Editor’s Note: Feel free to post as big or as small of a list as you would like below but please keep your lists contained to these posts and do not open up your own or fill up the OT with them. The winners will be announced alongside the other winners of The Pits on 12/21 and will be calculated by adding up your lists (10 points for first, 9 for second, etc. with 5 per awarded for unranked Top 10 lists). Voting will be cut off some time on 12/21 so make sure to cast your ballot before then. If you wish to change your ballot later feel free to, but please indicate clearly that you are recasting your vote to make things easier to count.
Just as there were last year, there are three categorizes for your consideration:
- The Laurel Canyon Sound Award for Best Album
- The Anybody Killa Award for Best Song
- The “Weird Al” Yankovic Memorial Award for Best Live Show
To place your votes for these prestigious awards, just post your top ten* lists in the comment section below. To make it easier for those tabulating the votes, please post your lists as replies in the designated area for each category. If you have three separate lists, please post them as three separate replies in the correct categories. Your co-operation and effort to abide by this simple request would be greatly appreciated.
A few points to consider:
- *If you have more than ten entries in a given category, great! Points will only be awarded for the first ten entries, but feel free to list as many albums, songs or shows as you want – the more, the better! Likewise, if you have less than ten entries in a given category, that’s not a problem either – even if you only have one entry, your selection will still receive 10 points if it’s ranked #1 (or 5 points if your sole album, song or show entry is unranked).
- When it comes to these lists, there is always some debate as to whether or not to include albums or songs from December of the previous year as well. Traditionally, newspapers and magazines had to have their “Best Of” lists ready for publication before the end of November, which meant that December releases would generally be included in the lists for the following year. Since we are not a paper publication we do not face that same obstacle; that said, I don’t want to be too strict about this point either. The results for last year’s Pits were published on December 20, 2017 – any releases that came out after that can be safely included. If you’d like to include anything that came out before that, be prepared to make an argument as to why it ought to be included – but again, I don’t intend to be too strict about this particular point.
- To restate: If you rank your list, the No. 1 entry gets 10 points, the No. 2 gets 9 points, and so on. Post as many entries as you want, but only the top ten entries get points. If you don’t rank them, your top ten all get five points each and the rest get zero (though their mention will count toward tie-breakers). Also, if you decide to make a change to your list after posting, please indicate clearly that you are doing this to make it easier for those counting the votes. That is to say, if you edit your comment, please make it clear that your comment has been edited and indicate exactly what changes have been made to your lists so the point totals can be adjusted accordingly.
- As for live shows, I doubt many of you went to the same shows, but probably some of you saw the same acts on tour in different locations this year. More to the point, people who like to talk about music like to talk about shows they saw, and this category is probably more about conversation than ranking. And don’t let the inability to come up with a top ten list for this category keep you from posting either – I’m sure some among us are lacking the time, money or geographical ability to go to ten or more live shows in a single year, but would be excited to talk about those few shows we were lucky enough to attend.
(By the way, I cannot take credit for that glorious header image – I’m not sure if Troubled by Nouns made it for last year’s Pits or not, but in any case it’s awesome. Even though it contains a few specific nods to 2017, I decided to reuse it anyway.)
Some inspirational reading:
Consequence of Sound’s Best Albums of 2018
Pitchfork – The 50 Best Albums of 2018
Rolling Stone – 50 Best Albums of 2018
Billboard – Best Songs of 2018: 100 Staff Picks
Consequence of Sound – Top 50 Songs of 2018
The Guardian – The Top 100 Songs of 2018
Pitchfork’s 25 Worst Albums of 2018
And plenty more where those came from. So have at it, and have fun!