The 29th P&J Albums Poll!

Just for the hell of it, I'll start this one off. Dylan!

Let the blood-letting begin!!

still "Love & Theft".

haha--beat you by 14 seconds.

Discovery

Yeah, it should be a pretty interesting poll given that Discovery, Rooty and Since I Left You are all options!

At the time I would have gone for Love & Theft, but the 2001 release I keep going back to is Fugazi's The Argument.

The Langley Schools Music Project: Innocence and Despair

This is the album I most hate seeing on there, despite never having heard a note of it.

Mass Romantic is still my favorite record of the Aughts. So waaaaay that. Moldy Peaches after that (which I mention cuz Mass Romantic was a 2000 release).

I do so love that Black Rebel Motorcycle Club record. What rock & roller can resist the epilectic seizure at 3:06 in "As Sure As The Sun???" The audience at one of their Milwaukee shows was the friendliest (well, there's no other word for it) I encountered since The Go-Betweens' stop there touring behind 16 Lovers Lane. That 's enough to prove their greatness to me. And yet it bothers me not one iota that I've never heard any subsequent release by them. Well, maybe a litte...

And as I said in so many words on the Tricky: Blowback poll, shame on y'all for not putting the man's second best album up there.

Goddamn! I'm listening to BMRC right now. It's still so very amaaaaaaaaazing! Shit goddamn!!

FUGAZI!!!!!!

Singing into kinda nasty brush: "Now she's gone and love burns inside me."

OMG! "Red eyes and tears no more for you my love I fear. Red eyes and tears no more for you my love I fear. No more fear, no more fear I'm in love." Should I start a thread where I sing all of B.M.R.C. to y'all?

They're sexier than The Jesus & Mary Chain. I feel you could strip to something like "Red Eyes and Tears." Quite gyratable, that one. Could you strip to anything off of Psychocandy?

Gawd, I absolutely adore this record!!!!

I've yet to hear either B.R.M.C. or The Argument. What am I missing?

Something quite gyratable, I hear.

Since I Left You

Love and Theft. My favorite record of the 2000s.

I've yet to hear either B.R.M.C. or The Argument. What am I missing?

The latter is fine. But I sense you haven't gyrated in a while. So get the greatest Jesus & Mary Chain rip ever!! You'll be performing snake-like movements by track two. You may even be performing with an actual snake.

Since I Left You

-- groovemaaan, Monday, October 29, 2007 1:01 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

but i didnt see it so i voted rooty

Also:

Hawksley Workman * (Last Night We Were) The Delicious Wolves (Universal)
Mercury Rev * All Is Dream (V2)
Sparklehorse * It's A Wonderful Life (EMI/Parlophone)
Ed Harcourt * Here Be Monsters (Virgin)
Pulp * We Love Life (Uni/Island)
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci * How I Long To Feel That Summer In My Heart (Mantra/Beggars Banquet)
Super Furry Animals * Rings Around The World (Epic)
The Czars * The Ugly People Vs. The Beautiful People (Bellaire)
Eels * Soul Jacker (Dreamworks)
The Dismemberment Plan * Change (De Soto)
Steve Wynn * Here Come The Miracles (Innerstate)
Four Tet * Pause (Domino)
!!! (Chik Chik Chik) (Gold Standard)
Otto * Condom Black (Trama)
Opeth * Blackwater Park (Koch)
N*E*R*D * In Search Of... (Virgin)
Roots Manuva * Run Come Save Me (Big Dada)

Discovery by a long shot, although there are a lot of great albums this time 'round, arguably Missy's best and likely Jigga's best. Seriously, though, think about how much dance music since Discovery bear its touchstones. A virus of an album.

One thing I remember about this year was that a lot of people thought it was a shitty year for music, not a lot of great releases. I'm surprised by how many of these albums have aged, how when they first came out people were saying how mediocre they were but have since been regarded as classics.

And yeah, Fugazi with a helluva coda.

And let's not forget The Strokes, I would say that album's still pretty awesome. And I even like the Malkmus!

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Daft Punk over Missy, Jay-Z, Avalanches, Bjork. How did Alicia Keys and MJB get in, but not Aaliyah? Fucking travesty. (nb: I haven't heard the Keys or Blige albums in years, but I'd have remembered if they were as good as one of the top five albums of this decade) I'm not sure whether I'd have voted for her or Daft had she been an option, though.

................................................... v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v

> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Low: Things We Lost In The Fire (Kranky) < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < <

................................................... ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

White Stripes.

Also rans: Manu Chao, Jay-Z, Basement Jaxx and then...wow...Bob Dylan I guess.

(After that, yikes, picking get slim, though I suppose I have derived enjoyment out of the Strokes, Moldy Peaches, Coup, Daft Punk, and Missy albums somewhat. So there have been worse Pazz&Jop years.)

My ballot that year:

1 Montgomery Gentry Carrying On Columbia 16
2 The White Stripes White Blood Cells Sympathy for the Record Industry 13
3 Shakira Laundry Service Sony 9
4 Manu Chao Proxima Estacion: Esperanza Virgin 9
5 Bob Dylan "Love and Theft" Columbia 9
6 Tomb Raider Elektra 9
7 Rachid Taha Made in Medina Mondo Melodia 9
8 Steward Horselaugh on My Ex 555 import 9
9 Blessed by the Night: The Dark Metal Compilation SPV import 9
10 Jay-Z The Blueprint Roc-A-Fella 8

(Actually, I'm not sure I actually like Basement Jaxx's disappointing second album all that much more than Daft Punk's disappointing second album, come to think of it. They both beat their third albums, though.)

50 more (a couple of which wound up on my top ten a year later, I think):

Drive-By Truckers – Southern Rock Opera (Soul Dump)
(Various) – Epop Version_01 (Epic)
Gore Gore Girls – Gore Gore Girls (Get Hip)
Mensen – Delusions Of Grandeur (Gearhead)
Brooks & Dunn – Steers & Stripes (Arista Nashville)
Gary Allan – Alright Guy (MCA Nashville)
Bosco – Action (Atlantic)
Koffee Brown – Mars/Venus (Arista)
Jason Moran – Black Stars (Blue Note)
Mammoth Volume – A Single Book Of Songs By (The Music Cartel)
Steve Kuhn Trio – Quiereme Mucho (WEA International)
Fabulous Disaster - Put Out Or Get Out (Pink & Black)
Toby Keith – Pull My Chain (Dreamworks)
Novadriver – Void (Small Stone)
Fireball Ministry – FMEP (Small Stone EP)
Lucyfire – This Dollar Saved My Life At Whitehorse (SPV)
Neurosis – A Sun That Never Sets (Relapse)
Not – Bad Trip Boys (Noiseworks)
Lightning Bolt – Ride The Skies (Load)
Josie And The Pussycats – Music From The Motion Picture (Play-Tone/Epic/Sony Music Soundtrax)
Kid Rock – Cocky (Lava/Atlantic)
Destroy All Monsters – Swamp Gas (The End Is Here)
Darwa – More Life More Trouble (Abstrakt Reality)
The C*nts – Oh No It’s The C*nts (Disturbing)
Joey Kingpin – A Beat Down In Hell Town (Radikal)
Clone Defects – Blood On Jupiter (Tom Perkins Entertainment)
Chocolate Watchband – At The Love-In Live!: In Person At Cavestomp! (ROIR)
Charlie Haden – Nocturne (Verve)
LFO – Life Is Good (J)
Kultur Shock – Fucc The INS (Kool Arrow)
The Chargers Street Gang – Holy The Bop Apocalypse (Get Hip)
Garth Brooks – Scarecrow (Capitol)
Beautiful Creatures – Beautiful Creatures (Warner Bros.)
Alligator Stew – A First Taste Of (Halcyon/Record Heaven Music)
The Horrorist – Manic Panic (Things To Come)
The Beatnuts – Take It Or Squeeze It (Loud)
Asa Cruz – Pop Star (Sundown)
Fruit Bats – Echolation (Perishable)
Grandpa’s Ghost – Stardust & Smog/Early Autumn (Upland)
Def Cut – Return To Burn (Bomb Hip-Hop)
The Briefs – Hit After Hit (Dirtnap)
The Goddam Gentlemen – Sex-Caliber Horsepower (Uppercut)
City High – City High (Booga Basement/Interscope)
The Cutthroats 9 – Anger Management (Reptilian EP)
Tim Berne – The Shell Game (Thirsty Ear)
The Nancy Atlas Project – Swagger (Neptuna)
Tim McGraw – Set This Circus Down (Curb)
Nerve Agents – The Butterfly Collection (Hellcat)
The Meat Joy – Between The Devil And The Deep (All Night Riot)
Bang On A Can – Terry Riley In C (Cantaloupe)

Yeah, the competition for Daft Punk for me wasn't the Jaxx, but Missy.

xhuxk, I'm just curious as to what it is you don't like about Discovery. The reason I ask is that, for me at least, it made me look at disco, AM pop, deep house, in a completely different way. Initially, those types of music struck me as too soft and constricted, but that album gave me a new perspective on how those genres could be stretched, how much territory had yet to be mined or explored because they had been cast aside by people who were into other types of electronic-based music at that time, at least that an eighteen-year-old kid was aware of. Like, at that time in Chicago it was all about big beat and really aggressive jungle, jazz-house, stuff like that. And not to dismiss those genres, a lot of which I liked a great deal, but I can definitely point to Discovery as the point where I had a greater appreciation for plush techno and slick '80s pop. Just wondering, as someone who seems to have had a better grasp on some of that music pre-Discovery, why this rubs you the wrong way. This question is posed to anyone else for that matter, just that Chuck spoke out against it first.

And that Beatnuts album is way overlooked, pretty all-around fantastic album with ace production.

i shoulda voted missy but i went for cannibal ox, really though my favorite album of the year is bersuit vergabarat hijos del culo

xp I dunno, I guess I just thought the second Daft Punk sounded restrained compared to the first one? As did the second Jaxx. I didn't dislike them, especially; just never thought they were anywhere near as good -- maybe it had something to do with those acts tentatively moving toward pop, and I thought other acts did pop way better? If I want pop techno, I'll listen to Aqua or Toy Box instead anyday. (Either way, as a non-18-year-old, they didn't teach me anything about AM pop or disco I didn't already know. And as for deep house, I'd had mixed feelings about that stuff since the beginning. And I still do. Which is maybe part of the problem?)

(Though, come to think of it, the second Aqua album was sort of disappointing too, duh. And if Toy Box ever made a second album, I never heard it. So that comparison was gratuituous and un-called-for, and I hereby apologize. Still, I suspect you get my point.)

See, that's surprising, because I thought the leap from Homework to Discovery was pretty substantial, and the little tricks on, particularly, the first four tracks (the vocal solo over keyboard bridge on "One More Time," the guitar shredding bleeding into the keyboard coda on "Aerodynamic," the keyboard-cum-guitar solo on "Digital Love" (which, if it was included in the singles list, is a lock), and the vocoder-cum-guitar solo on "Harder, Better, Faster Stronger") were remarkably deft. Also, and you'll likely disagree with me here, I think the production on Discovery is a lot better than on Aqua, thought I haven't heard Toy Box.

and yeah, I do get your point, taste is taste.

I may be deaf, but I sort of thought Discovery was a move away from deep house.

well, yes and no. I sort of see it as a departure and an extension. I would classify "Voyager" as deep house, but it's also better than just about every deep house song I've ever heard.

I voted for the Strokes, over the White Stripes and System of a Down.

xp Talrose, none of those musics you've listed have ever felt soft and constricted to me. Well, maybe AM pop but "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep" stomps all over anything on Discovery. And “(You Make Me Feel) Mighty Real” is about as unconstricted as a pop song can get. My problem withDiscovery has always been the beats - they're weak, lazy, tossed off, not thought through, etc. Most circuit house slams harder. I'd love to hear someone mix out of Junior's 10/30 mix of Shades of Love's "Keep In Touch (Body To Body)" into "Digital Love" or whatever and just observe the energy level drop down considerably.

I've said it before - Homework was all slammin' bottom; Discovery was all pink jizz top. You'd think by the third album that they'd figure out how to put the two together. But no. That was up to the infinitely superior Basement Jaxx. Rooty >>>>>>>>>>> X100 Discovery.

Also, I've NEVER cast aside disco, AM pop, deep house (or any other kind, really) and cannot imagine why anyone would. I might not even invite such people over for dinner.

Also, why would anyone have to cast those aside if they were into other types of electronic-based music?

Dude, Kevin, like I said, I was eighteen when all this shit happened, my musical tastes had yet to be fully formed and my perspective now compared to back then is much, much different. I'm just saying that Daft Punk was the gateway towards those genres, FOR ME!!!

Also, there are about a million different videos floating around on the internet that show people completely losing their shit to songs from Discovery, so that shit is out.

Oh I thought you were saying the opposite, that you cast aside disco, etc. for Daft Punk. My bad.

But people lose their shit to Yanni. So that shit is still in as far as I'm concerned.

I forgot about "One More Time." Lovely song. But even there, it sounds like a retread of the (yet again) infinitely superior "Music Sounds Better With You."

It's a very okay album, Discovery. I just get sleepy after the first few cuts and crave something beatier.

Listen, this album had a big effect on how I listen to music and what I appreciate about it. I had a limited knowledge of these genres pre-Discovery, and the album made me want to seek them out. At the same time, my impression of the album still hasn't diminished. But, I have found, talking to colleagues, music fans, etc., that people who went into listening to it with a broader sense of the genres were turned off, I was simply curious as to why, and you've explained that.

x-post btw, and yeah, "Music Sounds Better With You" is the much better single, but that doesn't mean I don't love the shit out of "One More Time."

And that Yanni point is not the same. I've never seen the same physical reactions, which is important, for me at least, so I say that shit is still in.

whole bunch of x-posts, but i'll forge ahead before reading them all...

Seriously, though, think about how much dance music since Discovery bear its touchstones. A virus of an album.

Much as I love Discovery, and still probably think it's my album of the decade, I really don't hear anyone else doing something similar to it--but maybe I'm not hearing the right stuff. Curious who you are referring to? It seems like in the last couple years some things have come out which would be unthinkable without the first Daft Punk record--Justice & Simian Mobile Disco, for starters--but I find a lot of this stuff fun but a little thin--they latch onto the more obviously goofy elements of Daft Punk, but have none of the warmth or the depth or the pop smarts (cf. "One More Time") of Discovery.

I thought the leap from Homework to Discovery was pretty substantial, and the little tricks on, particularly, the first four tracks (the vocal solo over keyboard bridge on "One More Time," the guitar shredding bleeding into the keyboard coda on "Aerodynamic," the keyboard-cum-guitar solo on "Digital Love" (which, if it was included in the singles list, is a lock), and the vocoder-cum-guitar solo on "Harder, Better, Faster Stronger") were remarkably deft.

Agree, totally, and again, I don't really hear stuff like this elsewhere, though lots of things do sound like Homework. Even the third DP album just sounds like a bad Homework retread.

one more thing, I get the impression from the way they executed their live show that they probably understand your complaint Kevin, and I would imagine they'll take it into account before they make the next one.

My problem with Discovery has always been the beats - they're weak, lazy, tossed off, not thought through, etc. Most circuit house slams harder. I'd love to hear someone mix out of Junior's 10/30 mix of Shades of Love's "Keep In Touch (Body To Body)" into "Digital Love" or whatever and just observe the energy level drop down considerably.

"Weak, lazy, tossed off..." I have no clue what "circuit house" is , but that's just kind of ridiculous. But anyway, "Digital Love" is not a dance song. I mean, you can dance to it, but it's not a club song--the break obviously doesn't lend itself to that, the thing's too gauzy and ambient for clubs.

xpost OK then substitute Creed for Yanni. In the meantime, have I mentioned my love for........BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB?!?!?!?!

(can they PLEASE hire a "real" vocalist? Shara Nelson? Caron Wheeler? Rufus Wainwright, ugh, even?),

Ugh. I can't support this. It wouldn't be the same album at all with female vocals, and all the vocals on it are perfect, anyway. "Digital Love" sung by a diva would be awful.

Yeah, that's completely repellant, actually.

for some reason this thing swallowed my earlier "ewww" post re: same so allow me to voice it (again).

Great singles, but I really don't get how people can rave about White Blood Cells as a whole if they've heard the albums that bracket it.

meaning DeStijl and Elephant, not Radiohead and Bjork.

I think White Blood Cells is much more fun than either its predecessor or follow-up, Anthony; so I obviously prefer it, if only for that reason alone.

Yeah, me too. Always have.

Though obviously I should pull Discovery back out.

(Also, I like Simian Mobile Disco's album, by the way. I've never compared it to Daft Punk one way or another in my head, but there are some parts on it that sort of remind me of Change and Technotronic!) (Not anywhere near as good, of course, but hey, it's 2007, what do you want?) (And I have nothing against Justice, either. Didn't spend enough time with their album to develop an opinion about it, but I decided I think the Oi Oi Oi album by Boyz Noise is kinda fun. They're part of that same "scene," right?)

(And never having danced to any Daft Punk song in my life, I didn't prefer the first album because it was more "danceable"; I prefered it because it was more weird and funny and had wackier sounds and songs. At the time, anyway -- I haven't tried in the past few years -- the second album just hit me as too normal or something. And not as surprising. And sure, maybe more consistent -- but consistently good is not always better than intermittently great.) (Also, yeah, the idea that either album would be improved with diva vocals is just insane. But so is the idea that Sylvester's two biggest disco hits sound "constricted" up against Daft Punk -- not that anybody said they did; I'm just agreeing with Kevin here.) (And I prefer that first Utah Saints maxi-EP/mini-LP to any of that stuff too, including LCD Soundsystem, who I've never managed to care about.) (Don't prefer it to Sylvester's big hits, though. Not that he had all that many of them himself.)

(And yeah, actually, the idea that part of what made the second one seem too "normal" to me may have had something to do with the debut being more bottom-heavy and the followup more top-oriented rings true, actually. But I never formulated it that way myself. Either way, I've always sort of had a problem with artsy bands I like trying to "go pop" -- not so much because it compromises their art, I don't think, as because it compromises pop. See: my Aqua comparison.)

see, for me, the second daft punk album was like a leap in imagination and ambition (I think someone else already said this) and yet, was also much more honed down and polished than the former (and I get that to someone not as sympathetic to it it might come across as a little more "normal"). At the time I called it Thriller to Homework's Off the Wall--a comparison that doesn't entirely work, granted, but I was thinking in terms of the scope of the latter being so much wider and yet with much more shine and finesse, if that makes any sense. In the case of MJ, I still ultimately probably prefer OTW to Thriller, and there may be times when I prefer "Da Funk" and "Fresh" and "Around the World" etc. to "Digital Love" and "Aerodynamic" etc., but I really love the ambition of Discovery. (I also love a lot of the ambient and classical moves on that album. "Veridis Quo," for sure, but also that one really short song--sorry, don't have the titles in front of me--that sounds like a loop of "I'm Not in Love"--just gorgeous.)

Wow, I just noticed that this might well be one of the few years where I actually own a majority of Chuck's top 10—all six of ‘em. Also: I'm really curious about Blessed by the Night: The Dark Metal Compilation SPV; which I can only hope against hope that it somehow manages to sound as good as its title leads me to believe it will.

And, Scott, why only six albums totaling only 80 points:

1 Daft Punk Discovery Virgin 25
2 The Avalanches Since I Left You Sire/Modular 20
3 Harlem World Heroes & Villains 10
4 Bob Dylan "Love and Theft" Columbia 10
5 Hi-Tek Hi-Teknology Priority/Rawkus 8
6 Spiritualized Let It Come Down Arista 7

I think White Blood Cells is much more fun than either its predecessor or follow-up, Anthony; so I obviously prefer it, if only for that reason alone.

Try starting each album at the half way point for fun-fun-fun. WBC's totally draggier after the hits! God, if anything I assumed you guys were giving it points for the "Union Forever" divorce theme (least what reviews did)! I totally didn't get why people dug the Stripes until I heard what came after and then looked back.

But Elephant drags more than any other White Stripes album!

Also: I'm really curious about Blessed by the Night: The Dark Metal Compilation

It makes me laugh...for a few cuts. But the boomy operatics get heavy rather quickly and not in a good way. And there's two CDs of the stuff. Not to mention an entire scene/soundworld behind it.

Is this heterosexual camp? If so, I'll take Tough Guys Don't Dance, the movie.

John, I've often only voted for however many albums I liked and/or listened to in that year... Most years it hasn't even been six (though this year I may actually achieve that magic ten!).

the truth is, there's one album on my list I still listen to.

i like the avalanches being there, sort of, but I've reduced my interest to two or three songs. dylan I haven't listened to since September 12, 2001.

that was a really retarded joke, but whatever.

I totally didn't get why people dug the Stripes until I heard what came after and then looked back.

What I wrote about Elephant once:

http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0316,eddy,43363,22.html

it just might be pointless to make qualitative distinctions between White Stripes albums—their 1999 debut, where Jack was still a bit too obsessed with the Anthology of American Folk Music, and from back when he hadn't quite figured out yet how to make his blues pop enough, is barely a notch below the later three, which are all too close to call. Like all those TRL teens, I assume White Blood Cells will always be my first pick because it's the first one I ever heard. But all the hardcore garage hipsters I know who heard De Stijl first prefer that one. And in the long run Elephant may be no different.

Certain facets are missed on the new one, though. The second side (on the vinyl version, sent to critics back in February to thwart downloads, which didn't work) is the dullest sequence they've put together since tracks five through 11 on their debut. There's nothing as dark as the 300 people living out in West Virginia who ended White Blood Cells (and who always made me think of "The Ballad of Hollis Brown"), and nothing as beautiful as the jousting-faire folk-rock of "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground" or "The Same Boy You've Always Known," and no stompin'-our-feet-on-the-wooden-boards barn-dance beats worthy of "Hotel Yorba." Could use more Dock Boggs country-blues dirt, too, about how your Southern can is mine in the mornin' and when I find you mama you'll feel my hand (and maybe lose your heart on the burning sand) and if I catch you in the heart of town gonna make you moan like a graveyard hound.

The second side (on the vinyl version, sent to critics back in February to thwart downloads, which didn't work) is the dullest sequence they've put together since tracks five through 11 on their debut

The nullity of that Meg White-fronted song was the real warning sign. Most of the album seems charmless.

Of these choices, I'd still vote for Love and Theft (my pick at the time as well), though for me it's kind of been overshadowed by Modern Times now. Other 2001 releases which are right up there: Opeth Blackwater Park and Leonard Cohen Ten New Songs. And some more good ones: Ellen Allien Flieg Mit..., Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 Larry Noodles..., Henry Threadgill Up Popped the Two Lips.

There's nothing as dark as the 300 people living out in West Virginia who ended White Blood Cells (and who always made me think of "The Ballad of Hollis Brown"),

fun!

and nothing as beautiful as the jousting-faire folk-rock of "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground" or "The Same Boy You've Always Known," and no stompin'-our-feet-on-the-wooden-boards barn-dance beats worthy of "Hotel Yorba."

all on the first half of WBC.

Could use more Dock Boggs country-blues dirt, too, about how your Southern can is mine in the mornin' and when I find you mama you'll feel my hand (and maybe lose your heart on the burning sand) and if I catch you in the heart of town gonna make you moan like a graveyard hound.

on DeStijl.

also I heard DeStijl well after WBC and am nobody's definition of a hardcore garage hipster. It's just more consistently catchy and swings more!

Everyone should see Tough Guys Don't Dance, btw.

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

THIS IS NOT ILM

Ned finally softened on Dylan!

THIS IS NOT ILM

Ned finally softened on Dylan!

-- Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, October 30, 2007 7:09 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

FRAUD AT POLLS: RAGGETT CROWS IN TRIUMPH

i voted for the strokes, but there are like 15 better albums on this list than love and theft.

i think there might be 15 dylan albums better than love and theft!

As much as I don't appreciate that one dude who can't sing, he's not the worst thing in the top 3.

Weezer was robbed!

wow, no votes for the ever gyratable Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.

that's nice a niche tho.

if anything a redeeming consolation to losing to rodney crowell.

wow, no votes for the ever gyratable Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.

Yeah, why didn't you vote for it, Tina?

Wow, craziest results ever? Who'd have thunk it?

"This is not my beautiful ILM
This is not my beautiful message board"

The year consensus splintered?

I forgot to vote for this, you guys. I would've voted for Daft Punk and at least tied it.

i think there might be 15 dylan albums better than love and theft!

I can't think of 15 albums by anyone better than Love and Theft. It's as good a record that's come out in 15 years.

Aaliyah came in 70th? o____O

You'd think if nothing else, as sad as it is, her death would have made people stand up and pay attention.

death or not, the number of contemporary R&B albums to have placed that high on P&J is pretty damn small

MJB and Alicia Keys were in the top 40 with way inferior albums tho!

That year, I mean.

I realize Alicia had a huge amount of media hype (and more sales) at that time, but that doesn't even really apply for Mary.