Why a poll? Because I needed a low effort post, and (re-)listening to a few dozen albums, many of which I was going to play anyway, is lower effort than acquiring and reading ’90s books with mathematical models for accidental nuclear war. (Or watching movies.)
Why 2003? I wanted to do an anniversary year, 2013’s too recent, 1993 seemed unusually bewildering, the Expert Witness comment section already did a 1983 poll once, and I’m on record as hating the Seventies. 1963 might’ve been fun!
39 ballots were received, including for the first time since I’ve been doing polls multiple ballots from documented non-men (at least two.) Some are in the comments here; add yours in this post’s comments if you wish. Methodologies varied; some voters literally sent me their 2003 Pazz & Jop ballots; other mostly younger voters said they tried out many new-to-them albums. The results are not really, scientifically representative of anything, but it seems like a good bunch of music to me.
TOP 73 ALBUMS
Here are the albums that received at least two votes.
1. Drive-By Truckers: Decoration Day (350 points, 27 votes, highest points given 25)
2. Fountains of Wayne: Welcome Interstate Managers (277.5 19 30)
3. The Wrens: The Meadowlands (233 19 25)
4. Viktor Vaughn: Vaudeville Villain (222.5 17 30)
5. Lyrics Born: Later That Day… (186 20 15)
6. Liz Phair: Liz Phair (181 17 25)
7. Buck 65: Talkin’ Honky Blues (171 13 30)
8. Missy Elliott: This Is Not a Test (135 13 29)
9. Amy Rigby: Til the Wheels Fall Off (135 15 10)
10. OutKast: Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (134 16 10)
11. Warren Zevon: The Wind (133 10 25)
12. Yo La Tengo: Summer Sun (126 13 30)
13. Jay-Z: The Black Album (113 11 19)
14. William Parker Violin Quartet: Scrapbook (109 8 25)
15. Dizzee Rascal: Boy in Da Corner (96 7 23)
16. The Shins: Chutes Too Narrow (83 11 14)
17. The Postal Service: Give Up (72 9 15)
18. The New Pornographers: Electric Version (68 6 20)
19. Fannypack: So Stylistic (66 6 21)
20. Lucinda Williams: World Without Tears (65 7 10)
21. Basement Jaxx: Kish Kash (60 5 20)
22. Bettie Serveert: Log 22 (56 5 16)
23. Bettye LaVette: A Woman Like Me (56 6 10)
24. DonaZica: Composição (55 4 25)
25. Matthew Shipp: Equilibrium (54 7 10)
26. KaitO: Band Red (48 6 13)
27. Ying Yang Twins: Me and My Brother (46 3 20)
28. Four Tet: Rounds (46 7 10)
29. Belle and Sebastian: Dear Catastrophe Waitress (45 4 15)
30. Brother Ali: Shadows on the Sun (39 5 13)
31. Bubba Sparxxx: Deliverance (37 5 10)
32. The Strokes: Room on Fire (36.5 4 22.5)
33. TV on the Radio: Young Liars (36 3 16)
34. Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Fever to Tell (35 3 18)
35=. King Sunny Adé: The Best of the Classic Years (35 3 20)
35=. Todd Snider: Live: Near Truths and Hotel Rooms (35 3 20)
37. Linkin Park: Meteora (35 4 10)
38. Akrobatik: Balance (33 4 10)
39. The White Stripes: Elephant (31 3 11)
40. King Geedorah: Take Me to Your Leader (31 4 12)
41. Kathleen Edwards: Failer (30 3 10)
42. Constantines: Shine a Light (29 2 19)
43. Rancid: Indestructible (29 4 10)
44. Kimya Dawson: My Cute Fiend Sweet Princess (28 4 10)
45=. Various artists: The Festival in the Desert (27 3 12)
45=. Wide Right: Wide Right (27 3 12)
47=. Atomic: Boom Boom (25 2 20)
47=. The Knife: Deep Cuts (25 2 20)
49. Broken Social Scene: You Forgot It in People (24.5 2 17)
50. Brooks & Dunn: Red Dirt Road (24 2 14)
51. Metric: Old World Underground, Where Are You Now? (22 2 17)
52=. June Carter Cash: Wildwood Flower (20 2 10)
52=. Junior Senior: D-D-Don’t Stop the Beat (20 2 10)
54. 50 Cent: Get Rich or Die Tryin’ (20 3 10)
55=. Lifesavas: Spirit in Stone (19 2 10)
55=. Miles Davis: The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions (19 2 10)
55=. Panjabi MC: Beware/The Album (19 2 10)
58. Pernice Brothers: Yours Mine & Ours (17 2 10)
59. Johnny Cash: American IV: The Man Comes Around (16 2 10)
60. Wire: Send (16 2 11)
61. The Darkness: Permission to Land (16 3 10)
62. T.I.: Trap Muzik (15 2 8)
63=. Chris Knight: The Jealous Kind (15 2 10)
63=. Kelis: Tasty (15 2 10)
63=. Marcelo D2: A Procura da Batida Perfeita (15 2 10)
63=. Rodney Crowell: Fate’s Right Hand (15 2 10)
63=. Songs: Ohia: Magnolia Electric Co. (15 2 10)
68. Sufjan Stevens: Michigan (14.5 2 7.5)
69. Radiohead: Hail to the Thief (14 2 9)
70. Electric Six: Fire (14 3 8)
71=. Gaby Kerpel: Carnabailito (10 2 5)
71=. My Morning Jacket: It Still Moves (10 2 5)
71=. Steely Dan: Everything Must Go (10 2 5)
A further 145 albums received one vote; they’re all listed here.
TOP 30 SINGLES
Ties broken by the Farruggia rule. The winner technically got six votes among all version since Frank Kogan voted for two different mixes; whatever, it wins.
The top five:
Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz ft. Ying Yang Twins: “Get Low” (5 votes)
OutKast: “Hey Ya!” (5 votes)
Beyoncé ft. Jay-Z: “Crazy in Love” (4 votes)
Panjabi MC ft. Jay-Z: “Mundian To Bach Ke (Beware of the Boys)” (4 votes)
50 Cent: “In Da Club” (4 votes)
Three votes:
Coldplay: "Clocks"
Electric Six: "Danger! High Voltage!"
Electric Six: "Gay Bar"
Fountains of Wayne: "Stacy's Mom"
Johnny Cash: "Hurt"
Justin Timberlake: "Rock Your Body"
t.A.T.u.: "All the Things She Said"
The New Pornographers: "The Laws Have Changed"
The White Stripes: "Seven Nation Army"
Todd Snider: "Beer Run" (live)
Two votes:
Blu Cantrell ft. Sean Paul: "Breathe"
Bubba Sparxxx: "Comin' Round"
Buck 65: "Wicked and Weird"
David Banner: "Cadillac on 22's"
Dizzee Rascal: "I Luv U"
Elephant Man: "Fuck U Sign"
Fountains of Wayne: "All Kinds of Time"
Girls Aloud: "No Good Advice"
Junior Boys: "Birthday"
Justin Timberlake: "Cry Me a River"
Kelis: "Milkshake"
Missy Elliott: "Pass the Dutch"
Rachel Stevens: "Sweet Dreams My LA Ex"
Raveonettes: "Attack of the Ghost Riders"
Scribe: "Not Many"
MY BALLOT, WITH COMMENTARY WHERE I FELT LIKE IT, WHICH WASN’T THAT OFTEN
1. Fountains of Wayne: Welcome Interstate Managers (25 points)
2. William Parker Violin Trio: Scrapbook (25)
The opener starts out gently with a six note rising melody and Parker essaying a moderately funky melody. Billy Bang then goes bang with some of the most fluent sprints of his career—given how much of free violin is just Going Up and Going Down, it’s amazing how much variety he gets out of his instrument—yet he and Parker always return to the core melodic basis. The whole album proceeds like this, each track quickly establishing a setting that Bang climbs and Parker digs into to find the blues roots of. Around the tenth I played this I realized how much Hamid Drake was doing on drums.
3. Drive-By Truckers: Decoration Day (20)
4. Buck 65: Talkin’ Honky Blues (15)
5. The Postal Service: Give Up (15)
6. Warren Zevon: The Wind (15)
7. OutKast: Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (10)
8. Amy Rigby: Til the Wheels Fall Off (10)
9. Lyrics Born: Later That Day (10)
10. Liz Phair (5)
11. Basement Jaxx: Kish Kash (5)
The second-best Jaxx album, and I’d sooner argue it was first than third. It’s much more dependent on its guests than its predecessors; fortunately, even JC from ’NSync rises to the occasion. Meshell Ndegeocello fulfills their not-so-secret dreams of being Prince so well they invite her around twice. This isn’t to say that Buxton and Radcliffe don’t contribute anything: they finally give Siouxsie Sioux the banger-rock platform she’s been wanting to dive off for decades. Delirious, in sufficiently novel ways.
12. Kelis: Tasty (5)
There’s sex, yes, but there’s a more general voraciousness that meant it wouldn’t be surprising when she later enrolled in Le Cordon Bleu. The Neptunes didn’t miss at this point, and Kelis was more than capable of handling both funk-rock and rock-funk. “Protect My Heart” shows she could’ve made bank as a more conventional pop-soul singer. But she might’ve been happier running her food truck.
13. Viktor Vaughn: Vaudeville Villain (5)
14. DonaZica: Composição (5)
I admire Brazil Beat Blog for managing to write a different blurb for this every couple of years, but it doesn’t leave me much to say. How about… the (Dixie) Chicks of MPB? Assumpção, Rennó, and Dias are well-grounded in tradition, yet they’re willing to push their genre forward structurally and spiritually. They harmonize beautifully, and they would’ve been blacklisted by American radio for “11.09” for sure if they had somehow been anywhere near American radio. And they make damn sure they cajole their scene’s best musicians into playing their album, not least Rennó herself on guitar.
Scandijazz’s golden generation (Ljungkvist! Broo! Wiik! Flaten!), at a relatively early stage, take one track to settle in, then just go for it: especially drummer Paal Nilssen-Love, who avant-bangs away in what still might be his most impressive demonstration of VO2 max (a chillout break for a Paul Hindemith cover notwithstanding), but the whole group attacks with abandon, bringing to the title track an unstoppable momentum worthy of the Vengabus. The climax is Radiohead’s “Pyramid Song”, which achieves the rare feat of being better than the original and making the original itself sound better.
16. The Festival in the Desert (5)
17. Jay-Z: The Black Album (5)
18. Matthew Shipp: Equilibrium (5)
Near the peak of Shipp’s time as the hipsters’ (that’s what we derogatorily called each other back then, kids) It Pianist, when he was getting reviewed regularly in Pitchfork and all. This might be the only time he worked with a vibraphonist, at least as leader. He and Khan Jamal work well together: on the more driving tracks, Shipp sets up a base and Jamal improvises over the top, while on the explorations of the spaceways, Jamal gets to navigate, with the piano reacting to seeing nebulae and shit.
19. Kaito U.K.: Band Red (5)
20. Pink: Try This (5)
She tried! Turns out her audience preferred power ballads to barely-pop punk, but she tried!
“Singles”, without giving myself an aneurysm obsessing over year of impact:
Panjabi MC ft. Jay-Z: “Mundian To Bach Ke (Beware of the Boys)”
Dizzee Rascal: “I Luv U”
Beyoncé ft. Jay-Z: “Crazy in Love”
t.A.T.u.: “All the Things She Said”
Scribe: “Not Many”
Yeah Yeah Yeahs: “Maps”
50 Cent: “In Da Club”
The New Pornographers: “The Laws Have Changed”
Lumidee: “Never Leave You (Uh Oh)”
Junior Boys: “Birthday”
The White Stripes: “Seven Nation Army”
Todd Snider: “Beer Run” (live)
Elephant Man: “Fuck U Sign”
Justin Timberlake: “Rock Your Body”
Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz: “Get Low”
Deftones: “Minerva”
Electric Six: “Gay Bar”
Killer Mike ft. Big Boi: “A.D.I.D.A.S.”
Girls Aloud: “No Good Advice”
Christina Aguilera: “Beautiful”
The most enjoyable discovery I’ve so far made combing your ballots is the DJ/producer about whom John Wojtowicz said “If this were a just world, Kerri Chandler would be accorded as much recognition and acclaim as people like Cole Porter and Rodgers & Hart, right on up to the likes of Marvin Gaye and Al Green.” I’m not in a position to judge how hyperbolic that claim is (I don’t even know my Rodgers & Hart that well), but this one is pretty good.
Forgot Scrapbook was 2003. Would have made my Top 10!
Damn, I guess I am going to have to give The Fountains of Wayne yet another chance.
And give a listen to Viktor Vaughn and The Postal Service while I already have too much of a backlog. But I guess that is part of the value - and fun?- of these polls.