The updated rankings are as follows:
1. Miracle Drug
2. City of Blinding Lights
3. Sometimes You Can't Make it on Your Own
4. Original of the Species
5. Vertigo
6. Crumbs From Your Table
7. Love & Peace
8. All Because of You
9. Yahweh
10. A Man and a Woman
11. One Step Closer
Movement is slowing down and I think we can make a few statements about fan reaction to the album.
There is a pretty clear pecking order when I look at the average scores.
Miracle Drug is consistently at the top, and not by a small margin. It is perhaps not far enough ahead to call it a consensus #1, but it's pretty close.
There's a secondary tier of four songs. City of Blinding Lights and Sometimes You Can't Make it on Your Own stand on top of that tier with Original of the Species and Vertigo just behind them. The pecking order among those four is largely apparent, but collectively they stand well ahead of the next group.
Speaking of that group... Crumbs From Your Table, along with Love and Peace and All Because of You are almost equally regarded by the board. Right now none of these songs seem to be in any danger of jumping ahead of Vertigo, but they're firmly entrenched at 6-7-8, although the order among them changes frequently.
Finally, we arrive at the bottom of the album. Yahweh is well behind the group above it while A Man and a Woman and One Step Closer bring up the rear. I think the sample size is now sufficiently large to suggest that there won't be any real movement of these three songs going up the ranks.
I haven't posted my rankings yet, largely because I need more time for the album to settle. However, I'm comfortable saying those three songs would certainly be at or near the bottom of my list. Despite that, I love the third verse of One Step Closer and I think A Man and a Woman could be a genuine hit on the Adult Contemporary format. I've also come around to Yahweh in a big way. I still think the chorus could be better ("Yahweh! Yahweh!" just doesn't sound quite right to me), but it's a solid song.
This is a really good album. Even the tunes at the bottom have many redeeming qualities for most of the fans who have heard them.
If people continue to post their rankings I'll continue to update my spreadsheet. I don't think there will be substantial movement at this point, but two things will be interesting to watch:
1) Will COBL and SYCMIOYO continue to stay close and even bounce back and forth, or will a solid #2 emerge?
2) Will there be any settling among the middle triumvirate of ABOY, LAPOE, and CFYT?
