139 unique records submitted; 14,000 votes cast. Here are the results of the 2011 ok-cleek.com Readers' Favorite Record Poll!
First, the top 20, as scored by the Elo ranking algorithm:
Rank | Band | Album | Score | Wins | Ties | Losses |
1 | Rolling Stones | Exile On Main Street | 1002 | 225 | 18 | 76 |
2 | David Bowie | Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars | 925 | 243 | 15 | 31 |
3 | Big Star | #1 Record | 891 | 166 | 22 | 43 |
4 | Beatles | Revolver | 865 | 115 | 10 | 11 |
5 | Talking Heads | Stop Making Sense | 854 | 201 | 21 | 45 |
6 | Bob Dylan | Highway 61 Revisited | 851 | 212 | 21 | 38 |
7 | Spoon | Girls Can Tell | 844 | 146 | 12 | 100 |
8 | Talking Heads | Remain In Light | 842 | 240 | 9 | 30 |
9 | Talking Heads | The Name Of The Band Is Talking Heads | 834 | 254 | 31 | 38 |
10 | The Cure | Staring at the Sea: The Singles | 825 | 169 | 11 | 79 |
11 | The Replacements | Let It Be | 815 | 117 | 11 | 34 |
12 | Pavement | Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain | 811 | 135 | 11 | 94 |
13 | Pink Floyd | Wish You Were Here | 805 | 70 | 9 | 24 |
14 | The Smiths | The Queen is Dead | 799 | 162 | 15 | 117 |
15 | Miles Davis | Kind Of Blue | 798 | 146 | 7 | 72 |
16 | The White Stripes | White Blood Cells | 751 | 149 | 23 | 99 |
17 | Husker Du | New Day Rising | 745 | 106 | 12 | 60 |
18 | Yo La Tengo | Elecr-O-Pura | 744 | 93 | 15 | 42 |
19 | Clash | Sandinista! | 730 | 173 | 11 | 61 |
20 | REM | Reckoning | 720 | 191 | 23 | 80 |
Note that the Elo ranking system counts a win against a higher-ranked opponent as being worth more for your Score than beating a lower-ranked opponent; and a loss to a lower ranked opponent hurts your own Score more than a loss to a higher-ranked opponent. The change in Score is all about the relative rankings of the two competitors. In case you were wondering why the Wins and the Scores don't follow each other exactly. ..
And now, the top 20 based on number of Wins:
Rank | Band | Album | Score | Wins | Ties | Losses |
1 | Talking Heads | The Name Of The Band Is Talking Heads | 834 | 254 | 31 | 38 |
2 | David Bowie | Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars | 925 | 243 | 15 | 31 |
3 | Talking Heads | Remain In Light | 842 | 240 | 9 | 30 |
4 | Rolling Stones | Exile On Main Street | 1002 | 225 | 18 | 76 |
5 | Neil Young & Crazy Horse | Rust Never Sleeps | 629 | 220 | 22 | 67 |
6 | Jimi Hendrix | Electric Ladyland | 678 | 220 | 11 | 71 |
7 | R.E.M. | Murmur | 700 | 215 | 12 | 61 |
8 | Beatles | A Hard Day's Night | 707 | 214 | 17 | 58 |
9 | Bob Dylan | Highway 61 Revisited | 851 | 212 | 21 | 38 |
10 | Rolling Stones | Hot Rocks 1964-1971 | 464 | 211 | 18 | 71 |
11 | Talking Heads | Stop Making Sense | 854 | 201 | 21 | 45 |
12 | REM | Reckoning | 720 | 191 | 23 | 80 |
13 | Beach Boys | Pet Sounds | 495 | 176 | 16 | 79 |
14 | Radiohead | OK Computer | 659 | 174 | 20 | 74 |
15 | Bob Dylan | Blood On The Tracks | 579 | 174 | 17 | 78 |
16 | Clash | Sandinista! | 730 | 173 | 11 | 61 |
17 | Neil Young | Harvest | 594 | 171 | 23 | 82 |
18 | The Smiths | Meat is Murder | 500 | 171 | 14 | 92 |
19 | Radiohead | The Bends | 536 | 169 | 18 | 71 |
20 | The Cure | Staring at the Sea: The Singles | 825 | 169 | 11 | 79 |
More details to follow!
Exile, Ziggy, and #1 record all came out in 1972.
Here’s where the tippy top finishers wound up in Rolling Stone’s 500 best:
7 Rolling Stones Exile On Main Street
35 David Bowie Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars
438 Big Star #1 Record
3 Beatles Revolver
345 Talking Heads Stop Making Sense
4 Bob Dylan Highway 61 Revisited
…Now I’m wondering if any ELO albums were submitted.
Which albums were submitted by more than one reader?
multiples were:
3x Talking Heads – The name of this band is..
3x David Bowie – Ziggy Stardust
2x Gang of Four – Entertainment!
2x Radiohead – OK Computer
2x Bob Dylan – Highway 61 revisited
2x The Smiths – The Queen Is Dead
2x Pavement – Wowee Zowee
2x Big Star – #1 Record
and, i just discovered that i Fucked Up and combined the one Big Star – Radio City entry with the two Big Star – #1 Record entries (sorry, pat m). so… ummm. it’s all voided ? wanna do it again? :)
Today I shall mostly be listening to Talking Heads.
Good call.
that Spoon record really stands out in the first list: lots of losses.
at vote 11000 or so, it had a score of 200-ish (which probably put its rank in the low 100’s). then it got a big burst of support towards the end, and climbed into the top 10.
also, based on Wins, Revolver would be very low in the rankings (because it came in about 1/2-way through). but, based on Score, it makes the top 10.
it’s all about who you beat.
You should list the bottom 10, I’m guessing I submitted at least 50% of those…
Here is the full list:
https://ok-cleek.com/favorite_recs/results.htm
initial scoring went like this:
everyone’s first record got 500 points to start, #2: 490 pts, #3: 480 … #10: 410.
Interesting. The matchups really do overwhelm the win-loss record.
Exile: 225-76-18, #1
Hot Rocks: 211-71-18, #71
Also, The Call, Reconciled: 48-125-3, #27
Ha ha, five albums with a negative ELO score. The most appropriately named one: “Failer.”
you had five of them?
Ugh’s gonna be jealous.
No no, I didn’t have five (only two of the bottom 15 were mine, to my surprise) — I was noting that the bottom five actually had a negative ELO. That’s ignominy.
ah :)
i think in many real life, Elo systems, there’s a bottom limit (no negatives, for example).
but one cool thing about this system is that the number of points in the system is constant; it’s the sum of the initial scores of each contestant (62690, in our case). after a match, points basically move from one contestant to the other.
but if you stop a contestant from going below zero you are, in effect, adding points into the system (if A is supposed to go to -10, but you set it to 0, you’ve added 10 points into the system). and that causes … inflation (duh duh DUMMMM).
Surprisingly, I only have one in the negative category. Though, none of mine cracked the top 50.
did you vote a lot?
i suspect a few of mine got where they are solely due to my efforts.
I think I put in 150 votes or so, but got tired of hitting skip more often than not.
related.
definitely agree with that #1.
i hate it so much i can’t even laugh at it when i hear it – unlike some of the others on that list.
I kind of liked Rock me Amadeus and Puttin’ on the Ritz.
i liked 7 and 8.
and the Rick Astley thing has to be just Rickroll backlash. there are far worse songs than that.
(woah, diggin the stripes!)
We Built This City is the worst song ever. I would rather listen to a three hour Ke$ha marathon than hear that song one more time.
I am surprised by Astral Weeks poor showing (92). It is the only unequivocal masterpiece I had on my list.*
Is it that folks are unfamiliar with this album or they just don’t think it’s that good?
*3 Feet High And Rising probably qualifies for the masterpiece list too but is a little over long and contains some chaff.
personally, i’m not that familiar with AW. i know i’ve heard it a few times, but i don’t own it.
i gave it a loss or two, when it was up against something i absolutely knew i preferred, and a couple of wins when it was against something i absolutely don’t like. but mostly i just skipped it.
3 Feet High And Rising is a tough one. like you said: chaff. the good stuff is great, but i find it hard to get through the whole thing without skipping 1/3 of the tracks.
Right, the stats bear that general pattern out.
It’s one of the few records I feel no hesitation evangelizing on behalf of. I’m pretty sure it’s inaccurate to call it “rock” of any stripe. If anything it’s a jazz album. I encourage everyone to get a copy and find your way in.
i will investigate
oh, and i bought four of these records last week:
Three Mile Pilot
Smiths (Meat Is Murder)
Flaming Groovies
Mingus
You will be happy to know I bought a couple Sea and Cake albums this week. I like it.
Dude, my old business partner and I used to have to travel around the county on some days. He would drive and as we would chat he let that Three Mile Pilot album play. At first I was underwhelmed by its angular indie rock vibe. *yawn*
After a couple of months some of those songs began invading my consciousness. I went out and bought the album and played it unto sick-of-it-ness. I think it still holds up magnificently after some 12 or 13 years. Big, beautiful orchestral gestures. Bass and keyboard driven rather than by guitars.
Their bass player plays the bass the way I play classical guitar. Melody+ accompaniment+even counterpoint! He is a revelation to see live.
i like that 3 MP record. surprised i’ve never heard of them before.
to me, they sound a lot like a less-metronomic Pinback – and i really like Pinback. i have no idea what to call the genre, tho. is that some “emo” variant ?
Yeah, Pinback is is fab. And metronomic, I agree. It sounds like they are trying to make a virtue of that click track. The Black Heart Procession also grew out of 3mp. I think their 2nd album is almost as good as Another Desert. They are comically goth.
I’ve heard both Pinback and 3mp described as emo too. I’ve never liked one emo band (too old?) so I don’t know if this can be true.
i am happy!
i certainly didn’t expect them to win, and i’m surprised they did as well as they did, in this.
going to see them 11/11/11
make that 5:
New Modal Rounders, too.
Meat Is Murder was my first vinyl LP purchase.
Still got it somewhere in the loft.
That is so much cooler than Lips Inc. Funky Town, baby!
I am surprised that I had a couple in the top ten and none in the bottom ten. I thought for sure Coil would end up there but perhaps it was my own voting that gave it a boost. I was surprised I guess that my Sisters of Mercy selection was my lowest ranking. I was blasting that in the car this week.
Can we see who submitted what? I want to see if my guesses match reality.
Can we see who submitted what?
i’ll post that tomorrow.
tonight, it’s Zinfandel + WW2 movies.
Just looking at it now…I own all 20 for both top 20 lists. That is almost weird.
I don’t have the Pink Floyd album, and I don’t see myself rushing out to get it.
not a fan of the Floyd?
I was actually pondering the list the other day and sort of mentally dividing it into body music and mind music. There are some head music bands I like, some quite a lot (Steely Dan for instance.) However, I tend to come down pretty heavily on the body end of the scale. Floyd isn’t really my cuppa. Some of it I appreciate, but don’t particularly like.
maybe their early Syd stuff is more immediate, if not body… ? well, at least they kept it under 3:30 back then.
Have A Cigar from WYWH is one of their bodier songs. It’s groovy as all get-out.
Hey, thanks to whoever submitted the Dan Hicks record — I had never heard them before and I love their sound.
How on earth did that group of albums get submitted and not one of us threw in the Ramones?
we are fools.
no one can tell us we’re cool.
one-forty named, no Ramones.
taste is a battlefield.
Mission accomplished on the Zinfandel I’m guessing.
utterly
Can’t believe Kathleen Edwards did so poorly. Not sure if its because she’s Canadian and not as well known in the States, or whether you guys have heard her and just dont like her music?
don’t know her, m’self.
Okay, for anyone who hasn’t heard Kathleen Edwards, please give her a listen. If you enjoy Wilco, Lucinda Williams etc, I guarantee that you’ll like it:
http://kathleenedwards.com/e.htm
And no, I’m not Kathleen Edwards.