2016 Favorite Records - 100-76

These are my current favorite 100 albums!

I used to do this every two years, but I skipped 2014 because I didn't think the list would look much different than 2012's. Initially I was thinking the same thing about this year, but there are a few new records in there and there's been a lot of movement. So, let's do it!

They were chosen from a pool of 160+ albums which was made up of the winners from the 2012 list, plus things I've discovered since then, and additionally any records that I thought needed to be given a chance.

From that pool, I did four rounds of pairwise voting. First round was all 160+, randomly paired. Then, I ranked all entries by win-loss record, and eliminated all records with a record of -5 or worse. This left 112 entries. These were then paired randomly for a few hundred votes. The votes from that were used to generate an Elo score for each. Then, a few hundred votes where records were paired against records with similar Elo scores. And then another few hundred votes with the 'similarity' criteria tightened up. 2000 votes total. The selection algorithm would, every so often, choose the record with the fewest matches to be in the next match, to ensure that all records got plenty of action.

They're ranked either in order of "which would I rather hear right now" or "which is objectively better" - whichever I felt like using at the time. Yes, that's right, I can judge music objectively; I'm special like that.

As soon as I hit that 2000th vote and looked at the results, I was dismayed to discover that a bunch of perennial favorites didn't make it (Revolver? Rubber Soul? The Replacements' Let It Be? and Pleased To Meet Me?). Worse, upon checking, I discovered these weren't even in the pool to begin with. I guess I assumed they must've been in the 2012 winners and didn't bother to check. Oh well. I'm not going to do it all again for a few records that, frankly, would probably end up in the bottom half anyway.

Unlike last time, I'm not going to say anything about them for the first few batches. What's left to say?

And here they are...

100
Cowboy Junkies 1996
Lay It Down
Score: 51 W/L/T: 4 / 17 / 0
99
Stereolab 1992
Peng!
Score: 66 W/L/T: 2 / 12 / 0
98
Rolling Stones 1968
Beggars Banquet
Score: 120 W/L/T: 1 / 14 / 0
97
Cypress Hill 1993
Black Sunday
Score: 121 W/L/T: 5 / 15 / 0
96
Beastie Boys 1992
Check Your Head
Score: 127 W/L/T: 3 / 12 / 0
95
Pink Floyd 1977
Animals
Score: 129 W/L/T: 4 / 13 / 0
94
Beastie Boys 1989
Paul's Boutique
Score: 137 W/L/T: 3 / 11 / 1
93
Yo La Tengo 1990
Fakebook
Score: 172 W/L/T: 6 / 11 / 0
92
Liz Phair 1993
Exile In Guyville
Score: 179 W/L/T: 3 / 11 / 0
91
Wilco 2002
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Score: 182 W/L/T: 5 / 14 / 1
90
Big Star 1974
Radio City
Score: 189 W/L/T: 9 / 10 / 1
89
Smashing Pumpkins 1991
Gish
Score: 198 W/L/T: 5 / 9 / 0
88
White Stripes 2001
White Blood Cells
Score: 198 W/L/T: 5 / 10 / 0
87
No Knife 2002
Riot For Romance
Score: 209 W/L/T: 6 / 9 / 0
86
Beastie Boys 1994
Ill Communication
Score: 212 W/L/T: 4 / 11 / 0
85
King Crimson 1973
Larks' Tongues In Aspic
Score: 220 W/L/T: 7 / 9 / 0
84
Nick Drake 1972
Pink Moon
Score: 226 W/L/T: 9 / 14 / 0
83
The Budos Band 2005
The Budos Band
Score: 227 W/L/T: 4 / 10 / 0
82
The Beatles 1968
The Beatles (white album)
Score: 229 W/L/T: 5 / 10 / 0
81
Digable Planets 1993
Reachin (A New Refutation of Time and Space)
Score: 241 W/L/T: 8 / 7 / 1
80
Belly 1993
Star
Score: 242 W/L/T: 8 / 10 / 1
79
The Beatles 1970
Let It Be
Score: 244 W/L/T: 10 / 15 / 0
78
Iron Maiden 1982
Number Of The Beast
Score: 247 W/L/T: 6 / 10 / 0
77
Miles Davis 1959
Relaxin
Score: 267 W/L/T: 10 / 13 / 1
76
The Doors 1967
Strange Days
Score: 282 W/L/T: 5 / 9 / 0

3 thoughts on “2016 Favorite Records - 100-76

  1. Jewish Steel

    I did some reconnecting with The Doors last fall. Particularly their first album. All those hit were So Over Played when we were growing up. But I have been away from terrestrial radio long enough that I can almost hear them with fresh ears again,

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