Pop Critics Voice Grammy Disdain : Pop music: Only two top Grammy nominees make the Village Voice’s annual poll. Rock writers have their own blind spot--promising developments in England.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse’s searing “Ragged Glory” was the best album of 1990, not Quincy Jones’ Grammy-winning “Back on the Block.”

Deee-Lite’s dance-happy “Groove Is in the Heart” was the best single of 1990, not Phil Collins’ Grammy-winning “Another Day in Paradise.”

Ice Cube, the tough-minded Los Angeles rapper, was the best new artist of 1990, not Grammy-winner Mariah Carey.

At least, those are the opinions of the nearly 300 U.S. pop critics--including six regular contributors to The Times--who voted in the Village Voice’s annual pop music poll. The results were published in the March 5 issue of the New York weekly.

Given many critics’ longstanding complaints about the Grammy competition favoring mainstream bestsellers over pop’s most challenging and creative forces, such differences are not unexpected.

Yet the degree of disagreement between the poll and the Grammy competition makes it difficult in many cases to realize that the votes were based on the same year’s music.

Only one of the five Grammy nominees for best album and only one of the five Grammy nominees for best single record were included on the critics’ list of 40 best albums or 25 best singles.

They were Jones’ “Back on the Block” album, a late 1989 release that finished 38th in last year’s Voice poll, and Sinead O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U,” which was voted the year’s second-best single by critics but which lost in the final Grammy voting to Phil Collins’ “Another Day in Paradise.”

That means Collins and other key Grammy nominees--Bette Midler, Mariah Carey, M.C. Hammer and Wilson Phillips--were all shut out in the critics’ balloting.

Here were the year’s 10 best albums, according to critics, and the number of points they received.

1--Neil Young & Crazy Horse’s “Ragged Glory” (1,282 points).

2--Sinead O’Connor’s “I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got” (1,070).

3--Public Enemy’s “Fear of a Black Planet” (1,026).

4--Sonic Youth’s “Goo” (659).

5--Living Colour’s “Time’s Up” (606).

6--Ice Cube’s “AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted” (533).

7--Paul Simon’s “The Rhythm of the Saints” (486).

8--Rosanne Cash’s “Interiors” (461).

9--LL Cool J’s “Mama Said Knock You Out” (457).

10--Prince’s “Graffiti Bridge” (417).

The critics’ top 10 singles aren’t based on points but on the number of critics who put the record in their personal top 10.

1--Deee-Lite’s “Groove Is in the Heart” (74).

2--Sinead O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” (69).

3--Digital Underground’s “The Humpty Dance” (40).

4--Madonna’s “Vogue” (39).

5--Faith No More’s “Epic” tied with Lisa Stansfield’s “All Around the World” (33).

7--Black Box’s “Everybody Everybody” (32).

8--Madonna’s “Justify My Love” (29).

9--Soho’s “Hippychick” (27).

10--Public Enemy’s “Welcome to the Terrordome” (26).

While the Voice poll offers a far more reassuring view of the creative health of pop music than the Grammy Awards do, it doesn’t fully erase concerns that have been raised in recent months about the undeniable stagnation of rock.

Though almost half of the 40 albums on the poll are rock related, there is little sense of bold new creative direction in the overall list. Part of that, however, may be due more to a blind spot by the critics.

The critics’ list included lots of still worthy old favorites (Neil Young, Los Lobos, Iggy Pop, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison) and several other valid groups (Sonic Youth, the Replacements, the Pixies), but the latter seemed to be more working off an ‘80s, post-punk energy rather than creating new sensibilities for the ‘90s.

Two bands that do seem to be offering new sensibilities--Jane’s Addiction and Faith No More--were greatly undervalued in the poll, finishing only 24th and 27th respectively.

But the most glaring omission of the poll was the failure to acknowledge the especially promising rock developments in England, where the best of a group of Manchester bands (chiefly the Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, Charlatans UK, Inspiral Carpets, 808 State) and others (including Jesus Jones, Ride, Lush) are reflecting many of rock’s traditional qualities of independence and imagination, but from a fresher, more contemporary framework.

These albums may not deserve to be in the critics’ consensus Top 10 yet, but some of them ought to be sprinkled through the Top 40. The fact that they’re not shows that the Grammy voters aren’t the only ones with occasional tunnel vision.