pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)

ie it's not really about the proportion of indie in the list, but more that the kind of indie they are covering, with one or two glaring exceptions, has changed very little since the early 00s.

more that stuff outside the comfort zone is entirely dependent on non-musical image, sense of importance, positioning and so on, to the extent of being even more wholly predictable

lex otm

my GTFO moment was seeing "Blood on the Leaves"

― Star Gentle Uterus (DJP), Monday, August 18, 2014 11:19 AM (32 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'm going to risk charges of rockism by saying that the inclusion of the Swift and (sorry J0rdan) Miley songs piss me off just as much.

it's ok

miley was interesting to me in so far as it didn't make the list last year but was inside the top 150 of the decade list (rightfully so of course)

Lex OTM. It is frustrating to see how unadaptable Pitchfork has been, continuing to push their Poe-faced square wannabe-alpha-male monoculture arbiters-of-quality approach to their content. All their most desirable content is the off-brand stuff, "interesting things going on in Iowa City noise scene", "our favourite ten Còmeme tracks"-- not actual existing articles. Lists like this just say "we have the microphone. Is this thing on?" They've spent the last ten years proving that "democratic and objective criticism" creates prosaic predictability, and now, as Pitchfork haemorrhages readers, I hope they realize it's also unprofitable. I hope they branch out and get more creative w their content, less listy, more listless, like my appetite. I miss the anarchy of 1998-2003. And they employ way better writers today. Don't die, Pitchfork!

if Pitchfork was actually Poe-faced, I'd be super happy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z8NP0eI4Og

When my phone corrected it I was like "is that actually the etymology of that expression"

best album of the century so far

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/rocks/loureed%20raven%20jan19.jpg

MAKE YR OWN CANON

― maura, Monday, August 18, 2014 3:32 PM (33 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

OTM

i always thought the point of music crit was to foster this approach not to hammer home a strictly defined canon at every chance

as Pitchfork haemorrhages readers

is this really happening?

I thought of something that isn't on the list

i can't. i've been trying really hard, too.

i dunno i mean "Yamaha" and "Streetz Tonight" are on the list so I'm not gonna complain

Every prophet has to have his “Runaway” moment, though—an appeal to the masses.

This was the moment scrolling backwards from #1 where i just had to stop, though the whole "oh the masterful construction of sloppiness" 20th Anniversary Of Bee Thousand cliches of the Ariel Pink blurb made me weary.

and "Wut". Most of the stuff I really like from this list I got from ilx actually.

like, what if there were 200 alphabetically listed blurbs where the authors described their personal engagement with the song and described its lyrical and musical character without waxing poetic about the artist's iconic stature and universal importance in a desperate attempt to dignify canonhood

admittedly, far fewer people would bother to check it out

I so don't care about narrative arcs of musicians at this point. I get why a lot of critics do (they get to help write it! at last, validation) but it just isn't how I engage with music.

xp

musicans' careers

that should say

like, what if there were 200 alphabetically listed blurbs where the authors described their personal engagement with the song and described its lyrical and musical character without waxing poetic about the artist's iconic stature and universal importance in a desperate attempt to dignify canonhood

― da croupier, Monday, August 18, 2014 4:33 PM (42 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

admittedly, far fewer people would bother to check it out

― da croupier, Monday, August 18, 2014 4:36 PM (39 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i would definitely have bothered clicking if this was the case!

you guys should read my "window seat" blurb it's about me being scared of flying

aw

love that blurb j0rd

yeah thanks for no "erykah makes us all feel more confident on this rocky plane ride we call life" shit

there is definitely a divide between their rankings of tracks vs albums - much more rock in the album list.

― skip, Monday, August 18, 2014 8:31 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is a pretty common divide critical poll divide, right? I feel like if you look at Pazz n Jop polls for the past 20 years, the songs are always a lot more pop-oriented, while the albums are always more dominated by rock.

common critical poll divide, I mean.

is there a Tumblr for Pfork synth "fart" mentions yet? another gem in the Jai Paul blurb for "wet synth farts".

you guys should read my "window seat" blurb it's about me being scared of flying

― le goon (J0rdan S.), Monday, August 18, 2014 1:17 PM (53 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yes, that one was awesome! Mostly because I also a) love that song, and b) hate flying.

man, "midnight city" could still use an actual chorus

― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Monday, August 18, 2014 11:24 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah...it's become this huge mainstream alt-rock radio staple but every time that intro storms in suddenly the actual song starts and it sounds like someone put the stereo on the 'karaoke setting' and the next 3 or 4 minutes are absolute dullsville, depending on how excited you are about saxophone solos. the canonization of that song is a total triumph of aesthetic positioning over anything resembling songwriting.

the canonization of that song is a total triumph of aesthetic positioning over anything resembling songwriting.

― some dude, Monday, August 18, 2014 2:34 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark

preach

vibes y'all

Linkin Park's "Burn It Down" kinda functions well as a "Midnight City" knockoff with actual hooks

it sounds like someone put the stereo on the 'karaoke setting'
the canonization of that song is a total triumph of aesthetic positioning over anything resembling songwriting.

these are both true of all new songs that get played on the radio

I genuinely thought the collective delusion that MBDTF is good would have disappeared by now

― Number None, Monday, August 18, 2014 10:55 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

Perhaps but Pitchfork was Patient Zero, er, Patient 10.0 in the outbreak

All my feelings about this list are encapsulated by

33. Miguel - Adorn
32. Jai Paul - Jasmine (Demo)

man i was very glib about "midnight city" when it dropped, felt like yet more m83 but now man it's sooo good you can aesthetically position yourself and spin

if you wish there was a part where they went "oooh, ooh MIDNIGHT CITY" that's on you

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWTLSZottgc

oddly enough this video is what got me into the song, fuck are you saying there's no hooks in this thing that's a hook right there

CITY IS A CHUUURCH that's a hook

da croupier otm, the intro that storms in is a monster hook.

is cute to learn that grumpy old dudes asking whatever happened to songwriting will now be telling kids about the wild, shirtless lyrics of chester bennington and the competent turntable work of dr. hahn.

woops, mr. hahn. shoulda consulted my local library

my test for whether a song has a "hook" is if I can sing it without queing up YouTube, so sorry midnight city

"One Step Closer," on the other hand....

idk i'm like five years old and "midnight city" seems mostly empty to me, full of signifiers that fail to thread into a song

i'm also generally pro mr. hahn

I don't even want to stir up a debate again about Pitchfork's weird relationship with metal but, Deafheaven being the only "metal" entry on the list is all kinds of lol.

it sounds like shoeguzz!

man watch that vid if you can't go BAH boo boo BAH! BAH boo boo BAH! by memory after that...

although i guess "dream house" is the closest i got to a screamo jam on the list