Same rules as last block. If anyone can think of any more rule changes that might increase participation I'm open minded to it, but at this point I think most people just haven't heard anything.

Points are 20-17-15-13-11-10-9-8-7-6. One week to vote, top ten qualify.

I'm thinking seedings in the final draw should be based on points just like the wild card standings. It's perfect because it gives a slight hedge to the ones lower down on the list while still favoring the ones higher up. I also think seedings should be hidden so they don't influence the vote.

My ballot:
Joanna Newsom - The Milk Eyed Mender (Top 100 all time)
Eels - Blinking Lights And Other Revelations
Band Of Horses - Cease To Begin
Squeeze - Argybargy
Sufjan Stevens - Greetings From Michigan The Great Lake State

1. The Cars - Heartbeat City
2. Ry Cooder - Chavez Ravine
3. Elvis Presley - Fo LP Fans Only
4. Jay Dee - Donuts
5. Dr. Dre - 2001
6. Fountains of Wayne - s/t
7. Chuck Berry - After School Session
8. The Blasters - s/t
9. The Everly Brothers - Roots
10. Prefab Sprout - From Langley Park to Memphis

11. The Lemonheads - Come On Feel the Lemonheads
12. Freedy Johnston - Can You Fly?
13. Peter Gabriel - Passion
14. Kris Kristofferson - Kristofferson
15. Tom Waits - Small Change
16. Richard Thompson - Rumor and Sigh
17. Wu-Tang Clan - Wu-Tang Forever
18. Judas Priest - Screaming for Vengeance
19. Ice Cube - The Predator
20. The Cure - Faith
21. Mouse on Mars - Autoditacker
22. Janet Jackson - Rhythm Nation: 1814
23. Tony Bennett - The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album
24. Scott Walker - Scott
25. The Temptations - Cloud Nine
26. The Temptations - Psychedelic Shack
27. Peter Tosh - Equal Rights
28. Anita O'Day - Pick Yourself Up with Anita O'Day
29. Shack - H.M.S. Fable
30. Judas Priest - Painkiller

Strong group this time. I heartily endorse all of these albums (a much stronger sentiment than for many of the previous albums I've voted for). Finding 10 this time was easy.

1. Eels – Blinking Lights and Other Revelations
2. The Smashing Pumpkins – Adore
3. Robyn Hitchcock – I Often Dream of Trains
4. Bruce Springsteen – Magic
5. Son Volt – Trace
6. Muse – Absolution
7. The Killers – Hot Fuss
8. Sparklehorse – Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot
9. Band of Horses – Cease to Begin
10. Dinosaur Jr. – Where You Been

1. The Killers - Hot Fuss
2. Smashing Pumpkins - Adore
3. Beck - Guero
4. Sufjan Stevens - Michigan
5. The Cars - Heartbeat City
6. Ella Fitzgerald - Ella in Berlin
7. Fountains of Wayne - S/T
8. Jurassic 5 - S/T
9. Dr. Dre - 2001
10. Enya - Watermark

1 Wu-Tang Clan- Forever
2 Funkadelic- Funkadelic
3 Descendents- Milo Goes To College
4 Son Volt- Trace
5 Fountains of Wayne- S/T
6 Olivia Tremor Control- Dusk at Cubist Castle
7 Monks- Black Monk Time
8 Spoon- Girls Can Tell
9 Joe Pass- Virtuoso
10 Dr. Dre- 2001

There are only six albums here that I feel I like well enough to warrant giving points, but what a top 2!

1. Prince- Lovesexy (my 2nd favorite album ever)
2. Janet Jackson- Rhythm Nation 1814 (my 3rd favorite album ever! Wow!)
3. Aaliyah- Aaliyah
4. The Cure- Faith
5. !!!- Louden Up Now
6. The Cars- Heartbeat City

1. The Breeders - Pod
2. Spoon - Girls Can Tell
3. The Fall - Hex Enduction Hour
4. Silver Jews - American Water
5. Dinosaur Jr - Where You Been
6. Sebadoh - III
7. Sonic Youth - Sonic Nurse
8. Beck - Guero
9. Ween - Pure Guava
10. The Lemonheads - Come on Feel The Lemonheads

1. John Coltrane - Africa/Brass
2. Charlie Haden - Liberation Music Orchestra
3. The Woodentops - Giant
4. Sufjan Stevens - Michigan
5. Basehead - Play with Toys
6. CocoRosie - La Maison De Mon Rêve
7. The Cure - Faith
8. Eels - Blinking Lights and Other Revelations
9. CSS - Cansei de Ser Sexy
10. Enya - Watermark

Top 9 here would be in my all-time Top 300, top 2 in Top 60 or so. As always, there are lots of gems scattered about.

1. Philip Glass - Einstein on the Beach
2. Charlie Haden - Liberation Music Orchestra
3. John Coltrane - Impressions
4. Glenn Branca - The Ascension
5. Funkadelic - Funkadelic
6. Super Furry Animals - Phantom Power
7. The Monks - Black Monk Time
8. The Fall - Hex Enduction Hour
9. John Coltrane - Africa/Brass
10. Amon Tobin - Supermodified
11. Jim O'Rourke - Eureka
12. Jackie McLean - One Step Beyond
13. Sonny Sharrock - Ask the Ages
14. Sufjan Stevens - Greetings from Michigan: The Great Lake State
15. The Olivia Tremor Control - Dusk at Cubist Castle
16. Babatunde Olatunji - Drums of Passion
17. Descendents - Milo Goes to College
18. Don Cherry - Complete Communion
19. Amon Düül II - Phallus Dei
20. Prince - Lovesexy
21. Prefab Sprout - From Langley Park to Memphis
22. The Temptations - Psychedelic Shack
23. Fela Kuti - Confusion
24. Tom Waits - Small Change
25. Peter Gabriel - Passion
26. J Dilla - Donuts
27. Mogwai - Happy Songs for Happy People
28. The Everly Brothers - Roots
29. Scott Walker - Climate of Hunter
30. Joanna Newsom - The Milk-Eyed Mender

I haven't heard Einstein on the Beach. I'm hot and cold on Phillip Glass but I do really like Ahkanaten just because it's a little more accessible. Is Einstein on the Beach accessible?

That was a hard one, but the top 3 are great, and at least the top 2 are in my own top 100. CocoRosie even in my top 5.

1. CocoRosie - La Maison de Mon Reve
2. Joanna Newsom - The Milk-Eyed Mender
3. Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Now I Got Worry
4. The Lemonheads - Come on Feel the Lemonheads
5. Wolfmother - Wolfmother
6. Jefferson Airplane - Crown of Creation
7. Jurassic 5 - Jurassic 5
8. Prince - Lovesexy
9. !!! - Louden Up Now
10. Rolling Stones - December's Children

Whittled down from a starting list of 46:

1) XTC ORANGES AND LEMONS (My favorite XTC album)
2) Chuck Berry AFTER SCHOOL SESSION (School Days, Maybellene, Thirty Days, Brown Eyed Handsome Man AND Too Much Monkey Business. Plus No Money Down and Havana Moon. 'Nuff said..)
3) Janet Jackson RHYTHM NATION:1814 (The album that came closest to claiming that dance music could be album oriented after all...)
4) Elvis Presley FOR LP FANS ONLY
5) Justin Timberlake FUTURESEX/LOVESOUNDS (Finely crafted pop that continues to get spins.)

HON MENTION

K.D. Lang ABSOLUTE TORCH AND TWANG (a little too much filler on here compared to INGENUE)
The Original Motion Picture Cast THE WIZARD OF OZ (some really strong songs here honestly. It took Connick for me to realize what a really great lyric "If I Only had a Brain" has.)
Uncle Tupelo NO DEPRESSION (The only Uncle Tupelo outing that "grabs" me...usually prefer the Wilco end of things.)
Eric Clapton SLOWHAND
The Monks BLACK MONK TIME (I have this site to thank for this one..didn't really know anything about them before seeing it listed here last year.)

ONES I HAVEN'T SPENT ENOUGH TIME WITH THAT COULD CREEP INTO THE LIST NEXT TIME AROUND

The Blasters THE BLASTERS
The Everly Brothers ROOTS
The Killers HOT FUSS
The Temptations CLOUD NINE
Muse ABSOLUTION

This time I'm going to try to do the update post before votes stop coming in.

Eccentric loner songs: 45
Rides: 41
Controversial prodigy: 37
One of fifty: 37
Jazzy pioneer: 34
Halloween activity: 34
Sane sister: 32
Snackflower: 30
Lawn ornament store: 30
Signal niners: 29

10 albums within 6 points of the top ten.

I think I've figured out how the elimination draw is going to be seeded. I'll break it into eight brackets based on year, and each of those brackets will be seeded based on points. That way, early on albums from the same time period will be going against each other, and the final eight will be from all across rock history.

My only worry about this though is that the biggest favorites are all pretty much from 1997-1998. Hopefully we'll get lucky and 1997 will be separated from 1998.

If I can ask you guys' opinion about something, do you think there should be longer voting windows with more albums at a time, or shorter voting windows with fewer albums at a time?

Right now I'm thinking a schedule should be, 8 matchups at a time, for 3 days in the early rounds and one week in the later rounds. So that would make it:

24 + 12 + 6 + 7 + 7 + 7 + 7 = 70 days.

As always, I'm open to other suggestions.

01. Black Monk Time. Monks
02. Pure Guava. Ween
03. Cuckooland. Robert Wyatt
04. Climate Of Hunter. Scott Walker
05. Learning To Cope With Cowardice. Mark Stewart/Maffia
06. Agharta. Miles Davis
07. Dusk At Cubist Castle. The Olivia Tremor Control
08. Oranges & Lemons. XTC
09. From Langley Park To Memphis. Prefab Sprout
10. Eureka. Jim O'Rourke
11. Impressions. John Coltrane
12. Meet The Residents. The Residents
13. La Maison de mon Rêve. CocoRosie
14. Parallel Universe. 4 hero
15. Hex Enduction Hour. The Fall
16. Vincebus Eruptum. Blue Cheer
17. Eden. Everything But The Girl
18. Louden Up Now. !!!
19. Autoditacker. Mouse On Mars
20. Complete Communion. Don Cherry

1. Joanna Newsom - The Milk-Eyed Mender
2. Eels - Blinking Lights and Other Revelations
3. Sparklehorse - Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot
4. The Killers - Hot Fuss
5. Mogwai - Happy Songs for Happy People
6. !!! - Louden Up Now
7. Sonic Youth - Sonic Nurse
8. The Smashing Pumpkins - Adore
9. Scott Walker - Climate of the Hunter
10. Sufjan Stevens - Greetings from Michigan: The Great Lake State

1. Robyn Hitchcock, I OFTEN DREAM OF TRAINS
2. The Monks, BLACK MONK TIME
3. XTC, ORANGES & LEMONS
4. Joanna Newsom, THE MILK-EYED MENDER
5. Elliott Murphy, AQUASHOW
6. THE ROD STEWART ALBUM
7. Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, HEARTS OF STONE
8. Bettie Serveert, PALOMINE
9. Sufjan Stevens, GREETINGS FROM MICHIGAN: THE GREAT LAKES STATE
10. FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE

Bill, could you create a topic with all the results ?
I would like to have a list of the albums qualified so far so I can try to listen to as many as I can before next round.

That's a good idea. I'll do that sometime today when I'm less tired.

Only 14 votes so far? Seriously, this site is starting to seem of roughly equal quality as it was before!!

1. THE CURE “Faith”
2. THE STYLE COUNCIL “Café Bleu”
3. SCOTT WALKER “Scott”
4. EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL “Eden”
5. THE TEMPTATIONS “Cloud Nine”
6. PRINCE “Lovesexy”
7. FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE “Fountains of Wayne”
8. ELLIOT MURPHY “Aquashow”
9. NUSRAT FATEH ALI KHAN “Devotional Songs”
10. DIONNE WARWICK “The Sensitive Sound of Dionne Warwick”

1. Scott Walker – Scott
2. Nat “King” Cole – Love Is the Thing
3. Sufjan Stevens – Michigan
4. The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – Now I Got Worry
5. The Cure – Faith
6. Joanna Newsom – The Milk-Eyed Mender
7. Nat “King” Cole – After Midnight
8. Mogwai – Happy Songs for Happy People
9. Element of Crime – Damals hinterm mond
10. Aaliyah – Aaliyah

SO, SO CLOSE!!

I had to punch out sometime and I only have 9 albums this time around. There are a lot of records I have come close to listening to, but that doesn't cut it.

Unfortunately I don't have time to listen to a 1974 album between 2000-2200 that I might like (for the 70s poll list). None of these records are terrible. Some are great in fact, but around the bottom they get a little less essential.

1. Sonic Youth - Sonic Nurse (top 100 of all time)
2. Olivia Tremor Control - Dusk At Cubist Castle (just outside of top 100)
3. Joanna Newsom - Milk-Eyed Mender
4. Breeders - Pod
5. The Cars - Hearbeat City
6. Smashing Pumpkins - Adore
7. Clifford Brown / Max Roach - At Basin Street
8. Beck - Guero
9. Basement Jaxx - Kish Kash

Again, assuming nobody's going to try to shove a vote in the last 20 minutes, the results:

1. Joanna Newsom - The Milk Eyed Mender (95/6/2)
2. Sufjan Stevens - Greetings From Michigan, The Great Lake State (65/6/0)
3. Eels - Blinking Lights And Other Revelations (62/4/1)
4. Monks - Black Monk Time (55/4/1)
5. The Cure - Faith (53/4/1)
6. The Cars - Heartbeat City - (52/4/1)
6. Smashing Pumpkins - Adore (52/4/0)
8. Fountains Of Wayne - Fountains Of Wayne (45/5/0)
9. XTC - Oranges and Lemons (43/3/1)
10. The Killers - Hot Fuss (42/3/1)
-
Prince - Lovesexy (38/3/1) (Sorry Moonbeam.)
Sonic Youth - Sonic Nurse (38/3/1)
Olivia Tremor Control - Dusk At Cubist Castle (37/3/0)
Robyn Hitchcock - I Often Dream Of Trains (35/2/0)
Scott Walker - Scott (35/2/0)

Joanna Newsom starts out behind, getting no votes other than my own for the first nine ballots, then comes back and wins with the highest point total in a few rounds.