Cap'n Squirrgle Wrote:
Bah, Radcliffe! Wrote:
Spade Kitty Wrote:
Cap'n Squirrgle Wrote:
But I'm going to go with the pixies. How could this not be a poll choice?
Because in the best light it's their third best album, and I think it's actually their weakest by a country mile.
I don't know if I would've put
Bossanova on the poll list either, but
I don't understand why an album's ranking in the band's own discography should have any bearing on how it ranks against albums by other bands in a best-of-the-year poll. I mean, the 3rd best Pixies album is still head and shoulders above anything by Depeche Mode or Ride.Bingo.
I hate to co-opt a Loogism, but even what some consider a weak pixies record is still miles above what most consider a great (almost anybody else) record. And that's not blind devotion. I reserve that kinda talk for about 2 bands... beatles, pixies. I feel they both earned it, and am willing to wear the Captain Obvious badge if it needs wearing. There's a tendency to downplay truly good stuff if, after a while, it's well-known that it was really good. That's neither fair nor their faults.
Wouldn't you say you are in the minority for considering Bossanova among the Pixies best? I would even go further and predict that more people on the board prefer Trompe over Bossanova. I know I do personally. Coming off of Doolittle, I'm not sure how Bossanova could be construed as anything other than a disappointment of sorts.
Part of this poll is also trying to cater to the board's interests, which is why albums like "Nowhere" and "Violator" are included. I'm nearly certain all of the 9 entries will get votes, and to be fair, I've had to vote other at least 5 times (including this year) because I refrained from putting my favorite album of the year on the poll. I left it off the list because while it may be among my personal favorites, it's not among the consensus best albums of the year.
In my mind, the poll only fails under two simultaneous conditions, 40% or more voting other
and the majority of those other votes going to a single release. In those cases I usually have Haq change the poll to reflect the interests.
And yes, I will have included 6 Bowie albums, 5 Dylan albums, 5 or 6 Stones albums and 5 Beatles albums in these polls, so making the argument that it's the "third best Pixies album at best" is a weak one. However, if you look back on those polls, you'll see that more than a couple people voted for all of those albums, so it wasn't as though I was just tooting my own horn.
I do think it's the Pixies worst however, and I know I'm not alone in that, and I'm not including what I believe to be a band's worst album on a poll where over 100 albums deserve consideration.