pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)

As others have pointed out, Ariel Pink and Sun Kil Moon are two big ones. Swans had a couple of albums in last time (including one in the top 20) and are nowhere to be seen.

surely no mystery here omitting these three in particular

also am I crazy or did I miss it or is Esperanza Spalding missing from this ridiculous list

I didn't do too bad in my guesses! I had no idea Beyoncé would rate above Lemonade. I am surprised to see King Krule at 60-- I thought higher. I think I typed "DAMN" when I was thinking "m.A.A.d." but I don't listen to much Kendrick. I was right in chiming back in that Fiona would be top 10. I was right that Visions (50) wouldn't crack the top 20.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Rashad and SZA in the top 25. I forgot about Erykah and The Knife, which is weird, I wore those albums out big time. I am pleasantly surprised to see Destroyer so high. I'm glad that people like Mitski this much. Tierra Whack was my favourite album of last year and I love seeing it so high.

I don't think this list can be evaluated via lenses of poptimism or indie-centric or anything else. The metric is different. I was struck-- especially seeing the make-up of the entries from 100-200-- that this list did not seem like it was evaluating "albums" based on their individual merits, but rather the kind of overall "geist" of what each artist represents to the current cultural landscape. Pinkprint made the list not because it's a good album, but because Nicki was a major cultural force this decade, i.e. This website has come to value "personality" over "content".

I complained through 2004-2010 that the shift of this website toward "exceedingly objective 'qualitative' evaluation" would celebrate artists who carried more agency, who made work that was more quantifiably "good" or "of merit"-- transgressive work and/or non-functional work would be overlooked. This is still an issue. The only legitimately difficult record I see on this list is The Knife.

But I'm glad that the list is far more diverse, and prioritizing a kind of deeper cultural meaning over "this record was made with money and craft".

It is weird to me that Caribou "Our Love" placed so high and "Swim" is nowhere to be seen, but ah well.

There were 20 albums that made the top 10 in their respective years but failed to make the top 200 of the decade:

Angel Olsen – My Woman (#9, 2016)
Arcade Fire – Reflektor (#10, 2013)
Ariel Pink – Before Today (#9, 2010)
Ariel Pink – Pom Pom (#9, 2014)
Beach House – Bloom (#7, 2012)
Big Boi – Sir Lucious Left Foot (#4, 2010)
Chance the Rapper – Coloring Book (#6, 2016)
Danny Brown – Old (#5, 2013)
Grizzly Bear – Shields (#10, 2012)
James Blake – The Bells Sketch EP / CMYK EP / Klavierwerke EP (#8, 2010)
Kanye West – Life of Pablo (#5, 2016)
Kelela – Take Me Apart (#4, 2017)
Majical Cloudz – Impersonator (#8, 2013)
Miguel – Wildheart (#8, 2015)
My Bloody Valentine – m b v (#4, 2013)
Sun Kil Moon – Benji (#7, 2014)
Swans – The Seer (#5, 2012)
Swans – To Be Kind (#6, 2014)
Tune-Yards – w h o k i l l (#7, 2011)
Vince Staples – Big Fish Theory (#7, 2017)

james blake's cmyk made the song list, so i guess that one is represented

Yeah, that one's kind of a weird case, anyway, since it was three EPs that were listed together on the 2010 list. That reads like excitement about a new artist who didn't yet have a full-length out. So I wouldn't have expected that to show up on the decade list.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Jessica Pratt show up on both the albums and tracks list. Had no idea she was rated that highly by people. That said, her album from this year is easily her best.

Likewise the Angel Olson album that just cane out is her best, and there are at least 2-3 albums still slated for release this year that I’m excited about. So yeah this is premature. Should’ve come next spring. Feels unfinished.

And I guess I’ll have to wait for the Quietus’ list to see Tropical Fuck Storm.

Looking through the year-end lists some more. Kurt Vile had three albums that placed in a year-end top 25, but none of them made the decade list:

Smoke Ring for My Halo (#16, 2011)
Wakin on a Pretty Daze (#13, 2013)
b'lieve i'm goin' down (#23, 2015)

Smoke Ring is there

Oh you're right! Don't know how I missed that. Anyway, ignore that post!

props to this list for informing me about snail mail which i'm too out of it to have known about otherwise

Hahaha pitchfork is so wildly inconsistent on their picks, do they change staff often?

Probably a combination of changing staff and individuals' changing tastes. Which seems utterly normal to me.

was wondering why this had like 400 new answers and of course: lists

two frank ocean albums in the top ten.

http://gph.is/16EI4hW

I guess I'm interested in what gets discarded less as a finger-pointing "gotcha" and more as a way of understanding shifting trends over time.

was wondering why this had like 400 new answers and of course: lists

― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, October 8, 2019 10:50 AM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Probably should've started a new thread, tbh

pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849495 in a series.)

There also seems to be some political factor in the rankings in here. Ranking higher albums with some political posturing or that feel more “woke” than albums with none of it.

Surprised they stuck with MBDTF, thought it wouldn’t crack their top 20 but I imagine the backlash of one of their perfect score albums not even in the top 20 probably influenced the outcome.

image and whatnot.

not actual music.

Full Communism cracked the top 200.

I think ILM should rank the instances of pitchfork being dumb this decade

image and whatnot.

not actual music.

― Totally different head. Totally. (Austin), Tuesday, October 8, 2019 11:01 AM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

those damn kids and their mtv

those damn kids and their mtv

― flopsy bird (voodoo chili), Tuesday, October 8, 2019 12:05 PM bookmarkflaglink

the problem is all the instagram posts innot

selfies and celeb deepfakes and tiktok memes and gamer culture

Angel Olsen – My Woman (#9, 2016)
Arcade Fire – Reflektor (#10, 2013)
Ariel Pink – Before Today (#9, 2010)
Ariel Pink – Pom Pom (#9, 2014)
Beach House – Bloom (#7, 2012)
Big Boi – Sir Lucious Left Foot (#4, 2010)
Chance the Rapper – Coloring Book (#6, 2016)
Danny Brown – Old (#5, 2013)
Grizzly Bear – Shields (#10, 2012)
James Blake – The Bells Sketch EP / CMYK EP / Klavierwerke EP (#8, 2010)
Kanye West – Life of Pablo (#5, 2016)
Kelela – Take Me Apart (#4, 2017)
Majical Cloudz – Impersonator (#8, 2013)
Miguel – Wildheart (#8, 2015)
My Bloody Valentine – m b v (#4, 2013)
Sun Kil Moon – Benji (#7, 2014)
Swans – The Seer (#5, 2012)
Swans – To Be Kind (#6, 2014)
Tune-Yards – w h o k i l l (#7, 2011)
Vince Staples – Big Fish Theory (#7, 2017)

― jaymc, Tuesday, October 8, 2019 11:21 AM (forty-five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

So they’re pivoting from their indie rock roots. A little sad as someone whose early taste was formed by indie, but arcade fire, beach house, mbv, grizzly bear and other groups like that—tune yards—don’t reflect the 2019 zeitgeist.

The omission of my woman and mbv is truly insane to me. Especially my woman because they included an angel olsen album.

xpost it can be argued that that shit never actually really reflected any zeitgeist beyond the inflated self-worth of white ppl, but ymmv

This way, good sir:

trenchant social commentary 2

ultimately, yeah, that seems to be the popular take.

those damn kids and their mtv

have you watched mtv recently? because it's exactly the problem. it's always been shit (much like pfork), but at least they used to show videos from actual singers, musicians, etc.

pfork is (and always has been) a glorified lifestyle page.

Yep. the lists are boring, but... how could they have possibly not been, really?

Beyonce over Lemonade tho #courage

I dont actually agree with that. To its credit pitchfork keeps its coverage centered on music. It’s not lifestyle journalism.

this whole list, with all the names on it that we've been accustomed to seeing so many times over the past decade, feels so, i don't know, small. like what a tiny little universe of music to listen to

xp austin

treeship, you just opened a Pandora's box of people posting links to Stranger Things news and "What beer pairs best with Tame Impala" posts.

They do that?

I always go to the reviews, which are frustrating but at least they’re reviews

this whole list, with all the names on it that we've been accustomed to seeing so many times over the past decade, feels so, i don't know, small. like what a tiny little universe of music to listen to

― marcos, Tuesday, October 8, 2019 12:23 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

dude the average American in their late 20s to early 40s probably listens to three new records a year. i know music critics are a different breed, but you gotta keep scale in mind.

the music of Malcolm Gladwell's Life.

I think I posted here about that. I'm not able to get worked up about Pitchfork since right about then.

marcos otm tbh

this whole list, with all the names on it that we've been accustomed to seeing so many times over the past decade, feels so, i don't know, small.

A list like this is going to be the consensus top 20 or so records from each year, so I wouldn't expect to see anything left field here

Same could be said for much of ILM tbh. Most rolling genre threads are ghettos.

But yeah this feels way too soon. Imagine what would have been left off a music writers 1970s list made in Oct. 1979.

country and reggae records, probably

Same could be said for much of ILM tbh

Aren’t pitchfork and ilm comprised of a lot of the same people?

And even the writers and editors that don’t post here—i imagine they’re influenced by some of the critics who still hang around here

Maybe not idk. This did feel like a blander ilm list to me though

if you've listened to more than 100 of these records, you get. you get and don't you come back!

Quite a few 'forkers haunt this site, yeah. And some have (inexplicably) vanished (I miss dleone).

I'm scanning through this list now and I just got to ANOHNI, which I hated so much that I feel like its presence invalidates the entire list