It's up. It's interesting that Robert Christgau ranks the New York Dolls at number one. It didn't even make the top 38 on the poll. That would be in my top ten along with Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Sonic Youth, and Ornette Coleman. I haven't even heard most of their choices.

http://www.villagevoice.com/pazzandjop06/

Here is the top 38.

1. Dylan, Bob - Modern Times
2. TV on the Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain
3. Ghostface Killah - Fishscale
4. Hold Steady, The - Boys and Girls in America
5. Gnarls Barkley - St Elsewhere
6. Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
7. Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury
8. Case, Neko - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
9. Newsom, Joanna - Ys
10. Waits, Tom - Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards
11. Cat Power - The Greatest
12. Sonic Youth - Rather Ripped
13. Decemberists, The - The Crane Wife
14. Belle and Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
15. Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins - Rabbit Fur Coat
16. Knife - Silent Shout
17. My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade
18. Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass
19. Springsteen, Bruce - We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions
20. Dixie Chicks - Taking the Long Way
21. Ornette Coleman - Sound Grammar
22. Hot Chip - The Warning
23. Band of Horses - Everything All the Time
24. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones
25. Roots, The - Game Theory
26. The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers
27. Cash, Rosanne - Black Cadillac
28. Justin Timberlake - FutureSex / Lovesounds
29. T.I. - King
30. J Dilla - Donuts
31. Scott Walker - The Drift
32. Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint - The River In Reverse
33. Beck - The Information
34. Lupe Fiasco - Food & Liquor
35. Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies
36. Spektor, Regina - Begin to Hope
37. Lily Allen - Alright, Still
38. The Coup - Pick A Bigger Weapon

Will "return to cookie mountain" have the impact of a London Calling or Nevermind?

Rock N Roll is so dead, I'm convinced that only old farts like us listen to it or even make it anymore, Rock and Roll has become like Jazz or Blues.

I really recommend the Hold Steady guys...they have a firm foot in traditional rock n roll that the old farts like, coupled with very contemporary lyrics...

I still question whether the critics who take part in the Pazz & Jop poll actually listen to these albums, or just vote for the ones they know they're supposed to vote for.

Oh I most definitely second that! NUR made me buy Boys and Girls and I have never looked back. Great hook-y rock and great lyrics (and I hardly ever care about lyrics)



I've had that same thought. I don't doubt Christigau but some....

It was nice not to have to read Christgau's unedited dense prose this year.

I have 13 of those cds. I highly recommend the Neko Case and the Jenny Lewis releases. I would be hard pressed to put either of those cds in a particular category, but I definitely would not put either in rock.

Jenny Lewis is the lead singer and songwriter of a band called Rilo Kiley...who are for my money, the best new act of the last few years. They have 3 cds commercially available with a 4th on the way. I'm a huge Elvis Costello fan, and I bought one of those "Artist's Choice" cds from Starbucks, and he chose one of their songs and later mentioned that their songwriting was "the best I've heard in many a year", so I bought their latest release and fell in love.