Our sister paper, the Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop music critic's poll is live, and the results are in:
Frank Ocean's neo-neo-soul record channel ORANGE is the album of the year, and Carly Rae Jepsen's infectious (and impossible to escape) "Call Me Maybe" is the single of the year.
This year, 500 critics contributed comments, ballots, and essays. There's an awful lot of stuff worth reading:
Village Voice music editor Brian McManus examines Miguel's steamy Kaleidoscope Dream. LA Weekly music editor Ben Westhoff's piece about Riff Raff examines the idea of authenticity in hip-hop (turns out Raff, a good friend and ally of local remix artists Trapzillas, isn't all that "authentic" in a traditional sense). Jessica "Fan Landers" Hopper aims a lens on Taylor Swift, Grimes, and Lana Del Rey, Eric Sundermann examines Ocean's musical and personal honesty. Then there's David Thorpe's "A Note on the Crap," which hilariously and accurately asks the question: Seriously, not one single critic polled thought Yellowcard, The Used, or Rascall Flatts made a worthy album this year?
And there's a lot more.
On the New Times front, you can check out my ballot (album of the year: Father John Misty, Fear Fun ; single of the year: Larkin Grimm, "The Road is Paved With Leaves"), copy editor Jay Bennett's (album of the year: Redd Kross, Researching the Blues; single of the year: King Tuff's "Bad Thing"), and writer Melissa Fossum's (album of the year: Fiona Apple, The Idler Wheel...; single of the year: Kanye West (ft. Big Sean and Jay-Z, "Clique").
Occasional New Times contributers and full-time Electric Mustache duo Mike Escoto and Shawn Anderson are featured, as is Tempe Carnivore blogger Mike R. Meyer. I don't think I've missed any more Arizona critics, but a genuine "sorry" if I did.
Check it out, and if you're still hungry for a bunch of Best of 2012 lists, guess what? We've got a whole bunch of them for you.