The Consensus Top 10

Beck, the consensus winner of last year’s album voting by The Times’ pop music contributors, was hailed as something of a new Bob Dylan. This year’s winner is the old Bob Dylan. “Time Out of Mind,� the veteran singer-songwriter’s hard-bitten and widely praised return to form, was named the best album of 1997 by the 15 participants in the 17th annual balloting.

But Dylan’s victory is just about the only thing that partisans of American music can cheer this time around. Where last year nine of the Top 10 albums were by U.S. acts, just five of the 11 (due to a tie) finalists in 1997 carry the stars and stripes. The British Invasion II is in full swing, represented here by Radiohead, the Verve, Cornershop and Portishead.

Here’s the consensus Top 10. Albums are awarded 10 points for a first-place vote, nine points for second, and so forth.

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Artist, Title (Label) Total No. of Points Ballots (Firsts) 1. Bob Dylan, “Time Out of 42 5 Mind� (Columbia) (1) 2. Radiohead, “OK Computer� 39 5 (Capitol) (1) 3. The Verve, “Urban Hymns� 35 5 (Virgin) 4. Sleater-Kinney, “Dig Me Out� 32 4 (Kill Rock Stars) (1) 5. Erykah Badu, “Baduizm� 28 7 (Kedar/Universal) (1) 6. The Geraldine Fibbers, 28 4 “Butch� (Virgin) (2) 7. Cornershop, “When I Was 25 4 Born for the 7th Time� (1) (Luaka Bop/Warner Bros.) 8. Portishead, “Portishead� 23 5 (Go!Beat/London) (1) 9. U2, “Pop� (Island) 19 3 10. Bjork, “Homogenic� (Elektra) 18 5 (tie) Steve Earle, “El Corazon� 18 4 (E-Squared/Warner Bros.) (1)

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The first-place votes: Erykah Badu, Connie Johnson. Cornershop, Lorraine Ali. Bob Dylan, Robert Hilburn. Steve Earle, Jerry Crowe. Echo & the Bunnymen, “Evergreen� (London), Natalie Nichols. Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, “Fabulosos Calavera� (BMG), Ernesto Lechner. The Geraldine Fibbers, Richard Cromelin, Mike McCall. The Jayhawks, “Sound of Lies� (American), Marc Weingarten. Metallica, “Re-Load� (Elektra), Sandy Masuo. The Notorious B.I.G., “Life After Death� (Bad Boy/Arista), Cheo Hodari Coker. Portishead, Steve Hochman. Radiohead, Sara Scribner. Sleater-Kinney, Mike Boehm. Jen Trynin, “Gun Shy, Trigger Happy� (Squint/Warner Bros.), Elysa Gardner.

Check Out the Lists

- See the pop critics’ individual Top 10 lists on The Times’ Web site, along with selected audio clips and a discussion area where you can submit your own comments. Go to:

http://ukobiw.net./poptop10