vv-pazz-jop-2017

Bowie & Beyonce top 2016 Pazz & Jop poll

vv-pazz-jop-2017

This year, over 500 Pazz + Jop voters submitted their top ten albums and singles. With albums, they have 100 points to divide among their top ten picks, with each entry receiving no more than 30 points or less than five. There’s no point-ranking system for the singles category, which remains amorphous, comprising individual songs, remixes, downloads, viral sensations, etc. Literal release dates aren’t binding, but a record or single’s “impact” should have occurred primarily in 2016; in most cases, if it got votes in 2015 and 2016, we combined the two totals. It’s not as complicated as it sounds.

The Village Voice‘s annual Pazz & Jop music critics survey is out today, and with all the 2016 ballots tallied, David Bowie’s Blackstar topped the albums list and Beyonce’s “Formation” has topped the tracks list.

Beyonce’s Lemonade was hot on the heels of Bowie on the LP list, coming in at #2, followed by A Tribe Called Quest‘s We Got It From Here… Thank You 4 Your Service, Chance the Rapper‘s Coloring Book, and Beyonce’s sister Solange with A Seat at the Table. (Beyonce and Solange are this week’s VV cover stars.) The top 10 LPs list is rounded out with records by Frank Ocean, Radiohead, Leonard Cohen, Car Seat Headrest and Kanye West.

On the songs side, Kanye’s “Ultralight Beam” was #2, followed by Solange’s “Cranes in the Sky,” Rae Sremmurd’s meme-fueled “Black Beatles,” ATCQ’s “We the People” and Mitski came in at #5 with “Your Best American Girl.”

Check out the whole Pazz & Jop Albums and Tracks lists, and you can also look at individual critic ballots, and read a variety of essays as well.

Kendrick Lamar and “Hotline Bling” topped the 2015 Pazz & Jop.