Thank you all very much for submitting your votes towards my Top 20 albums survey. Overall I have received Top 20 lists from 87 contributors (10 more than last year‘s poll). These include people who have contributed towards my survey for the first time and those who contributed towards my last survey at the end of 2004 (many of whom have changed their choices this time).

Before giving you the results, a note on the voting procedure. I have allocated points for each vote. If your album choices were ranked 1 to 20, I have awarded 20 points to your no. 1 choice, 19 for your no. 2 and so on down to 1 point for your no. 20 choice. Many people didn’t rank their list of 20 albums in order - in these cases I have, as before, given each of the 20 albums the median points value of 10.5 points. Finally a few people told me their e.g. 1^st 10 choices only but didn’t rank the remaining albums on their lists. For these lists, the remaining albums were each given the median score of the remaining points to be allocated. For example, for someone ranking their first 10 choices only, the remaining 10 albums are each given the median between 10 and 1 which is 5.5 points.

Anyway, that’s enough about the scoring procedure - here are the Top 40 Albums from my poll ranked by points then by no. of votes with the December 2004 positions in brackets (top 60 only). As you can see there is a new winner…

Some of the more interesting albums just below the 40 include the Red Hot Chilli Peppers’ Blood Sugar Sex Majik, Rolling Stones’ Let It Bleed and Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks. There’s been a big rise for Jeff Bucley’s Grace and new entries for Muse’s Absolution, Pearl Jam’s 10 and (exceptionally pleasing for me) Love‘s Forever Changes. The biggest fallers from last year’s chart who are no longer in the Top 40 are Neil Young’s Harvest (26 last year), Alanis Morisette’s Jagged Little Pill (31) and Kate Bush’s The Kick Inside (32). Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs is still holding its own amongst more famous company.

It’s no surprise that The Beatles are once again comfortably the top overall act. The top overall group / artist sorted by total no. of points then total no. of votes is as follows (December 2004 positions in brackets - top 40 only):

The acts between 31 and 40 include Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Frank Sinatra, Joni Mitchell, Pulp and Travis. Bob Dylan has moved up the chart in a year when he’s had lots of exposure with Coldplay and Pearl Jam also having new entires. Simon & Garfunkel (20) are the highest placed act from last year to fall out of the 30 this time around.

I have put these overall results onto my web site http://www.fieldfareguru.com which also includes LP, film, book gig and gallery reviews as well as new Top 20 Films and Christmas Songs Lists. If anyone would like to send me a list of their Top Films or Xmas songs, I will happily put your choices on my website. I can also put your Top 20 Album choices on my site if you wish - many people’s lists are already there.

Thank you all very much for voting towards my Top 20 Albums Poll. As this poll is an annual occasion I will be getting back to you in about October to ask you for your choices for the 2006 poll. Please encourage your friends / colleagues / family to also take part in my poll - I am happy to receive new or revised lists at any time.

Keep enjoying the music and Happy New Year.

Greg

7.1.06