Guerrilla Candy’s 2014 Pazz & Jop ballot

 

 

The results of Village Voice’s annual Pazz & Jop poll were released today and this year’s big winner was D’Angelo with his late 2104 surprise album “Black Messiah.” Other artists that were top 10 favorites of the more than 600 critics polled include Run the Jewels, St. Vincent, The War On Drugs, Against Me, FKA Twigs, Sturgill Simpson, Taylor Swift, Angel Olsen and Spoon.

If you aren’t familiar with Pazz & Jop, it’s the Voice’s annual year-end polling of critics/bloggers/people-who-are-generally-knowledgeable-when-it-comes-to-popular-music, and it typically shows which albums and songs are the most critically acclaimed of the year. Voters are given 100 points to distribute between up to 10 of their favorite albums in any manner they choose and those numbers are tallied up to determine the final results.  Voters are also asked to list up to 10 of their songs of the year, but unlike albums the songs are not given point values.

I’ve been casting  a Pazz & Jop ballot for the past few years and once again I would like  to share my ballot with Guerrilla Candy readers. You can see more details of other ballots from critics around the country over here.

Albums

1 The Hold Steady, Teeth Dreams
Razor & Tie
Points: 30
2 Run the Jewels, Run the Jewels 2
Mass Appeal
Points: 20
3 Kiasmos, Kiasmos
Erased Tapes
Points: 9
4 Afghan Whigs, Do to the Beast
Sub Pop
Points: 8
5 Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Wig Out at Jagbags
Matador
Points: 7
6 Cloud Nothings, Here and Nowhere Else
Carpark
Points: 6
7 Against Me!, Transgender Dysphoria Blues
Total Treble
Points: 5
8 Shabazz Palaces, Lese Majesty
Sub Pop
Points: 5
9 Broken Bells, After the Disco
Columbia
Points: 5
10 Jack White, Lazaretto
Third Man/Columbia
Points: 5

Singles

1 Taylor Swift, “Shake It Off”
Big Machine
2 Flying Lotus (ft. Kendrick Lamar), “Never Catch Me”
Warp
3 “Weird Al” Yankovic, “Handy”
RCA
4 Ariana Grande (ft. Iggy Azalea), “Problem”
Republic
5 Iggy Azalea (ft. Charli XCX), “Fancy”
Island
6 Mastodon, “The Motherload”
Reprise
7 Big Data (ft. Joywave), “Dangerous”
Wilcassettes
8 Paramore, “Ain’t It Fun”
Fueled By Ramen
9 St. Vincent, “Digital Witness”
Loma Vista
10 Spoon, “Inside Out”
Loma Vista

About Travis Hay

Travis Hay is a music journalist who has spent the past 20 years documenting and enjoying Seattle's music scene. He's written for various outlets including MSN Music, the Seattle-Post Intelligencer, Seattle Weekly, Pearl Jam's Ten Club, Crosscut.com and others.

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