Year-End Critics' Polls '08

Your list is a bunch of TL;DR?

Yay!

well, i rolled my eyes at fleet foxes, but that's just cuz i hate them. it was pretty damn predictable actually. thought it was nice Badu was high up there, did they even review that record?

nabisco did

oh ok yeah i honestly didnt know

I Pitchfork not going to post individual writers' lists this year? Or did I miss them?

You missed them: http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/148119-2008-albums-of-the-year-individual-lists

tracks list too:
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/148119-2008-albums-of-the-year-individual-lists

tracks: http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/148118-2008-tracks-of-the-year-individual-lists

xpost

This is the first year in awhile that I didn't roll my eyes at PFM's #1 album pick. Not my favorite album of the year, but at least it isn't Joanna Newsom (or Panda Bear) Sufjan Stevens.

Corrected.

Thanks Matos

hmm, of montreal was on four lists, pretty high up on a few. compare this with, say, #50 ponytail, which was on two lists.

Looks like while the Fleet Foxes album was #1 overall, it was only placed #1 on a single writer's individual list. By comparison, Deerhunter and Cut Copy were placed #1 on three lists apiece, while Hercules and Love Affair, Earth and Arthur Russell all placed #1 on two writers' lists apiece.

the responsible ones:

>> Brian Howe
2. Wale: The Mixtape About Nothing

>> Eric Harvey
1. Wale: The Mixtape About Nothing

>> Jayson Greene
4. Wale: The Mixtape About Nothing

the responsible ones
the responsible ones
the responsible ones
the responsible ones
the responsible ones
the responsible ones
the responsible ones
the responsible ones

looks like the era of beanie sigel ending up on pf end of year lists is long gone huh

Sig's album was merely good.

yeahhh suggesteban, looks like an executive decision (and holding fast to their 5.9) trumped the math there on Of Montreal; it does not seem to add up, not at all

OH MY GOD MAYBE THEY DONT RUN THEIR EDITORIAL LIKE A DEMOCRACY WHAT WILL WE DO?!?!?!?!

i never cried foul, whiney.

Of Montreal were nowhere close: Only five votes, two in the top 10. Ponytail, on the other hand, were on 10 ballots, including once in the top 10. You vote for 50 albums, plus you allocate points to your top 25-- you can't just look at those lists as published and determine anything.

ok thanks scott

thought it was nice Badu was high up there, did they even review that record?

they reviewed it like 3 months after it came out or something, as they obv didn't think erykah badu was an artist worthy of their attention until it was obvious how much consensus there was around new amerykah. which says a lot about their editorial priorities!

thumbs up for the cave17 list btw, excellent top 2 and some interesting choices in there (like, raveonettes is the kind of indie that i'm not 100% down with myself, but i do love a single here and there by them and it's not what you'd expect to see on EoY lists) (and so far more welcome than fucking fleet foxezzzzzzz again). we should be talking more about the cave17 list, not the pfork one.

also impressed at cave17 getting the anthony hamilton in there - released, what, four days ago?

The Cave17 list has Flight Of The Fucking Conchords on it, so no.

haha we are DISQUALIFIED :[]

yeah, Flight of the Conchords at #4 was the weirdest thing about the list to me

btw Matos, thanking u so much for the soulbounce lists!

in re: Flight of the Conchords: We have a small staff, two people rated it very highly, end of story. Don't understand why there is any confusion. Me and my son love "Robots" because it is funny but it wasn't on my list either.

(Boring semi-defensive comment: I guess comedy records don't count unless they are hip records by hipsters like David Cross or Patton Oswalt?)

I do need to track down the A. Hamilton

xpost Comedy records count if they are funny.

I like Conchords much more on TV, but the record is well made, which apparently this year counts for a ton. (Hey, my favorite album is Ne-Yo, so I oughta know, right?)

I posted my top 100 tracks on my blog if anyone wants to look:
http://m-matos.blogspot.com/2008/12/fuck-it-ive-tweaked-it-long-enough-and.html

Wow Matos, maybe someday I'll hear like six of these

My biggest disappointment this year is not hearing more from Brazil; Gilberto Gil had 2 records out this year and CSS sure but I am just out of touch these days, my contacts down there have dried up (LOL optometry humor)

Babe, Terror is a great Brazil 08 joint, d5: http://www.myspace.com/babeterror

this not my cup of caipirinha, chris, but thanks. although we should probably keep our semi-beef alive so i can get tons of publicity for SCRAPPY LITTLE CAVE17.COM

i was hoping for albums from some of my fave rave indie brazilian people but they didnt happen yet, tudo bem

(like, raveonettes is the kind of indie that i'm not 100% down with myself, but i do love a single here and there by them and it's not what you'd expect to see on EoY lists) (and so far more welcome than fucking fleet foxezzzzzzz again).

The Pfork list would make a lot more sense if the Raveonettes album took the place of Fleet Foxes. It's a fucking great record, my #1 for a few months early in the year, and I think the comparisons to Psychocandy are on target. I'd venture to say if Lust Lust Lust was released in 1985, and Psychocandy in 2008, then Lust would be the stone cold classic Psychocandy has instead become.

I love both albums, mind you.

I really like the Raveonettes album, but that is just rong rong rong.

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/sites/default/files/36.jpg
"Just your average Hasidic reggae rapper. Yeah, you heard me. This guy is a straight-up Hasidic Jew from New York who busts mad flow over dancehall and reggae beats. This is the future of music." --Sam Endicott, the Bravery in The Guardian

I'd like to add my voice to the "Wale is boring" chorus.

I saw him on MTV Jams today and it was pretty WTF.

Aw, man! Anthony Hamilton has a new one out? Is it great???

It is even better than Comin' From Where I'm From.

I really like the Raveonettes album, but that is just rong rong rong.

To be honest... there are days I think Lust is better than Psychocandy, track for track.

interesting. i think it's their weakest record. but i'll always prefer spectorish stuff to the marychainish stuff

Jody Rosen in Slate

1. Girl Talk, Feed the Animals
2. Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III
3. Jamey Johnson, That Lonesome Song
4. Calle 13, Los De Atrás Vienen Conmigo
5. Portishead, Third
6. Sugarland, Love on the Inside
7. Benji Hughes, A Love Extreme
8. TV on the Radio, Dear Science
9. The Cool Kids, The Bake Sale
10. Ashton Shepherd, Sounds So Good

http://www.slate.com/id/2206848/entry/2206850/

The Rosen album list plus his singles is part of a series of e-mails between he and Ann Powers and Robert Christgau on Slate

Christgau at Slate (He also talked about the Franco compilation on NPR)

Albums

1. Franco: Francophonic
2. Lil Wayne: Tha Carter III (Deluxe Edition)
3. Drive-By Truckers: Brighter Than Creation's Dark
4. TV on the Radio: Dear Science
5. Coner Oberst: Coner Oberst
6. Randy Newman: Harps and Angels
7. Les Amazones de Guinee: Wamato
8. Hayes Carll: Trouble in Mind
9. The Roots: Rising Down
10. The Magnetic Fields: Distortion
11. Orchestra Baobab: Made in Dakar
12. Girl Talk: Feed the Animals
13. Raphael Saadiq: The Way I See It
14. Los Campesinos!: Hold On Now, Youngster …
15. Steinski: What Does It All Mean: 1983-2006 Retrospective
16. Robert Forster: The Evangelist
17. T.I.: Paper Trail
18. Menya: The Ol' Reach-Around
19. Jaguar Love: Jaguar Love
20. The Rough Guide to Colombian Street Party

Singles

1. M.I.A.: "Paper Planes"
2. Lee Dorsey: "Yes We Can Can"
3. Conor Oberst: "I Don't Want To Die (In the Hospital)"
4. Los Campesinos!: "Death to Los Campesinos!"
5. Rihanna: "Disturbia"
6. Mike Doughty: "More Bacon Than the Pan Can Handle"
7. Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip: "Thou Shalt Always Kill"
8. Randy Newman: "Potholes"
9. Drive-By Truckers: "The Righteous Path"
10. Nas: "Black President"

Christgau explains why he put Lee Dorsey on his singles list. Lee Dorsey is no longer with us but....Christgau says "Old guy that I am, I don't watch music on my computer or anywhere else, but seeing will.i.am's version just once reminded me how much I loved Dorsey's (and the Treacherous Three's, though I'll bet Michelle O. loves the Pointers'), and, therefore, I stuck it atop my singles list out of sheer orneriness."

black devil disco club is getting no mentions anywhere compared to thier last one

Speaking of Anthony Hamilton, his guest spot and a number of other tracks on the new Mint Condition are ace.

Already picked up the Franco because of Christgau's A+ and its predictably wonderful. Have to get that T.I. and Raphael Saadiq.

The Roots and The Magnetic Fields aren't doing much for me, but maybe I'm just not a fan of the way they sound. I love a few tracks each off Orchestra Baobab and Robert Forster. They play as wholes in the background so far...