View Full Version : Pitchfork's top 200 albums of the 2000s
dreamdead
10-03-2009, 01:14 PM
So here is Pitchfork's best-of (http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/7706-the-top-200-albums-of-the-2000s-200-151/)this decade. Rather than turning this thread into one in which we indiscriminately bash Pitchfork for their indie pop and mainstream rap persuasions, can you all highlight for me their best pics and personal choices you're happy to see?
I love seeing Boris (Akuma No Uta), Neko Case (Blacklisted, which I was initially afraid wouldn't be a good primer for her), Sonic Youth (Murray Street, possibly my favorite of their albums, I'm thinking), and Yo La Tengo releases given another last mention, which counters the obvious 1-2 punch of Radiohead and Arcade Fire.
ledfloyd
10-03-2009, 01:33 PM
it's not a bad list. hold steady's stay positive is missing, but the other two are there so i can't complain. brian wilson's smile seems like a rather large omission. devendra, elliot smith, andrew bird, iron & wine, feist, ryan adams, cat power, and will oldham at least got mentions. it still moves is missing but Z is there. most of my very favorites are on there. sea change, Ys, kid a, illinois, bows + arrows, heartbreaker, yoshimi, yankee hotel, the blueprint, etc.
Hugh_Grant
10-03-2009, 01:42 PM
174. Okkervil River, Black Sheep Boy
It's too low--wait, sorry, forgot the no-bashing rule. :)
Boner M
10-03-2009, 01:54 PM
Nice to see Since I Left You in the top 10 and Supreme Clientele just hovering outside. Apart from those, the ones I'm most pleased to see mentioned: Jay Reatard - Blood Visions, Stars of the Lid - Tired Sounds..., Jim O'Rourke - Insignificance, Life Without Buildings - Any Other City, Gas - Pop, D'Angelo - Voodoo
EDIT: Fuck P4K, lame hipster bullshit, how many more excuses for endless Radiohead fellation do they need, etc etc
Spinal
10-03-2009, 04:38 PM
I greatly enjoy:
Kid A
Fever to Tell
One Beat
Vespertine
The Reminder
Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
The Woods
Spaceman Spiff
10-03-2009, 04:56 PM
Too indie popish, but there are quite a few choice picks there. Third is far too low though.
Back in the day my (now) ex kept bugging me to listen to The Knife. I must say that blurb intrigued me.
trotchky
10-03-2009, 08:09 PM
from the top 20: i think stankonia, merriweather post pavilion, turn on the bright lights, person pitch, is this it, funeral, and kid a are worthy of such a high ranking. silent shout, white blood cells, Ágætis Byrjun, are also quite good. yankee hotel foxtrot, the moon and antarctica, the blueprint, since i left you - don't agree, but okay, i can see it. daft punk, kanye west, lcd soundsystem - naaaaaaaahhhhhhhh.
ledfloyd
10-03-2009, 09:54 PM
i came up with a top 20:
20. fiona apple - extraordinary machine
19. devendra banhart - cripple crow
18. white stripes - get behind me satan
17. iron & wine - the creek drank the cradle
16. kanye west - late registration
15. of montreal - hissing fauna, are you the destroyer?
14. talib kweli - quality
13. andrew bird & the mysterious production of eggs
12. joanna newsom - Ys
11. sufjan stevens - illinois
10. the hold steady - stay positive
9. ryan adams - heartbreaker
8. my morning jacket - it still moves
7. beck - sea change
6. bright eyes - i'm wide awake, it's morning
5. the walkmen - bows + arrows
4. jay-z - the blueprint
3. the flaming lips - yoshimi battles the pink robots
2. radiohead - kid a
1. wilco - yankee hotel foxtrot
Dead & Messed Up
10-03-2009, 10:58 PM
The list reminded me that I didn't have a CD by The Dismemberment Plan, so I drove to Amoeba and found Change and Emergency and I for $14 total.
If anyone ever gets the chance, listen to 'em. Great, great stuff.
Kurious Jorge v3.1
10-06-2009, 05:05 AM
Cannibal Ox's The Cold Vein is justly included in that list, hooray!
Too bad they never really followed in up with anything substantial, but when one half of your duo is addicted to crack and the other half weighs 400 pounds you may have problems with longevity.
I mean, yeah, pretty much exactly the list you would have expected Pitchfork to make. Kid A at #1 is gonna look silly in twenty years, but I'm happy to see The Mountain Goats get two albums on there and Hot Chip in the top 100 is cool beans. Some obvious omissions which don't really make sense are Neon Bible, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's first album and, I dunno, maybe Los Campesinos! should've made it?
My personal favorite album of the decade is, in a walk, Frightened Rabbit's The Midnight Organ Flight. Biggest guilty pleasure is Amy Winehouse's Back to Black, but I don't even know if that counts as a guilty pleasure. Does it?
Kurosawa Fan
10-06-2009, 02:05 PM
Biggest guilty pleasure is Amy Winehouse's Back to Black, but I don't even know if that counts as a guilty pleasure. Does it?
Nah. Just because she's a trainwreck doesn't change the quality of that album.
Derek
10-06-2009, 05:14 PM
I mean, yeah, pretty much exactly the list you would have expected Pitchfork to make. Kid A at #1 is gonna look silly in twenty years
Yeah, it's held up fine for 9 years, so I don't see another 20 doing anything to change it.
I'm not saying Kid A's a bad album or anything, it just seems like another example of something hipsters have built up over the years to a point of such unrepentant reverence that maybe it doesn't quite deserve. That happens with a lot of things - where the critical fellating kinda gets out of hand and then when you look back a few decades later you realize that, eh, maybe they went a little too far
Basically, if Kid A was the '00s best album, then this was an even lamer decade than I thought it was
Derek
10-06-2009, 05:41 PM
I'm not saying Kid A's a bad album or anything, it just seems like another example of something hipsters have built up over the years to a point of such unrepentant reverence that maybe it doesn't quite deserve. That happens with a lot of things - where the critical fellating kinda gets out of hand and then when you look back a few decades later you realize that, eh, maybe they went a little too far
I'm pretty sure the mainstream press was fellating Kid A long before the hipsters got in there. The problem with your argument is that it's interchangeable with ANY album that gets universal praise. Perhaps the fact that so many various outlets, not just hipster-run ones, agree that it represents the decade's peak means you're the one that's wrong. At the very least, it's far better than anything The Mountain Goats even thought about putting out. ;)
Basically, if Kid A was the '00s best album, then this was an even lamer decade than I thought it was
Whether or not it's the best album of the 00s, it's been a great decade.
I've reconciled myself with the fact that I'm probably wrong about maybe 8 out of 10 pop culture related things, but I will always, always love The Mountain Goats. Either way, I think I can make a pretty good case that In Rainbows is a lot better than Kid A
Another big omission for me, by the by, is New Magnetic Wonder by The Apples in Stereo. What a glorious return to form for those jokers
Whether or not it's the best album of the 00s, it's been a great decade.
Oh, it's been a solid decade for music, sure. I meant that it's been lame in terms of just general human history
Pop Trash
10-06-2009, 07:08 PM
What's interesting is the lack of rock albums that got any kind of mainstream attention. I mean if you did a poll of 90s albums, I do think Nirvana's Nevermind and Pearl Jam's Ten would get pretty high and those both sold (I believe) over 10 million albums.
Yeah, not a whole lot of '00s mainstream rock belongs there
Maybe some more White Stripes, I guess, but then what?
Pop Trash
10-06-2009, 10:41 PM
Yeah, not a whole lot of '00s mainstream rock belongs there
Maybe some more White Stripes, I guess, but then what?
Well that's my point. I mean, I mostly listen to indie rock that maybe at best goes gold (500K copies) and the occasional White Stripes/Strokes album that goes platinum. But I mean that's really nothing compared to the Jay-Z/Outkast/Lil Wayne numbers and those guys made it pretty high on their list. What's the classic rock of the future going to be? Coldplay/Kings of Leon/The Killers perhaps? I sure hope Nickelback isn't still on the radio in ten years.
Ivan Drago
10-06-2009, 11:09 PM
daft punk, kanye west, lcd soundsystem - naaaaaaaahhhhhhhh.
Daft Punk > You
Acapelli
10-06-2009, 11:13 PM
What's the classic rock of the future going to be? Coldplay/Kings of Leon/The Killers perhaps?
i was actually thinking about this the other day while listening to the radio and these bands were the ones that came to mind. green day too. probably a few more obvious choices i'm missing
of those bands' albums, parachutes would probably be the only one who'd make a top 200 of the decade for me
Spaceman Spiff
10-07-2009, 12:01 AM
Yeah, Kid A is great. Not Amnesiac great, though.
MadMan
10-08-2009, 09:25 PM
The Postal Service, Franz Ferdinand (West's Graduation) they list along with Oh Inverted World by the Shins aren't even great. They're merely good, with the exception of West's rather meh Graduation. Oh and Vampire Weekend's disc is great, but its way too high. I want to try and make my way completely through this list-don't ask me why, but I do-and there are a couple others listed that I just couldn't finish for whatever reason. I approve of In Rainbows being listed, and I realize that when it comes to music, I still haven't heard enough. Especially from this decade, which isn't as bad as people make it out to be-well those folks really foolishly stick to listening to the crap they play on the radio, I guess. Plus props to them for acknowledging how great West's Late Registration is, as well, and that Illinoise is brilliant. Overall, I've heard 22 albums-and most of them I think were actually in the Top 100 or Top 50. Kid A is great, sure, but In Rainbows is actually better. I'm really not surprised they listed Kid A as their #1, if only because it seems like such an obvious and unshocking choice. Maybe if I listen to it a hundred more times I'll find it to be a masterpiece like so many others. Probably not.
trotchky
10-17-2009, 01:11 AM
What's interesting is the lack of rock albums that got any kind of mainstream attention. I mean if you did a poll of 90s albums, I do think Nirvana's Nevermind and Pearl Jam's Ten would get pretty high and those both sold (I believe) over 10 million albums.
this article (http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/7704-the-decade-in-indie/) might be of interest to you (it's really good)
Pop Trash
10-17-2009, 11:09 PM
this article (http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/7704-the-decade-in-indie/) might be of interest to you (it's really good)
That was really good, but it still doesn't address what I was saying. Maybe it's just that radio (meaning old fashioned over the air waves radio) is just such a 20th century thing that the only music they will play will be from that era. Maybe classic rock will forever be stuck in the 70s-80s-90s. Dunno, we'll see.
monolith94
10-18-2009, 07:58 AM
Where the HELL is Deltron 3030?
BuffaloWilder
10-24-2009, 05:27 AM
ha ha Pitchfork.
Derek
10-24-2009, 05:41 AM
ha ha Pitchfork.
Gonna go out on a limb and guess they left off a few of your favorites and put on a few questionable choices. If so, responding with specific, complete sentences could prove helpful. :)
BuffaloWilder
10-24-2009, 06:00 AM
Oh, no. I don't really have any interest in their list. But, I mean come on - it's just so fucking hipster.
And, then there's Hipinion.
Derek
10-24-2009, 06:18 AM
Oh, no. I don't really have any interest in their list. But, I mean come on - it's just so fucking hipster.
And, then there's Hipinion.
Eh, I thought there were a lot of mainstream choices throughout the list along with a lot of great picks. I disagree with Pitchfork a lot and their groupthink is frustrating, but complaints of their hipsterism have been played to death. I don't even know what it means in relation to music. I like a lot of the same music hipsters do, but I haven't worn a plaid shirt since I was 12 and have never owned a skin-tight pair of jeans. I dunno, it's like dismissing David Lynch for being "too weird".
Acapelli
10-24-2009, 08:53 PM
railing against p4k is so 2008
Our Aurora
10-27-2009, 04:41 AM
railing against p4k is so 2008
Actually it is so 2007.
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/pitchfork_gives_music_6_8
SirNewt
03-22-2010, 01:26 AM
Well that's my point. I mean, I mostly listen to indie rock that maybe at best goes gold (500K copies) and the occasional White Stripes/Strokes album that goes platinum. But I mean that's really nothing compared to the Jay-Z/Outkast/Lil Wayne numbers and those guys made it pretty high on their list. What's the classic rock of the future going to be? Coldplay/Kings of Leon/The Killers perhaps? I sure hope Nickelback isn't still on the radio in ten years.
They sure as hell will be. Classic rock stations aren't about playing the music of an era that is actually still interesting or influential. It's about emotion and nostalgia. They're going to play the music you heard that first summer you got a job and bought a boom-box so you could make out with Jenny in your little brother's tree house. Or the first time you got high in a smelly college dorm with the brunette alternative chick you dug. Or the music you listened to crossing the country in that first big move. etc.
Then again with the whole mp3 explosion and FM radio on the wane I could completely wrong.
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