Mumford And Sons "Lover Of The Light"

As noted on the earlier-this-week posts, the statistics of the Top 25 are pretty interesting.

For years, the Number One album on mvy was usually by a stalwart, heritage artist.  Someone like Bob Dylan or Mark Knopfler was most likely to garner the votes to get the top spot.  And that’s because our listeners, young and old, were operating under the consensus mind that Bob Dylan is a pretty amazing artist, and so lots of different kinds of listeners were voting for his album.

But over the course of the last few years, the Top spot has gone to a young artist who can build enough consensus from the bottom up.

Instead of being an established artist, the Number One record has been by a upstart artist with a breakout record.  And maybe that record started with the younger end of the audience, but was quickly embraced by the full spectrum of listeners.

Yes, your college student kid may have brought home the record first, but even your Dad taps along to the beat when the song comes on the radio.

So it was with last year’s Number One record, from Adele.

Adele’s “21” album managed the incredible feat of receiving twice as many votes from mvyradio listeners, as the Number Two record.  (You're gonna crack up, when you realize what was Number Two, last year)

I didn’t think anyone could pull that off again.

And yet, here we are.  Mumford And Sons’ “Babel” record actually receive more than twice the votes of the Number Two record.

You can view the whole list, and draw your own conclusions about what folks were excited about this year, on our Top 25 of 2012 page.


Hear the song on Youtube.

JD McPherson "Fire Bug"

One of the things I wonder as I look over the Top 25 of 2012 list, makes me feel a little guilty for casting aspersions.

But I look at some folk's lists and think, "Okay, did you really listen to this album?"

And I say this because I know for certain that there are some folks who have not listened.  How do I know?  Because occasionally, we get votes for albums that aren't even out yet!  The folks are voting for the singles (which are out), but they most definitely haven't listened to the album.

So I take it a step further and assume that many of the votes we get are based on the voter liking the single, but the voter has never listened to the album.

Album listening is increasingly rare, in this digital, singles-driven world.

Hell, I don't always get around to checking out full length albums.

Looking at the voting list, the number of full length albums that I've listened to more than 5 times?  It's pretty short.  I really have to like a full record these days, to give it multiple plays, what with so many records competing for attention.

"Signs And Signifiers" was definitely one of those records.  So I'm glad it made the list.

JD McPherson is #15 on mvyradio's Top 25 of 2012.  Check out the full list (so far)!


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Joan Osborne "Shake Your Hips"

The Top 25 countdown is always an interesting, educational experience for me, because it is an exercise in perception versus reality, which is a great thing to keep in mind at all times when programming a radio station.

I can hear a song and think it's great.

We can play a song and get great feedback from the listeners.

We can keep that song in rotation, and follow the chart success of the tune, on Billboard.

We can believe that our listeners love the song/artist.

And then the Top 25 voting happens.

I have never been a huge fan of Joan Osborne's records.  I do think they are uniformly good, solid efforts.  But previous releases have never quite hit my sweet-listening spot (whatever that is).

However, her 2012 album "Bring It On Home" had the grit that I was looking for.

And every time her version of "Shake Your Hips" hit the airwaves, I cranked it up.

So I thought this record was a surefire Top 10 choice for mvyradio listeners.

Not quite.

While it wasn't completely off the radar, it didn't have the impact I thought it was having.

In a year when the most important name in politics may have been Nate Silver, I'm happy that a little bit of statistical sampling is there to keep our list in line.

View the list as we reveal it, at mvyradio.com.


Hear the song on Youtube.