Best Moderately Acclaimed Album of 2015: RESULTS

[Jirin]

Finally got through the results, using the same win-loss algorithm I designed to aggregate critic lists a few years ago. For head to head match to count, a minimum of three voters need to have heard both albums. This algorithm is designed to make it so having been listened to less doesn't hurt an album as much.

31. Earl Sweatshirt - I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside
Record: 1-29-0
Votes: 12
High votes: GucciLittlePiggy(1), bootsy(4), Jirin(4), notbrianeno(4)

30. Kid Cudi - Speedin Bullet 2 Heaven
Record: 1-27-1
Votes: 9
High votes: Jirin(5)

29. Dawn Richards - Blackheart
Record: 3-25-2
Votes: 10
High votes: Nassim(5)

28. Roots Manuva - Bleeds
Record: 4-24-2
Votes: 7
High Votes: Nassim(3)

27. Jazmine Sullivan - Reality Show
Record: 5-24-1
Votes: 9
High Votes: bootsy(1)

26. Hiatus Kaiyote - Choose Your Weapon
Record: 4-21-5
Votes: 12
High Votes: whuntva(1), antonious(3)

25. Liturgy - The Ark Work
Record: 7-22-1
Votes: 10
High Votes: notbrianeno(2), jamieW(5)

24. Marina And The Diamonds - Froot
Record: 8-21-1
Votes: 10
High Votes: bonnielaurel(1)

23. Ghost Culture - Ghost Culture
Record: 9-21-0
Votes: 8
High Votes: Nassim(2)

22. Built To Spill - Untethered Moon
Record: 10-18-2
Votes: 8
High Votes: Brad(1), Nassim(1)

21. Super Smash Bros 4 Soundtrack
Record: 9-14-4
Votes: 5
High Votes: Rob(3)

20. Ezra Furman - Perpetual Motion Machine
Record: 7-18-5
Votes: 9
High Votes: Rob(2)

19. Lupe Fiasco - Tetsuo & Youth
Record: 12-16-1
Votes: 11
High Votes: notbraineno(1), bootsy(2), GucciLittlePiggy(2), jamieW(3), antonius(5)

18. The Weather Station - Loyalty
Record: 13-16-1
Votes: 7
High Votes: phil(5)

17. Outfit - Slowness
Record: 13-13-4
Votes: 8
High Votes: Maschine_Man(5)

16. Empress Of - Me
Record: 15-13-2
Votes: 13
High Votes: GucciLittlePiggy(3), notbrianeno(3), Brad(5)

15. Rover - Let It Glow
Record: 18-10-2
Votes: 9
High Votes: phil(3)

14. Ryley Walker - Primrose Green
Record: 16-10-4
Votes: 11
High Votes: antonious(1)

13. Mikal Cronin - MCIII
Record: 18-11-1
Votes: 7
High Votes: Brad(4)

12. Roisin Murphy - Hairless Toys
Record: 18-10-2
Votes: 9
High Votes: Maschine_Man(3), Jirin(3)

11. Rhiannon Giddens - Tomorrow Is My Turn
Record: 19-8-3
Votes: 9
High Votes: Jirin(1), bonnielaurel(4), DaveC(5)

Top ten tomorrow.

The top three were extremely close, close enough that single votes changing could have turned it any of three ways.

By the way, if anyone thinks Lupe Fiasco should be higher based on all those high votes, the reason it's so low is that most of the people who rated it highly rated the fewest albums and most of the people who rated almost every album rated it very low, so it got wins against albums everybody rated and losses against albums fewer people rated.

[jamieW]

Too bad about "Tetsuo & Youth" finishing so low. I was definitely an outlier from the typical voter, since I ranked "T&Y" highly and also ranked all but the one album I couldn't find. (And it looks like that album may be a beneficiary of those who didn't listen to/rank it, since it is still coming in the top 10.)

[GucciLittlePiggy]

Ouch! Earl Sweatshirt finished behind the much maligned Kid Cudi album. That's too bad. I found it to have some of the most interesting beats of any hip hop album this year and Earl's lyrics and lazy flow are genius.

[bootsy]

Ouch! Earl Sweatshirt finished behind the much maligned Kid Cudi album. That's too bad. I found it to have some of the most interesting beats of any hip hop album this year and Earl's lyrics and lazy flow are genius.

Yes. Whoever nominated that Kid Cudi albums.

[Jirin]

Using formulas more like the ones we use in the film or decade polls, Tetsuo & Youth probably would have finished top ten. It had an equal spread of very high and very low votes.

[Jirin]

10. C Duncan - Architect
Record: 16-9-5
Votes: 9
High Votes: Brad(3), Maschine_Man(4), Nassim(4), GucciLittyPiggy(4)

9. Lady Lamb - After
Record: 16-10-4
Votes: 7
High Votes: DaveC(2), Rob(4)

8. Algiers - Algiers
Record: 18-8-4
Votes: 11
High Votes: JamieW(1)

7. The Eccentroic Research Council - Johnny Rocket, Narcissist & Music Machine ... I'm Your Biggest Fan
Record: 18-7-3
Votes: 5
High Votes: Rob(5)

6. Colin Stetson and Sarah Neufeld - Never Were The Way She Was
Record: 21-6-3
Votes: 10
High Votes: phil(1), DaveC(3)

5. Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni-Ba - Ba Power
Record: 22-2-4
Votes: 5
High Votes: bonnielaurel(3), phil(4)

4. Marlon Williams - Marlon Williams
Record: 22-2-3
Votes: 4
High Votes: DaveC(4), bonnielaurel(5)

I'll leave some suspense for top three. They all came very, very close.

This formula may need some tweaking. I kind of like that an album that only gets four votes but all of them were top ten can do really well, but maybe a little too well.

[jamieW]

Oops, earlier I said there was only 1 album I wasn't able to find (which was ERC). I now remember there were actually 2, since I couldn't find Marlon Williams, either. It's interesting that both made the top 10, since I wonder how many others weren't able to locate these (which would give them an advantage, since their fans would vote for them, while others who didn't hear them couldn't vote, preventing any potential negative effect on these albums.) Seeing them rank so highly, I really hope I can find them someday, since they must really be worth a listen!

[DaveC]

Marlon Williams has a release date of 19th February in North America.

I wasn't able to listen to Ba Power, but I'm sure it deserves it's place in this poll.

I've been surprised how little talk there has been about the ERC album. Makes more sense if it hasn't been released in North America. Definitely worth seeking out.

This top ten is excellent.

[Jirin]

And now, the final three.


3. Kamasi Washington - The Epic
Record: 25-3-2
Votes: 10
High Votes: whuntva(2), bonnielaurel(2), Brad(2), jamieW(2), bootsy(3), antonious(4)


2. Faada Freddy - Gospel Journey
Record: 26-2-2
Votes: 9
High Votes: DaveC(1), Maschine_Man(2), Jirin(2)

And the winner, and last entry in Best Moderately Acclaimed Album 7...


1. Susanne Sundfor - Ten Love Songs
Record: 27-1-2
Votes: 11
High Votes: Maschine-Man(1), Rob(1), phil(2), antonious(2), JamieW(4), notbrianeno(4), GucciLittlePiggy(5)

[Brad]

Good stuff Jirin! I'll have Ten Love Songs added to the draw for MA7... and up against Until The End Of The World Soundtrack in week 1!

[TimmyWing]

Yes yes yes yes YES!

I didn't have time to vote at any stage of the competition, but as soon as someone suggested Ten Love Songs I hoped it would get far. Never expected it to win - let alone beat something as revered as The Epic.
Congratulations Susanne!

[Rob]

Yes, Ten Love Songs was an amazing discovery for me. Such an original and fully realized work that it is hard to understand that it isn't one of the most acclaimed albums of the year. It could rank at the top easily.

I didn't hear The Epic sadly, though most other albums I didn't get to listen to rank rather low so it seems. Having said that, I really don't get what people hear in the Rover album. I thought there was little to it and it ranked lowest on my list by quite a margin. Those different tastes, always

Glad to see my nomination, the Smash Bros soundtrack, not at the bottom. I thought that such a long listen to very short gaming tracks might put to many people off and that it would rank last almost by default. It's not a winner of course, but it didn't do bad considering.

[phil]

Really happy with this winner. An album that hasn't got its due credit. And Gospel Journey was among my top few discoveries. In fact, the whole top 6 I think were in my top 10 so looking good all around.

Smash Bros was actually the only abut I didn't listen to and rate (sorry Rob). While the long listen was a slight turn off, it was actually my concern that I couldn't fairly rate it (and may unfairly penalise it) given my unfamiliarity with gaming tracks that meant I decided not to rate it.

[jamieW]

I'm also very happy with "Ten Love Songs" being the winner. In fact, it's my favorite champion since I've been participating in the annual MA polls (which, granted, has only been a few years now). Thanks for running this again, Jirin - as always, there were a number of great discoveries!

[Maschine_Man]

So glad my nomination won! Though I'm sure that was just because I got in first, I know a few others had been raving about it. Of course the real pleasure was listening to some truly brilliant albums that flew under the radar.

I wish Ten Love Songs had got more inclusion in EOY lists last year, but we all know the critics at AMF are the real trend setters!

[acroamor]

Fun little story:

After the final results came out, I decided to download Ten Love Songs and quickly fell in love with it. A few days later, earlier this week, I was at lunch with a friend and that friend ran into his friend and that friend had his cousin visiting town from Norway. Since I knew precisely one Norwegian artist, I decided to ask him if he listened to a lot of Susanne Sundfor. And as it turned out, the guy was a musician and he once opened for Susanne Sundfor at a concert in Norway four or so years prior!

[babydoll]

Fun little story:

After the final results came out, I decided to download Ten Love Songs and quickly fell in love with it. A few days later, earlier this week, I was at lunch with a friend and that friend ran into his friend and that friend had his cousin visiting town from Norway. Since I knew precisely one Norwegian artist, I decided to ask him if he listened to a lot of Susanne Sundfor. And as it turned out, the guy was a musician and he once opened for Susanne Sundfor at a concert in Norway four or so years prior!

I actually read somewhere where a lot of the Norwegian artists cry whenever hearing one of her songs, because they're not as good as she is. To open for her, he probably is quite good. New discovery for this forum?

[Henrik]

Is this song familiar with everyone?

[jamieW]

I was not familiar with this song. In fact, I was so excited after hearing it that I was going to nominate it for the AMF weekly chart ... before discovering that it's actually a few years old (just slightly missing the six-month rule). It would've been nice if I could've nominated it, though, since my one-and-only nomination was "Every Little Thing" by Röyksopp & Robyn, which made the Hall of Fame. After that, I decided to retire undefeated. However, I would've gladly come out of retirement to nominate another great Röyksopp song featuring another great guest vocalist in Susanne Sundfør!