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

I had my "omg I like a Neil Young song that isn't on Trans, halp!" moment a few months ago on ILM but I think it really was a one-song exception. So maybe that's how Lex feels about his special Thom song.

Oh man, I cannot stand Neil Young. Which means Thom and I can never ~be together~ because that's his voice idol, I know.

never say never; I recently heard some old Bob Dylan song where he was actually singing instead of doing that annoying moany sprechgesang thing he became famous for and I was shocked by how much I liked it

it was Lucky, MDC got it

<3 Neil Young, weird voice and all. But then I like weird voices often better than non-weird voices. Speaking of which, can someone recommend some good weird-voice female singers for me?

Which song, WCC?

specifically the bit where he sings "glo-o-orious day"

fucking hate neil young's voice, so weedy, reminds me of travis

<3 Neil Young, weird voice and all. But then I like weird voices often better than non-weird voices. Speaking of which, can someone recommend some good weird-voice female singers for me?

Joanna Newsom?

Joanna Newsom is great! I know a lot of people get put off her voice, but it's exactly what I like about her.

fucking hate neil young's voice, so weedy, reminds me of travis

― lex pretend, Thursday, 23 August 2012 15:12 (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, fuck Neil Young for ripping off Travis.

x-post

patty walters
yma sumac
judy henske
joan labarbara
catherine ribeiro

thanks, thread, for getting me to imagine Travis using vocoders.

Heheh, I'm never going to convince Lex to like Neil Young, but really his voice is very unlike Travis. I don't hear it as weedy (it can be very effective and powerful in places), but it is extremely "in the nose".

cheers Ward

<3 Yma Sumac & Joan La Barbara x-posts

@Mel W I have no idea. It was something about a girl who drove a motorcycle? I revived a thread about it but now of course with searching I cannot find it.

Speaking of which, can someone recommend some good weird-voice female singers for me?

Jun Togawa, Dagmar Krause, Nina Hagen, Yoko Ono, Björk and... Mrs Miller.

Also Yma for defs!

I don't know if Lhasa de Sela's voice is weird exactly, but it has a somehow very strange warm and clear quality to it that I don't think I've heard in anyone else's voice. You should check her out.

I like the turn this thread has taken.

Tanya Tagaq if you want to try out some Inuk throat-singing.

i will absolutely check out these weird-voice women artists. Thanks all.

I'm trying to get a good handle on what is meant by "weird" because otherwise I'm about two seconds off of suggesting Macy Gray

(could do with its own thread maybe)?

Macy Gray kind of does have a weird voice, though? Not crazy out-there weird, but *distinctive*. I wouldn't put her in my own list, but I could see an argument for it.

Mary Margaret O'Hara, Meredith Monk

weirdest voiced female singer i have heard in TIME: What do you think of MTV Teen Mom Farrah Abraham's first single?

omg OTM

I think everyone should listen to that Farrah Abraham album, it's one of the most amazing things I've heard this year

i haven't heard the whole thing b/c it's not ~out there~ and i'm not convinced i'm gonna listen to it enough to justify shelling out on itunes, but the singles are O___________O

Recommend me: Weird-Voiced Female Singers

Look ma, this is "me not reading ILM and getting back on with my normal life." But I'm on a bus, I got nothing else to do. Hello WCC et al.

Anyway, I had some Big Thoughts about this list that follow my two tiny points upthread ("This is basically a Kid A vs. OKC debate" + "This is stupid and you'll regret it"). May I share them with you or should I just agree that Farrah Abraham is indeed awesome

Owen I should shout at you and tell you that you're trying to stay off ILX, but go right ahead, I'm always interested to hear what you have to say.

Yeah, I read some and it was cool but my mind has been on this topic more than it should've been. I read a handful of articles yesterday that tried to explain this list, and most of these responses imo are based on a false assumption, one that continues to proliferate.

lex, I know you hate Spotify but the Farrah Abraham thing is on it: http://open.spotify.com/album/2rdEDYy8l2S1BPcEIU5JRM

"Pitchfork is responsible for these bands' success." P4K is not responsible for creating the slavering* masses of that are Radiohead fans, Arcade Fire fans, (NMH fans, Kanye fans, etc.) I believe that the results of this poll are indicative of nothing more than the hegemonic stranglehold that these bands/artists and their publicists have successfully maintained on a subset of music listeners.

*or 'devoted', I say 'slavering' or 'enthralled' but I say it with respect

(xp to self, I'm typing as fast as I can)

This stranglehold is maintained, among other things, by "withholding access". That is to say, Radiohead are a band who say "no" to all interviews unless they're cover stories. "No" to all festival slots unless they headline. This approach is shared by other bands on this list, so far as their grasp can extend. In a way, NMH did it most successfully by disappearing entirely at the height of their fame. (Had, say, Nick Diamonds disappeared instead of forming Islands, I bet The Unicorns would've placed far higher on this stupid list.) (This method of self-promotion is in contrast to, say, Franz Ferdinand, who made a point in 2004 of saying yes to every interview.)

oh i just realised that if i have a new laptop i can probably use spotify if i try now

(last post) I regard this promotional technique of "withholding access" with shock and awe. That people are debating this list as if it is something that says anything about Pitchfork, white people, men, Converse-- not to even mention, say, the actual quality of the music contained on any of these records-- this only indicates to me that many music listeners are looking for a fixation, not actual music. Some bands will exploit this, some of them successfully.

That is an interesting idea, but why doesn't that approach work at creating hegemonic approval of Mariah Carey in the same way?

I do think that the way that Radiohead approach their fans and fandom is with the idea of ~creating obsession~ - they are one of those bands that have really gone in with the whole thing of creating a total world and an immersive experience of total-art.

But then, so has someone like Bjork and I don't see her getting the same kind of blanket approval on P4k? (Though she certainly has her obsessed slathering fans, they don't make the same inroads into SWM world that RH do.)

Germany's distinction index is interesting

7.13%Pantha du Prince This Bliss
5.5% Herbert Bodily Functions
4.86%Michael Mayer Immer
4.69%Pantha du Prince Black Noise
4.6% Gonjasufi A Sufi and a Killer
4.54%Isis Panopticon
4.45%Saturday Looks Good to Me All Your Summer Songs
4.29%Converge You Fail Me
4.03%Ellen Allien Berlinette
4.03%John Frusciante Shadows Collide with People
3.99%Africa Hitech 93 Million Miles
3.99%Do Make Say Think You, You're a History in Rust
3.98%The Notwist Neon Golden
3.81%Ricardo Villalobos Alcachofa
3.74%Isolée We Are Monster
3.71%The Appleseed Cast Low Level Owl Vol. I & II
3.68%Erlend Øye DJ Kicks
3.62%Pantha du Prince This Bliss

hmmm... I think if anything Bjork is an exception in that she does get a lot of love from the middle-high brow crowd in general. It's difficult for anyone to compete with Radiohead in this field though.

Owen I think that is a fucking genius observation

Also, I'm not sure that Mariah Carey's hegemonic approval wasn't created in the same way?

Bjork did have two albums on that list, commonly regarded as her best albums from the time period covered by the poll; odds are that if the poll had gone back to 1990, you'd have seen a Sugarcubes album and Debut and Post as well

I'd probably be too long and messy, but I'd really like to see a list of all albums that got #1 rankings on individual lists.

Pantha du Prince bookending up there

But Bjork doesn't get anywhere near the cross-field domination that Radiohead does, even though she plays very similar games. People have the idea that she's canonical and that it's good to list her, but not to put her in the number one slot. That thing where a woman can be good or appreciated, but she cannot have the top spot.

And Bjork didn't have that same reinvention as Radiohead, did she? I was never much of a listener.

Um, are you kidding? I can't even count the reinventions that Bjork has had.

She's a few years down the line from Radiohead though.

As in: I'd say she's not picking up 'new' fans, but satisfying her long-term appreciators more.