Pitchfork's P2k: The Decade in Music

I like it and all, but Yankee Hotel Foxtrot in the top 5 is stunningly ridiculous

Supreme Clientele review was great though and I was happy with its placement

not sure what he's trying to say at the end of the Supreme Clientele blurb

that is some sauce xxpost

lolllllll

xpost that Ghostface beat a bunch of heads-up-their-asses indie rappers striving for intellectualism at their own game while retaining impeccable cred?

i guess. not very clearly expressed

and + jams

now that i read it again it really wasn't but i don't think that point is made often enough

top 10 looks like a p4k list from backkkk in the day

If Pitchfork ever bumps into "Funeral" in a hotel lobby I expect the conversation to be of the "No, it was you who put me on the map!" nature.

On an only slightly more serious note, I think "Funeral" captured and foreshadowed the last half of this decade, both sonically and socially, just as well or better than "Kid A" did the first part. Although, to be honest, something about listening to "Kid A" really does sound like browsing a creepy part of the internet circa 2001 (and I didn't even hear the album until 2004, so.)

xpost

I think "Funeral" captured and foreshadowed the last half of this decade, both sonically and socially, just as well or better than "Kid A" did the first part.

For a very small, defined sliver of pop culture.

For a very small, defined sliver of pop culture.

But that could be said for so much entertainment and art these days. What's the number one song right now, anyway?

And one could make a thoughtful essay or blurb arguing that Funeral's secular hymns and spiritual neediness foreshadowed the quasi-religious crusade that young people built around a presidential candidate with ecumenical appeal. The alienation on the album almost works as the other side to Kid A's coin.

But that could be said for so much entertainment and art these days.

Oh definitely, I wouldn't argue with that a bit.

What's the number one song right now, anyway?

I probably haven't known that at any given time since the 1980s.

It's I Gotta Feeling, and has been for about 13 weeks now, isn't it?

In 2009 there's no clear cut way of knowing what the number one song is in America's heart, outside of torturing Casey Kasem with a screwdriver, and I'm not about to do that.

If Pitchfork ever bumps into "Funeral" in a hotel lobby I expect the conversation to be of the "No, it was you who put me on the map!" nature.

And the huge New York Times piece on Arcade Fire will be all "What the fuck guys?!"

kid a for the win is hulla boring, and i didn't even like the write up. also it's like the twelth time they've written a kid a album of the year/decade or 10.0 review.

also it seems like every single other blurb somehow mentioned the internet, and while yeah of course that was the really big defining cultural technological shift of the decade, i think it would be nice if albums were contextualized wrt music rather than "arular was the first true blog hyped success."

"Pitchfork Media Counts Down Its Ten Most Memorable 'Kid A' Blurbs" is what the Onion piece will be.

x-post

Blurbs, as a form of writing, belong more to puff pieces than they do criticism, so, to be fair, it's hard to stylistically blow-up the thing you're writing about and then be very analytical and level-headed about it the next sentence.

i kind of dont agree -- lots of stuff on this list is more about criticism than it is about 'puff pieces' -- i was actually thinking that a remarkably large % of this stuff is that way esp when compared to print magazines past

I'm sure this all comes down to voting and whatnot, but something about the fact that all the albums that placed highly being already well-canonized early-decade records strikes as deeply lazy and boring.

otm

i kind of dont agree -- lots of stuff on this list is more about criticism than it is about 'puff pieces' --

All I meant was that blurbs, by nature, were originally designed to be enthusiastically and extravagantly written, so a lot of the time the writer is trying to convey importance and greatness more than a short, heady criticism. xpost

it is lazy and boring, but the first half of the '00s also kicks the second half's ass so hard it's ridiculous

We'll see. We're still living through the second half and it takes a few years for yr Disco Infernos to be claimed and for appreciation of oppressively popular bands and genres to go away so they can be liked or reevaluated again. 1990-1994 probably seemed like a landslide from the perspective of 1999, and the same analogy holds true for prob every decade in rock.

the kids of tomorrow must defend themselves against the 00s

tbf, i bet every single person who posts here loves at least one record in the top 20

i own 9 of them, 'loves' might be pushing it though

I love three and a half of them!

Damn, CNN.com wrote a a pretty serious story about the pitchfork decade list

tbf, i bet every single person who posts here loves at least one record in the top 20

nope.

ilxor used maths to score a perfect 20/20!

Statistically, these will most likely be included in the top 20 albums:

Radiohead – Kid A (#1, 2000; #1, 2000-04)
Jay-Z – The Blueprint (#2, 2000-04)
Interpol – Turn on the Bright Lights (#1, 2002; #3, 2000-04)
Outkast – Stankonia (#4, 2000-04)
The Avalanches – Since I Left You (#3, 2001; #5, 2000-04)
Sigur Ros – Agaetis Byrjun (#2, 2000; #6, 2000-04)
Modest Mouse – The Moon and Antarctica (#3, 2000; #7, 2000-04)
The White Stripes – White Blood Cells (#8, 2001; #8, 2000-04)
Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (#2, 2002; #11, 2000-04)
Daft Punk – Discovery (#12, 2000-04)
Spoon – Kill the Moonlight (#6, 2002; #14, 2000-04)
The Strokes – Is This It (#15, 2001; #16, 2000-04)
Ghostface Killah – Supreme Clientele (#19, 2000-04)
The Arcade Fire – Funeral (#1, 2004; #45, 2000-04)
Sufjan Stevens – Illinois (#1, 2005)
Kanye West – Late Registration (#2, 2005)
The Knife – Silent Shout (#1, 2006)
Panda Bear – Person Pitch (#1, 2007)
LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver (#2, 2007)
Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion (projected #1, 2009)

I definitely would have enjoyed a surprise or two to liven up the procedurals, but this was based on a poll of P4K contributors, & the top-20 is essentially the P4K canon.. Some really good writing in some of the blurbs. Nabisco's Silent Shout & Tom E's Discovery were standouts imo.

Glaring omissions from the entire list include a lot of elder statesmen - Brian Wilson, Kate Bush, Dylan, Scott W, etc. Absence of big Missy & Liars albums is baffling. Personal beefs: UGK, Bark Psychosis, Calexico

the first half of the '00s also kicks the second half's ass so hard it's ridiculous

Suggest Ban Permalink
― if I don't see more dissent, I'm going to have to check myself in (Matos W.K.), Friday, October 2, 2009 12:04 AM Bookmark

08. Sigur Rós
Ágætis Byrjun
[Smekkleysa; 2000]

06. Modest Mouse
The Moon & Antarctica
[Epic; 2000]

04. Wilco
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
[Nonesuch; 2002]

02. Arcade Fire
Funeral
[Merge; 2004]

Man, the late 2000s are just gettin smoked there.

http://i35.tinypic.com/21ccdn9.gif

i wonder how kshighway feels about this list

the opinion of the kshighway sock i rejected registration from will have to wait sadly

Fucking Ágætis Byrjun wtf.

The point upthread about both the PFM list and the (Uncut?) list reading like "reader lists" rather than "writer lists" is a REALLY interesting one; maybe it's just that I've been involved in the industry in vague ways, maybe it's the increasing awareness of cultural history that the internet provides, maybe it's that we're all so savvy now that we have indexed and year-ordered lists in our iTunes, but there's a real dearth of surprise critic faves on these lists. i.e. stuff like Bark Psychosis, or The Drift, or The Necks, or... etc etc etc ad infinitum. And maybe it's churlish to mention that, but I'd hope, as a reader, that in any end-of-year or end-of-decade list, there ought to be stuff I've never heard of, tantalising mysteries that make me want to investigate. Maybe it's the size of the pools polled (larger pools will always produce a more dull consensus, possibly), maybe it's that in the 00s music journalism has been written by demographics for demographics in a more focused way than ever before, maybe it's that the whole media in the 00s is seeking to pander to it's audience that much more in order to not scare it off...

or maybe you're overthinking it

This IS ILM, right?

Overthinking About Pop Music.

yeah and I like that! it's just...overthinking about how a *list* was made and what it MEANSSSSS. I don't mean to single you out here, this thread has 2796 posts n'all.

I apologise for finding developments in a field I have worked in interesting and wanting to talk about it.

the field of lists?

I'd hope, as a reader, that in any end-of-year or end-of-decade list, there ought to be stuff I've never heard of, tantalising mysteries that make me want to investigate.

This list did exactly that for me. As I'd expect, given how easy it is to access music this decade -- via MySpace, LaLa, eMusic, and so forth -- the titles I had yet to investigate were those toward the middle and bottom of the list (i.e., those that hadn't received tremendous attention previously). Now I'll seek them out and listen to them.

That bar at the top of the thread makes me want to seek out and investigate some Haagen-Dazs.

haha yeah haagen dazs got hella free advertising from this thread

08. Sigur Rós
Ágætis Byrjun
[Smekkleysa; 2000]

It's a little fudged, as it was originally released in 1999. But Rolling Stone's number one album of the 80s (at the time, anyway) was London Calling, released in 1979. So whatever... but the stat nerd in me is cringing.

There's a top 10 disc I haven't heard, actually.

Not sure I've heard all of the Modest Mouse disc, either, but that's because the soundscans irritate me so much I can't get through them all. I don't get the appeal of that band at all.