Pitchfork: The Top 200 Tracks of the 1990s: 20-01

not at all - i was really more arguing that the "tap tap tap tap" that introduces Loveless is entirely unmemorable. but i'm going to refrain right now as that was a reaction to gibreel's comment that - upon re-read - i realize now refers to the "elephant crying" riff that introduces loveless, and not the way the album opens up with four frantic hits. i really am an idiot and having a hard time believing that that all appeared logical to me(that only shallow's greatest merit is it's first 2 seconds).

loool - i understand

i was trying pretty hard to avoid this thread anyways & not expecting much good to come of it :)

It's "Blown a Wish" anyway.

great album but let's all stop fronting about it, the songs on it are all pretty much the same right

― gross rainbow of haerosmith (underrated aerosmith albums I have loved), Monday, September 6, 2010 5:42 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark

o no u didn't

No lie I love that album but I couldn't tell you what any of the songs were called on it.

I mean I know what some of the titles are but I couldn't pin them to a riff or anything.

Not like I didn't vote Dre on this bollocks anyway.

i'll be real and say i could identify about five:

the first one
loomer
to here knows when
blown a wish (enya everywhere in this bitch)
soon

otm. anybody who lives loveless fronting like 'only shallow' does not have one of the most stylish, attractive, immediate & just totally, like, mind-blowing (&thus unifying) opening riffs of all time is stinking shit up in this pitchfork thread

That may be so, but the album is full of great tracks. As NV said they're difficult to parse in recollection, I've probably played it more than any other album but I forget which songs are which. So my theory was that the evil pfk ppl chose the first track in order to create a sense of phenomenological coherence that may not really exist in our cruelly random world where everybody has a favourite song and nobody knows what it's called [via late capitalism].

Nah that big unwindy "shit my tape player's fucked" riff at the beginning was a game-changer at the time and still sounds as good as anything on there.

think there was once upon a time a small consensus around the two singles, especially 'soon' [via vague 'dance element' guilt]

That was probably the best known song at the time.

Symphonic Chaos". Melody Maker. December 1990. "And [Soon] won them acclaim from Brian Eno, who, in a lecture at New York's Museum Of Modern Art, described it as 'the vaguest piece of music ever to get into the charts'. If Steve Reich or Glenn Branca had been responsible for it, he continued, they would have been given an award by the classical music establishment."

Though 'To Here Knows When' was vaguer still (released afterwards).

Belle and Sebastian - "The State I Am In":

WTF?!

anyway, i'll go with NMH

or maybe gold soundz

i dunno how you're wtf'ing b&S then plumping for the other two most milquetoasted tracks on the list but eh

Side order of SB with your NMH

ok, this last is like the "greatest hits" of 90's indie.

of course there are better songs by pavement/NMH, but gold soundz and holland are good one's and State i Am In is one of the worst B&S songs ever.

if i would make my top 20 90's songs list - none of those songs would appear in it.relatively speaking, those are the best imo.

that "loser" song. i remember that from when it came out! absolutely dreadful. it's like a fucking parody of every socially inept indie mumble there's every been!

...seriously i remember laughing at that song w/my girls in high school, it was so obviously lame.

It is a parody of socially indept indie mumble, which is why it's so great! It's both a parody and a foreshadowing of the next 20 years of indie! Plus it has a sitar! I seriously remember laughing at it -- and the wonderful music video. Laughing at it and laughing in complete joy! My pick for No. 1.

The solo in Weezer, tho, is one of the best guitar solos of all time.

Voted "Loser"

I vote Paranoid Android cuz it was one of the quirkiest pop singles I ever heard on MTV in the 90s. I was already a Radiohead fan at that point (due to The Bends) but that opening acoustic riff, the video, plus the awesome coda made me clamoring to get OK Computer.

you may be way too cool for neutral milk hotel but no way is "holland, 1945" 'milquetoasted'

great album but let's all stop fronting about it, the songs on it are all pretty much the same right

― gross rainbow of haerosmith (underrated aerosmith albums I have loved), Monday, September 6, 2010 12:42 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

thanking u

kev otm

lovin "to milquetoast" as a verb tbh

First time I ever heard "Paranoid Android" was listening to that album while driving around in Athens, Ga, and right when he started singing "Rain down" it started raining I swear to God. I will never forget that day.

Woah and i can think of a dozen or so Pavement songs i like more than "Gold Soundz".

Protect Your Neck

if i could go through the rest of my life without hearing anyone say anything about the relative importance of weezer, nirvana, beck, neutral milk hotel, my bloody valentine and the wu-tang clan, it would be aok with me.

step #1 in achieving that goal is probably not reading pitchfork, or pitchfork-related ilm threads

that "loser" song. i remember that from when it came out! absolutely dreadful. it's like a fucking parody of every socially inept indie mumble there's every been!

...seriously i remember laughing at that song w/my girls in high school, it was so obviously lame.

It is a parody of socially indept indie mumble, which is why it's so great! It's both a parody and a foreshadowing of the next 20 years of indie! Plus it has a sitar! I seriously remember laughing at it -- and the wonderful music video. Laughing at it and laughing in complete joy! My pick for No. 1.

― Telephoneface (Adam Bruneau), Monday, 6 September 2010 14:57 (Yesterday) Bookmark

OTM of course it's a parody.

step #1 in achieving that goal is probably not reading pitchfork, or pitchfork-related ilm threads

but i CAN'T STOP

AND THAT IS WHY U FAIL

fail is not the greatest of evils; it is worse to want to fail, and not be able to

also worse to like NMH

List feels ridiculously revisionist, like it's been put together on the basis of who people rated during the 00s - exhibit A being the inclusion of Outkast.

Nah, lots of people only rep for Outkast's 90s stuff. Yeah it's a shit list but that's legit I think.

outkast weren't much known in the uk iirc. maybe it was different in the US, though PROBABLY NOT among future-p4k-writers.

all my posts are predicated on not giving a flying fuck about p4k

Outkast had three top 20 records in the states and several videos that had huge airplay in the 90s. Pretty inescapable even for people like me who weren't paying particular attention.

man, why wouldn't you want this list to be revisionist - do you really just want a bunch of pitchfork writers to tell you what they were listening to in elementary school/high school/college?

It wd be funner.

List could do with some Crash Test Dummies

If you think this list was revisionist check out their "songs of the 60s" list, guarantee they were listening to NONE of that shit back then

I too would be shocked and amazed to discover that Pitchfork writers were listening to Neutral Milk Hotel and Pavement at college.

wait are you complaining this list is too revisionist or not enough now

Not complaining at all, just changing the angle of derision for the sake of it.

lol

do you really just want a bunch of pitchfork writers to tell you what they were listening to in elementary school/high school/college?

ideally i don't want a bunch of pfork writers telling me anything about what they've ever listened to

again, probably best not to read the site or related ilm threads then