The Village Voice's 2007 Pazz and Jop music critics poll results have been posted, and LCD Soundsystem's Sound of Silver edged out Radiohead's In Rainbows as top album of the year. I'm unmoved by the pick -- and come to think of it, by the disc itself -- wondering if there isn't a lemming like bit of me-tooism at play. I believe in the wisdom of crowds, and know that there surely must be something there worth the accolades, but what little time I've spent with the album left me cold.

My ballot can be found here. No surprises to be had for TIRBD readers, as my top 10 mirrors the one I posted here in December. I did include some favorite tracks when asked to list the year's top singles, though I don't have any idea if any were actually singles (or truly if such a thing even exists at this point). The overall singles list was heartening; the singles charts in general are so hip hop-centric that one wonders if anyone else listens to anything beyond that. Here, there is plenty of hip hop, but it is leavened by the White Stripes, Shins, Spoon and others.

My album list, save for Radiohead and the National, doesn't jibe as well with the masses, as most of my picks landed somewhere in the 40-60 range. The worst showing, no surprise, was Glenn Mercer's Wheels in Motion, which fell all the way to 389. Oh well, that's everyone else's loss.

I haven't spent much time beyond the lists, but there is plenty of fodder to wade through in the form of essays, voter comments and more. The snark has already begun elsewhere, but I'll take a pass. It's all in the name of helping people to learn about things they might have missed and offering greater context to enhance the enjoyment of what they have. Sounds like a worthy endeavor to me.

By the way, my same ballot, give or take a single or two, was submitted to the Idolator Pop '07 Poll (it was released Jan. 14, but I was at home with a new baby and wasn't on the web so completely missed it until now). The lists were similar, though this one unsurprisingly skews more indie/hipster than the Voice's. On these two and more, I chuckle about the inclusion of Miranda Lambert's album as the lone country entry in the upper reaches. Whatever it was she did to be the token country artist, Lambert should cherish it. Why, this is probably almost as lucrative as a story on NPR in terms of juicing a few thousand extra moved units.

Labels: criticism, music