[Please note: The Best of the 2010s poll is still open for another week. If you haven’t added your list there, please do.]

—

If you still have a living memory of what last January was like, congratulations. You’re one up on me. But I know there’s been a lot of good music released since then, and thanks in no small part to the 300-on-the-nose people who submitted lists to this poll, I know that as ever I only heard the barest fraction of it.

The good news, of course, is that all of those lists are included here. The bad news — such as it is — is that soon 2020 will be no less overwhelming. That’s the way it goes, the creative barrage. It’s worth taking a second and appreciating how lucky we are to live in an age where such a thing is possible. Double-edged sword, to be sure, but the one end produces some killer cuts.

I could go on and philosophize about the year, the continued emergence and evolution of various styles of heavy, the seemingly endless expansion and reshaping of the very notion itself, but you’d get bored and if you’re reading this, I’m going to guess you’ve heard it all before. Probably from me. Like, last week. I’ll save it and we’ll get to the lists instead.

To reiterate the rules once more, here they are as designed by Slevin and as they’ve been cut and pasted for the last however many years (hey, if it ain’t broke): You submit your list of up to 20 favorites on the form below. Anything from the start of the year to the finish is eligible. At the end, there are two lists, one of the raw votes, and one in which a 1-4 ranking is worth five points, 5-8 worth four, 9-12 worth three, 13-16 worth two and 17-20 worth one.

There you have it. Let’s go:

Top 20 of 2019 — Weighted Results

1. Monolord, No Comfort (306 points)
2. Green Lung, Woodland Rites (256)
3. Solace, The Brink (195)
4. Nebula, Holy Shit (148)
5. Hippie Death Cult, 111 (141)
6. Howling Giant, The Space Between Worlds (132)
7. Torche, Admission (128)
8. Baroness, Gold & Grey (120)
9. Irata, Tower (116)
10. Leeds Point, Equinox Blues (115)
11. The Devil and the Almighty Blues, Tre (112)
12. Saint Karloff, Interstellar Voodoo (111)
13. Lo-Pan, Subtle (104)
13. Tool, Fear Inoculum (104)
14. Yatra, Death Ritual (101)
15. Valley of the Sun, Old Gods (100)
16. Crypt Trip, Haze County (90)
17. Saint Vitus, Saint Vitus (88)
18. Cult of Luna, A Dawn to Fear (85)
19. Kadavar, For the Dead Travel Fast (84)
20. Colour Haze, We Are (83)

Honorable Mention:
The Well, Death and Consolation (82)
Hazemaze, Hymns of the Damned (76)
Horseburner, The Thief (74)
Spirit Adrift, Divided by Darkness (72)
Bask, III (71)
Sacri Monti, Waiting Room for the Magic Hour (69)
Year of the Cobra, Ash And Dust (67)
Mars Red Sky, The Task Eternal (66)

Notes: I don’t really find much to disagree with here. You can kind of see a couple bands who maybe put word out to their fanbase to vote, but frankly, I don’t have a problem with that so long as it’s not the band themselves spamming the poll, which it’s never been. If you feel passionate enough to vote for one thing and one thing only, so be it. I think that’s worth counting. Not exactly like we’re doing this for scientific posterity anyway. It’s supposed to be a good time. In any case, Monolord took the lead early and didn’t relinquish, and I was glad to see the Green Lung record caught on with people. Solace are always welcome, and Nebula well earned their spot. Seemed like that Hippie Death Cult LP really resonated with people. I feel like I need to go back to it and give it another go, see if I missed something, which, frankly, I’m sure I did. But this is a good start. Let’s do the raw votes.

Top 20 of 2019 — Raw Votes

1. Monolord, No Comfort (84 votes)
2. Green Lung, Woodland Rites (68)
3. Solace, The Brink (52)
4. Nebula, Holy Shit (47)
5. Hippie Death Cult, 111 (39)
6. Howling Giant, The Space Between Worlds (38)
7. Leeds Point, Equinox Blues (37)
8. Torche, Admission (37)
9. Baroness, Gold & Grey (36)
10. Irata, Tower (32)
10. The Devil And The Almighty Blues, Tre (32)
11. Lo-Pan, Subtle (31)
11. Saint Karloff, Interstellar Voodoo (31)
11. Tool, Fear Inoculum (31)
11. Yatra, Death Ritual (31)
12. Valley Of The Sun, Old Gods (29)
13. Colour Haze, We Are (26)
13. Crypt Trip, Haze County (26)
14. Cult Of Luna, A Dawn To Fear (25)
14. Kadavar, For The Dead Travel Fast (25)
15. The Well, Death And Consolation (23)
16. Saint Vitus, Saint Vitus (23)
17. Bask, III (22)
18. Hazemaze, Hymns Of The Damned (21)
18. Horseburner, The Thief (21)
18. Sacri Monti, Waiting Room For The Magic Hour (21)
19. Black Mountain, Destroyer (20)
19. Lord Vicar, The Black Powder (20)
19. Magic Circle, Departed Souls (20)
19. Mars Red Sky, The Task Eternal (20)
19. Opeth, In Cauda Venenum (20)
19. Spirit Adrift, Divided By Darkness (20)
19. Yawning Man, Macedonian Lines (20)
19. Year Of The Cobra, Ash And Dust (20)
20. Russian Circles, Blood Year (19)
20. Candlemass, The Door To Doom (19)

Honorable Mention:
Crypt Sermon, The Ruins of Fading Light (18)
Duneeater, No Gas No Good (17)
Holy Serpent, Endless (17)
Zed, Volume (17)
Pelican, Nighttime Stories (17)
Roadsaw, Tinnitus the Night (17)

Notes: Alright, that’s enough. There might be one or two more that would add up to 17 votes, but with a list of 20 that actually has 36 records on it, you’ll pardon me if I feel less inclined to chase down all of them. As ever, things get a little more jumbled in the raw vote tally, though with the surplus of inclusions, the variety of styles and the sheer glut of stuff, I feel like this list kind of represents the year that was 2019 in some more accurate respects, being totally overwhelming and whatnot. In any case, the top five is the same, and I’m glad to see that Howling Giant catch on with people as well. That’s a good record, even through Green Lung would seem to have ‘Debut of the Year’ on lockdown. That’s something else I agreed with.

—

That’s it, friends. Thanks for reading, thanks for reading, thanks for reading. And if you voted, thanks for voting! It is hugely appreciated. Special thanks to Slevin for, as ever, organizing the app that runs and tallies all the votes, because I remember doing it by hand and it was a nightmare even when there were far fewer submissions. That too is deeply appreciated.

Plenty to look forward to in 2020, but before I turn you over to all the individual lists, I wish you a glorious year and either inner peace or an honorable death in battle, whichever you should happen to lie with your personal preferences.

Love, love, love.

Lists follow the jump, and here’s the jump:

Read more »

[PLEASE NOTE: This is not the same thing as the Top 20 of the 2010s Poll, which is ongoing. This is 2019 only. Participation in both or either is welcome and encouraged.]

I was waffling on the idea of doing a year-end poll, since I didn’t want it to take away from the above-linked decade-end one. But when that went up, I said I might not do one for 2019 and the response here and on thee social medias was resoundingly in favor of having both. So…

Okay folks, here it is. Don’t let the opportunity slip. Get your list of 20 of the best of 2019 together and put it in the form below and we’ll do it up like always. Honestly, these polls and these lists are a tremendous resource to me, so I’m glad it’s happening, but especially with two polls going, maximum participation is all the more important.

Really. Get involved. Please share the link. Tell two friends and tell them to tell two friends. Buy a billboard on the side of I-95 in Stamford. Skywriting. Write your congressional or parliamentary representative. Whatever you can do to help spread the word, it’s appreciated.

Same rules as ever: You submit your list of up to 20 favorites on the form below. Anything from Jan. 2019 to whatever’s coming out between now and Dec. 31 is eligible. At the end, there are two lists, one of the raw votes, and one in which a 1-4 ranking is worth five points, 5-8 worth four, 9-12 worth three, 13-16 worth two and 17-20 worth one.

A sentient robot trapped in a bunker somewhere tabulates the results (with paper backups, of course; we’re not unaware of threats to cybersecurity), and they go up Jan. 1, along with everybody’s list.

Time to make it happen:

POLL IS CLOSED — THANKS TO ALL WHO VOTED!

Extra special thanks to The Obelisk’s Much-Loved Technical Coordinator Supreme Slevin this time around, who has gone above in beyond in setting up a second app this time so the two polls can run at once. My deep gratitude and respect for his efforts knows no bounds.

Please note, no emails are kept or stored. The whole thing gets wiped after the lists are posted so we can do it all again next year. Thanks.

If you’re reading this, congratulations on making it all the way through the existential rollercoaster that was 2018.

I hope you celebrated that year’s end and this year’s beginning in riotous fashion if that’s your thing, and if you’re more the stay-at-home-and-don’t-break-stuff type, I hope that was fun too.

Over the last month, best-of lists have been collected from all around the world and as we move into 2019, it’s time to do the results of the Year-End Poll for 2018.

What a year. As I look back on the lists submitted, of course I can’t help but think how absolutely incredible 2018 was for music. With the world crumbling around, creativity surged, and the quality of output was off the charts. I published my own list last week and was quickly inundated with stuff I forgot or that I missed owing to being robbed earlier this year — I guess I didn’t even realize until the post went up just how much that screwed me — and I’m sure there’s more still out there from what everyone turned in. It’s infinite. It keeps going. Trends change. Sounds change. People change. Creativity flourishes.

But I think if you’re reading this, you know why we’re here. We wound up with somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,000 discrete releases submitted. That’s more than five for every day of the year. And they came from 547 people, which is amazing. Accordingly, there should be plenty here to keep you busy for a while.

Not exactly suspenseful as to which was the album of the year, but it’s still interesting to see where stuff landed. Just to remind, there are two lists, one of the raw votes, and one in which a 1-4 ranking is worth five points, 5-8 worth four, 9-12 worth three, 13-16 worth two and 17-20 worth one. Thanks as always to Slevin for the help in setting up the back end functionality and compilation scripts.

Let’s go:

Top 20 of 2018 — Weighted Results

1. Sleep, The Sciences (1,087 points)
2. YOB, Our Raw Heart (721)
3. High on Fire, Electric Messiah (478)
4. Earthless, Black Heaven (413)
5. King Buffalo, Longing to Be the Mountain (408)
6. Windhand, Eternal Return (387)
7. All Them Witches, ATW (373)
8. Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, Wasteland (354)
9. Clutch, Book of Bad Decisions (323)
10. Fu Manchu, Clone of the Universe (315)
11. Greenleaf, Hear the Rivers (285)
12. Holy Grove, Holy Grove II (274)
13. Graveyard, Peace (225)
14. Brant Bjork, Mankind Woman (222)
15. Weedpecker, III (212)
16. Corrosion of Conformity, No Cross No Crown (197)
17. Monster Magnet, Mindfucker (189)
18. Conan, Existential Void Guardian (188)
19. The Skull, The Endless Road Turns Dark (167)
20. ASG, Survive Sunrise (164)

Honorable Mention:
Messa, Feast for Water (150)
Gozu, Equilibrium (148)
Judas Priest, Firepower (148)
Naxatras, III (148)
Forming the Void, Rift (146)

I’m not saying everyone had to love the Sleep record, but there’s no way it wasn’t the biggest underground heavy release of the year. That top spot was established the first day the poll went up and while YOB caught up as both neared 100 votes, there was no doubt how it would ultimately shake out. It was pretty clear early on what people were passionate about, but there are some interesting differences between the raw vote and the weighted results even high on the list, as you’ll see below.

Top 20 of 2018 — Raw Votes

1. Sleep, The Sciences (263 votes)
2. YOB, Our Raw Heart (185)
3. High on Fire, Electric Messiah (141)
4. Windhand, Eternal Return (115)
5. Earthless, Black Heaven (109)
6. King Buffalo, Longing to Be the Mountain (102)
7. Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, Wasteland (101)
8. All Them Witches, ATW (95)
8. Clutch, Book of Bad Decisions (95)
9. Fu Manchu, Clone of the Universe (93)
10. Greenleaf, Hear the Rivers (77)
10. Holy Grove, Holy Grove II (77)
11. Graveyard, Peace (69)
12. Brant Bjork, Mankind Woman (67)
13. Weedpecker, III (63)
14. Monster Magnet, Mindfucker (57)
14. Conan, Existential Void Guardian (57)
15. Corrosion of Conformity, No Cross No Crown (54)
16. The Skull, The Endless Road Turns Dark (50)
17. ASG, Survive Sunrise (48)
18. Gozu, Equilibrium (46)
19. Forming the Void, Rift (45)
20. Judas Priest, Firepower (43)
20. Khemmis, Bloodletting (43)
20. Mos Generator, Shadowlands (43)
20. Orange Goblin, The Wolf Bites Back (43)

Honorable Mention:
Messa, Feast for Water (41)
Domkraft, Flood (40)
Naxatras, III (40)
Thou, Magus (40)

Everything else got fewer than 40 raw votes. Why cap it at 40? I don’t know. Good a place as any. And when a top 20 has 26 releases on it, I don’t imagine there will be too many complaints about not enough stuff being included. One can hope, anyhow. You can see the difference between Sleep and everyone else here as well, a pretty precipitous drop after both them and YOB, and YOB and High on Fire — the top three being well ahead of everyone else in terms of general agreement.

The ‘Respect the Hustle’ Award

Somewhere around the middle of the month, I noticed a massive surge of votes for a band called Entropía and their debut album, Invisible. A bunch of people with lists of 20 just including Entropía. I’ve included them below, you can see them. I didn’t know what was up, whether it was the band spamming the vote or what, so I sent them a message. Turns out they had sent the link to their email list and asked for votes, and that’s how they all got in. Well, okay.

They wound up with well over 750 raw votes (to remind, Sleep got 263), and it didn’t feel representative to have them be album of the year, but hey, I respect the hustle, so they get the award accordingly. Nicely done, folks. I’ve been doing Year-End Polls since like 2010 and that’s never happened before. Their totals were 2,367 points and 777 votes.

—

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading. Whether this is the only post you’ve seen this year or you click ‘Like’ on everything that comes across your Facebook feed, your support is tremendously appreciated. This is the only post that will go up today, but we’ll be back to business as usual tomorrow, and in the meantime, you’ll find everybody’s list included after the jump.

All the best for 2019.

Read more »

This is my favorite post of the year, every year. Welcome to the year-end poll. Cast your votes now for your favorite releases from 2018.

If you don’t have 20 albums to list? Doesn’t matter. Have 40? Awesome. Pick 20 of them. Want to list your own band 20 times? That’s cool too. Glad you dig your own stuff.

You probably know the system by now, but here it is: Raw votes are counted and as always, there’s a weighted tally whereby a 1-4 ranking is worth five points, 5-8 worth four, 9-12 worth three, 13-16 worth two and 17-20 worth one. Results from both are posted New Year’s Day, along with all the lists.

Last year’s participation was awesome, and with so many excellent records out in 2018, I’m dying to see what comes out first. There are picks that seem obvious to me, but it’s always fascinating to see what albums different people are super-passionate about, where people connect and where they differ.

To that end, please note one more time that all the lists are posted when the results go up. We’re talking hundreds of entries. If you’ve missed anything throughout the year, it’s great resource, and I know I’ve used it before not only in constructing my own lists, but just in checking out records I may not have had the chance to hear at the time. I continue to go back to past years and find new stuff.

Posterity aside, however, the point here is to have fun, so please do that first and foremost. I know sometimes lists come in with bands spelled wrong and albums all wonky. It’s fine. Yeah, everything is culled together, but the point here is to stand up for music you’re into, so the rest will work out. Enjoyment is the thing, so enjoy it. No stress.

Thanks as always to Slevin, without whose patience, time and technical expertise this site would simply not exist.

The Obelisk’s Top 20 of 2017 Year-End Poll is open! Cast your votes now for up to 20 of your favorite releases from the year and find out which ones make the final list on Jan. 1, 2018!

I say this every year — I know I do — but I feel like I’m especially curious to see what comes out on top when it comes to everybody’s picks this year. There was just so much, and all of it so varied. It was like an onslaught happening all the time from every angle. It never stopped — it’s December and it’s still going on! — and it seemed like no matter what kind of sound you were into, each week brought some highlight offering that could rightly be considered among the year’s best.

Nonetheless, it’s challenge time. Get your list together, dig out those favorite picks, and make sure you’ve got them in the right order because the Year-End Poll only comes around once a year. As ever, we’ll be using a system wherein a 1-4 ranking is worth five points, 5-8 worth four, 9-12 worth three, 13-16 worth two and 17-20 worth one. Raw votes are of course also counted, and the results from both counts will be posted on New Year’s Day, along with all the lists contributed.

I’ll be getting my list together and adding it as well, but whatever hit a nerve with you, whether it was an album, EP, split, single — anything — toss it in and see where it ends up. At very least it’ll be represented when your list is published on Jan. 1!

Maximum participation and sharing is encouraged and deeply appreciated.

Let’s have some fun:

[This poll is now closed. Thanks to all who entered.]

As ever, I can’t thank Slevin enough for helping to put this all together, and thanks to you for reading and taking part in this ongoing experiment. I can’t wait to see how this one will turn out.

Look for the results and lists on Jan. 1, 2018!

—

Welcome to The Obelisk’s Top 20 of 2016 Year-End Poll!

Maximum participation is welcomed and encouraged. By now you know the rules, or if you don’t I’m sure you can guess. Everyone contributes a list of their favorite releases of 2016. I don’t care if it’s an album, EP, single, whatever. Anything that struck your fancy is cool.

All of those picks are rounded up from the form below — it asks for your email just to prove you’re a human being, so please don’t think I’m keeping tabs or selling info or anything like that; I wouldn’t know how even if I wanted to — and will be tabulated at the end of the month. For the last few years, we’ve used a point system wherein a 1-4 ranking is worth five points, 5-8 worth four, 9-12 worth three, 13-16 worth two and 17-20 worth one. Raw votes are of course also counted, and the results from both counts will be posted on New Year’s Day, along with all the lists contributed.

I had a pretty good idea last year what the number one was going to be. What’s 2016’s pick? Not a clue. I’ve got my own list in progress and will be adding it to the poll as well, but I’m dying to see what everyone chooses and what wins out. More than ever it seems there could be multiple options, so if there’s something you feel strongly about, make sure it’s high on your list to get those extra points.

You have my sincere appreciation for contributing your list, and any sharing of the link or commenting or anything else is welcome.

This is meant to be a conversation and a good time, so let’s have at it:

THE POLL IS CLOSED. THANKS TO ALL WHO ENTERED!

Thanks as always to Slevin for his invaluable assistance in putting this poll together, and to you for reading and taking part in this ongoing experiment. Let’s make this the biggest poll yet.

Results out Jan. 1, 2017!

—

Happy New Year, and thank you. Thank you to everybody who took time out of what I’m sure was a crazy December to cast a vote in the sixth-annual year-end poll. It’s hugely appreciated, and I’m thrilled to note that with a final tally of 388, we not only beat last year’s number of contributors (355), but did so by a wider margin than last year beat 2013. That means a lot to me, so again, thank you for taking part.

I’ve spent the last month watching the results come in as votes are cast, checking the back end of the poll at least once a day, and more than any time I’ve ever done this, 2015 had a clear runaway. I’ll talk about it a bit in the lists, but let me first say that, as has happened every single time a poll’s results go up, the numbers change a bit over the next day or two as things are checked and rechecked. There won’t be any major shifts, but keep an eye on it anyhow.

Below, you’ll find two lists. The first is the weighted tally, working off a point system put together by Slevin that I barely comprehend in which a 1-4 ranking is worth five points, 5-8 worth four, 9-12 worth three, 13-16 worth two and 17-20 worth one. The second, and more suited to my caveman brain, is the raw votes. There are always some subtle differences between the two.

In addition to those, after the jump there are all the lists submitted over the course of the month. They’re alphabetical order.

Enough disclaimers. Here goes:

Top 20 of 2015 — Weighted Results

1. Elder, Lore (858 points)
2. Clutch, Psychic Warfare (527)
3. High on Fire, Luminiferous (433)
4. Kadavar, Berlin (404)
5. All Them Witches, Dying Surfer Meets His Maker (368)
5. Graveyard, Innocence and Decadence (368)
6. Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, The Night Creeper (355)
7. Acid King, Middle of Nowhere, Center of Everywhere (320)
7. Goatsnake, Black Age Blues (320)
8. Windhand, Grief’s Infernal Flower (307)
9. Monolord, Vænir (284)
10. Torche, Restarter (232)
11. Ghost, Meliora (211)
12. The Atomic Bitchwax, Gravitron (208)
13. With the Dead, With the Dead (189)
14. Baroness, Purple (182)
15. Snail, Feral (179)
16. Ufomammut, Ecate (167)
17. The Sword, High Country (155)
18. Golden Void, Berkana (152)
19. Dopethrone, Hochelaga (133)
20. Kylesa, Exhausting Fire (132)

Honorable mention to:
Fuzz, II (131)
Royal Thunder, Crooked Doors (130)
Weedpecker, II (123)
Monster Magnet, Cobras and Fire (116)
Freedom Hawk, Into Your Mind (113)

Basically what I see in the above is a lot of agreement. People liked Elder and they liked Clutch. Both were picked often and both placed highly on the lists in which they were included, but it’s worth looking at the drop between the two — 858 to 527 is significant. As with every year it’s been done this way so far, the two lists are pretty consistent, the weighted tally and the raw votes, but the order is different, and this list gauges not only how widespread a given record reached, but how deeply it resonated with those who heard it. A couple well-placed ties add two extra picks to the top 10, and from there things hold pretty steady through number 20, though again, the placement at the bottom of the list is jumbled some compared to the raw votes as well. Speaking of…

Top 20 of 2015 — Raw Votes

1. Elder, Lore (207)
2. Clutch, Psychic Warfare (138)
3. High on Fire, Luminiferous (128)
4. Kadavar, Berlin (114)
5. Graveyard, Innocence and Decadence (112)
6. Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, The Night Creeper (107)
7. Windhand, Grief’s Infernal Flower (103)
8. Acid King, Middle of Nowhere, Center of Everywhere (99)
9. All Them Witches, Dying Surfer Meets His Maker (94)
9. Goatsnake, Black Age Blues (94)
10. Monolord, Vænir (82)
11. Torche, Restarter (71)
12. With the Dead, With the Dead (64)
13. The Atomic Bitchwax, Gravitron (62)
14. Ghost, Meliora (61)
15. Ufomammut, Ecate (57)
16. The Sword, High Country (52)
17. Baroness, Purple (50)
17. Golden Void, Berkana (50)
18. Snail, Feral (46)
19. Dopethrone, Hochelaga (43)
20. Fuzz, II (42)
20. Kylesa, Exhausting Fire (42)
20. Royal Thunder, Crooked Doors (42)

Honorable mention to:
Monster Magnet, Cobras and Fire (41)
Mondo Drag, Mondo Drag (38)
Weedpecker, II (38)
Weedeater, Goliathan (37)
The Machine, Offblast! (35)
Goya, Obelisk (34)
Bell Witch, Four Phantoms (33)
Freedom Hawk, Into Your Mind (33)
Spelljammer, Ancient of Days (33)
Ruby the Hatchet, Valley of the Snake (32)
Sacri Monti, Sacri Monti (32)
Death Alley, Black Magick Boogieland (31)
My Sleeping Karma, Moksha (31)

Everything else was under 30 votes. As I alluded above, Elder’s Lore ran away with this one. Within 24 hours of the poll going live, it was ahead by a decent margin, and that margin only increased as the month went on. Granted there were more people than ever taking part in this year’s poll, but it’s also the first release ever to pass 200 votes in this tally, beating out even the formidable likes of YOB’s Clearing the Path to Ascend, which topped last year’s list at 138. That’s an accomplishment in itself, but either way, there was no question what was the Album of 2015, and of course, that’s an assessment with which I agreed as well.

—

One more time, thank you to everybody who participated, and thanks as always to Slevin for his diligent behind-the-scenes efforts, without which this poll and this site simply would not exist. The man is a hero and should be venerated as such.

Happy 2016 to everybody. I hope it’s a fantastic year for you personally and that your days are filled with good music.

Please find all the lists after the jump, and enjoy. If you find any glaring mathematical errors on the above or there’s something you feel needs to be checked or is missing, let me know in the comments.

Read more »

Welcome to the Sixth Annual The Obelisk Readers Poll!

I actually didn’t realize today was Dec. 1 until last week, but here we are. There’s a month left in 2015 and it’s time to put up the Top 20 of 2015 Readers Poll. Each year has continued to grow from the one before it, and that’s been amazing to watch and I hope it will be the same way this year. It’s certainly been an interesting one.

When we first started out last year, I wasn’t sure what the number one pick would be, and in 2015, I’m even less certain. I’ll admit, I’ve started putting my own list together, and I know what my number one pick is (I’ll post my own list later in the month), but more than any other year I’ve held a Readers Poll — and this is the sixth one, if you missed that above — it’s hard for me to gauge where people might be at in their own preferences.

Bottom line is I’m dying to know, so I won’t bother to delay much more, except to note that, as with the last couple years, we’ll be using a point system to tabulate the results, wherein a 1-4 ranking is worth five points, 5-8 worth four, 9-12 worth three, 13-16 worth two and 17-20 worth one, as well as tabulating the raw votes — covering all bases as much as possible in hopes of getting an accurate read and giving every record a fair shot.

You know the drill. Add your top picks to the form below and they’ll be tallied up accordingly. Results and individual lists are posted Jan. 1, 2016.

Thanks in advance for taking part in the Top 20 of 2015 Readers Poll:

[THIS POLL IS NOW CLOSED. THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO TOOK PART.]

Please note that, as always, I have no interest or intention of storing, using, or even taking note of your email address, it’s just there as a means of making sure you’re a real person and not a spambot before the list is submitted. All forms are purged after the results and lists go live on Jan. 1.

Thanks as always to Slevin for his invaluable efforts in making this Readers Poll, and this entire site, a reality.