eFests Album of the Year 2022 - THE RESULTS ARE IN!!

[Hugh Jass II]

Well ladies and gentleman,

It's been a hell of a year for music and the votes for this year's album award have been tallied. A total of 170 albums have been nominated by your good selves and I have compiled and tallied all of the votes and am pleased to announce a winner....

The top ten, in reverse order:

10. Fred Again - Actual Life 3

9. Danger Mouse and Black Thought - Cheat Codes

8. Arctic Monkeys - The Car

7. Taylor Swift - Midnights

6. Big Thief - Dragon New Warm Mountain

5. Wet Leg - Wet Leg

4. Kendrick Lamar - Mr Morale and the Big Steppers

3. The Smile - A Light For Attracting Attention

2. Fontaines DC - Skinty Fia

but the winner is...

1. Black Country New Road - Ants From Up There

That's right, the BCNR lads are this year's winners!

Full results can be seen below.

[Hugh Jass II]

Act	Album	Score
Black Country New Road	Ants From Up There	90
Fontaines DC	Skinty Fia	74
The Smile	A Light For Attracting Attention	49
Kendrick Lamar	Mr Morale ATBS	47
Wet Leg	Wet Leg	44
Big Thief	Dragon New Warm Mountain	40
Taylor Swift	Midnights	36
Arctic Monkeys	The Car	25
Danger Mouse & Black Thought	Cheat Codes	25
Fred Again	Actual Life 3	23
First Aid Kit	Palomino	22
Loyle Carner	Hugo	18
The 1975	Being Funny in a FL	18
Yeah Yeah Yeahs	Cool It Down	17
Confidence Man	Tilt	16
Charli XCX	Crash	15
Yard Act	The Overload	15
Bob Vylan	The Price of Life	14
Jockstrap	I Love You Jennifer B	14
Rosalia	Motomami	14
Suede	Autofiction	14
Frank Turner	FTHC	13
Gang of Youths	Angel in Realtime	13
Spiritulaized	Everything Was Beautiful	13
Alvvays	Blue Rev	12
Jack White	Fear of the Dawn	12
Just Mustard	Heart Under	11
Paolo Nutini	Last Night in the Bittersweet	11
Arcade Fire	WE	10
Caroline	Caroline	10
Billy Woods	Aethiopes	9
Beyonce	Renaissance	8
Death Cab For Cutie	Asphalt Meadows	8
Rina Sawayama	Hold The Girl	8
The Big Moon	Here Is Everything	8
Blossoms	Ribbon Around The Bomb	7
Craig Finn	Legacy of Rentals	7
Elvis Costello	Boy Named If	7
Everything Everything	Raw Data Feel	7
Father John Misty	Chloe And The Next 20th Century	7
HAAi	Baby We're Ascending	7
Bjork	Fossora	6
Michael Head and the REB	Dear Scott	6
Sea Power	Everything Was Forever	6
Anais Mitchell	Anais Mitchell	5
Black Midi	Helfire	5
Butch Walker	Glenn	5
Callous Daoboys		5
Daniel Avery	Ultratruth	5
Darkthrone	Astral Fortress	5
Florence ATM	Dance Fever	5
Jack White	Entering Heaven Alive	5
Jenny Hval	Classical Objects	5
Kathryne Williams	Night Drives	5
King Hannah	I'm Not Sorry I Was Just Being Me	5
Liraz	Roya	5
Lizzy McAlpine	Five Seconds Flat	5
ODESZA	Last Goodbye	5
Rachika Nayar	Heaven Come Crashing	5
Run Logan Run	Nature Will Take Care Of You	5
Sudan Archives	Natural Brown Prom Queen	5
The Beths	Experts in a Dying Field	5
The Unthanks	Sorrows Away	5
TSHA	Capricorn Sun	5
Venom Prison	Erebos	5
Vukovi	Nula	5
Angel Olson	Big Time	4
Anthrax	Serfs Out	4
Bad Bunny	Un Verano Sin Ti	4
Beach House	Once, Twice, Melody	4
Christian Lee Hutson	Quitters	4
Counterparts	A Eulogy For Those Still Here	4
Crack Cloud	Tough Baby	4
Fletcher	Girl of My Dreams	4
Gilla Band	Most Normal	4
Jamie Webster	Moments	4
Kae Tempest	The Line is a Curve	4
Katherine Priddy	Eternal Rocks Beneath	4
Kid Kapichi	Here's What You Could Have Won	4
King Gizzard ATLW	Ice, Death, Planets…	4
Lane 8	Reviver	4
Let's Eat Grandma	Two Ribbons	4
Liam Gallagher	Come On You Know	4
Lorna Shore		4
Machine Head		4
Mamas Gun	Cure The Jones	4
Metric	Formentera	4
MO	Motordome	4
Moin	Paste	4
Nova Twins	Supernova	4
Pale Blue Eyes	Souvenirs	4
Plastic Mermaids	It's Not Comfortable To Grow	4
Pup	The Unraelling of Pup The Band	4
Sault	11	4
The Weeknd	Dawn FM	4
Viuex Farka Toure & Khuangabin	Ali	4
Wilco	Cruel Country	4
Wunderhorse	Cub	4
Aldous Harding	Warm Chris	3
Ashe	Rae	3
Bad Omens		3
Brockhampton	The Family	3
Burna Boy	Love Damini	3
Connie Constance	Miss Power	3
Dead Cross	II	3
Foals	Life Is Yours	3
Gabriels	Angels and Queens	3
Jamie T	Theory of Whatever	3
Jessie Buckley and Bernard Butler	For All Our Days	3
Julia Jacklin	Prepleasure	3
Kalsea Ballerini	Sunject To Change	3
Lizzo	Special	3
Marcus Mumford	Marcus Mumford	3
Miles Hunt	Things Can Change	3
Nilufer Yanya	Painless	3
Obongjayar	Some Nights I Dream of Doors	3
One Leg One Eye	And Take The Black Worm With Me	3
Panda Bear/Sonic Boom	Reset	3
Polyphia	Remember You Will Die	3
Romance	Once Upon A Time	3
The Mysterines	Reeling	3
The Suffers	It Starts With Love	3
Weyes Blood	And in the Darkness Hearts Glow	3
Zeal and Ardour	Zeal and Ardour	3
Bonobo	Fragments	2
Charlotte Adigery	Tropical Dancer	2
Crass	Normal Never Was	2
Denzel Curry	Melt Your Eyez, See The Future	2
Drank & 21 Savage	Her Loss	2
Haress	Ghosts	2
Harry Styles	Harrys House	2
Jon Spencer & The Hit Makers	Spencer Gets It Lit	2
Kevin Morby		2
Lau.ra	Mix Tape Vol 1	2
Lucrecia	Ay!	2
Malevolence	Malicious Intent	2
May Erlewine	Tiny Beautiful Things	2
Nas	Kings Disease III	2
Nina Nesbitt	Alskar	2
ORK	Screamnasium	2
Placebo	Never Let Me Down	2
Porcupine Tree	Closure/Continuation	2
Porridge Radio	Waterslide, Diving Board, LTTS	2
Pusha T	It's Almost Dry	2
Romero	Turn It On	2
Stand Atlantic	FEAR	2
Steve Lacey	Gemini Rights	2
Stromae	Multitude	2
Surf Curse	Magic Hour	2
The Wombats	Fix Yourself Not The World	2
Turin Brakes	Wide Eyed Nowhere	2
Alex Cameron	Oxy Music	1
Aurora	The Gods We Can Touch	1
Bartees Strange	Farm to Table	1
Beabadobee	Beatopia	1
Chase and Status	What Came Before	1
Dayseeker		1
Dry Cleaning	Stumpwork	1
Ibibo Sound Machine	Electricity	1
Jean Dawson	Chaos Now	1
Jeshi	Universal Credit	1
Kumo 99	Body N Will	1
MJ Lenderman	Boat Songs	1
Mothica	Nocturnal	1
October Drift	I Don't Belong Anywhere	1
Osees	A Foul Form	1
Parkway Drive	Darker Still	1
Richard Dawson	The Ruby Chord	1
Rolling Blackouts Costal Fever	Endless Rooms	1
Rolo Tomassi	Where Myth Becomes Mystery	1
Spoon	Lucifer on the Sofa	1
TEED	When The Lights Go	1
The Bug Club	Green Dream in F#	1
The Snuts	Burn The Empire	1
The Waterboys	All Souls Hill	1
Worriedaboutsatan	O207	1

[Hugh Jass II]

Interesting that quite a few of the big hitters flopped with the voters.

Beyonce was expected to score much higher than she did and despite a strong stanning campaign by @matt42 earlier in the year Adele's 30 failed to garner a single vote. Less surprisng was Red Hot Chilli Peppers' inability to secure a single vote from the panel. Dry Cleaning's Stumpwork was another notable flop...

Foals' poor performance may have killed their Pyramid headline hopes once and for all.

[p.pete]

Fantastic effort and thank you!  I'd not listened to much during the year and then AotY lists and this thread have given me lots to get into over the coming months (haha, I'll save next years music for until Dec / Jan too I guess!)

[a6l6e6x]

Good effort, I disagree with the entire top 10 which therefore means you all have bad taste but nice one for putting this together

[Avalon_Fields]

Thank you @Hugh Jass II for all your good work.

[GeezLouise]

Beautiful 🥹

[Superscally]

Fred Again. Invalidates the list.

[blutarsky]

Top work @Hugh Jass II

[gigpusher]

Great work @Hugh Jass II

Enjoying listening to some of the choices people made. 
@Avalon_Fieldsreally liking the Katherine Priddy one. I think you might like my Kathryn Williams choice as well. 

[Watergirl]

I really like Katherine Priddy's album and have seen it in several end of year lists. It's from 2021 though..

[Justcalledtosay]

I swear I never saw Black Country nominated once 😂 ….possibly because I’ve never heard of them and probably just kept reading past them

[gigpusher]

39 minutes ago, Watergirl said:

I really like Katherine Priddy's album and have seen it in several end of year lists. It's from 2021 though..

Definitely passed me by so glad I found it regardless! 

[guypjfreak]

7 hours ago, Hugh Jass II said:

Act	Album	Score
Black Country New Road	Ants From Up There	90
Fontaines DC	Skinty Fia	74
The Smile	A Light For Attracting Attention	49
Kendrick Lamar	Mr Morale ATBS	47
Wet Leg	Wet Leg	44
Big Thief	Dragon New Warm Mountain	40
Taylor Swift	Midnights	36
Arctic Monkeys	The Car	25
Danger Mouse & Black Thought	Cheat Codes	25
Fred Again	Actual Life 3	23
First Aid Kit	Palomino	22
Loyle Carner	Hugo	18
The 1975	Being Funny in a FL	18
Yeah Yeah Yeahs	Cool It Down	17
Confidence Man	Tilt	16
Charli XCX	Crash	15
Yard Act	The Overload	15
Bob Vylan	The Price of Life	14
Jockstrap	I Love You Jennifer B	14
Rosalia	Motomami	14
Suede	Autofiction	14
Frank Turner	FTHC	13
Gang of Youths	Angel in Realtime	13
Spiritulaized	Everything Was Beautiful	13
Alvvays	Blue Rev	12
Jack White	Fear of the Dawn	12
Just Mustard	Heart Under	11
Paolo Nutini	Last Night in the Bittersweet	11
Arcade Fire	WE	10
Caroline	Caroline	10
Billy Woods	Aethiopes	9
Beyonce	Renaissance	8
Death Cab For Cutie	Asphalt Meadows	8
Rina Sawayama	Hold The Girl	8
The Big Moon	Here Is Everything	8
Blossoms	Ribbon Around The Bomb	7
Craig Finn	Legacy of Rentals	7
Elvis Costello	Boy Named If	7
Everything Everything	Raw Data Feel	7
Father John Misty	Chloe And The Next 20th Century	7
HAAi	Baby We're Ascending	7
Bjork	Fossora	6
Michael Head and the REB	Dear Scott	6
Sea Power	Everything Was Forever	6
Anais Mitchell	Anais Mitchell	5
Black Midi	Helfire	5
Butch Walker	Glenn	5
Callous Daoboys		5
Daniel Avery	Ultratruth	5
Darkthrone	Astral Fortress	5
Florence ATM	Dance Fever	5
Jack White	Entering Heaven Alive	5
Jenny Hval	Classical Objects	5
Kathryne Williams	Night Drives	5
King Hannah	I'm Not Sorry I Was Just Being Me	5
Liraz	Roya	5
Lizzy McAlpine	Five Seconds Flat	5
ODESZA	Last Goodbye	5
Rachika Nayar	Heaven Come Crashing	5
Run Logan Run	Nature Will Take Care Of You	5
Sudan Archives	Natural Brown Prom Queen	5
The Beths	Experts in a Dying Field	5
The Unthanks	Sorrows Away	5
TSHA	Capricorn Sun	5
Venom Prison	Erebos	5
Vukovi	Nula	5
Angel Olson	Big Time	4
Anthrax	Serfs Out	4
Bad Bunny	Un Verano Sin Ti	4
Beach House	Once, Twice, Melody	4
Christian Lee Hutson	Quitters	4
Counterparts	A Eulogy For Those Still Here	4
Crack Cloud	Tough Baby	4
Fletcher	Girl of My Dreams	4
Gilla Band	Most Normal	4
Jamie Webster	Moments	4
Kae Tempest	The Line is a Curve	4
Katherine Priddy	Eternal Rocks Beneath	4
Kid Kapichi	Here's What You Could Have Won	4
King Gizzard ATLW	Ice, Death, Planets…	4
Lane 8	Reviver	4
Let's Eat Grandma	Two Ribbons	4
Liam Gallagher	Come On You Know	4
Lorna Shore		4
Machine Head		4
Mamas Gun	Cure The Jones	4
Metric	Formentera	4
MO	Motordome	4
Moin	Paste	4
Nova Twins	Supernova	4
Pale Blue Eyes	Souvenirs	4
Plastic Mermaids	It's Not Comfortable To Grow	4
Pup	The Unraelling of Pup The Band	4
Sault	11	4
The Weeknd	Dawn FM	4
Viuex Farka Toure & Khuangabin	Ali	4
Wilco	Cruel Country	4
Wunderhorse	Cub	4
Aldous Harding	Warm Chris	3
Ashe	Rae	3
Bad Omens		3
Brockhampton	The Family	3
Burna Boy	Love Damini	3
Connie Constance	Miss Power	3
Dead Cross	II	3
Foals	Life Is Yours	3
Gabriels	Angels and Queens	3
Jamie T	Theory of Whatever	3
Jessie Buckley and Bernard Butler	For All Our Days	3
Julia Jacklin	Prepleasure	3
Kalsea Ballerini	Sunject To Change	3
Lizzo	Special	3
Marcus Mumford	Marcus Mumford	3
Miles Hunt	Things Can Change	3
Nilufer Yanya	Painless	3
Obongjayar	Some Nights I Dream of Doors	3
One Leg One Eye	And Take The Black Worm With Me	3
Panda Bear/Sonic Boom	Reset	3
Polyphia	Remember You Will Die	3
Romance	Once Upon A Time	3
The Mysterines	Reeling	3
The Suffers	It Starts With Love	3
Weyes Blood	And in the Darkness Hearts Glow	3
Zeal and Ardour	Zeal and Ardour	3
Bonobo	Fragments	2
Charlotte Adigery	Tropical Dancer	2
Crass	Normal Never Was	2
Denzel Curry	Melt Your Eyez, See The Future	2
Drank & 21 Savage	Her Loss	2
Haress	Ghosts	2
Harry Styles	Harrys House	2
Jon Spencer & The Hit Makers	Spencer Gets It Lit	2
Kevin Morby		2
Lau.ra	Mix Tape Vol 1	2
Lucrecia	Ay!	2
Malevolence	Malicious Intent	2
May Erlewine	Tiny Beautiful Things	2
Nas	Kings Disease III	2
Nina Nesbitt	Alskar	2
ORK	Screamnasium	2
Placebo	Never Let Me Down	2
Porcupine Tree	Closure/Continuation	2
Porridge Radio	Waterslide, Diving Board, LTTS	2
Pusha T	It's Almost Dry	2
Romero	Turn It On	2
Stand Atlantic	FEAR	2
Steve Lacey	Gemini Rights	2
Stromae	Multitude	2
Surf Curse	Magic Hour	2
The Wombats	Fix Yourself Not The World	2
Turin Brakes	Wide Eyed Nowhere	2
Alex Cameron	Oxy Music	1
Aurora	The Gods We Can Touch	1
Bartees Strange	Farm to Table	1
Beabadobee	Beatopia	1
Chase and Status	What Came Before	1
Dayseeker		1
Dry Cleaning	Stumpwork	1
Ibibo Sound Machine	Electricity	1
Jean Dawson	Chaos Now	1
Jeshi	Universal Credit	1
Kumo 99	Body N Will	1
MJ Lenderman	Boat Songs	1
Mothica	Nocturnal	1
October Drift	I Don't Belong Anywhere	1
Osees	A Foul Form	1
Parkway Drive	Darker Still	1
Richard Dawson	The Ruby Chord	1
Rolling Blackouts Costal Fever	Endless Rooms	1
Rolo Tomassi	Where Myth Becomes Mystery	1
Spoon	Lucifer on the Sofa	1
TEED	When The Lights Go	1
The Bug Club	Green Dream in F#	1
The Snuts	Burn The Empire	1
The Waterboys	All Souls Hill	1
Worriedaboutsatan	O207	1

Plastic mermaids.. Watch out for the these boys.. You heard it here first 

[Hutchmaster]

Top work, thanks @Hugh Jass II!

Sort of regret going early with my list, otherwise Ethel Cain would've made the longlist!

[clarkete]

9 hours ago, Hugh Jass II said:

Interesting that quite a few of the big hitters flopped with the voters.

Beyonce was expected to score much higher than she did and despite a strong stanning campaign by @matt42 earlier in the year Adele's 30 failed to garner a single vote. 

I couldn't tell you the last time I listened to a whole album, but thanks for your endeavours. 

Based on the tracks I've heard, I'm sure there's something to both delight and simultaneously disappoint most listeners 😉

A few days ago I'd have said I heard nowt from Beyonce's latest either, but I heard about half of Peaches' 6music show and she talked about it (commenting as I recall how rare it is that someone releases an album with no videos these days) and played a cracking track (thique). 

[Avalon_Fields]

12 hours ago, gigpusher said:

Enjoying listening to some of the choices people made. 
@Avalon_Fieldsreally liking the Katherine Priddy one. I think you might like my Kathryn Williams choice as well. 

Thanks! Yes, Kathryn Williams sounds interesting, really like the song Radioactive, will investigate further…

[BenG92]

Thanks for pulling them together, great list. Happy to see Cheat Codes got its due. 

[Kurosagi]

Momentarily got excited thinking there were some other punks on the forum that had also voted for Anthrax's album too...but then realised you must have awarded points based on the position of albums within the top 5.

Okay, good stuff, as you were 🙂

Currently listening to the new Frank Zappa Waka/Wazoo box set that a very kind soul bought me for xmas...that would have been straight in at number 1 with a bullet for me. You can't beat jazzy Frank.

[Hugh Jass II]

41 minutes ago, Kurosagi said:

Momentarily got excited thinking there were some other punks on the forum that had also voted for Anthrax's album too...but then realised you must have awarded points based on the position of albums within the top 5.

 

Fraid so. Each top album got five points, second four points and so on…

[mike46]

I love this version. Get him on west holts ASAP

[Hugh Jass II]

I have a confession, I've tried listening to that BCNR album and I just find it impenetrable. Everyone raves about them but I just can't get into them at all.

Felt exactly the same about the first album that was critically lauded.

[BenG92]

2 minutes ago, Hugh Jass II said:

I have a confession, I've tried listening to that BCNR album and I just find it impenetrable. Everyone raves about them but I just can't get into them at all.

Felt exactly the same about the first album that was critically lauded.

Save yourself the heartache of trying, those songs won't be played live again. 

[gorfield]

9 minutes ago, Hugh Jass II said:

I have a confession, I've tried listening to that BCNR album and I just find it impenetrable. Everyone raves about them but I just can't get into them at all.

Felt exactly the same about the first album that was critically lauded.

I've just put it on to see what it is like.. i don't get it! ha ha

 

happy to see my album of the year in there though, glad I am not the only one who loves the latest Sea power album

[GeezLouise]

2 minutes ago, gorfield said:

I've just put it on to see what it is like.. i don't get it! ha ha

Me three, i'm gonna give it another shot but so far, it's not for me.