If you aren’t familiar with Pazz & Jop, it’s the Village 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.
The 2018 Pazz & Jop is a bit unique compared to years past since the Village Voice ceased publication in 2018. There was speculation that Pazz & Jop would end, but apparently that didn’t happen because I received a ballot in my inbox yesterday.
Like in past years I am sharing my ballot. Unlike past years I am not assigning point values to records and I’m not creating a list of top songs. Instead all albums are getting 10 points from me. Here are my 10 favorite albums from 2018:
Mudhoney “Digital Garbage”
Kacey Musgraves “Golden Hour”
Various Artists “Black Panther The Album”
Dream Wife “Dream Wife”
Moondoggies “A Love Sleeps Deep”
Brandi Carlile “By the Way, I Forgive You”
Soccer Mommy “Clean”
Metric “Art of Doubt”
Robyn “Honey”
Ghost “Prequelle“
