It’s almost January, which means we’ve seen plenty of Year End Lists. A few offered ridiculous #1s (and numbers in between), but they all have at least one thing going for them: They’re slightly different, even if at times it seems like every music writer in the the world owns an iPod that only allows the same 50 records to be played over and over. To the matter at hand: You’ll see a bit of a correlation between Pitchfork’s top 50 albums and their 100 Tracks Of 2008, but tracks are different than albums, so there’s no real reason for their to be that much overlap. This list includes a couple of my own favorites in the 45-50 range (Crystal Stilts, High Places) and also gives deserved nods to Fennesz, Fuck Buttons, Vivian Girls, and especially Grouper, Fucked Up, and Gang Gang Dance. But hey, still no metal — like no Krallice, Enslaved, Nachtmystium, or even Torche and Harvey Milk, who both had to content themselves with an Honorable Mention a couple days ago. (Full disclosure: I write about metal for Pitchfork, but did not vote in this list … obviously.) While we’re talking about things that are missing, keep your eyes peeled for Will Sheff. But hey, the band at the no.1 spot looks awfully familiar.
50 Ponytail – Ice Cream Spiritual
49 Crystal Stilts – Alight Of Night
48 High Places – High Places
47 The Tallest Man on Earth – Shallow Grave
46 Beach House – Devotion
45 Lykke Li – Youth Novels
44 Marnie Stern – 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
43 Shearwater – Rook
42 Bonnie “Prince” Billy – Lie Down in the Light
41 David Byrne and Brian Eno – Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
40 The Very Best – Esau Mwamwaya & Radioclit are the Very Best
39 Times New Viking – Rip It Off
38 The Bug – London Zoo
37 Grouper – Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill
36 Wale – The Mixtape About Nothing
35 Girl Talk – Feed the Animals
34 Arthur Russell – Love Is Overtaking Me
33 Frightened Rabbit – Midnight Organ Fight
32 Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
31 Fennesz – Black Sea
30 Los Campesinos! – Hold on Now, Youngster…
29 The Hold Steady – Stay Positive
28 Flying Lotus – Los Angeles
27 Max Tundra – Parallax Error Beheads You
26 Atlas Sound – Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel
25 Titus Andronicus – The Airing of Grievances
24 Gang Gang Dance – Saint Dymphna
23 Hot Chip – Made in the Dark
22 Santogold – Santogold
21 Kanye West – 808s and Heartbreak
20 Fuck Buttons – Street Horrrsing
19 The Walkmen – You & Me
18 The Mae Shi – HLLLYH
17 Fucked Up – The Chemistry of Common Life
16 Vivian Girls – Vivian Girls
15 Crystal Castles – Crystal Castles
14 Air France – No Way Down
13 Erykah Badu – New Amerykah Part One (4th World War)
12 Lindstrøm – Where You Go I Go Too
11 Lil Wayne – Tha Carter III
10 DJ/rupture – Uproot
09 Hercules and Love Affair – Hercules and Love Affair
08 M83 – Saturdays=Youth
07 Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend
06 TV On The Radio – Dear Science
05 Deerhunter – Microcastle / Weird Era Cont.
04 Cut Copy – In Ghost Colours
03 No Age – Nouns
02 Portishead – Third
01 Fleet Foxes – Sun Giant EP/Fleet Foxes
That’s right, readers, you agreed with Pitchfork. Read the accompanying blurbs here. I like Scott Plagenhoef’s thoughts on this years Gummy-winning Most Overrated Act:
In a time when other populist groups like Spoon, Arcade Fire, and the Hold Steady– potential radio staples at certain points in rock history — have commercial ceilings somewhere between “an appearance on ‘SNL’” and “gold record,” I can’t find myself rooting against Vampire Weekend’s relative success.
Anywhere near a gold record is probably too optimistic, but point well taken.
 |
 |
Predictable picks from a year without a lot of great albums.
i came running- left my wife at the hospital after an accident or something- as soon as i’d heard pitchfork’s top 50 albums were up and we could comment on them. am i too late?
this comment pretty much made my whole day
I was truly expecting Deerhunter to take it. But I’m not surprised, still, by Fleet Foxes. Was anyone else completly surprised by Erykah Badu though?
Admittedly, I’m surprised to see the Badu album everywhere, but I thought that it’s genius would be lost on a lot of critics since alternative R&B’s not that popular of a genre. Mea culpa.
Why didn’t you vote, Stosuy?
That Ruby Suns album deserved at least an honorable mention.
where the fuckin’ hell is Okkervil? and Samamidon?
at least they give Tallest Man On Earth a (very low) place.
I have all my hopes now on the Cokemachineglow list appearing early next week
for FUCKS SAKE, Department of Eagles. anyoneeeee????!!!!!
they made the honorable mention list
Yes but come on. That album was so good.
No Plants and Animals? No Okkervil River? No Elbow? No Black Mountain? And Lil Wayne at number 11? *sigh* I just don’t even know what to say….
Hot Chip should have been at least top 10, if not top 5
Yeah seriously. Parc Avenue was great. And why hasn’t Ra Ra Riot been on any lists that I’ve seen. The album was amazing and deserves to be top 10 anywhere.
ps. MADE IN THE DARK WAS FANTASTIC
Question: Who fucking cares?
Probably you since you clicked on the article.
this list is too cool for me
This list is too uncool for me.
It’s simple enough: the Okkervil record was just not that great. A collection of leftovers on theme that was played out by the end of The Stage Names.
Now let’s stop the hate and just congratulate FF on their amazing year & ascent. This record / EP deserves every word of praise & already feels like the all-time classic debut that this year will be remembered for.
What I want to know is: Where the fuck are Brendan Canning / BSS’s Something For All Of Us and/or Constantines’ Kensington Heights on all these lists!?
Not a bad list– a little surprised they went with Fleet Foxes at number 1, I think it’s an interesting move.
I think that what people forget is that these lists aren’t TRULY a top albums of the year list– they are more of a “Year in Review” that takes into account not only the 50 minutes of music, but that band’s story over the year.
Fleet Foxes came out of nowhere to release a stunning EP, a solid album, and went from opening 600 seat clubs for Blitzen Trapper to headlining their own theaters. So guess what– they get album of the year.
El Guincho??
Yeah, wondered about that too– hasn’t shown up at ALL.
I think it burned out pretty quickly once people dug a bit deeper. Not a bad record, but not worthy of the wave of hype right when it came out.
El Guincho made it to one list- SPINs
El Guincho was #1 pick from the Other Music store. http://www.othermusic.com Maybe its too out there for Pitchfork, which sounds like its becoming more and more the mainstream.
2007
El Guincho was self released in 2007
Why did they put two albums in their top 25 that got 7.8 and 7.1 respectively (Crystal Castles and Santogold)? I like both of those albums, but Pitchfork is doing a disservice to these artists by essentially saying during the year, when it matters, “this album is mediocre at best,” and then saying at the end of the year, “oh yeah, this album is a top 25 album.” Please be a little more united among your reviewers, because you’re sending a mixed message to readers.
Do you really not know why this happens? One pitchfork writer writes the review, ALL the writers vote for albums of the year. It is ridiculous to ask for the writers to be more united. There’s no towing the party line in music reviews. Also it’s not Pitchfork’s, or any other publication’s, job to service or disservice any artist, even if they are powerful enough to do so.
This is the best list so far, and the honorable mention section is a good addition. Would’ve like to have seen Ruby Suns and Born Ruffians though.
Yes, I understand why it happened. But it’s ridiculous that the album was given a 7.1 and then placed at #22 at the end of the year. 7.1 is pretty darn mediocre by their standards. And with the influence that Pitchfork has, you know that score cost Santogold some album sales, or at least kept some interested people from downloading the album. It’s not too much to ask the writers to correlate a little more. Look, none of us know exactly what goes down behind the scenes, but If a writer is about to give an album a 7.1, and all the other writers like the album enough to place it #22 on the year end list, someone needs to step in and give the album a score that represents the majority view of the publication. That’s just journalistic integrity.
I would argue that what you’ve said is the opposite of journalistic integrity. Pitchfork does not write reviews, individual writers do. How can a writer review an album knowing that the publication may alter that opinion because other writers disagree. It would be very undemocratic of them to do that, and journalistic integrity depends on democracy. Pitchfork is a medium that provides individual opinions from music writers, not a consensus from the whole site. The website operates under the assumption that the readers know this. If a record is truly good, then it will eventually get its recognition once all the critics get to voice their opinion on it. (like in year-end lists). Even the year-end list isn’t necessarily what Pitchfork thinks, it just so happens to be a summation of most (and still not all) writer’s opinions.
And if a bad review hurts an artist’s sales, then tough toenails. Music criticism isn’t a personal attack, but it has to be honest in order to be credible. Musicians should know this before they get into the profession.
Personally, I see 7.1 as a good score. I’ve noticed that anything that cracks 7.0 ends up being an album that I’ll hear a lot of people talking about soon. I’m sure there are a lot of people that buy anything over 7.0 sound unheard.
The idea is that people look at the review as well as the mark! When I wrote the review the summary was: when this album’s good, it’s very good; when it’s bad, it’s horrid. The good stuff was too good to give the record under a 7; the bad stuff too bad to give it over an 8. So 7.1. Six months later, at end-of-year voting time, the good stuff is what gets remembered. Different times, different processes, different voters!
I think one thing we can all agree on is that this wasn’t a very good year for music.
I agree– decent, but fairly light (particularly compared to 2007).
The fact that there is so much consensus around Deerhunter, Fleet Foxes, TVOTR etc is largely due to the fact that there weren’t a lot of other records people were willing to stick their neck out for.
To be honest, I can’t find that much that’s terribly off about this. They always create a list that you can’t COMPLETELY dismiss, unlike some of the others that came out earlier in the month.
Should have been higher:
-Dodos
-WHY?
-Women
-The Walkmen
Should have been lower:
-M83
-Titus Andronicus
-Hold Steady
Missing, but should be on any top 70 list:
-Wolf Parade
-The Black Keys
-Man Man
-Blitzen Trapper
I agree with everything about this. If anything, Wolf Parade put out a top-ten record. So did The Walkmen. But yeah, Black Keys, Dodos, and Blitzen Trapper deserve more credit. I’m sick of this stuff that sounds like it was recorded on a boombox. Too gimmicky for me…No Age is good, but Times New Viking?? REALLY???
The only good song on the Portishead album is Machine Gun. Golden Age by TV on the Radio is one of the worst songs I heard all year, or at least the most annoying vocal performance of the year. Why did Kanye place so high? Auto Tune is lame. It’s good to see Deerhunter, No Age, Cut Copy, and Fleet Foxes so high, though.
Correction, “Dancing Choose” is one of the worst songs you heard all year. That song single-handedly ruined the album for me. I definitely skip to the second half.
Blitzen Trapper?!?!?!?!?!?
ugh it pisses me off how little attention that great album gets
THE GRATEFUL DEAD SUCKED THE FIRST TIME
HAHAHAHAHAHA. Grateful Dead jokes FTW!
I totally agree, I think they rated that album an 8 something too.
The Mae Shi at #18? That’s a bit much… I could have seen an Honorable Mention at most.
It doesn’t totally surprise me Hot Chip and Kanye got on even though they got 7.something reviews without any “Recommended” or “Best New Music” labels — Happened in the past with Modest Mouse’s “Good News…” and The Postal Service’s “Give Up” which originally had 6.something reviews.
Mae Shi’s creepy God stuff weirds me out too much to rate it that highly
I like Titus making the top 25, and the surprisingly high showing of M83 and Cut Copy. AND Dj/Rupture top 10!
The worst sin though is Lindstrom, with a solid but not mindblowing album, at #12? Especially while Dept of Eagles gets totally left for dead in an alley somewhere. Without doubt, now the most underrated album of 08.
I definitely think Okkervil River should be on the list. No doubt. Especially on the top singles list. I can’t believe Lost Coastlines isn’t on that. That is easily a top 10 single for me, if not higher.
Also, meh, I don’t think the Blitzen Trapper album is that noteworthy. It’s decent, but not really that interesting after a couple of listens. Kind of like Dr. Dog. Replay value is pretty low.
Oh, and I still think No Age sucks ass.
Vivian Girls at 16? Seriously Pitchfork, do you honestly think that album is that good? I mean it’s mediocre at best for me. (This has nothing to do with the blooming onion gate hatred, it’s just that they’ve always sucked for me)
The only surprise was Erykah Badu then everything else was expected.
I see this list and then I think of their UNFORGIVABLE omissions last year of The Besnard Lakes are the dark horse, Menomena’s Friend and Foe and The Twilight Sad’s Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters. Any of those albums could kick the shit out of most of this list!
I find James’ note on the review scores very interesting. Someone should search all these albums and post their original score here.
well blitzen trapper’s album got an 8.5 initially and you see where that got them.
Twilight Sad’s was 2007.
But yeah, it’s great.
Dodos and Dept. of Eagles should have easily been top 25. Fleet Foxes seems much to middlebrow to be number one. Solid but not exciting. After the last two number 1′s (Panda Bear and The Knife) I expected something that took a few more chances. Hell, Deerhunter would have been fine.
YES!!!! Thank you for making that comment about Vivian Girls. Absolutey atrocious to give this so much attention. I mean its some basic punk with a lot of reverb. C’mon!! There’s maybe a another list of 100 artist that could have been up there and not them. Way too high for a 30 minute mediocre album of some band that we don’t know if its gonna matter at all in the next three years. Stop it with the overhyping please!!!
I agree that the Vivian Girls album was overrated. I bought it on the strength of “Tell the World” (which I still think is a great song) and the P4K review, but was disappointed by how similar and uninspired all the other tracks sounded.
I was really really happy to see The Mae Shi so high on the list, definitely my album of the year. Dodo’s and why? on the honorable mentions list surprised me a lot though. I don’t think it’s doing a disservice to give moderately high reviews for an album and then end up placing it high on the list at the end of the year. The list was voted on by like 20 different contributors and obviously they’re going to have different opinions. As long as the original reviewer didn’t tear it apart I don’t see any inconsistencies
“No One Does It Like You” is a great song, one of the best of the year, but aside from that, the Dept. of Eagles album is booooooooooooring.
M83 and Crystal Castles should switch places. There’s an album by a Detroit group named Javelins (two dudes from Thunderbirds Are Now!) that should be on this list. Actually, a couple more Detroit records should be on here. Black Milk over Lil Wayne anyday. I actually think 08 was a great year for music.
fleet foxes suck and are boring.
and remember when you put no age on that believer mix a while back stosuy? because they were loud? now look what you’ve done.
A surprisingly conservative list
department of eagles’ in ear park had two good songs and the rest was mediocre and at some points flat-out sucked. that’s why they are not getting this recognition you think they deserve.
I believe that statement is, in fact, incorrect.
Department of Eagles sounded pretty much like Grizzly Bear to me, which takes off a bunch of points right off the bat. Beach House is a complete snooze fest as well. 2008: year of the excess. Either boring music or electro… ooopps, sorry. I meant to say new rave.
To add a positive comment. I’m happy for Gang Gang Dance.
New Rave was last year
Yeah, Nachtmystium definitely shoulda been on here Brandon. And Leviathan. And as pretty as Fleet Foxes is…I’m not seeing why everyone thinks it’s the BEST album of 2008. Like, THAT’S what you want to spend all of your time listening to when Gang Gang Dance put out “Saint Dymphna” in the same year? And Fennesz is God.
Vote next time!
i feel pretty comfortable w/this list.
yeah, honestly, when i look at the list as a whole, nothing really seems that farfetched at all. and besides, its their opinions…which might possibly deviate a tiny bit from ours. If anything, it was a nice overview of 2008
I’ve spied you at some shows. ****Swoon****
ur hot.
I was really surprised by no Plants and Animals. They gave it a really favorable review, and it’s a good album.
I’m surprised that Bon Iver did not make their list. Seems like everyone totally loves him….Is Bon Iver not cool now?
Bon Iver was on their top 50 list last year, because Vernon self-released it in 2007 before signing to Jagjaguwar.
This was a bad year for music? Really?
It’s been my favourite ever year.
It’s a decent list. Just surprised to see no Black Keys is all. “Attack and Release” will prove to be a turning point in an already great band’s career. Why no love?
many of the honorable mentions were “best new music” in their heyday. what gives?
Uhhhhhh…………….. retarded. They will regret this when we are selling waffle irons to “White Waffle Hymnal” in the next 3-4 months. But, I do like the EP more than the LP so it’s cool it’s on there….. but still…. I’m not happy about this…. not one bit…. I mean how could you be….. Good thing the next record is almost all written already or there would be some pretttty self important jams to contend with..
Sorry.
This is mainly toward commenter James, who said that a 7.1 or 7.8 is mediocre. It’s different weights, these scores are pretty solid, not mediocre. Yeah its a C if you’re in school, which is average, but it’s a different scale.
I have to disagree as well with those of you saying it wasn’t a great year in music. I have found plenty of tunes to listen to released this year. 2007 was an exceptional year, don’t get me wrong, but I think this year may be suffering from following such a good year. There was a lot to love about this year, in fact it’s the best I can remember for debuts. Tons of excellent ones.
And finally, make your own list! Don’t live and die by the Pitchfork or the Paste or the Slate or the Stone.
s u c k m y d i c k . /
Tough to argue with the list overall, but I think that Sigur Ros, Blitzen Trapper and most importantly Plants & Animals should have at least warranted a bloody honorable mention!
i’m not upset with pitchfork for making a lame list or anything (though i do think that fleet foxes are a little tame), because i understand why these lists look the way they do when you do ranked voting, i just wish artists like chad vangaalen, born ruffians and the ruby suns would get more attention.
and what happened to all the bloggers and critics that loved that first wilderness album a few years ago? this band keeps getting better and better and released a record this year that’s head and shoulders above anything they’ve ever done before and…. no response almost. fickle fickle.
I didn’t hate the Fleet Foxes record, it had its charms and all, but I still really don’t see the big deal. An album of pretty folk songs was the best album of the year, really? Iron and Wine does this same thing one trillion times better, and he never got half this much hype.
I think sometimes something just sounds refreshing when compared to what else gets released. I personally felt this way about FF and also do whenever the Decemberists or I&W release a record, and while you can categorize FF and I&W as folk, I don’t think they’re trying to do the same thing, nor do I think they sound alike.
I think you have to remember that this just means FF was a lot of people’s favorite record this year, and the frequency of them being mentioned doesn’t necessarily imply more importance than other artists. I mean my “favorite” in any list changes every day depending on how I feel. I guess that’s the best explanation I can think of.
I completely agree. It’s a pretty album don’t get me a wrong but that just doesn’t seem like a good enough reason for it to be number one.
So, there people out there that actually liked Hot Chip’s – Made in the Dark? I found it completely unlistenable.
Was I the only one who enjoyed Spiritualized this year? That was really the only glaring omission I found.
Making lists like these are hard. I think that all you can hope for is seeing great bands being put somewhere in the pile — and I think pitchfork did a pretty good job at that. Discussing and bickering about rankings/ratings is pretty futile — if the band you like gets mentioned (regardless where) it’s quite an accomplishment.
I hate to contribute to the usual “x band is missing, my world is ending” list comment fare, but am I the only person who still really likes Xiu Xiu’s Women as Lovers? I’m not losing sleep over it or anything, but it seems as though that album has been completely left behind.
plants and animals, blitzen trapper and the dodos monopolized my stereo this year, so it’s difficult to get behind a list that doesn’t include 2 and honorably mentions 1 of them.
surprising to me how predictable this list turns out to be. seems like 2008 marked some kind of turning point in the scene that p4k covers–it feels like the end of something.
The worst thing about Pitchfork is that everything else is worse.
Wolf Parade, Chad Van Gaalen
a 7.8 or 7.1 rating isn’t mediocre – it’s basically a 3.5/5 or a 4/5 from somewhere else. It’s not college: It makes no sense to have a 101-point scale yet have 60 of those be different ways of giving out a failing grade.
The Midwest is getting pummeled with snow, so an in effort to work on something at home I’ve taken the liberty of compiling a (loosely) definitive Top 50 albums for 2008 list. It’s comprised of the following published results:
Pitchfork
Pitchfork Readers
Rolling Stone
Spin
PASTE
Blender
NME
Q
Uncut
Mojo
the Gummies
I determined overall ranks based on a) number of total list appearances and b) average ranking. The results may satisfy, surprise or just plain piss you off further.
1 TV On The Radio – Dear Science
2 Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
3 Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend
4 Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago
5 Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
6 Hot Chip – Made in the Dark
7 Portishead – Third
8 Lil Wayne – Tha Carter III
9 MGMT – Oracular Spectacular
10 The Hold Steady – Stay Positive
11 Santogold – Santogold
12 Beck – Modern Guilt
13 My Morning Jacket – Evil Urges
14 Deerhunter – Microcastle
15 Sigur Rós – Med sud i eyrum vid spilum endalaust
16 Girl Talk – Feed the Animals
17 Kings of Leon – Only By The Night
18 Coldplay – Viva La Vida
19 No Age – Nouns
20 Metallica – Death Magnetic
21 Lykke Li – Youth Novels
22 Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid
23 Erykah Badu – New Amerykah Part One (4th World War)
24 Of Montreal – Skeletal Lamping
25 Randy Newman – Harps and Angels
26 M83 – Saturdays = Youth
27 The Raconteurs – Consolers of the Lonely
28 Glasvegas – Glasvegas
29 Fucked Up – The Chemistry of Common Life
30 Okkervil River – The Stand Ins
31 Death Cab For Cutie – Narrow Stairs
32 The Walkmen – You & Me
33 Lucinda Williams – Little Honey
34 Duffy – Rockferry
35 Crystal Castles – Crystal Castles
36 Conor Oberst – Conor Oberst
37 Hercules & Love Affair – Hercules & Love Affair
38 Jenny Lewis – Acid Tongue
39 The Black Keys – Attack & Release
40 Oasis – Dig Out Your Soul
41 R.E.M. – Accelerate
42 Cut Copy – In Ghost Colours
43 Paul Weller – 22 Dreams
44 Neon Neon – Stainless Style
45 British Sea Power – Do You Like Rock Music?
46 Wolf Parade – At Mount Zoomer
47 Goldfrapp – Seventh Tree
48 Stephen Malkmus – Real Emotional Trash
49 Frightened Rabbit – Midnight Organ Fight
50 Fuck Buttons – Street Horrrsing
The good news? Okkervil River made the list. The bad? Both Metallica and Randy Newman apparently made better records.
If you go to acclaimedmusic.net you can see every 2008 list compiled together to form a consensus Best Of List. They include the publications you mentioned plus several others. Currently the Top 10 is-
1. Fleet Foxes
2. TV on the Radio
3. Portishead
4. Vampire Weekend
5. Bon Iver
6. MGMT
7. Santogold
8. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
9. Elbow
10. Deerhunter
Thanks for the heads up-I’ll check it out
You can also compare over at Metacritic. They have a Top 30 based on their average scores system and also the Top 10 of a bunch of publications.
http://www.metacritic.com/music/bests/2008.shtml
These are the rankings based on those list and their places. They’ve all got at least 1 number one vote.
1. Fleet Foxes by Fleet Foxes
2. Third by Portishead
3. Dear Science, by TV On The Radio
4. Only By The Night by Kings of Leon
5. Tha Carter III by Lil Wayne
6. For Emma, Forever Ago by Bon Iver
7. The Seldom Seen Kid by Elbow
8. Saturdays=Youth by M83
9. Microcastle by Deerhunter
10. London Zoo by The Bug
11. Oracular Spectacular by MGMT
12. Volume One by She & Him
The new Randy Newman is actually pretty good; I wouldn’t knock it.
If hip-hop just isn’t your thing, then I completely understand the backlash to Lil Wayne, but if you do love hip-hop and you don’t understand why he’s so much better than other rappers, I feel like you’re not really paying attention. It’s not what he raps about that’s amazing, because he goes into the same subject matter other rappers do, but it’s his wordplay and how he says things that’s at worst creative and at best brilliant.
50 Cent also doesn’t understand Lil Wayne’s success.
I would disagree. If you like Lil Wayne, that’s cool; and I’m a big hip hop fan, but I really don’t get it. I mean, even time picked a Milli as their second best song of the year? the lyrics are utterly terrible, no joke. there is much better hip hop, especially for indie kids. his wordplay still just sounds like the guy who said “drop it like it’s hot.” And maybe it’s cause I”m a little older (27) but this bling bling bs he helped start is almost 10 years old. It’s really getting old. The only interesting song I personally have heard on this album is that I’m a martian song, and even that just sounds like a kool keith rip off, who did it better almost 10 years ago (if not more).
i still dont understand how Alopecia didnt place higher
“Dear Science” was better than “In Ghost Colours.”
This is what happens in a year without an Animal Collective LP. Pitchfork gets depressed.
Did no one listen to the Conor Oberst album?
yeah, if he wasn’t “the dude from bright eyes” and this was his first album to hit the radar people would be amazed at the lyrical content and he would have garnered much more positive attention. The fact that we have gone through the furious hype and the inevitable backlash already leaves the indie music crowd largely “meh” about his current projects, regardless of quality.
That album was SO much better than I expected.
I shockingly conservative list, especially by Pitchfork’s standards. It was just a brain-meltingly good year for metal and even though it doesn’t register on any other lists I was holding out hope for Pitchfork to buck the trend (which is what their lists in the past have been pretty good at, bucking the trend). I thought “At least that Brandon guy writes for Pitchfork and will give bands like Torche, Nachmystium and Disfear a lift,” but when I saw Torche and Harvey Milk on the HM list, I knew something wasn’t right.
I don’t get too upset with the placement of certain albums – I really loved the new Bonnie “Prince” Billy and Marnie Stern albums, P4K only kind of loved them, no big whoop, but I go to Pitchfork for a fresh take and despite some relative snubs to TVOTR and Lil Wayne, and actually giving deserved props to the infinitely superior Fleet Foxes EP, this one felt a little samey to me.
I’ll admit I have a bias for guitar based music (Torche, Harvey Milk, Black Mountain, Marnie Stern and Blitzen Trapper would likely be in my top 10), it seems like Pitchfork is backlashing ever so slightly against rock and instead has gone the way of electro, which is fine, but try as I might, and I do, there’s something about the likes of Lindstrom and Cut Copy that I just can’t enjoy. Someone explain the appeal.
FRENCH KICKS’S SWIMMING. MOST UNDERRATED ALBUM OF THE YEAR??????
nah, it sucked.
What happened to Apes & Androids? How did this album not blow up?
Thank you. Agreed.
so far i have disagreed with every album that has placed #1 on any list all year. however, i don’t t hink i have a personal favourite album of the year. not that there weren’t alot of wonderful albums i thoroughly enjoyed this year: i’ve been obsessessively listening to the hercules & love affair, white denim, no age and beach house albums since i first heard them. only one song on the fleet foxes album really blew me away, same goes for tv on the radio. maybe i just haven’t heard it yet, but i don’t think there IS an album of the year this year.
Vampire Weekend deserved album of the year imo. I’ll admit that I didn’t listen to over half of the albums on that top 100 list, but out of what I did listen to Vampire Weekend blew me away the most and 11 months later I can still listen to that album in its entirety. But I think it would have been too obvious of a pick…I really like the Fleet Foxes, but I think their EP was better than their album. Oh well.
Are you honestly going to tell me that Tha Carter III was better than ALL those albums before it?
Tha Carter III should have been in the top 10. If you don’t like hip-hop in general, I can understand the backlash, but Tha Carter III was easily the most interesting hip-hop album in years.
No, no it wasn’t. Lyrically, it was interesting. Musically, it was inane and boring save for a few songs.
No, no, no. The Carter III is by no means the most interesting rap in years–it is the most interesting rap album by a commercial artist since Kanye’s second album and Common’s Be, but it wasn’t even the best rap album this year–that the Cool Kids EP The Bake Sale.
Lil Wayne’s record is a lot the first Gwen Stefani solo album: totally commercial, completely overrated, and an album’s worth of the emperor’s new clothes. I say he’s naked.
I’m surprised that the Kills’ Midnight Boom failed to crack any list. There are a lot of super-catchy songs on that album.
however, 2009 is looking to be so good! grizzly bear and animal collective AAAGHH!
Where is Spiritualized? Not even an honorable mention? I don’t get it. The album comes out to much anticipation, it blows everyone away, PF gives it an 8.4, saying it’s their best work in 10 years, but somehow omits the album from not only the top 50, but from even getting an honorable mention?
And am I the only one who thinks that the Evangelicals record, The Evening Descends, is one of the best of the year? With the an unfortunate January release date, it managed to stay afloat above all else all year for me, earning the top spot in my abums of the year.
Also, no Elbow? Auburn Lull put out a pretty solid record this year. All in all, a very sketchy list.
dude, I totally agree on the evangelicals comment. I at least expected to see Skeleton Man on the top 100 tracks list.
Stop whining about Alopecia, please. Seriously! I haven’t heard it, although I would like to, but I just don’t see why it matters so much if Pitchfork leaves it off the list. Ok, yeah, being mentioned on their list definitely can help an album out a lot, but isn’t it more satisfying to love an album that Pitchfork doesn’t give any notice to? In a way, I think it is.
In response to the comments that 2008 was a “bad year for music”: I just think that is blind. Seriously? I really think that there was so much music put out this year that you can’t really make that claim. I am sure there are albums from this year you will discover down the line that are amazing. A more accurate statement would perhaps be: the music on end of the year lists in 2008 isn’t all that great. I mean, honestly, yeah, fucking Metallica and Guns N Roses both made multiple lists, so on that front I agree.
“Stop whining about Alopecia, please. Seriously! I haven’t heard it, although I would like to, but I just don’t see why it matters ”
——-
well maybe if you listened to it, you would see why…..
while we’re ragging…
“In response to the comments that 2008 was a “bad year for music”: I just think that is blind.”
seems to me that it would be more deaf than blind. and i’ve said it once before, but has nobody listened to delta spirit? i mean, i suppose it’s a little on the alt-country side, but good music is good music. it’s easily in my top three for the year, and i strongly recommend you give them a listen.
Though I’m not at all surprised it didn’t make any lists, but did anybody hear Beaujolais “Love At Thirty”? It’s probably my favorite album of the year, but it hardly got any media coverage. It’s on Parasol records (which also houses Hidden Agenda and a few other labels), which is a great label, but a lot of their stuff tends to slip under the radar.
Fleet Foxes? Really? I mean, I like the album… but the BEST thing from this year? Also, I’m not sure if I agree lumping Sun Giant and the full-length together. They weren’t originally released as a single package, regardless of the “two-sides of the same coin” argument.
I gotta say that In Ear Park, Alopecia and Women’s s/t debut should have been way higher than Honorable Mention too.
I have to say Portland’s psych-folk trio Horsefeathers and Thee Silver Mt. Zion Band who put out the best post-rock album since Sigur Ros’s Takk have been left off of every list I’ve seen. I had to check to make sure they came out this year. Would’ve liked to seen The Dodos, Plants and Animals, Born Ruffians and even The Black Keys hit the top 50.
In Ear Park and Alopecia are miles better than the records by Max Tundra, Los Campesinos, Times New Viking, Ponytail, Crystal Stilts, High Places, Titus Andronicus, The Mae Shi, Vivian Girls, etc.
For me, many of those records are good (Titus Andronicus, Crystal Stilts), and many are hardly listenable (Times New Viking, Ponytail). But all in all, none of them touch the intrigue of Alopecia or the timelessness of In Ear Park, which were relegated to “honorable mention” status.
List is ok, with two major omissions. Elbow and Chad Van Gaalen. Van Gaalen’s new album is unreal. I cannot stop myself from clicking forward to him on any mix I have. City of Electric Light is my choice for song of the year. Also, Elbow is so underrated. Finally, where the fuck are the Foals on ANY list?
I’m glad Of Montreal didn’t make the list. That album is ridiculous. And I’m slowly admitting to myself that I might be the only one who thinks the Islands had the best album of the year.
You have bad taste.
Islands equals number two album of the year for me guy.
No Coldplay! No Guns N’ Roses! No Oasis! Shiiiiiit. This list sucks.
god, pitchfork has gotten so terrible over the last couple of years. and yes, everyone who said that 2008 was a pretty bad year for music is correct. and yes, this list is pretty asinie. regardless of the hype, even the most ardent advocates of the fleet foxes album cannot justify it being a #1 album, let alone a top 10. they are boring and lack any pop sensibility whatsoever. pitchfork has gotten to the point where i am not even convinced they like the albums that they rate so highly. they give high ratings and accolades to bands only that are 1) unlistenable 2) havent been hyped by another source first or 3) again, unlistenable. the amount of tripe that they go on about is hilarious. completely stupid comparisons, an embarassing ignorance while simultaneously trying to be smug…the writers and reviewers are a total joke. they like bands that sound like 15th century, scandinavian, minimalist house. i am sure people dont care about what albums i liked and didnt like, but pitchfork needs to stop caring so much about people think of their list and just put what albums were actually good…not which ones would make them look more diverse or interesting.
but i have to say, frightened rabbit put out the best pop record of the year, hands down. tv on the radio released their weakest album yet and i wouldnt include it in a top 50. the fact that alopecia isnt on the top 50, yet vivian girls is so high, as well as the inclusion of high places, girl talk, and the new beach house just makes me want to vomit. i dont dislike those bands and think each of them released albums that were OK, but the fact that were rated better than things like Women, Alopecia, and Midnight Organ Fight is hilarious. they did do well to include underrated albums like Titus Andronicus and Lykkie Li, but god damn did they overrate a bunch of crap. the new walkmen album wasnt even better than their previous debaucle.
That’s just an angry rant. I don’t see an argument. I see vague adjectives like “unlistenable” which usually just mask a lack of musical knowledge to try and make opinions sound like facts. Then you just name records you liked but don’t really say why. I’m not saying I have the musical knowledge to back up my tastes, but I’m also not complaining about the list.
That said, you do listen to good music, but chill out about what you don’t like. If you hate Pitchfork so much, why do you care that they validate your tastes? Just enjoy what you like and forget about the critics if they get you worked up. There’s no reason to waste your time being angry. If all your favorite bands were at the top of everyone’s list, they’d become millionaires with tons of annoying fans you would have to put up with at their shows.
Frightened Rabbits? HA. You’re a fucking joke. the first song on that album is the only track that doesnt sound like counting crows lite. and I thought the Counting crows were the worst band ever, so what does that make them?
And Black Mountain gets snubbed again……
I am so sick of this electronic bullshit ranking when albums as brilliant as In the Future are forgotten.
Thank God somebody finally put Grouper on a list. And the amount hate for Pitchfork just goes to show that it’s gotten to the point where it’s “cool” to hate the website. People who accuse Pitchfork of being hipster-ish and boring are usually the ones who are condescending hipsters themselves
Scores By Rank (Top 25)
1 – 9.0
2 – 8.8
3 – 9.2
4 – 8.8
5 – 9.2
6 – 9.2
7 – 8.8
8 – 8.5
9 – 9.1
10 – 8.8
11 – 8.7
12 – 8.6
13 – 7.8
14 – 8.6
15 – 7.8
16 – 8.5
17 – 8.8
18 – 8.1
19 – 8.5
20 – 8.6
21 – 7.6
22 – 7.1
23 – 7.0
24 – 8.5
25 – 8.5
Mean Score: 8.5
Median Score: 8.6
Highest Scoring (9.2): #3 No Age, #5 Deerhunter, #6 TV on the Radio
Lowest Scoring (7.0): #23 Hot Chip
… if anyone cares
Shh… the Pitchfork staff will totally knock you down the next time they see you in the hallway, as in, that accidental elbow shove– they’ll say sorry but not really mean it.
One would think a “Top 50″ list would have some semblance of criteria originating from it’s own publication.
second best list so far:
the fleet foxes are boring
tv on the radio’s album is overrated
so is no age
but cheer up snobs, it was another good year in music
my list:
freeshitchristmas.blogspot.com
The Fleet Foxes is a truly great album. A modern American classic, sorry haters.
Most underrated album this year is easily Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks.
Nice double post douche bag.
Truckasaurus?
truckasaurus is awesome.
REALLY?? my favorite records are not in the top 25? REALLY??? And all those records in the bottom, and those few in the top? REALLY?!? IMHO, my tastes are the absolute best and this list is insulting to me.
3 great records, a couple of decent ones and a ton of crap.
- Pretty decent list, one of the best so far.
- The one album I’ve heard that I would take off is the Hot Chip. It was so mediocre. It can’t sniff The Warning’s jock.
- Nice to see TVOTR outside the top 5. Cookie Mt. is better.
- No Age? It’s a good album, but I’d switch it with Titus Andronicus. That’s a great album.
- Surprise snub: Stephen Malkmus? I thought it’d be there.
- Sorely missed: three words – BLACK MILK. TRONIC.
” In a time when other populist groups like Spoon, Arcade Fire, and the Hold Steady– potential radio staples at certain points in rock history — have commercial ceilings somewhere between “an appearance on ‘SNL’” and “gold record,” I can’t find myself rooting against Vampire Weekend’s relative success.
Anywhere near a gold record is probably too optimistic, but point well taken.”
I think the quote above is very sad all three bands spoon, hold steady, and arcade fire deserve to sell more records.
I also wonder how many people complaining about certain records have actually bought the record. This is a problem and I think records will get worse and worse as long as we don’t all support good bands.
Just a thought
A confusing conclusion to a year of tremendously confusing year-end lists. Isn’t there one publication out there who has any interest in rock music? Hold Steady, Black Keys, and Raconteurs were robbed this year. All fantastic albums, and only the Hold Steady cracked any top tens. Disgraceful.
where is imperial wax solvent? nuber one
Vampire Weekend should be #1.
Besides three or four decent-to-great songs, “Alopecia” grates.
I really dug the write-up they gave VW, especially:
“They went to an Ivy League school but is that actually a negative anywhere outside a Sarah Palin rally?”
As much flack as Pitchfork gets, much of it deserved, you’ve got to admit that these guys can write about music and occasionally pull out a legitimate insight. Plagenhoef’s comment in the Cut Copy review is just spot on:
“A corrective, then, that would improve most year-end lists and give In Ghost Colours the profile it deserves: “Time to Pretend” excepted, replace all appearances of “MGMT” with “Cut Copy.”"
Bravo.
(Fight the sarcasm…fight it…I…I…I can’t, I’m too weak) It’s good to see a relative unknown hip hop artist like Lil Wayne finally get some recognition. When will Clear Channel get their heads out of their asses and give this fresh talent some air time? Not many artists have the guts to compare savoring candy with oral sex. I’m going to risk my popularity with affluent white suburbanite High Schoolers and make it my ringtone. Kudos Pitchfork!
Born Ruffians should have made it onto this list, they had a better album then a lot of the bands on there and pitchfork gave them a positive review
Noah And The Whale, Dodos, Foals, Blitzen Trapper, & Wolf Parade should all be on there somewhere…
I think someone at Pfork is dating a Vivian Girl — how else can a band this mediocre get that much cred?
Disappointed Plants and Animals, Blitzen Trapper, and Women wasn’t there. LIndstrom is wayyy overrated, as is DJ rupture. How about Deadmau5 for electronica? Not weird and scary or slow and fruity enough I guess.
Exclaim magazine had a pretty good top 20 by genre. Better than PF’s.
Aimee Mann’s latest deserved a spot somewhere in the top 100. That album was awesome.
Yeah, I thought that album was great! Definitely in my personal top 10, but it seemed to get panned by a lot of people. I’d say True Believers is probably one of her best tracks to date.
Yay! I’m glad somebody agrees with me! I honestly thought it was the best album of her career. Bachelor No. 2 was on a bunch of top 10 lists the year it came out, largely due in part to her songs being featured in Magnolia and all the hype she received that year. But !@$% Smilers trumps it easily imo. I guess she’s not the in thing anymore, but she deserves a spot somewhere on those year end lists.
eh
Did P4K forget about Burial too? The dude was a Best New Music inductee and he doesn’t even get a honorable mention. What gives?
I lost a bet because I seriously thought Deerhunter was going to be number one, but I guess I underestimated the power of flannel and beards.
Burial came out in 2007. It made 2007′s top ten for Pitchfork.
I thought the list was pretty fair this year. I would have added the three Canadian bands, Born Ruffians, Plants and Animals and Wolf Parade in the top 25 for sure. I felt Cut Copy had the best album of the year.
I don’t know about Cut Copy…and that comment about MGMT. To me, MGMT had a more original record than Cut Copy. It was good, but most of the time felt like pastiche to me. No HUGE hooks like MGMT, very little crossover appeal (not that you should rate an album on that). I guess it’s a taste thing, and that can go for a lot of the electro artists on the list. Para mi.
I think the most interesting thing about this list is that Fleet Foxes didn’t get one #1 vote by any writer at Pitchfork… And thats pretty much how they ended up on top.. They were on almost all of them, but no one picked it as their favorite…
THis year didn’t have one or two albums that everyone thought was the best.. Last year it was LCD and Panda, but this year, everyone had their own favorite..
When Pitchfork does their best of the decade list I think you;ll definately find Fleet Foxes very close to the Bottom.. I thought it was fine and all like most of their writers seemed too, but I can’t imagine anyone besides the people who only listen to that kind of shit, listening to it much after this year…
I also am shocked that El Guincho and The Ruby Suns got snubbed… It probably has a lot to do with their current staff.. They seem to have a lot of SPecialty writers on board… And they fuck everything up by putting 23 rap or metal records on their list and then throwing on Fleet Foxes or Vampire Weekend.
this list is seriously lacking. In the electronic area, Made in the Dark was better than Hercules and M83. It’s just that the innovation that came with Hercules and Love Affair, sparked something that was very intriguing and worthy of it’s spot. So all those knocking Hot Chip, should realize, if this was a debut album from the British boys, it would be higher on the list. With M83. That album was just boring after the first 5 tracks. Don’t get my wrong, I love(!) Kim and Jessie, and Graveyard Girl is nice also. But, the album doesn’t hold water. I’m sorry. Girl Talk is fine where it’s at I guess. I never know how to approach Girl Talk when rating it, it’s purely a party mix.
I’d just like to state my OUTRAGE at the placing Devotion. That is a great sophomore album and deserves to be where No Age is, and vice versa. I’m kind of sick of all the hype from No Age, they aren’t doing anything great. Eraser is a fine song, Errand Boy is nice, and Sleeper Hold is my good. But Nouns isn’t pivotal or whatever Pitchfork and the rest of the indie-world perceives it to be. Also, where the fuck is RA RA RIOT on any list out there? Again, where the FUCK is RA RA RIOT! The Rhumb Line was a magnificent album and I heard the live NPR performance and the songs sound fantastic on stage.
whatever. lists don’t matter, music is music. i know what’s on my iPod and it’s all good.
ps. parc avenue-plants and animals // arms way-islands // re-arrange us-mates of state // attack and release-the black keys // antidotes-foals // great year for music, bad year for lists.
Oh yeah and Hot Chip was better than Cut Copy
hehehehehe