Best of 2004: Pitchfork
Submitted by sleestak on Wed, 12/22/2004 - 12:18
Tags:
- Arcade Fire, Funeral*
- Animal Collective, Sung Tongs
- The Streets, A Grand Don't Come for Free*
- The Fiery Furnaces, Blueberry Boat*
- Brian Wilson, SMiLE*
- Madvillain, Madvillainy*
- Devendra Banhart, Rejoicing in the Hands
- The Go! Team, Thunder Lightning Strike
- Ghostface, The Pretty Toney Album
- Joanna Newsome, The Milk-Eyed Mender
- Sonic Youth, Sonic Nurse
- M.I.A./Diplo, Piracy Funds Terrorism, Vol. 1
- Dungen, Ta Det Lugnt
- Erlend Øye, DJ-Kicks
- Annie, Anniemal
- Dizzie Rascal, Showtime
- Sufjan Stevens, Seven Swans*
- Kanye West, The College Dropout
- Björk, Medulla*
- Air, Talkie Walkie
- Fennesz, Venice
- The Foreign Exchange, Connected
- Modest Mouse, Good News for People Who Like Bad News*
- TV on the Radio, Desperate Youth, Bloodthristy Babes*
- Various Artists, DFA Compilation #2
- Franz Ferdinand (s/t)*
- Interpol, Antics*
- Junior Boys, Last Exit
- A.C. Newman, The Slow Wonder*
- William Basinski, The Disintegration Loops
- De La Soul, The Grind Date
- Califone, Heron King Blues
- The Futureheads (s/t)*
- Espers (s/t)
- Mirah, C'mon Miracle
- Excepter, KA
- Jóhann Jóhannsson, Virðulegu forsetar
- Morrissey, You Are the Quarry
- Cee-Lo, Cee-Lo Green is a Soul Machine
- The Walkmen, Bows + Arrows*
- Les Savy Fav, Inches*
- DJ/Rupture, Special Gunpowder
- Scissor Sisters (s/t)*
- Camera Obscura, Underachievers Please Try Harder*
- The Concretes (s/t)
- Iron & Wine, Our Endless Numbered Days
- Comets on Fire, Blue Cathedral
- Loretta Lynn, Van Lear Rose*
- Max Richter, The Blue Notebooks
- Xiu Xiu, Fabulous Muscles
Author Comments:
Pitchfork's Picks for Best of 2004
I have the starred albums. Would like to further investigate:
Devendra Banhart, Rejoicing in the Hands
The Go! Team, Thunder Lightning Strike
Sonic Youth, Sonic Nurse
Dungen, Ta Det Lugnt
Junior Boys, Last Exit
William Basinski, The Disintegration Loops
De La Soul, The Grind Date
Califone, Heron King Blues
The Concretes (s/t)
Iron & Wine, Our Endless Numbered Days
Comets on Fire, Blue Cathedral
Max Richter, The Blue Notebooks
Xiu Xiu, Fabulous Muscles
Mirah, C'mon Miracle
For the first time, I've heard most of the albums on their list (28 out of 50), and I must say that while the ranking is off, they've done a good job.
Putting Modest Mouse ahead of The Walkmen and Franz Ferdinand makes them A-OK in my book.
28/50 is an excellent track record! I agree that many albums were placed lower than where I would have put them, but it was still reassuring to see them make the list. As per normal, there were a few too many "look how cool we are to include this import experimental techno album". Some of the omissions - notably Elliot Smith and Mission of Burma - were pretty surprising.
(And psst...I have three of the albums on your wish list if you're ever interested in a swap.)
I have eight on yours...this could be fruitful!
Oooh, I only counted the ones I have actual CDs. If you include the ones that I got from emusic (or, uh, other means) the count goes to eight!
Blonde Redhead - Misery is a Butterfly
Camera Obscura - Underachievers Please Try Harder
The Hot Snakes - Audit in Progress
The Liars - They Were Wrong So We Drowned
Mission of Burma - OnOffOn
Namelessnumberheadman - Your Voice Repeating
Tilly and the Wall - Wild Like Children
The Futureheads - The Futureheads
The only caveat is that I just ordered the Camera Obscura album from Merge, so it'll be a couple of weeks before it gets here.
(You might be interested in hearing that Merge is currently running a "bundle" special in which you can buy both Lambchop CDs you're after for $20 postpaid! I bought both CO albums as well as two David Kilgour during the sale, which goes until the end of the year.)
I was pretty shocked that they did that. The Walkmen's album was the biggest surprise of the list. I was expecting top 5 or along those lines. I heard alot of full albums as well as bits and pieces of most of the list and I thought the ordering was wierd. Van Lear Rose is obviously a better album than Ghostface, or whoever. Also, I personally loath Blueberry Boat, as you may already know. Atleast thay got #1 right.
VLR definitely got shafted, and I agree that Blueberry Boat was ranked way too high. (And I like that album!) I'm guessing that Ghostface ranked that highly so that PF could differentiate themself from other lists who are bound to have Kanye West, Dizzie Rascal, or Cee-Lo as one of the hip-hop albums in their Top Ten. (Seeing how Madvillain deserves to be on EVERYONE'S list.)
Actually, I have a lot of friends over at OscarWatch who have loved Ghostface's album since it came out. Having given it a partial listen, it's actually a very, very good album.
Not a lot of surpirses, huh? I did think that Van Lear Rose would finish higher, but all the usual suspects ranked about where I thought they would.
I'm mildly ashamed to say I have many of the records they listed, and many of the records rank among my favourites as well.
No shame necessary. Too many people (esp. at Fametracker) are slagging this year as a horrible one for music, but there have been way too many incredible albums released for me to buy that. I think for all their pretentiousness, Pitchfork usually gets it right.
Another great source is Metacritic which compiles reviews and assigns a weighted-average composite rating to albums. Going through their high scores reminded me that PF also failed to include Ted Leo, Mclusky, and John Cale. Strange.
Pitchfork may, at times, be really pretentious, but I think that, overall, they have a pretty good sense of music.
I sometimes feel weird when I agree with them so much, but I guess my tastes are just similar to theirs.