Pitchfork's Top 50 Albums of 2007
 

 

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10. Burial - Untrue
9. The Field - From Here We Go Sublime
8. Battles - Mirrored
7. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
6. Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
5. Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
4. Radiohead - In Rainbows
3. M.I.A - Kala
2. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
1. Panda Bear - Person Pitch

...

yes
yes
yes
meh
yes
no
meh
yes
meh
yes

Although I like Kala, I don't think it would be in that place. There were better releases than that. I looked through all of the list and yeah not many appealed to me.

Once again, The First Original Silence is nowhere to be found. And the irony is thick with this list considering it's from Pitchfork and a lot of their top fifty picks did not merit an eight or more out of ten when they were reviewed in the online magazine.

repost:
It's astonishing to me that every list that I read that ranks underground or experimental albums fairly highly does the reader the disservice to roundly ignore the 2005 The Original Silence concert released by Smalltown Superjazz this year. The First Original Silence is entirely performed live improvisationally. Music that finds its way to a release just doesn't get much more underground or experimental than this recording. Moreover, there is a genuine spirit to this document-in-sound that the discerning ear instantly recognizes.

And so arises a case (although I would have awarded the album a 9.0 and not an 8.0) where I agree with a Pitchfork review:
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/articl...iginal-silence

Quote:
Originally Posted by an excerpt from Marc Masters
Those inclined toward improvised music can usually find something worthwhile in all forms of it. But even the most blindly faithful recognize when a session shoots so high that it sounds more like a rocket than a record. The First Original Silence is that kind of instant attention-grabber. Original Silence use the same tools as many improv groups: rolling percussion, squawking horns, guitar feedback, and scraggly electronic noise. But these six sound-crushers have added some sort of performance-enhancing drug, injecting their sound with energy rare to any music, improvised or otherwise.

is this for real?

NO FUCKING WAY.

Paulybee likes them, and he has good taste. Their debut is a critical darling of the electronic dance music set. I haven't heard the new one, so it didn't have a chance to make my top fifty.

Thing is, with any magazine picks, they are always going to play to certain demographics within their readership.

10. Burial - Untrue... dreadful tripe
9. The Field - From Here We Go Sublime..... bland does nothing goes nowhere
8. Battles - Mirrored............ i dont want to repeat myself!!!! a classic
7. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga..... meh whatever, apathy!
6. Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam..... excellent!
5. Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?... overrated mojo
4. Radiohead - In Rainbows... good but not great
3. M.I.A - Kala.... erm, am i missing something????
2. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver.... excellent buy it now!!!!!!!
1. Panda Bear - Person Pitch.... great but not as great as strawberry jam

i LOVE LCD too, but the new album was not anywhere near as good as their previous release

i disagree, sound of silver is a much finer album than the first for 2 reasons. one, each song is an instant classic...... and 2, the first album does have classics like losing my edge (possibly the greatest dance song ever) but it meaners too much and doesnt have a coherent feel to it.. sound of silver remains silver sounding throuighout and all your friends is an incredible song!

if you dont believe me than this should help

I totally disagree, i love burial, i think it deserves to be up there. His first record is a masterpiece!

i dont get LCD...sounds like the Killers to me...maybe i just dont get it... well at least that one track everyone is talking about=all my friends...that one sounds like the Killers...

Person Pitch pwns. its my #1 too. it was definitive form the moment I heard it. I knew there'd be nothing better this year.

seen it and love the song

just saying i only like 2-3 songs off sound of silver as opposed to the first album, in which i LOVE every single song.

guess it's just my personal opinion or whatever.

seen LCD live 3 times, great performers.

wow, almost every one of those albums is terrible.

shock of the year: pitchfork are predictable dicksucking idiots who know NOTHING about music.

As for person pitch vs. strawberry jam, pullhair rubeye is about 500 times better than either of those. But for the record, person pitch is pretty cool, not my favorite panda bear release and not something I'll probably ever listen to again but whatever. Strawberry Jam is WAY fucking overproduced and ranges on unlistenable at times, but it's got some jams on it, specifically the second half of the album (the first 2 or 3 songs on it are just godawful though).

This new Avey Tare indeed is great, very strange I didn't see them mentioned throughout the year. Their myspace has like some 2000 views...

"duh it's backwardz fuckdat record faggotzz" or something.

Meanwhile, Panda Bear's overly long and overly bright and overly boring Beach Boys-over-sampled-records is "brilliant".

Crazily enough, I haven't heard the Panda Bear. I would expect that it isn't as great as Strawbery Jam though. Many seem to agree that's the case.

Pitchfork aren't always right but saying they know nothing about music is really exaggerated in my opinion.

Haha no way I was just looking at this thread on another forum. The only one in the top 10 I like is In Rainbows.

pitchfork loses indie cred for not putting anything SY related on that list.

plus they chose the new stars of the lid over the new growing? pssh! fuck that.

I hadn't noticed Thurston's Trees outside the academy wasn't on the list, that's stupid as it's far better than a lot of records listed.

Nah, sorry, pitchfork don't know shit about music, maybe a few of their CONTRIBUTORS will write about good bands like Gaji or Limited Express (Has Gone?), but collectively.. I mean, this is a site that gave Source Tags and Codes a 10 and NYC Ghosts and Flowers a 0... that alone proves something to me.

you know, i'm not a huge fan of nycg&f, but i gotta agree with atsonicpark. those cats know jack about music.

you all talk as if music is objective. the whole entertainment of lists is the ourage because, as of my afformentioned fact proves, you'll never agree with it. I don't really buy much recent music and have no real interest in keeping up with the times because nobody knows what is shit or good, it's rare that I really love something and history is a better litmus test normally. It just makes people think they're cool... There will be another list next year - but hey! At least it wasnt nearly as corney looking as the rolling stones list.

totally agree, i like 3 out of the top 10 records, and only one of the wud be near the top 10 (animal collective)

Of course making lists is ridiculous and no one will ever totally agree with them -- but Pitchfork made a completely safe, predictable list that everyone saw coming from a while away.

Pitchfork is some kind of "voice" in indie rock, for whatever reason, and they have lots of power and say over what sells -- how daring would it have been for them to talk about Experimental Dental School or Cerberus Shoal or (((microwaves))) or Mong Hang or something sometimes? You know, REAL music that is good and unique -- not the dicksucking sub-mainstream bullshit they constantly cover. I've noticed that almost every really good album pitchfork reviews gets somewhere in the 7 range... you know, the bands that don't pay Pitchfork for ad space. You ever notice how the bands who do pay (Les Savy Fav and Bloc Party for lack of better examples currently) for ads on their site get the best scores?

I love lists, I completely agreed with many picks from Rock N Rolla magazine, for example, and I agreed with many of Pauly's picks. But pitchfork's list is fucking AWFUL.

Doesn't mean much to me.

they have 'power' because they update their site constantly and get news instantly...so they have traffic... and they got me into AC... i still hardly read them, i just do it mostly to see where they put people on these lists, and if it affects the musicians' popularity in any way... markets are fascinating to me. also, I agree with their #1. last year was the Knife [which sucked], but this year they got it right.

you people praise pitchfork as if it were a deity
fuck that.

yeah, what a shock, their choices. hipster bullshit.

and val: vision swim, i liked it better when it was called phaedra.

probably it's just me but strawberry jam is like 3 amazing songs with a ton of filler.

what are the 3 amazing songs?

ill agree in that its less of a cohesive album than Feels, but the high points might make up for that.

No, it's not just you. The first half of strawberry jam sucks.

I think Battles is an excellent choice, though.

peacebone, for reverend green and cuckoo cuckoo.

and that point you make, well, it's just that there were records that have more than three songs as high points with almost no filler, so that kinda pushes it down.

yeah i agree...except that there's at least 5 high points on SJ...actually 6... actually i like all the songs...though i could see if some people didnt like #1, or UM, or WW.... Chores, Fireworks, and Derek are my 3 fave tracks though.

You're right, but compared to French music magazines like Rock'n'folk and Les inrockuptibles I think pitchfork is finally not that bad :D

Its phrases like this that wind me up about this website, but it is good for news.

What I'll never understand is why some of you folks make such a big fuss about what pitchfork write.

to be fair to my good self i havent read any of their reviews in full for a while, but i dipped into the list and started reading their entry for the new Wu Tang Clan album and that little phrase turned up, which is why i dont bother. its not what they like, its just how they write.

Pretty impressed that "King Khan and His Shrines- What Is?!" made it to #33.

I don't have too strong an opinion on Pitchfork either way. It's just a music website...

Stated perfectly...you have to wonder, do they just have weak taste in music or is it a conscious decisison to be mediocre?

I bet they eat a lot of hot pockets.