The Pitchfork People's List - top albums 1996-2012

In Rainbows has totally cemented itself as my favourite Radiohead over the last 2 years.

i can't find my old lists/ballots for some reason

The past does not exist.

It's a different country.

if i have to look something up then it isn't a current fav

This isn't saying "what are your ten favourite records right now" though, it's asking what are your 100 from the last 16 years... I'm vaguely trying to weight long-term affection alongside 'just this minute' excitement.

it isn't what are you fav records right now that were released in the last 16 years?

i have to make a composite of me at different stages of my life?

if i liked something a lot for 18 months in 2006 but don't like now, what percentage weighting should that be given?

i mean, ok, it was closer to 2 years than 18 months but do i really want to admit that

.345

Here's my list. So many missing album covers...

http://peopleslist.pitchfork.com/list/3122a1e0

I don't even want to ~know~ what 1996 me would want to put on this list.

(Apart from Kenickie but I'd probably still agree with her on that.)

i make it .09375

One thing that surprised me about my own list was the relative lack of capital-P Pop albums.

I mean I love 'Blackout' and 'Chemistry' and 'The Fame Monster' and 'Robyn' and so on and so forth but somehow none cracked top 100. The closest was Sugababes' 'Three' which like two dozen albums it saddened me to leave off.

tho that presumes all months or years are equal this stuff is tough!

You use whatever internal algorithm you like, coal.

Tuomas comes in second in my game. (Alfred and Tom still tied for winning.)

Capital-P Pop albums, in my mind, burn brightly and then fade quickly; that's part of their appeal. There are loads of albums by the likes of Timberlake, Sugababes, Missy, Neptunes, etc etc, that I loved at the time and still have favourite songs from, but which I never go back to "as an album" and take in the whole thing; consequently pretty much none of them are on my list. Whether that speaks to anything about me, or whether it speaks to anything about the nature of art and personal canons and musical longevity, is a thing people have been trying to unravel for aeons. But I don't go back to that second Sugababes album anymore than I go back to World Clique by Deee-Lite, even if each album has individual song/s I will love forever on it.

I included no album on which I didn't love without reservations at least six tracks.

You use whatever internal algorithm you like, coal.

― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Friday, 17 August 2012

i can just choose my fav records right now?

yes!

If that's what suits you best, dude. I've liked to be reminded of old favourites I'd forgotten.

Submitted for your approval, my list. Dig it, people.

http://peopleslist.pitchfork.com/list/139d3ab8/

I don't think that's just a facet of Capital-P Pop albums. There's a lot of Capital-R Rock albums which I was obsessed with in the late 90s which I have no urge to revisit more than 1 track off. And listening to Miss E So Addictive the other day, which you dismiss as a one-song Pop album, listening to that all of a piece for the poll the other day, it stood up as a work a lot more than I think you give it credit for.

every time I almost surrender to making one of these I see a bunch of squares with pitchfork logos in them and can't work up the energy to sign on with facebook.

ok i am making what looks like it could be a massive spotify playlist of things on ppls lists that interest me/ive never heard of before etc.

first can i say wow In Sides is incredible, ty Nick for having this so high up yr list. where has this record been all my life?

xpost to Nick It's not that for me I think - and anyways there was heaps of R&B on my list (Missy and Kelis and Aaliyah and The-Dream and really Timberlake is in the category and so on).

If I had to guess I'd say it's that I'm so wired to receive Pop on a singles basis that even when you get these really solid and/or ambitious albums I don't end up connecting with them that way emotionally... e.g. ironically (given it's the kind of reaction one typically reserves for difficult rock canon albums) 'Chemistry' is an album I probably respect more than I listen to.

Even though I listen to 'Whole Lotta History' and 'Long Hot Summer' and (especially) b-side 'Singapore' a fair amount.

I'd love a glenn mcdonald style stats breakdown for similarity between lists etc.

You think anyone really listens to any tracks off e.g. Urban Hymns except the singles any more?

I heard the whole fucking thing in the pub the other night. Interminable.

xpost Yeah but the difference is that 'Urban Hymns' isn't even a great album (obv 'A Storm In Heaven' is amazing).

Obv Storm in Heaven >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Urban Hymns but the latter is the one that tends to turn up on "greatest albums of the 90s" lists.

The Verve are weird because they were so obviously and consciously going for instant canonisation around 1997 and people were on board with that but they just sort of faded and there was so little excitement around their reunion compared to, well, nearly every other big Britpop-era reunion.

I guess a lot of those big tentpole rock albums aren't on my list either.

I've never heard a whole Verve album.

I agree So Addictive hangs together; it's on my list - Under Construction is the one I thing of as Work It + Gossip Folks + some other stuff I don't really care about.

You're lucky, DL.

Bits of A Northern Soul still do it for me. The really fucking harsh bits.

http://peopleslist.pitchfork.com/list/c1289cbf/

Pretend I never posted this.

I ended up leaving off Under Construction just b/c 4 Missy albums seemed excessive but actually it's very strong throughout I reckon - esp. 'Bring The Pain' and 'Play That Beat'.

I like how you couldn't put TKOL in the top 10 but couldn't bear to leave it out. ;-) x-post

^^^ I at least 'quite like' most of that list with the exception of Joanna Newsom, a lot of it is really great. (xpost)

xpost Love how Melissa's list is basically a very ILM list with the entire recorded work of Radiohead and bandmembers dropped at the beginning.

This is Not a Test! made my list

I don't want to be "that privacy guy" but what access exactly would I be giving it to my Google/FB account? Why can't I just make a list?

Heard a bit of Sonnet the other day and it was still fucking horrible.

I should probably revisit the Missy albums. I think I kind of took the best of as an end point with regards looking back at the albums.

man I'm listening to the '08 CeCe Winans record that came in at #18 in mine - it's been a while. So fucking great.

This is Not a Test! made my list

― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, August 17, 2012 2:27 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah but you already know this is fucked up.

The access thing is presumably mainly about ease of accessing the system, rather than making everyone make yet another account that needs another username and password just for one tiny system. I've give it Twitter access; there's no 'data' in that account other than my tweets (and geolocation when I make them, I guess).