Village Voice’s Pazz and Jop Poll

The Village Voice unveiled its annual Pazz and Jop Poll today, and, well, there aren’t many surprises. The poll, which compiled the votes of 696 music critics, named Animal Collective‘s “Merriweather Post Pavilion” as the top album of 2009.

Here’s the list of the Top 10 vote-getters:

10 Girls – “Album”
09 The Flaming Lips – “Embryonic”
08 Raekwon – “Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…Part II”
07 The xx – “xx”
06 Grizzly Bear – “Veckatimest”
05 Dirty Projectors – “Bitte Orca”
04 Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “It’s Blitz!”
03 Neko Case – “Middle Cyclone”
02 Phoenix – “Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix”
01 Animal Collective – “Merriweather Post Pavilion”

Click here for the full list of all 1934 albums.

THE LOCAL SCENE

On the Nippertown front, a few local musicians garnered mention. From Woodstock, Levon Helm‘s “Electric Dirt” ranked #46, while Elvis Perkins‘ “In Dearland” snagged #271 and Marshall Crenshaw‘s “Jaggedland” landed at #520. Saratoga Springs’ mandolin master Frank Wakefield‘s “Ownself Blues” came in at #1740.

Several locally based record labels landed on the list, as well. Northampton’s Signature Sounds pulled a hat trick with Chris Smither‘s “Time Stands Still” (#782), Eilen Jewell‘s “Sea of Tears” (#1533) and Caroline Herring‘s “Golden Apples of the Sun” (#1694). Woodstock’s children’s music label Little Monster Records took the #1212 spot with the self-titled album by Robbert Bobbert and the Bubble Machine. Portugal. The Man‘s “The Satanic Satanist” put Albany’s Equal Vision label at #1607, and Coxsackie’s Sundazed Music took #1415 with Moby Grape‘s “The Place and the Time.”

PAZZ & JOP VS. THE GRAMMYS

It’s certainly not unexpected that none of the five albums nominated for the Album of the Year Grammy earned a Top 10 spot on the Pazz & Jop list. It is, however, interesting to note just how far down the list some of them ranked. Here are the Grammy nominees and their P&J rankings:

Beyonce‘s “I Am…Sasha Fierce” (#582)
Black Eyed Peas‘ “The E.N.D.” (#98)
Lady Gaga‘s “The Fame” (#31)
Dave Matthews Band‘s “Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King” (#707)
Taylor Swift‘s “Fearless” (#186)

ADDITIONAL NOTES

The Beatles‘ new box set release clocked in at #166 in mono, but the stereo version ranked only #292.

Justin Townes Earle‘s “Midnight at the Movies” (#197) edged out his dad Steve Earle, whose “Townes” racked up the #209 spot.

The artist with the best double showing is Leonard Cohen, whose new recording “Live in London” (#53), was followed by a vintage recording, “Live at the Isle of Wight, 1970” (#227).

Meanwhile, M. Ward‘s “Hold Time” pulled down the #107 spot, while Ward’s supergroup Monsters of Folk earned the #69 ranking for their self-titled debut.

And, oh yeah, Michael Jackson‘s “Thriller” moonwalked into the #239 spot…