As we move into the second ten songs on the Village Voice Pazz & Jop poll, I find a lot less overlap with last year’s blog entries. Only two tracks made it to Meet Me In Montauk. Indeed, I’d barely heard of any of these songs before seeing the poll.
Let’s see what new discoveries I have in store.
At #12 is ‘Queen’ by Perfume Genius, described as the year’s best gay anthem by Salon.com.
Spots six through ten on Village Voice’s Pazz & Jop poll are all filled with songs I’ve written about on the blog already. That tells me I’ve done a pretty good job this year of getting to the tracks that wound up dominating both the critical and commercial landscapes.
Those songs are, in order, ILoveMakonnen’s ‘Tuesday,’ Sia’s ‘Chandelier,’ Charli XCX’s ‘Boom Clap,’ Beyonce’s ‘*** Flawless‘ and DJ Snake’s ‘Turn Down For What.’ Two of those songs showed up in my own top 20.
In the second, third and fourth positions of the Pazz & Jop poll are three tracks I’ve already featured on the blog: FKA Twigs’ ‘Two Weeks‘ and Taylor Swift’s ‘Blank Space‘ and ‘Shake It Off.’
If you combined the votes for the two Taylor Swift tracks, she would have easily claimed the top spot, but critics were split on which of her singles to elevate. For me that was a no-brainer, as ‘Shake It Off’ was slight and forgettable while ‘Blank Space’ was a brilliant pop song.
Following up on my list of 2014’s best songs, and the discussion it generated about my album-centric vs. radio-centric tastes, it’s a good time to dive into Village Voice’s annual Pazz & Jop poll.
This poll compiles the top-ten picks of 612 music critics, covering both albums and singles. The points are compiled to arrive at the consensus list. Over the next two weeks I’ll feature the ten highest-ranking singles according to the critics’ aggregate list (excluding songs I’ve already covered on the blog).
The deluxe edition of Lucinda William’s 2001 album, Blessed, was accompanied by a companion CD called The Kitchen Tapes. It features the same 12 songs, in the same order, but recorded as demos by Williams sitting in her kitchen with a guitar and a tape recorder.
Some of those songs ended up with similar acoustic treatments on the final album, but others (like today’s SOTD) became hard-edged rockers, highlighted by excellent supporting guitar work by Elvis Costello.
