D'Angelo's 'Black Messiah' Wins Best Album In The Nation's Oldest Music Critics' Poll

The Village Voice’s Pazz + Jop is the longest running year-end music critics’ poll in the world. Here’s what critics loved in 2014.

The New York City-based weekly newspaper The Village Voice has been polling music critics on their favorite albums, and later, songs, since 1971, making it the oldest year-end pop music poll in the world. The latest issue is out tomorrow:

Late last year, 612 music critics cast their votes for their favorite albums and songs in the paper's Pazz + Jop poll. The poll's name was conceived as a nod to the long-defunct Jazz + Pop magazine, the publication that devised the rating system still used by the Voice.

That system works like this: With albums, "critics have 100 points to divide among their top 10 picks, with each entry receiving no more than 30 points or less than five. There's no point-ranking system for the singles category, which remains amorphous, comprising individual songs, remixes, downloads, viral sensations, etc."

These are the results of The Village Voice's 2014 Pazz + Jop critics' poll...

Village Voice

D'Angelo's late 2014 surprise Black Messiah took the top album prize.

1. D'Angelo · Black Messiah

2. Run the Jewels · Run the Jewels 2

3. War on Drugs · Lost in the Dream

4. St. Vincent · St. Vincent

5. FKA Twigs · Lp1

6. Sturgill Simpson · Metamodern Sounds in Country Music

7. Taylor Swift · 1989

8. Angel Olsen · Burn Your Fire for No Witness

9. Spoon · They Want My Soul

10. Against Me! · Transgender Dysphoria Blues

RCA Records

Future Islands' "Seasons (Waiting on You)" -- which caught on soon after lead singer Sam Herring danced his way into our collective hearts performing it on Letterman (below) -- was song of the year, according to the critics polled.

1. Future Islands · "Seasons (Waiting on You)"

2. FKA Twigs · "Two Weeks"

3. Taylor Swift · "Blank Space"

4. Taylor Swift · "Shake It Off"

5. Kendrick Lamar · "I"

6. ILoveMakonnen (ft. Drake) · "Tuesday"

7. Sia · "Chandelier"

8. Charli XCX · "Boom Clap"

9. (Tie) Beyoncé (ft. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie) · "***Flawless"

9. (Tie) DJ Snake (ft. Lil Jon) · "Turn Down for What"

CBS

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