Pazz & Jop

The Village Voice Pazz & Jop poll for 2005 is out. Not surprisingly, Kanye West got album of the year for Late Registration. He also got single of the year for "Gold Digger." (Last year's The College Dropout topped the 2004 list, which makes him the first consecutive repeater since The Clash). What is surprising is that M.I.A. gave him a run for his money. In his roundup of the list, Robert Christgau ("the Dean," in case you were wondering) tells us that this was the closest margin of victory (percentage-wise, not by vote totals) in the poll ever. With 795 music critics voting from across the country, Pazz & Jop is more of a pure consensus than even Metacritic.

A handful of Talk Talk Talk Talk Talk faves placed nicely in the albums list. Bloc Party came in at 18, Gorillaz at 21, Art Brut (still on import) at 23 (they're touring the states again--check out their dates!), Franz at 26. Over on the singles side, Gorillaz and Franz both made the Top 10, Kaiser Chiefs slid into the Top 20, and Bloc Party made the Top 25.

Christgau's essay is interesting, as he raises points about how we receive and listen to music today and speculates upon generational differences among his voters. I haven't had time to scroll through the various comments by the other participants, but if I come across anything interesting, I'll let you know. (You know what, though. With almost 800 participants, it would be nice to let us know who's who. The Internet now allows access to all 795 ballots, but there are an awful lot of names there I don't recognize. Maybe it's hidden away somewhere I haven't found it, but a quick line to identify a critic's home publication, organization, or even blog if that's where their writing primarily appears would be nice.)