Best Pazz & Jop Critics Poll Album of the '70s

Not the most diverse list - almost entirely classic rock, with Stevie Wonder the only soul act and Elvis Costello the only halfway-close thing to punk. But this is how you guys voted, so now let’s go by decade. There were no polls for '70, '72 or '73, but there was a 3-way tie in '78, so there are 9 entries for this one.

Fleetwood Mac.

Yup. Many great albums on that list, but Rumours is great from start to finish, and has enough variety of styles to capture a range of 70s (and timeless) musical feels.

It’s Rust Never Sleeps, for me. “Powderfinger” , “Pocahontas” and the opening and closing bookend songs put it ahead of the others. That it’s mostly live makes it even better.

Plus, I’ve never heard a musician explicitly fight for relevance and be as successful as he was on that record.

Love Rumours, love Dylan, love Stevie, but have to go with Who’s Next.

Fleetwood Mac? Really? How disappointing. Aside from Songs in the Key of Life and Who’s Next, none of these are worthy to be even mentioned at the same time as Blood on the Tracks, let alone earn more votes than it.

Rust Never Sleeps contains some of the most epic guitar rock ever recorded–Powderfinger, Cortez the Killer, Like a Hurricane. One of the greatest rock albums ever made.

I went with Dylan, but the competition was tough. Springsteen, Neil Young, Elvis Costello, The Who…tough choice.

But is Rumours really running away with this poll? That album was definitely the marker that mid-70s mellow-rock had gone too far, and it justified all the musical reactions, not just punk and New Wave, but disco as well.

I have to go with Warren Zevon, of course. :slight_smile:

Fair enough. I’m glad I voted for Rumours, though – no reason the best example of something can’t happen just when it’s time for the world to move on to something else.