What do you think the top 20 albums in America will be? Here's my prediction.

1)TV on the Radio :-(
2)Yo La Tengo
3)Bob Dylan
4)Gnarls Barkley
5)Sonic Youth
6)Cat Power
7)the Decemberists
8)Ghostface Killah
9)Artic Monkeys
10)Muse
11)Built to Spill
12)Johnny Cash
13)Neko Case
14)Belle and Sebastian
15)Yeah Yeah Yeahs
16)Goldfrapp
17)Destroyer
18)Tom Yorke
19)Joanna Newsom
20)the Flaming Lips

I'd be pretty surprised in Dylan doesn't take the top spot again, deservedly so I'd say. YLT and TV on the Radio seem pretty safe bets for top five finishes. I think Scott Walker might be a dark horse for a top ten spot.

The only acts that seem out of place to me on your list are Sonic Youth and Thom Yorke. I just don't think SY excite the critics much anymore, and Yorke's record seems to have been treated as a minor tangent while waiting for the next Radiohead album.

One thing is sure, there will be as usual in every Village Voice end-of-year list 19 american albums in the top 20. My prediction for "the lucky european being in the top 20" goes to Tom Yorke. Arctic Monkeys are probably too "british" to have a chance to be in the top 20. I don't even talk about other european countries like Sweden, France,..., whose only chance is to figure in the top 200...

Based on the US part of the calculated score from metacritic.com that I use to compile my list (the number of reviews and scores from the US critics), these are the top 20 albums. So I guess this would be my prediction (although I think that a P&J list will be a little less indie-focused, including a top 2 position for Dylan):

1)TV on the Radio
2)Ghostface Killah
3)Destroyer
4)Yo La Tengo
5)The Decemberists
6)Bob Dylan
7)Joanna Newsom
8)The Hold Steady
9)Built to Spill
10)Gnarls Barkley
11)Junior Boys
12)Neko Case
13)M. Ward
14)Sonic Youth
15)The Roots
16)Yeah Yeah Yeahs
17)Liars
18)Scott Walker
19)Artic Monkeys
20)Cat Power

I'm not sure that there will be a P&J this year, what with Christgau gone and all that. But if there is, here would be my predictions for top ten.

1) Bob Dylan
2) Ghostface Killah
3) Joanna Newsom
4) TV on the Radio
5) Gnarls Barkley
6) Yo La Tengo
7) The Hold Steady
8) Cat Power
9) Arctic Monkeys
10) The Decemberists

P.S. I'll do another Acclaimed Music P&J this year. Details coming soon. Sufjan Stevens unsurprisingly won last year.

That's great, Rocky!

Do you want to strictly use the P&J scoring system again?

I'm thinking that I and perhaps many others have not heard many albums outside the AM top 10 of 2006. I'm afraid that when the scores in the forum poll will be summed up, our list will look pretty much like the AM list (or the critics lists if you like). Not necessarily because we love them so much, but because those are the albums we know about.

If this needs to be avoided, maybe we can give both positive points and (a few) negative points to the "most overrated" or "worst" records?

Rocky, this is your poll and you do whatever you want to do. This was just a little suggestion.

Their review of Joanna Newsom included the phrase, "best album since Pet Sounds." It's easily Top 5, probably top 3 and maybe #1

That record blows. So many great female acts were finally making great music until this cheap Kate Bush knockoff came along. Tori Amos was a great knockoff btw,

I think the negative points thing is a good idea. What I'll probably do is run both: regular Pazz & Jop results, plus those with the negative points figured in. I think 'Ys' will do well in the original poll, but will get a lot of negative points as well.

One of the polls I voted in last year experimented with -ve votes and I wouldn't recommend adding them to an overall tally. A separate one would be better. No one wants to see their enthusiasm for a record diminished by someone else who doesn't share their view of it.

No one wants to see their enthusiasm for a record diminished by someone else who doesn't share their view of it.

Yes, I think you're right, but perhaps this two steps procedure would be OK?
1. We "nominate" albums using the P&J method. Based on all ballots, the overall top albums (maybe 20 albums?) will be announced.
2. Everyone participating in the poll must then listen to all these 20 albums (I can provide links to amazon 30 secs samples for each album, that should be sufficient) and give them a rank or score.

Again, this was just a suggestion.

I like your suggestion Henrik. Though I might amend it so that everyone has to RATE their top 10 of the final 20...that way if everyone can immediately weed out the records that don't sound very appealing at first listen...and yes, this may seem counterproductive, but honestly, there ARE some records we only need to hear once to know we don't like, am I right?