pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)

and like... 'about a girl' but not 'touch me i'm sick'? come onnnnnnnnn

the selection/order/distribution of janet and madonna singles is baffling but

Alan Parsons Project right between Frankie Knuckles and Madonna, where it belongs.

the post-disco/electro-funk inclusions are the real highlight of the list and their blurbs are almost exclusively written by deej, tim, or meaghan garvey, thrilling me

this is the main reason i think this list is great

no 'perfect way,' no pointer sisters, no freestyle (unless you count shannon who to me was always on the cusp), no country

agree that the list needs more of ^^^

i was just happy to see Egyptian Lover first thing

yeah i was gonna say that i love nwa as much as anybody but calling straight outta compton the third best song of the decade isn't just revisionist, it reeks of au courant click prioritization

on the other hand, this is a fun mix to listen to because these are pretty much all very good and well remembered songs
numbering lists by priority and then having DEEP MEANINGFUL ISSUES with those priorities is pretty much always meh

xpost
I felt the same way about Nirvana being on an 80s list.

"Love Will Tear Us Apart" is such a mediocre song

― welltris (crüt), Monday, August 24, 2015 7:49 AM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

no country

George Clinton once called "Purple Rain" a country song in disguise, which is kind of true. But that's not even the best song on Purple Rain (the album), much less from the whole decade.

alexinnyc will be asking where is: Killing Joke - Love like Blood

Thanks crüt for the tip on the Slicing Up Eyeballs reactions. Hoo boy! I maybe have problems with this list, but when you're writing comments like "I can't take this serious because I never heard of a lot of trash here," you are a dope.

i counted 137 songs that i like/love. i don't mind that this list is half random and half the usual. lots of great music. fugazi is ugh to me. their one good song is nowhere near as good as a good minor threat song. also, no B-52s no credibility.

also, when i saw grace jones on there i couldn't help but think that you could replace ten of the songs on this list with ten grace jones songs and you would make your list better.

Can you imagine the "criminally excluded" list if they done this ten if not fifteen years ago

These lists are always a photograph of its authors current fascinations and canon, and man Ive seen worse

Exactly. If they'd done this list in 2000, it would've been all Mission of Burma and R.E.M. and maybe one token rap single.

Without talking about exclusions - there will always be exclusions - I would swap "When Doves Cry" (11) with "Purple Rain" (1).

I'm pretty sure 10 years ago the highest charting Kate Bush tune in the list would have been below 50, this is a turn of the tide I'm particularly fond of.

Purple Rain is one of the most 60s/70s-sounding songs of the entire 80s and When Doves Cry is futuristic even now. iow, I agree with you. xp

purple rain is really such a bore of a choice

*prince choice

seems like the UK in general and synth-pop in particular are underrepresented. No 'Tainted Love'?
still, there's something kind of fun about the uber-indie rock site more or less snubbing a lot of college rock.

don't mind most of the list! If anything, it tracks Pitchfork's progress since injecting new blood almost a decade ago.

whether its a tendency of consensus, an active aesthetic choice or a little of both, pitchfork tends to give the top spot of their big lists to grand expressions of romantic sentiment - "purple rain," "seasons (waiting on you), "Hold on we're going home," "midnight city," "gold soundz," "god only knows". big exception: "oblivion"

I mean, "Love Come Down" and refs to Rene & Angela would've been unheard of in 2005.

whether its a tendency of consensus, an active aesthetic choice or a little of both, pitchfork tends to give the top spot of their big lists to grand expressions of romantic sentiment -

yeah where IS "He Stopped Loving Her Today"?

confession - i would have forgotten to include george jones on my Best 80s Songs Ever ballot too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f16Fw_K45s

dunno if it's the most egregious miss but it was one of the first things i looked for that wasn't there

i kinda wish #1 had either been "straight outta compton" in a fit of YES IT IS 2015 or "I've Had The Time Of My Life" with a video of all the writers dancing at the launch party

"How Soon Is Now" for the Smiths
"Just Like Heaven" for the Cure

Yeah this is a really boring list.

yeah but "Never Too Much"

its better if you start at the bottom

I think I've finally gotten confident enough to finally admit that I do not particularly care for "How Soon Is Now." There, I said it.

"How Soon Is Now & "Just Like Heaven" are kinda beloved. I suppose they didn't need to place as high as they did, but they needed to be in there.

if you're the kind of person who knows the 80s canon very well thank you imo it's better not to cross your fingers that the top ten will blow yr mind but to be like 'hey a carly simon 12-inch'

"How Snore Is Now"

is it petty to suggest that no one be allowed to participate in a "best of the 80's" poll unless they lived through the entirety of the 80's

yes

Yes.

I don't think anyone who voted in our 50s polls lived through the 50s, but it turned out pretty fucking great imo.

speaking of petty, he wasn't in this, was he?

look at the rolling stone Best of the 80s list from '89='90 you'll see that being there is overrated

I like when #1's are huge, iconic epics. I think "Purple Rain" is a great choice for #1. It's one of the only things about the list that I really enjoy a lot. After getting all the way through it, at least they closed it out with a really good top 2.

Good for having Egyptian Lover on the first page of the list but he has so many better songs "I Need a Freak", "Freakaholic, the aforementioned "Egypt Egypt".

I know pointing out what's missing from these lists is such a cliche but I'm still shocked at no "Relax", though I may have not done my CTRL+F research that thoroughly.

big exception: "oblivion"

I stil have hopes I will at some point reap the benefits of those dusty old Terrorvision CDs.

Also, I wanna be adored both in their 90's and 80's lists? Get your shit right b*tchfork!

I'd rather randomly hear "How Soon Is Now" on the radio than almost any other Smiths song.

like i doubt this egyptian lover fellow would be on a list by rock critics who remember the 80s well

anthony decurtis and kurt loder be all about them 12-inch classics

If they included I wanna be adored in their list of the 70's just for the sake of it, that would be something.