THE BEST OF THE BEST - A NEW APPROACH

Our friend Andries van den Broek, a.k.a. The Dutch Irish Bastard, made recently a comparison among the different sites dealing with Celtic punk and Celtic rock. He took into account the two main sites from the USA, PaddyRock and Shite'n'Onions (in fact, the main experts on all things Celtic) and the two sites from Europe (CFPAM and Rock Kultur). He was told that he had forgotten a couple of sites, Celtic Rock (Germany) and another site from England. Celtic Rock published in the past a “best of the year” TOP3, but unfortunately no list was published for 2011. Anyway, the list would have been too short for a comparison.

Andries got an excellent idea, but I feel that, methodologically, he made a couple of mistakes. First of all, as he pointed out, “Three of these four − PaddyRock (USA), RockKultur Mag (Germany) and Shitenonions (USA) − seem to rate cd’s into ‘best of’ lists all themselves, whereas CelticFolkPunk (Spain) took votes from visitors to the website”. To make a comparison, all the things must be the same. However, three rankings are “individual” and one of them is “collective” or “synthetic” . Therefore, they cannot be “put on the same basket”.

Secondly, he only took the positions from 1 to 5 to make the “Best of the Bests” ranking. When there are four Top10 rankings, the correct thing should be to make a Top10“Best of the Bests” ranking.

I will try to make the corrections in order to establish a methodologically better estimate of the “Best of the Bests” ranking. Maybe the final results could vary.

First step: take the data from 4 similar rankings. As I didn’t publish my list (I said which my choices were, but not the order), I must admit that this is not really Andries’ fault, but mine. Sorry about that.

Then, I forget about the ranking that the fans (and some artists) voted and I put my Top10 instead of theirs.

Next step: take the 10 albums from every list. BTW, I have decided to remove The Radiators only because they are really “Irish Punk”, but not “Celtic Punk”. This makes comparisons easier.

So, this would be the Critics “Best of the Bests” 2011 ranking:

1) SIR REG “A Sign of the Times” 30 pts
2) THE MAHONES “The Black Irish” 24 pts
3) PADDY AND THE RATS “Hymns for Bastards” 19 pts
4) BASTARDS ON PARADE “Tales from the Death Shore” 11 pts
BRICK TOP BLAGGERS “Coaster” 11 pts
FIDDLERS GREEN “Wall of Folk” 11 pts
7) GARRAHAN’s GHOST “Songs from the Spider Box” 10 pts
8) JACKFLASH “S/t” 9 pts
9) DROPKICK MURPHYS “Going Out in Style” 8 pts
FATTY FARMERS “Down in the Streets” 8 pts
HOIST THE COLORS “Second City” 8 pts
SCRUM “Killing Time” 8 pts

The Critics’ Top10 would have 12 bands! The ranking would have 30 bands.

The main conclusions:

- The best albums would be SIR REG “A Sign of the Times”, THE MAHONES “The Black Irish” and PADDY AND THE RATS “Hymns for Bastards”
- Dropkick Murphys would top no. 9 (“that’s what the critics say”)
- Flogging Molly would have disappeared from the TOP10 (once again “that’s what the critics say”

Now, a different problem has to be sorted out. As Andries said, only four sites have been taken into account. But there are other sites on the Net and other groups on Facebook. For instance, the blogzine “Rockin’ the Craic” , the podcasts site “Grinning Beggar”, the podcasts site “Paddy O’Punk”, Facebook groups CelticPunkRockers Paris, Irish/Folk/Celtic Punk Italia, Irish Punk Brasil and the DIY collectives putting on Celtic punk bands: London Celtic Punks and CelticRockFrance Asso.

Unfortunately, I can only add two lists E.&.O.E.: Grinning Beggar and London Celtic Punks. Last year (2010) the people from CelticRockFrance Asso and Irish Punk Brasil sent their lists, but not in 2011.

The Experts’ Top10 would be a little bit different:

1) SIR REG “ A Sign of the Times” 47 pts
2) THE MAHONES “The Black Irish” 34 pts
3) BASTARDS ON PARADE “Tales from the Death Shore” 21 pts
4) DROPKICK MURPHYS “Going Out in Style” 20 pts
5) PADDY AND THE RATS “Hymns for Bastards” 19 pts
6) FLOGGING MOLLY “Speed of Darkness” 14 pts
ICEWAGON FLU “Off the Wagon II” 14 pts
8) BRICK TOP BLAGGERS “Coaster” 13 pts
9) FIDDLER’S GREEN “Wall of Folk” 11 pts
LEXINGTON FIELD “Old Dirt Road” 11 pts
THE FISTICUFFS “You’ll Not Take Us Alive” 11 pts

The Experts’ Top10 would have 11 bands! The ranking would have 34 bands.

The main conclusions:

• The Best albums would be SIR REG “ A Sign of the Times”, THE MAHONES “The Black Irish” and BASTARDS ON PARADE “Tales from the Death Shore”
• Dropkick Murphys would top no. 4
• Flogging Molly would top no. 6

These rankings can be improved? Of course, but I don’t have all the data that I would need to calculate them. I have taken it for granted (as Andries did) that all the opinions have the same value. But methodologically (once again!!!) I should give different weights to the different opinions. Statistically, it could be assumed that PaddyRock and Shite’n’Onions opinions have a bigger value than the others opinions. Why? Because they have more readers. Unfortunately, I don’t have the statistical tools to calculate the different weights. Moreover, we tend to think that everyone listened to the same CDs, but, as Andries stated, this is not true.

Anyway, as democracy means one voice, one vote, I will assume that the Experts’ Top10 (6 different opinions) is the better estimate that I can calculate and maybe not so “socially unfair”. BTW, I have used the terms "Critics" and "Experts" only to make a difference between the two rankings. As the original fours sites post reviews I have called them "critics" and as the six final sites/collectives deal with Celtic punk and Celtic rock I have called them "experts". Don't look for other meanings, please!

Finally, just remember: this is only a game, enjoy!. I would like to thank Andries for his idea and expect that he will enjoy these new calculations (SIR REG are always at the top, THE MAHONES are always the second best and BASTARDS ON PARADE and PADDY AND THE RATS improve their positions)