Yesterday and today, Pitchfork Media posted their 50 best albums of 2008 list.
I have been reading Pitchfork since 2004, and am a huge fan of their year-end lists. In spite of the site's pretense and high sense of self-worth, I have become a fan of (some of) the writing, but moreso their rating system (pompous, but it really makes things easy) and how meticulous they are at making lists. In the words of a defunct independent music and literature magazine that was crude and out of Seattle I used to subscribe to, Bandoppler, "No one fucks with Pitchfork when it comes to list-making."
Last year was the best year-end top 50 list I have read to this day. Perhaps due to 2007 being my favorite year in new music, EVER. I was totally into Pitchfork's inclusion of records by Deerhoof (#31), Dinosaur Jr. (#28), Arcade Fire (#27), Dirty Projectors (#21), The National (#17), Jens Lekman (#11), Spoon (#7), Animal Collective (#6), Radiohead (#4) and Panda Bear (#1), as each of these were in my top 20. It was by far the pest representation of what they had been raving about all year.
This year is different. 2007's list was not a typical one from Pitchfork because it was SO appropriate. This year (and every other year) is (or has been) predictible in a different way. Predictible not in exactly what records were included, but in the distribution of genre, popularity level and accessibilty represented, in my humble opinion. For me, a Pitchfork year- end list consists of the following four categories:
(1) Obvious choices (whether that means for me personally, or based off how much they raved about a particular artist or group)
(2) Personal pleasant surprises (or at least releases that I kind of liked and rooted for)
(3) (Assumed) random pretentious bullshit that no one seemed to give a shit about (or at least I didn't). This could also include releases that Pitchfork amongst others might have pretended they understood, but really did not.
(4) Uncategorizable, or releases that I didn't know anything about due to lack of research or just simply being clueless
I will separate the top 50 into the four categories below, with notes if an album is deserving:
Obvious choices
- Beach House's Devotion (#46) - I thought this would be higher.
- Marnie Stern's This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is It and That Is That (#44) - Again, I thought this would be higher. Also, even though this record had some cool songs, this could also be in the (assumed) random pretentious bullshit category based on the album title alone.
- Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds' Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! (#32)
- Atlas Sound's Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See but Cannot Feel (#26)
- Titus Andronicus' The Airing of Grievances (#25) - I'm surprised this is so high.
- Santogold's Santogold (#22)
- The Walkmen's You & Me (#19)
- Fucked Up's The Chemistry of Common Life (#17)
- Vivian Girls' Vivian Girls (#16)
- Lil' Wayne's Tha Carter III (#11)
- Hercules and Love Affair's Hercules and Love Affair (#9) - I would have been surprised that this was so high had I read this list before Pitchfork's 100 Best Tracks of 2008.
- Vampire Weekend's Vampire Weekend (#7) - It's surprising that Pitchfork wasn't too embarrassed to rank it this high.
- TV on the Radio's Dear Science (#6)
- Deerhunter's Microcastle/Weird Era Cont. (#5) - I thought this was going to be #1.
- Cut Copy's In Ghost Colours (#4)
- No Age's Nouns (#3)
- Portishead's Third (#2)
- Fleet Foxes' Sun Giant EP/Fleet Foxes (#1) - I don't hate Fleet Foxes, but this bums me out.
Pleasant surprises
- Crystal Stilts' Alight of Night (#49) - There were a few really great songs.
- High Places' High Places (#48)
- Bonnie "Prince" Billy's Lie Down in the Light (#42)
- David Bryne and Brian Eno's Everything That Happens Will Happen Today (#41)
- The Hold Steady's Stay Positive (#29) - I know Pfork loves The Hold Steady, but I figured this was going to be left off.
- M83's Saturdays = Youth (#8) - I didn't realize they loved this so much.
(Assumed) random pretentious bullshit
- Ponytail's Ice Cream Spiritual (#50) - The first song is awesome, but the rest, ugh.
- The Very Best's Esau Mwamwaya & Radioclit are the Very Best (#40)
- Times New Viking's Rip it Off (#39) - I liked them at the 2008 Pitchfork Music Festival, but the record sounds awful for the sake of sounding awful.
- The Bug's London Zoo (#38)
- Wale's The Mixtape About Nothing (#36)
- Girl Talk's Feed the Animals (#35) - I just hate the concept behind his albums. Too overwhelming.
- Los Campesinos!'s Hold on Now, Youngster... (#30) - This record had some jams, but why does Pitchfork love them and claim they sound like Pavement, when really they sound like a shitty version of The Anniversary's Designing a Nervious Breakdown, which they gave a pretty bad review to.
- Flying Lotus' Los Angeles (#28)
- Hot Chip's Made in the Dark (#23) - REALLY? This is bad.
- Kanye West's 808s and Heartbreak (#21) - I can't believe they still care about Kanye. Sheesh.
- Fuck Buttons' Street Horrrsing (#20) - This is junk noise.
- The Mae Shi's HLLLYH (#18)
- Crystal Castles' Crystal Castles (#15) - I actually was into a few songs from this, but it is definitely pretentious.
- Lindstrom's Where You Go I Go Too (#12) - GREAT album title though.
- DJ/rupture's Uproot (#10)
Uncategorizable
- The Tallest Man on Earth's Shallow Grave (#47)
- Lykke Li's Youth Novels (#45)
- Shearwater's Rook (#43)
- Grouper's Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill (#37)
- Arthur Russell's Love is Overtaking Me (#34)
- Frightened Rabbit's Midnight Organ Fight (#33)
- Fennesz's Black Sea (#31)
- Max Tundra's Parallax Error Beheads You (#27)
- Gang Gang Dance's Saint Dymphna (#24)
- Air France's No Way Down (#14)
- Erykah Badu's New Amerykah Part One (4th World War) (#13) - What?
Not so many pleasant surprises, but an interesting mix nonetheless. I don't mean to complain too much. Every year their list, whether I agree with it or not, is really interesting at, and the day it is posted is often times like Christmas. I will continue reading you Pitchfork, especially your year-end lists.
And also, I apologize to you, my friends, and myself, for even posting this, especially at such length. It is just further proof that I am the biggest geek to ever walk this earth, especially for thinking so much about this shit. However, I am okay with this.
6 comments:
I mostly agree with you, but I gotta say, Flying Lotus's Los Angeles ruuuuuules. I'm not sure if you'd like it, but holy shit, it's definitely some of the best programming jams that came out this year that I found. Also good for driving!
Also also, I find it funny that most of my favorite releases this year come from your uncategorized section. Lykke Li's album and the new Gang Gang Dance record kick so much ass in their own ways. Max Tundra's album is also definitely my favorite by him so that was cool for the year.
The blurbs on the Girl Talk and Fuck Buttons albums were my favorite. They seemed to justify each album in a way that I felt I couldn't argue. VW was the opposite of this, where there are a few opinions-as-fact type comments that don't prove anything.
I will not get over Crystal Castles at #15. It has almost negated their opinions of everything else on the list.
Worst line: "Santogold's cover features an unflattering image of Santi White vomitting gold dust. Clearly, this woman does not give a fuck." Fire Amy Phillips!
Like I said last night, your point about Pfork lists was a revelation. But they seriously need to go back to being snobbier and less obvious. I did not feel condescended to enough this year.
For something we always talk about, there was unexpected purpose to this entry. Way to follow your heart.
8.7 (Best New Blog Post)
Phil, yeah the purpose of the uncategorizable category is solely to make known that I did not listen to or care about everything on their list. Granted, a lot of the releases under the (assumed) random pretentious bullshit category I also do not listen to, because they seemed pretentious. That is why they are (assumed)random pretentious bullshit. I'm not claiming that this is fact.
Perhaps I should have titled that category "albums that Pitchfork got behind to make some sort of statement."
Travis: I'd have to go back and read the Girl Talk and Fuck Buttons blurbs. I just HATE THOSE PROJECTS. UGH.
Agreed, that Santogold line was stupid.
I'm interested in you saying you wish Pitchfork would go back to be snobbier. I know last night I said that I like the site being this sort of villain. But I do appreciate that they have at least a remote sense of good taste.
I appreciate the high rating for this entry. I wish you would continue to do that for each of my posts.
I was OK with the albums list, but the Songs list was sort of a disgrace, most of it falling into your "random, pretentious" category.
If you look at P4k's readers' poll, you'll see that NONE (zero) of their readers give a SHIT about disco. Why? Why is 50% of the list comprised of disco/house singles? What a tacky way to act like you're a step ahead of your readership.
The funny thing is, as much as they try to prove they're adead of us, they'll still throw some Top 40 crap like "American Boy" in the top 10 to prove that they're more DEMOCRATIC than their readers.
Reading that list was the closest I've come since "Travistan" to cutting this website out of my life. I will continue to read because they listen to music more critically than other publications, and because their news is so good.
Alec, you make some good points for sure.
However, I have to admit, I really really like the Hercules & Love Affair album. Please don't hate me.
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