. Just a heads up: there was no Pazz & Jop poll for 1972 or 1973 for some reason, so the next one will jump to '74.
Some great albums in the list, but the Who has the upper hand.
I could have gone with Tapestry, until I scanned down the list and saw Blue.
The top singles polls left me behind in the mid-eighties; '88 was the last year there was even one song I knew. Hopefully this poll will last me a bit longer.
And even though I know Who’s Next is the correct answer, I had to vote for Joy of Cooking as a personal favorite. I didn’t think anybody outside northern California even knew about them.
One of my most fond memories is the time my then ten year old son came down to the basement and said,"want to listen to “Who’s Next” with me?
Wow. What a list. I have to go with the Stones because it gets played most often in my house and had been a guitar touchstone for my son and I as he has started playing. I have said before on this board: the opening riff on Can’t You Hear Me Knockin’ is pretty much the best ever.
But Who’s Next is another album deservedly in the arguments for best ever, Tapestry and Blue are best-evers in their ways and Morrison, Stewart and so many others. John Lennon is one of the middling ones - that’s the kind of year we are discussing. What a nice commentary on the state of music.
Fun. Inner Mounting Flame is my favorite fusion LP (“Miles Beyond” is perfect chops meets musical taste); Who’s Next is if course great; and Van Morrison could do no wrong. But I went with Sticky Fingers – “Moonlight Mile” alone would make this an oeuvre for the ages.
Blue was Joni’s moment of perfect ripeness. The precocious artist was grown up but hadn’t moved on to earnest songs about Beethoven or mediocre jazz. No hit singles but no clunkers. I prefer it to Sticky Fingers.
As for Who’s Next, it peaks crazy high, but Behind Blue Eyes is more silly than deep. Goin’ Mobile is more silly than good.
Muswell Hillbillies got better over time for me, as earnest an indictment of social engineering as Ray Davies was capable of.
I thought Joni Mitchell was better as this legendary songwriter who wrote hits for Judy Collins, Tom Rush and Buffy Sainte-Marie. By 1971 she was writing songs only she could do, and it wasn’t the same.
I think Joni peaked two years earlier, with her 1969 album Clouds. Like Van Morrison, though, she manages to come up with at least a couple of creative, well-composed, well-produced tracks on album after album across the decades.
Was the title intentionally dyslexic? 