Our final award. The nominees for Best Al Album are, in alphabetical order:
Modern Times -- Stuck between PPF and YOTC, one might expect this album to suffer from 'middle child' syndrome. Hardly. It has aged well thanks in part to a harder edge than any of the other Essential albums, save 24C. Is there any question that Side Two of this album is the runaway winner for Best Al Album Side? All three of its songs -- 'Apple Cider Reconstitution', 'The Dark And The Rolling Sea', and the title track -- placed among the top fifteen songs. 'Carol' snuck into the Top 25 as well. Why he hardly ever plays anything from TIMES in concert is one of life's great Al mysteries.
Past Present and Future -- Al's 20th century concept album featuring one song per decade (more or less). Six of its eight songs made the Top 25, a remarkable achievement -- 'Warren Harding' and 'Terminal Eyes' were the only slackers. It received no Worst votes as an album and only three for its individual songs. If you had to choose one album to play to convert a non-Al fan, what would it be? Our money is on PPF.
Year of the Cat -- The defending champion and Al's hallmark disc. Overplayed? Maybe. Too soft and inoffensive? Perhaps. Dated? Yeah, a little. Still a fantastic album? Damn straight, though there are four ASML'ers out there who disagree. Placed four songs in the Top 25, including two of the top three. Any album with 'On The Border' and 'Year Of The Cat' deserves the title of "Rock N Roll Classic" in our book.
May I have the envelope please? Thank you. And the winnner is....
The old champion is the new champion, though PAST PRESENT AND FUTURE closed the gap considerably since 1992. Rounding out the Top Five were Al's two most recent releases. ORANGE was the only Classic album to make the top ten; RHYMES IN ROOMS, the only live album (not that he's released many.)
1994 ASML "BEST OF AL" POLL -- TOP TEN ALBUMS
-------VOTES------- ----POINTS----
# ALBUM #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 WO VOTES POS NEG TOT
1. Year Of The Cat 5 12 3 9 2 4 31 169 -8 161
2. Past Present & Future 9 4 2 6 2 0 23 136 0 136
3. Modern Times 6 4 3 7 4 1 24 127 -2 125
4. Last Days...Century 6 3 4 2 6 3 21 112 -6 106
5. Famous Last Words 4 2 5 1 5 1 17 88 -2 86
6. Time Passages 3 3 4 1 3 1 14 75 -2 73
7. Russians And Americans 0 3 9 2 0 5 14 71 -10 61
8. Orange 2 1 2 3 5 4 13 59 -8 51
9. Rhymes In Rooms 1 2 3 3 1 0 10 50 0 50
10. 24 P/Carrots 1 2 2 3 4 6 12 54 -12 42
Pollster's notes: We admit to feeling strangely let down that YEAR OF THE
CAT won. Not that we don't like the album -- on the contrary, we ranked it
fifth -- but we were hoping for a changing of the guard, as it were. We
think it's encouraging how well LAST DAYS and LAST WORDS fared among the
electorate. To us, it says Al doesn't have to change his musical style - he
merely needs to find a record company with a better promotion department.
And that's it for the awards. Soon (read: in a matter of days) we'll...ah, let's drop the stupid royal "we" already...I'LL put out the entire results in tabular form. Later (read: in a matter of weeks or months, depending on how much interest I receive from the ASML) I'll try to get the 1994 BOAP Database set up so that other ASML'ers can do their own demographic studies and analyses.
One final point. No one - absolutely none of our 40 voters - correctly projected the Top Five albums, in any order. Several people had four of five on their ballots, but each had their own personal choice for a fifth favorite. Some liked TIME PASSAGES, others RHYMES IN ROOMS. Me, I swapped 24 CARROTS for LAST DAYS. Aside from being statistically remarkable, I found this lack of predictability refreshing. This poll truly reflects no one person's views, but rather the sum of all of us on the ASML.
Although this has been a hectic month, I've enjoyed it immensely. If Al promises to do another studio album, I promise to run another poll. I hope the results generate a few month's worth of interesting discussion on the list. In conclusion, there's only one thing left to say....
...anyone who doesn't like Hipposong needs their ears tuned. :-)
So long. It's been real.
Nick
P.S.: Princess Olivia too.
