The Village Voice released the results of its annual Pazz & Jop poll and the big winners were Kendrick Lamar, Courtney Barnett and Carly Rae Jepsen. That trio finished in the top three for best album of the year and represent a broad array of genres. In total there were 1,561 albums and 1,800 songs that received votes. Those songs and albums were from 2,370 artists and a total of 9,349 votes were received by 550 voters last year.
If you aren’t familiar with Pazz & Jop, it’s the Voice’s annual year-end polling of critics/bloggers/people-who-are-generally-knowledgeable-when-it-comes-to-popular-music, and it typically shows which albums and songs are the most critically acclaimed of the year. Voters are given 100 points to distribute between up to 10 of their favorite albums in any manner they choose and those numbers are tallied up to determine the final results. Voters are also asked to list up to 10 of their songs of the year, but unlike albums the songs are not given point values.
Like in year’s past I am sharing my ballot. Here are my favorite albums and songs from 2015:
