'To Bring You My Love' tops 'Village Voice' poll
from USA Today
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PJ Harvey's To Bring You My Love was 1995's best album according to the 278 voters in The Village Voice's annual Jazz & Pop Critics' Poll, out this week.

The edgy rock group handily won, accruing more points than the combined total of the second and third runners-up. That has happened only once before, when Hole won the poll in '94.

Pop's most comprehensive opinion survey is a prestigious barometer of what's hip (or will be), but it's hardly an accurate measure of commercial appeal. None of the favorites reached sales enjoyed by such 1995 heavyweights as Hootie & the Blowfish, Mariah Carey and Alanis Morissette, all absent in the poll's album top 20:

1. PJ Harvey, To Bring You My Love

2. Tricky, Maxinquaye

3. Moby, Everything Is Wrong

4. Elastica, Elastica

5. Neil Young, Mirror Ball

6. Foo Fighters, Foo Fighters

7. Bjork, Post

8. Bruce Springsteen, The Ghost of Tom Joad

9. Yo La Tengo, Electr-O-Pura

10. Oasis, (What's the Story) Morning Glory?

11. Joan Osborne, Relish

12. Emmylou Harris, Wrecking Ball

13. Son Volt, Trace

14. Smashing Pumpkins, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

15. Raekwon, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx

16. Rancid, . . . And Out Come the Wolves

17. Pavement, Wowee Zowee

18. Sonic Youth, Washing Machine

19. Garbage, Garbage

20. Matthew Sweet, 100% Fun

Coolio's Gangsta's Paradise was named best single.

Edna Gundersen, USA TODAY