Pazz + Jop and Idolator Pop Oh My

Did The Village Voice intentionally sit out the last month and a half of year-end list-making in order to drop their annual Pazz + Jop Critics Poll at the least relevant moment possible? Beats me, but unloading the 35th iteration of this esteemed roundup in late January seems either like a case of editorial ball-dropping or an intentional eff you to those eager beavers within the blogosphere that shot their list-load in the long long ago of Thanksgiving, doesn't it?

Now, I haven't done my proper homework with this latest of lists (blame year-end burnout?) but there seems to be a lot of similarities - at least with regards to the best album list (again all I've really looked at) - to the Idolator Pop list. Conspiracy theory? No, not at all, seeing as Idolator's poll previously went by the name Jackin' Pop before this year's makeover.

The top 5 of both is fairly identical, just some slight musical chairs with regards to positioning....

Pazz + Jop Critics Top 5
1 LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver - 1662 Points
2 Radiohead - In Rainbows - 1611 Points
3 M.I.A. - Kala - 1611 Points
4 Amy Winehouse - Back To Black - 1492 Points
5 Arcade Fire - Neon Bible - 1212 Points

Idolator Pop Top 5
1 LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver - 1876 Points
2 M.I.A. - Kala - 1550 Points
3 Radiohead - In Rainbows - 1327 Points
4 Arcade Fire - Neon Bible - 847 Points
5 Amy Winehouse - Back To Black - 821 Points

And you can pretty much make the argument that M.I.A should actually also be number two on the Pazz + Jop based on the point total.

The similarities continue throughout the lists and perhaps only worth noting in attempting to answer the broader, Arnold Diaz-esque question: How many critics cast ballots in both polls?

577 critics voted in the Voice poll compared to 452 (Matt and I included) in the Idolator poll. Based on the differences in ballot-list setup (the Voice list is straight-up alphabetical by last name while the Idolator one is oddly separated into mini-lists by first-name letter), a side-by-side comparison of names would take waaaaaaay too much time. If you find yourself wanting to tackle this mind-numbing hunk of EAR FARM busywork instead of attending to whatever it is you're actually being paid for, have at it:

Pazz + Jop Ballot List
Idolator Pop Ballot List

By the time someone comes up with an answer to this riddle, we'll most likely be prepping our year-end lists for 2008.