The future of Rank the Tracks

[Honorio]

Hi my friends. Since the update is not still available I decided to give the option to introduce albums on the last quarter part of the game that could be more "popular" among the Forum members using our last all-time poll (as suggested previously by prosecutorgodot) but following more or less the actual distribution by decades. I would like to know your opinion about three different options:

Option 1:

It would include the original planning (based on the official AM list) with some changes due to the inclusion of three albums by popular demand ("The Low End Theory," "The College Dropout" and "To Pimp a Butterfly"):

79. Ornette Coleman's The Shape of Jazz to Come (1959)
80. The Rolling Stones' Beggars Banquet (1968)
81. The Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers (1971)
82. Paul Simon's Graceland (1986)
83. Radiohead's The Bends (1995)
84. Arctic Monkeys' Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (2006)
85. The Rolling Stones' Let It Bleed (1969)
86. Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life (1976)
87. De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising (1989)
88. Pavement's Slanted and Enchanted (1992)
89. The White Stripes' White Blood Cells (2001)
90. Arcade Fire's The Suburbs (2010)
91. The Crickets' The "Chirping" Crickets (1957)
92. James Brown's Live at the Apollo (1963)
93. Stevie Wonder's Innervisions (1973)
94. The Jesus and Mary Chain's Psychocandy (1985)
95. Oasis' Definitely Maybe (1994)
96. Eminem's The Marshal Mathers LP (2000)
97. Love's Forever Changes (1967)
98. Joni Mitchell's Blue (1971)
99. Pixies' Surfer Rosa (1988)
100. Wu-Tang Clan's Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) (1993)


The three albums out of the original planning (being displaced by the three albums I mentioned before) were:
90. St. Vincent's St. Vincent (2014) (#465 in our all-time list)
96. Animal Collective's Merryeweather Post Pavillion (2009) (#127)
100. The Flaming Lips' The Soft Bulletin (1999) (#146)


Option 2:

It would follow the same distribution by decades used so far but replacing the albums on the official main list for the ones ranked higher on our poll. The list would be:

79. Charles Mingus' Mingus Ah Um (1959)
80. The Rolling Stones' Let It Bleed (1969)
81. Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life (1976)
82. Tom Waits' Rain Dogs (1985)
83. Radiohead's The Bends (1995)
84. Coldplay's A Rush of Blood to the Head (2002)
85. Love's Forever Changes (1967)
86. Stevie Wonder's Innervisions (1973)
87. Paul Simon's Graceland (1986)
88. Pearl Jam's Ten (1991)
89. The White Stripes' White Blood Cells (2001)
90. David Bowie's ★ (2016)
91. Ornette Coleman's The Shape of Jazz to Come (1959)
92. The Rolling Stones' Beggars Banquet (1968)
93. Fleetwood Mac's Rumours (1977)
94. Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. (1984)
95. Nirvana's In Utero (1993)
96. Arctic Monkeys' Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (2006)
97. The Zombies' Odessey & Oracle (1968)
98. David Bowie's Hunky Dory (1971)
99. The Cure's Disintegration (1989)
100. Björk's Post (1995)


The albums left out of the Option 1 list would be:
81. The Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers (1971) (#43 in our all-time list)
87. De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising (1989) (#126)
88. Pavement's Slanted and Enchanted (1992) (#166)
90. Arcade Fire's The Suburbs (2010) (#88)
91. The Crickets' The "Chirping" Crickets (1957) (#569)
92. James Brown's Live at the Apollo (1963) (#328)
94. The Jesus and Mary Chain's Psychocandy (1985) (#287)
95. Oasis' Definitely Maybe (1994) (#115)
96. Eminem's The Marshal Mathers LP (2000) (#211)
98. Joni Mitchell's Blue (1971) (#63)
99. Pixies' Surfer Rosa (1988) (#177)
100. Wu-Tang Clan's Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) (1993) (#112)


Option 3:

Since the 1950s albums usually have lower participation (we have ranked 6 1950s albums so far and only "Kind of Blue" had more than 10 voters) we can replace the two remaining 1950s album by the two albums not included on the option 2 that end higher on our all-time poll. This list would look like:

79. The Rolling Stones' Let It Bleed (1969)
80. Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life (1976)
81. Tom Waits' Rain Dogs (1985)
82. Radiohead's The Bends (1995)
83. Coldplay's A Rush of Blood to the Head (2002)
84. Love's Forever Changes (1967)
85. Stevie Wonder's Innervisions (1973)
86. Paul Simon's Graceland (1986)
87. Pearl Jam's Ten (1991)
88. The White Stripes' White Blood Cells (2001)
89. David Bowie's ★ (2016)
90. The Rolling Stones' Beggars Banquet (1968)
91. Fleetwood Mac's Rumours (1977)
92. Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. (1984)
93. Nirvana's In Utero (1993)
94. Arctic Monkeys' Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (2006)
95. The Zombies' Odessey & Oracle (1968)
96. David Bowie's Hunky Dory (1971)
97. The Cure's Disintegration (1989)
98. Björk's Post (1995)
99. The Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers (1971)
100. Simon & Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970)


The albums left out of the Option 2 list would be:
79. Charles Mingus' Mingus Ah Um (1959) (#475 in our all-time list)
91. Ornette Coleman's The Shape of Jazz to Come (1959) (#477)


Note (and minor spoiler): the only positions that could change later are the two Stevie Wonder albums on options 2 and 3, it depends on the final positions they achieve on our all-time poll. I'll edit those positions later if needed.

[Honorio]

Wow! 24 hours after the initial vote we have a triple tie! I didn't see it coming. Keep on voting!

[Honorio]

Thanks a lot to the 18 voters that participated in this poll. But the results so far are making me scratch my head. The option with more votes is Option 1 (that means following the official list) but if we add the votes for Option 2 and Option 3 (and that means using our all-time poll) we have more votes. Now I regret creating this option 3 because it's similar to Option 2 but it's splitting the votes of the people that want to follow our all-time poll (honestly I thought that Option 3 was going to be the option with more votes). So I'm going to wait for 24 hours more and if the situation remain more or less the same I will probably create a new sub-poll with only the first two options. By the way, does anybody know if I can edit the poll removing the Option 3? Doing this I'll only make to vote again to the people that voted for this option and not the other 15 people.
So sorry for bothering you…

[Henrik]

By the way, does anybody know if I can edit the poll removing the Option 3? Doing this I'll only make to vote again to the people that voted for this option and not the other 15 people.

I'm pretty sure you can't do that.

[jamieW]

Hi, Honorio.

Whichever option you choose, I was wondering if you would consider a "wild-card" album added at the end of each cycle. For example, we would follow the pattern of '10's, '00's, '90's, '80's, '70's, '60's, '50's and then the wild-card, where we'd vote on which album we would do of those others have recommended (such as Steely Dan, the albums recommended in letmeintomyzone's thread, etc.). Then the cycle would repeat. (I'm still hoping we'll keep the '50's albums. I know the participation is low, but there are so many great albums from the decade.)

This way we could keep the pattern going beyond the top 100 and still give everyone an opportunity for their favorites to be represented every eight weeks. This is only a suggestion, and I'm perfectly happy with whatever you decide. I'm just very grateful for all the work you put into RTT and you can count on me to vote every week for however long you continue it!

[Honorio]

Thank you, jamieW! Well, the option of a wild card could be considered, at least for the 60s, 70s and 80s (given the fact that 90s, 00s and 10s already had this wild card). Anyway I had no plan to continue the game beyond the top 100 albums (the participation already decreased so beyond 100 it may decrease even more). But we'll see...

So after 4 days the final results are:
- Option 1: 8 votes
- Option 2: 7 votes
- Option 3: 4 votes
Since the sum of option 2 and 3 together got more votes than option 1 I still don't know what to do. So sorry guys for bothering you so much but I'm going to begin again the poll removing the Option 3. Please vote again in this same thread if you don't mind. And sorry.

I'll remind you the two remaining options.

Option 1:

79. Ornette Coleman's The Shape of Jazz to Come (1959)
80. The Rolling Stones' Beggars Banquet (1968)
81. The Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers (1971)
82. Paul Simon's Graceland (1986)
83. Radiohead's The Bends (1995)
84. Arctic Monkeys' Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (2006)
85. The Rolling Stones' Let It Bleed (1969)
86. Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life (1976)
87. De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising (1989)
88. Pavement's Slanted and Enchanted (1992)
89. The White Stripes' White Blood Cells (2001)
90. Arcade Fire's The Suburbs (2010)
91. The Crickets' The "Chirping" Crickets (1957)
92. James Brown's Live at the Apollo (1963)
93. Stevie Wonder's Innervisions (1973)
94. The Jesus and Mary Chain's Psychocandy (1985)
95. Oasis' Definitely Maybe (1994)
96. Eminem's The Marshal Mathers LP (2000)
97. Love's Forever Changes (1967)
98. Joni Mitchell's Blue (1971)
99. Pixies' Surfer Rosa (1988)
100. Wu-Tang Clan's Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) (1993)

Option 2:

79. Charles Mingus' Mingus Ah Um (1959)
80. The Rolling Stones' Let It Bleed (1969)
81. Stevie Wonder's Innervisions (1973)
82. Tom Waits' Rain Dogs (1985)
83. Radiohead's The Bends (1995)
84. Coldplay's A Rush of Blood to the Head (2002)
85. Love's Forever Changes (1967)
86. Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life (1976)
87. Paul Simon's Graceland (1986)
88. Pearl Jam's Ten (1991)
89. The White Stripes' White Blood Cells (2001)
90. David Bowie's ★ (2016)
91. Ornette Coleman's The Shape of Jazz to Come (1959)
92. The Rolling Stones' Beggars Banquet (1968)
93. Fleetwood Mac's Rumours (1977)
94. Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. (1984)
95. Nirvana's In Utero (1993)
96. Arctic Monkeys' Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (2006)
97. The Zombies' Odessey & Oracle (1968)
98. David Bowie's Hunky Dory (1971)
99. The Cure's Disintegration (1989)
100. Björk's Post (1995)

[jamieW]

Thank you, jamieW! Well, the option of a wild card could be considered, at least for the 60s, 70s and 80s (given the fact that 90s, 00s and 10s already had this wild card). Anyway I had no plan to continue the game beyond the top 100 albums (the participation already decreased so beyond 100 it may decrease even more). But we'll see...

Oh, that makes sense. I don't know why, but I guess I thought RTT was going to continue beyond the top 100 in some form. I understand what you're saying, though. You put an amazing amount of work into this, and it probably wouldn't be worth keeping it going if the participation continues to decrease. I'm just thankful to you for resurrecting it, because it's been a great way to revisit a lot of classic albums. I'll definitely enjoy it for as long as it lasts!