Indie rocker St. Vincent takes the #7 spot on Village Voice’s Pazz & Jop poll with ‘New York,’ a single from her fifth studio album, Masseduction.
Annie Clark (the woman behind the pseudonym) teamed up with super-producer Jack Antonoff to deliver a pop twist on her usual alternative sound and garnered some of the best reviews of her already critically-adored career.
Lil Uzi Vert takes the #6 spot on Village Voice’s annual Pazz & Jop poll with a track titled ‘XO TOUR Llif3’ (translating, I suppose, to “XO Tour Life”).
According to the invaluable website Genius, this song is “about Uzi’s relationship issues with ex-girlfriend, Brittany Byrd, and substance abuse.” A rap break-up song? That could be interesting.
Lorde’s ‘Green Light’ lands at #4 in the Village Voice Pazz & Jop poll, giving women artists three of the top four spots. Kendrick Lamar’s ‘DNA’ rounds out the top five, giving him the best showing in a top ten that is split between men who rap and women who pop (plus Cardi B, a woman who raps).
I kind of get the praise for this song, though it by no means wins me over to the Kendrick Lamar cult. It’s more interesting lyrically and musically than anything else of his I’ve heard.
The third top single of 2017, according to Village Voice’s Pazz & Jop poll, is Carley Rae Jepsen’s ‘Cut to the Feeling.’ I’m a big Jepsen fan so I’m happy to see her show up so high, especially for a song I’ve never even heard. I’m looking forward to firing it up now.
This track was cut not just from Jepsen’s critical-adored 2015 album EMOTION, but from the follow-up EP, EMOTION Side B. It ended up finding a home in the French-Canadian animated film Ballerina, which will be released as Leap! in the United States. Jepsen plays a character in the film as well.
If the Academy Awards can be held in March, I can post about 2017 at least through February, right?
Over the next two weeks, I will take my annual dive into the Village Voice Pazz & Jop poll — now in its 45th year. This ranked list of the year’s best albums and singles is, according to famed critic Robert Christgau, “America’s most comprehensive survey of ‘rock critic’ taste.”
Meet Me In Montauk 