# Best Pazz & Jop Critics Poll Album 1979 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 21, 2014, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-pazz-jop-critics-poll-album-1979/705270 "2014-11-21T17:09:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-pazz-jop-critics-poll-album-1979/705270/1 "2014-11-21T17:09:09Z")
Another good year, though with a bit of a cheat - The Clash’s first album makes the list for this year instead of '77 because it wasn’t released in the U.S. until then (and with an altered tracklist), while _London Calling_, which _was_ released in '79, gets counted as a 1980 album (as does my actual favorite album of 1979, which I’ll vote for in the 1980 poll). Still, despite stiff competition, the first Clash album (in either incarnation) is one of my all-time favorites, so I know how I’m voting. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-pazz-jop-critics-poll-album-1979/705270/2 "2014-11-21T17:15:20Z")
“Rust Never Sleeps” for its historical influence if nothing else - this album is for all intents and purposes the birth of grunge. ---
**Author:** ![Nema98](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d2c977/32.png) [@Nema98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nema98)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-pazz-jop-critics-poll-album-1979/705270/3 "2014-11-21T17:18:29Z")
B-52’s. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-pazz-jop-critics-poll-album-1979/705270/4 "2014-11-21T17:30:12Z")
Torn between Elvis Costello, Neil Young, the Clash, and the B-52s. I’ll hold off voting while I think about it some more. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-pazz-jop-critics-poll-album-1979/705270/5 "2014-11-21T17:43:36Z")
I could have voted for a lot of them, but I’m voting for Pere Ubu, just 'cause I don’t think a lot of people will and they deserve some love. Great fucking band. ---
**Author:** ![Purd\_Werfect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47c2d/32.png) [@Purd\_Werfect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Purd_Werfect)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-pazz-jop-critics-poll-album-1979/705270/6 "2014-11-21T17:47:18Z")
So many great releases, but Fear of Music is my fave TH album, and that’s saying a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-pazz-jop-critics-poll-album-1979/705270/7 "2014-11-21T17:56:05Z")
> [@Larry\_Borgia](#): > > I could have voted for a lot of them, but I’m voting for Pere Ubu, just 'cause I don’t think a lot of people will and they deserve some love. Great fucking band. I’d have voted for _Modern Dance_ ( maybe even number for #1 on the last list ), but though _Dub Housing_ is a good album which I still listen to, it’s jussst starting to edge into their seriously squirrely avant-garde stage. Provincial that I am I’ll admit that I’m not crazy about their early 80’s output ( but I do like the new band starting in the late '80’s with _The Tenement Years_ ). I’m voting for Costello for the second time in a row. Another nearly flawless album. If not that it would be The Clash or The B-52’s. The latter two are great and if _London Calling_ was on this list it would crush the opposition. But on balance Elvis ekes it out. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-pazz-jop-critics-poll-album-1979/705270/8 "2014-11-21T21:10:51Z")
Quite a good year for albums. I liked Bowie’s \*Lodger \*as well, but it didn’t make the list. I wish I could vote for Talking Heads’ _Fear of Music_ (godDAMN what an album!!!) and Pere Ubu’s _Dub Housing_ at the same time, but since I had to pick one, I picked Ubu. They pushed the boundaries of the possible and the imaginable like few others, while feeling free and happy with it too. I went to see both bands when they were touring these 2 releases, and Talking Heads’ stage 1979 presence was uptight and uncomfortable, completely the opposite of their glorious excellence heard a few years later in _Stop Making Sense_, the best rock tour in history. On the other hand, Pere Ubu’s show in a small clublike venue (the Cleveland Agora) was one of the most fun and memorable events I’ve ever been to. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-pazz-jop-critics-poll-album-1979/705270/9 "2014-11-21T21:11:46Z")
Elvis for the third year in a row. (I’ll probably stop next year. 🙂 ) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-pazz-jop-critics-poll-album-1979/705270/10 "2014-11-21T21:25:00Z")
I’m gonna go with The Clash for two years in a row. Pere Ubu is my second choice. ---
**Author:** ![Eddie\_F](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/22d042/32.png) [@Eddie\_F](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eddie_F)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-pazz-jop-critics-poll-album-1979/705270/11 "2014-11-21T21:46:48Z")
For me, it came down to _Squeezing Out Sparks_, _Fear of Music_, _Damn the Torpedoes_, _Labour of Lust_, _Armed Forces_, and _The B-52’s_. Ultimately I went with the most fun album on this list (with apologies to the author of the great EP, _Bowi_), the debut LP by Athens’s own B-52’s. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-pazz-jop-critics-poll-album-1979/705270/12 "2014-11-21T22:12:51Z")
> [@woodstockbirdybird](#): > > Another good year, though with a bit of a cheat - The Clash’s first album makes the list for this year instead of '77 because it wasn’t released in the U.S. until then (and with an altered tracklist), while _London Calling_, which _was_ released in '79, gets counted as a 1980 album (as does my actual favorite album of 1979, which I’ll vote for in the 1980 poll). Still, despite stiff competition, the first Clash album (in either incarnation) is one of my all-time favorites, so I know how I’m voting. I agree with all this, and voted for the Clash despite stiff competition. By the way, the UK release of this album, complete with lyric sheet, is one of the few bits of vinyl I kept. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-pazz-jop-critics-poll-album-1979/705270/13 "2014-11-21T23:27:37Z")
Any reason why _Dub Housing_ is 1979? That was released in November 1978 from all the sources I can find. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-pazz-jop-critics-poll-album-1979/705270/14 "2014-11-21T23:39:24Z")
> [@Larry\_Borgia](#): > > I could have voted for a lot of them, but I’m voting for Pere Ubu, just 'cause I don’t think a lot of people will and they deserve some love. Great fucking band. Thank you. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-pazz-jop-critics-poll-album-1979/705270/15 "2014-11-21T23:40:35Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Any reason why _Dub Housing_ is 1979? That was released in November 1978 from all the sources I can find. I remember. I grabbed it up in '78 as soon as it hit the stands. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-pazz-jop-critics-poll-album-1979/705270/16 "2014-11-21T23:57:09Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Any reason why _Dub Housing_ is 1979? That was released in November 1978 from all the sources I can find. Probably for the same reason _London Calling_ made the 1980 list - released too late in the year (after the polls had already been sent/filled out, I’m assuming). ---
**Author:** ![Abracadebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f04885/32.png) [@Abracadebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abracadebra)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-pazz-jop-critics-poll-album-1979/705270/17 "2014-11-21T23:59:00Z")
Tom Petty for me. I’ve been a fan since day one. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2014, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-pazz-jop-critics-poll-album-1979/705270/18 "2014-11-22T00:08:07Z")
> [@woodstockbirdybird](#): > > Probably for the same reason _London Calling_ made the 1980 list - released too late in the year (after the polls had already been sent/filled out, I’m assuming). Well, _London Calling_ was released in Jan 1980 in the US, so I assumed that was the reason for that one. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2014, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-pazz-jop-critics-poll-album-1979/705270/19 "2014-11-22T00:23:03Z")
You must be right. It looks like Nov 10 must have been the cutoff for 1978. Weird to have a year-end poll end that early, IMHO, but that’s their poll, their rules. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2014, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-pazz-jop-critics-poll-album-1979/705270/20 "2014-11-22T01:09:19Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Well, _London Calling_ was released in Jan 1980 in the US, so I assumed that was the reason for that one. And \*Dub Housing \*was also initially released as an import only–that’s the version I had. Was there a US release in 1979? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-pazz-jop-critics-poll-album-1979/705270.md?page=2)