With 5 points given for people’s favourite album (down to 1 point for their 5th favourite). Unlike previous years it was close at the top with Protomartyr just taking the prize.
But the lists don’t end there… Here’s a list of the number of time a band appeared in contributors favourites regardless of position. In this list Slowdive takes the prize (appearing 31 times), swapping places with Protomartyr (28 times). The main movers in this list compared to the one above are Idles (jumping from 36th to 18th) and Four Tet (42nd to 18th). The War On Drugs drop from 12th to 17th.
1 Slowdive- Slowdive (31)
2 Protomartyr- Relatives in descent (28)
3 LCD Soundystem - American Dream (25)
4 Kelly Lee Owens - S/T (21)
5 Julie Byrne – Not Even Happiness (19)
=6 The National “Sleep Well Beast” (18)
=6 Kendrick Lamar: Damn (18)
8 Lorde- Melodrama (15)
9 Mount Erie - A Crow Looked At Me (14)
=10 Big Thief - Capacity (13)
=10 Priests – Nothing Feels Natural (13)
=11 Converge – The Dusk in Us
=11 Phoebe Bridgers – Stranger In The Alps
=10 Everything Everything – Fever Dream
=10 St. Vincent - MASSEDUCTION
16 Blanck Mass: World Eater
17 the war on drugs: A Deeper Understanding
=18 Cloud Nothings – Life Without Sound
=18 Waxahatchee- Out in the Storm
=18 Wolf Alice - Visions of a Life
=18 IDLES – Brutalism
=18 Four Tet New Energy -
=19 Richard Dawson: Peasant
=19 Arca-Arca
=19 Mogwai - Every countrys sun
=19 Japandroids - Near to the Wild Heart of Life
=19 Fever Ray-Plunge
=19 Grandaddy - Last Place
=19 This is the Kit - Moonshine Freeze
=19 Run The Jewels – RtJ 3
=19 Bjork-Utopia
=19 Japanese Breakfast - Soft Sounds From Another Planet
=19 Los Campesinos! - Sick Scenes
=19 Suzanne Sundfor-music for people in trouble
=19 Fleet Foxes - Crack-Up
=36 EMA - Exile in the Outer Ring
=36 Aldous Harding: Party
=36 James Holden & The Animal Spirits - The Animal Spirits
=36 Jane Weaver – Modern Kosmology
=36 Sylvan Esso – What Now
=36 Grizzly Bear - Painted Ruins
=42 Manchester Orchestra - A Black Mile To The Surface
=42 Julien Baker- Turn Out the Lights
=42 Father Johny Misty - Pure Comedy
=42 Tyler, the Creator - Scum Fuck Flower Boy
=42 Alvvays - Antisocialites
=42 Vince Staples - Big Fish Theory
=42 Oh Sees: Orc
=42 John Maus - Screen Memories
=42 Ariel Pink-Dedicated to Bobby Jameson
=42 Jesca Hoop – Memories Are Now
We also need to award the annual Adebisi Shank award for the album which was adored by a small number of people. No band had a clean sweep of first places this year but the award goes jointly to Julien Baker and Manchester Orchestra who both had an average score of 4.75 (both had four votes - 3x1st places and 1x2nd place). Of albums with 4 or more votes here’s the 20 with the highest average score:
=1
Manchester Orchestra - A Black Mile To The Surface
4.75
=1
Julien Baker- Turn Out the Lights
4.75
3
Richard Dawson: Peasant
4.5
4
the war on drugs: A Deeper Understanding
4.38
5
Mount Erie - A Crow Looked At Me
4.1
6
Arca-Arca
3.83
7
EMA - Exile in the Outer Ring
3.8
8
Protomartyr- Relatives in descent
3.79
=9
Father Johny Misty - Pure Comedy
3.75
=9
Tyler, the Creator - Scum Fuck Flower Boy
3.75
11
Aldous Harding: Party
3.6
=12
Mogwai - Every countrys sun
3.5
=12
Alvvays - Antisocialites
3.5
14
Julie Byrne – Not Even Happiness
3.47
15
Lorde- Melodrama
3.46
16
Everything Everything – Fever Dream
3.4
17
LCD Soundystem - American Dream
3.32
=18
James Holden & The Animal Spirits - The Animal Spirits
Bound to be the usual moaning about predictable results etc but I think this has thrown up a couple of really interesting lists with some great records on.
Really love the list where records are placed by their average rating, especially because I loved that julien baker lp and it confirms my feeling that people who liked it really loved it!
Actually surprised I got the first 2 the wrong way round! Congrats @Severed799, all your persistence paid off (FWIW, it’s a great record. It’s good to see a slightly left field choice win).
Also a bit embarrassed that I posted this AFTER the results:
Wasn’t a particularly strong year generally IMO hip hop or otherwise and some of the big hitters of the genre had some very underwhelming releases (J Cole, Joey Badass, Vince Staples (IMO)) and others (Jay-Z particularly) only made their albums available on a platform nobody uses.
Disappointed that Japanese Breakfast was so low on so many lists (both this and the official DiS for a start) in a year where people have been good at recognising all the great female artists releasing stuff currently. But hey, maybe it just doesn’t speak to people as much as Phoebe Bridgers or whoever
The Adebisi Shank award is the best part of this I think.
)