Pitchfork’s P2K: The Top 200 Albums of the 2000s
Today Pitchfork wrapped it’s wind down of the best of the 2000′s by crowning Radiohead’s Kid A as the greatest album of our soon ending decade. I’m not really going to argue that, since I’ve accepted that everyone loves Radiohead except for me. Unlike the P2k: Top 500 Tracks or the P2k: Top 50 Videos of the 2000′s this is a much tighter and well thought out list.
There were a few shocking things like Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion (#15) not being the #1 album of the decade. Being this was Pitchfork I all but assumed that Mr. 9.6 was a lock for #1. But then again I forgot that Kid A (#1) existed, let alone was released this decade! I’m sure that will all be rectified once Pitchfork’s Best Albums of 2009 comes out later this year and MPP can claim #1 on that list. I was also surprised to see The Stroke’s Is This It (#7) was rated as high as it was (not that I’m complaining).
Once again no Metal made the list… well besides Pitchfork’s usual token nod to Mastodon’s Leviathan (#126). Not to take anything away from Leviathan but Crack the Skye, released this year is the better Mastodon album. There weren’t any really surprising omissions, besides those scenes/albums Pitchfork usually ignores or deems below their calling.
I was however shocked to see that A.C. Newman’s The Slow Wonder didn’t make the list. One of my favorite albums of this decade, and an album Pitchfork raved over back in 2004. I’m not sure if they felt they only had room for one A.C. Newman project on their list, but The New Pornographers’ Mass Romantic (#91) is in no way better than Newman’s solo debut. And judging by their own review Pitchfork seems to feel the same? Huh? Anyway, there’s my 2 cents!
- My Pal the Crook
October 2nd, 2009 at 11:14 am
Your Radiohead is my Animal Collective Crook. 100%
October 2nd, 2009 at 11:16 am
After reading scores of these “Best of the Decade” lists, I’ve come to terms with the fact that apparently no one besides me considered New Order’s “Get Ready” (2001) a worthy contender. True it’s not the classic New Order sound, and it isn’t competition for their earlier material, but at face value it’s a great transition of everything they embody in the form of, in my opinion, one of the decade’s best rock albums.
Was surprised to see the Avalanches on the P4K list, nice little unexpected addition and a great release.
October 2nd, 2009 at 11:20 am
The Avalanches were critical darlings way back when. And not that I thought that that New Order album was that great but Pitchfork has some bias against Synthpop. “Violater” isn’t on their best albums of the 90s list. In fact there isn’t a single Depeche Mode album on their best albums of the 80s list!
October 2nd, 2009 at 11:57 am
The Avalanches album absolutely belongs on the list! Still holds up great today.
The rest of the list can go fuck itself (not that I read it) simply because I have a bias against Pitchfork due to their bias for everything I consider lame.
October 2nd, 2009 at 12:02 pm
Okay, apologies, I’m cranky. I just read the top 10 and it seemed pretty fair. But whatever, Pitchfork’s still full of assholes.
October 2nd, 2009 at 12:09 pm
Major oversight leaving off Aphex Twin’s Drukqs!
October 2nd, 2009 at 12:24 pm
re: P4K’s bias against Synthpop. Definitely.
And for a site that writes about “indie” music they seem to also not give two shits about indie hip-hop, which is a shame.
Quasimoto’s “The Unseen” should be on this list.
October 2nd, 2009 at 1:25 pm
@My Pal the Crook: “In fact there isn’t a single Depeche Mode album on their best albums of the 80s list!” Then are they even worth discussing? Wouldn’t that just make them the Urban Outfitters of music?
October 2nd, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Pitchfork has a place and does some great things. They’ve just been grossly irresponsible as the voice of music journalism since usurping Spin and Rolling Stone. More so than any of those other places they tend to have a transparent agenda and love to tear down bands that have managed to be built up without them.
I just really feel that at the level that they’ve hit, some of these personal bias’ towards certain genres and bands need to take a backseat for a more populist coverage to music as a whole. They’ve managed to establish themselves as (and you the term loosely) “Authority” for music coverage over the course of this decade, but won’t then give equal coverage or weight to all the great (and shitty things) being done in scenes that seemingly do not interest them. That sort of attitude was fine when they were a smaller indie based site/blog… Actually back then it was really refreshing to find a site so professional that really covered and understood Indie Rock. But they’re now a major media source and that sort of thing just doesn’t sit well with me.
For example: This has been a fantastic decade for Metal & Dance music, but you wouldn’t really know it from the way Pitchfork covers things.
October 2nd, 2009 at 7:01 pm
I’m confused as to how Fabulous Muscles by Xiu Xiu got a 9.0 in 2004, and Supreme Clientele by Ghostface Killah didn’t even get a review… yet Supreme Clientele made the top 20 and Xiu Xiu didn’t even make the list. Get Wet by Andrew W.K. (originally given an 0.6) made the list… Rooty by Basement Jaxx (3.8) made the top 50? Then again, in the to 100 of the 90s, Little Earthquakes by Tori Amos originally made the top 10 before it was removed from the list entirely… Also, no Labor Days by Aesop Rock???????????????????????????????????????????
October 2nd, 2009 at 8:31 pm
Revisionist history. Thanks for pointing ALL of that out. I had no clue about any of that but it isn’t surprising.
Also I hate Xiu Xiu.
October 2nd, 2009 at 8:38 pm
John Vincent,
You’re correct to question these things. As a pitchfork reader for around 7 or 8 years I have the answer.
The reason that an album may be reviewed as a 0.6 and then included in a list of the best albums of the decade is because…
One pitchfork writer reviews an album and then writes a review. If that writer does not like the album she/he is free to give it whatever the fuck they want.
Therefore, an album may get 0.0 as a review, but may be regarded on the whole as a seminal album by the staff.
You feel me mother-fucker?
October 2nd, 2009 at 8:55 pm
My Pal the Crook can you please explain to me how Spoon got so many albums on that list. I FUCKING HATE SPOON, WHAT THE FUCK WHERE IS BORIS PINK OR HARVEY MILK OR FUCKED UP. ONE RAP ALBUM THAT DESERVES TO BE ON THAT LIST IS THE SLIM THUG RECORD. ALSO CUT COPY TOO HIGH, THEY LICK COCK. ALSO HOT SNAKES AND PRETTY GIRLS MAKE GRAVES NEED TO BE ON THAT LIST.
October 2nd, 2009 at 10:27 pm
Hand Shandy: I get that it’s one reviewers opinion that the rest of the staff may not agree with. But it’s at that point that the Editorial staff either jump in be like “Well wait… the consensus here as a whole is that we don’t agree with you review.”
I let the reviewers on the Blog post their own opinions but in the handful of instances where I didn’t agree, I say so. And when we make our best of 2009 list, I’ll even point out such division.
As for Spoon: I’ve always enjoyed Spoon, but found them an utterly forgettable band after their records would end. I’m not sure how or why they became such critical darlings… the only thing I could surmise is that they don’t do anything too over the edge to be divisive, yet hug the fringes perfectly to gather attention.
October 3rd, 2009 at 12:28 am
oh man, i’m so down with pitchfork’s revisionist history, and wish they did more of it, especially by not having to hold fast to the acts they deem really pitchforky (radiohead, animal collective, arcade fire). at least clap your hands say yeah didn’t make the list… that would have been quite the travesty.
but yeah. i am glad they acknowledged the fact that dorky reviewers that wrote for them at one point don’t necessarily dictate the site’s perspective on an album. i love their turnaround on basement jaxx – they’ve come a long way since the days of reviews like this, which have been subtly deleted from the site:
http://web.archive.org/web/20040421093112/www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/b/basement-jaxx/remedy.shtml
my additions to the list:
young jeezy – let’s get it: thug motivation 101 (WAY too much clipse on this list… they’re fine but NOT THE ONLY COKE RAPPERS JEEZ.)
dj /rupture – gold teeth thief
rjd2 – deadringer
brian wilson – smile
tv on the radio – desperate youth blood thirsty babes (instead of dear science which was subpar)
also, big yes to the unseen, small yes to get ready.
February 27th, 2010 at 12:49 pm
Where is the Mars Volta?????? Were they even on there??