Sorry gang, voting on this ballot is closed!

It’s time! It’s time! We got here, friends, and we literally couldn’t have done it without you. After completely crowdfunding the Homicidols Best Of in 2016 and 17 and driving people completely nuts, Kerrie developed a plan to not only better track the best things over the course of the year, but make it easier to drill down to what was the best of the best. And what’s the best of those? We’ll take care of that this week!

Yes, this is the idol awards show that’s pretty much entirely your will. Of course I and Team have independent thoughts, and of course we will share those in due time, but the real awards are the ones that you all, the folks in the community, will elect. Try not to mess it up!

Here’s how it’s going to work:

1. We’ll run all 17 categories across three different ballots over the course of the week, each ballot staying open for three days
2. Do try to only submit one ballot per, uh, ballot
3. Have a favorite? Tell your dang friends to vote!
4. Or get really wild and tag your favorite idols in a few tweets and see if they mobilize to win!
5. In the event of a tie, all tie-ers win

And to motivate folks a little bit and make good on a promise that I made a couple of months back, I’m asking (not requiring though!) on each ballot submitted that you share an email address and/or other way of knowing who you are. After all is said and done, I’m going to pull 10 names from all ballots submitted and mail those lucky ducks a … mix tape of sorts. Not like the most valuable thing ever, but maybe something you’ll dig.

Anyway, we have a bunch of Best Of to get through, and time’s a-wastin’. Let’s get to it!

The Nominees

What was the most surprising thing in the hard side of idol this year? We certainly had our share. The Pour Lui thing a few clever souls actually kind of predicted; the Sari thing, I don’t think anybody expected, at least not yet. But Mina returning to resurrect FRUITPOCHETTE? Mizuho running back to Aqbi to shore up THERE THERE THERES? Literally anything done by THE BANANA MONKEYS (or, correctly, their management)? If you saw any of that coming, you’re some kind of wild-ass savant; most of us were indeed surprised! But which shook you the worst?

I spent 2018 harping on a key point, that this was a great year for debuts. And what’s wild is that this list, while the consensus top of the heap, could probably be a lot bigger and/or have other possibilities swap in, and it wouldn’t matter a fig to you. That’s a good year! Out of this group, though — ZOC, Toricago, Gu-Gu LULU, wyenra, BURST GIRL and NaNoMORAL — who made the biggest splash or made the loudest noise upon hitting the scene?

This was one of the toughest discussions among Team, and frankly you guys did absolutely nothing to clear it up when we called for extra nominations. What I think is important, though, is that the top of the heap is a very, very good top, and with a really diverse range of finalists. Do you like your MVs artsy, chaotic, simple, stimulating? You can probably find one that meets your preferred adjective among this group!

As time goes on and idol metamorphoses, the total volume of really, really great songwriting not only increases, it diversifies. Look at this wild-ass group! At the beginning of the year, could you have predicted that any of these would be here now? And what a range, some of the loudest and dreamiest and most bugfuck tunes of the year. And so many of Maniac’s personal favorites! What a wild coincidence!

We spun off this category last year because there were so many good maxi-singles and mini-albums and straight-up EPs that it was worth calling them out as a separate thing, and we were really rewarded this time around. Interesting isn’t that there are some Taylor Swift-level no-brainers here, yet we don’t see things like, I dunno, Yanakoto Sotto Mute? Madness, people. The other wrinkle is that we’re sitting here starting at PEDRO like, do you even count as an idol thing, and I’m completely cool with leaving that unanswered because it’s a great record. As great as Melon’s? YMM’s? You crazy kids will decide!

Now vote!