Annual Village Voice poll recognizes Frank Ocean

By Mikael Wood

Jan. 16, 2013 7:54 AM PT

Frank Ocean can add another award to the pile.

The Village Voice late Tuesday released the results of its annual Pazz & Jop critics poll, which asked approximately 500 music writers for their favorite albums and singles of 2012. Ocean’s “Channel Orange” finished atop the album list, as it did recently on tallies from Entertainment Weekly and The Times, among many others.

“He is the great equalizer,” wrote Eric Sundermann in an accompanying essay on the Los Angeles soul singer. “Because whether you consider yourself a fan of rap, indie rock, pop, metal or polka, you were thinkin’ about Ocean.”

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Next month he’s up for six Grammy Awards, including the new artist and album of the year prizes. And Wednesday morning Ocean was among the nominees announced for the GLAAD Media Awards, which “recognize and honor media for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and the issues that affect their lives,” according to the organization.

Albums by L.A.-based artists took a number of other spots in Pazz & Jop’s top 10, with Kendrick Lamar’s “good kid, m.A.A.d city” and Fiona Apple’s “The Idler Wheel ...” coming in at No. 2 and No. 3, respectively; other finishers in the notoriously indie-heavy poll include Japandroids, Tame Impala and Grimes.

On the singles list, Carly Rae Jepsen’s inescapable “Call Me Maybe” beat out tunes by Usher and Taylor Swift for the top spot, though here again Ocean might be the real winner: He’s the only artist with two songs (“Thinkin Bout You” and “Pyramids”) in the top 10.

Because it’s awesome, watch his performance of “Thinkin Bout You” on “Saturday Night Live” below.