That really is a terrific album. I didn’t get as much into the later ones (though I liked Lamentable Tragedy), maybe because it sounded different after Amy Klein left, or maybe because the conceit in The Monitor just works so well.
I’ve always thought music reviews were just a weird product. It’s so subjective that I don’t know what sort of value there is in reviewing it.
I could see the value in reviewing in aggregate - like these polls - where a lot of people share what they like. And I can see individualized suggestions, like “if you like this and this, try this”, but just writing an article to review about an album is weird.
I wonder how they did this poll. If they had ranking, or just said “what are your favorite 10 albums” and added them up or what.
It’s weighed pretty heavily towards indie rock. Not a lot of any sort of non-pop electronic - and electronic is a really broad genre and I kind of hate when it gets pigeonholed as electronica/techno.
Very radiohead heavy. I think In Rainbows is their best album (and deserves to be near the top) and probably Hail to the Thief is the second best, but that’s way down at the bottom of the list. I thought most of their stuff before those two albums is fairly overrated.
Interpol’s inclusion at 22 sort of annoys me… Interpol basically has one song, and they made 10 albums out of slight variations of it. It’s not a terrible song, but their popularity among indie rock eludes me.
The a few of the Radiohead and the two Godspeed! You Black Emporer albums are the only ones here that I actually own, although I’ve really not bought albums since the pandora/spotify era.
DJ Shadow - Endtroducing is pretty good, and, incidentally, the only time I’ve ever heard music with “DJ” in the name that was actually good.
Aphex Twin - Richard D James album is probably not their best album nor that great a representative of the sort of IDM/glitch genre.
I’m not familiar with about a third of this list. I think I’m going to check out some of it on spotify. To those of you talking about the pitchfork crowd - what’s the reputation of Pitchfork and their readers?
I’m not as tuned in as I should be to what the kids are listening to these days, but I do have some observations:
- Very surprised there is no (solo) Jack White
- Could have used more - and higher rated - Beck
- Same with Eminem
- Unless I missed it, no David Byrne?
- Lastly, wherefore art Elvis Costello?
mmm
They both did their best work more than 25 years ago.
Pitchfork has a reputation for snobby, snotty writers and a heavy focus on indie & hip-hop. They will often take that album you like (goes the reputation), write a generally positive review, include one doubtful sentence, and score it a 6.8. Or write a long review that’s meaningful to the writer, but not to anyone else. Or hoist the banner for the most obscure artist you’ve never heard of. Artists often hate Pitchfork.
All that said, the albums they review (for good or bad) are often interesting to me, so I take the number they assign with a big grain of salt and will give the album a listen.
They’ve only scored a handful of albums with a 10.0. Here they are (and for the albums I recognize, I think 10.0 is at least a close approximation; but some of these bands I’ve never heard of):
12 Rods, Gay? (1996)
Walt Mink, El Producto (1996)
Amon Tobin, Bricolage (1997)
Radiohead, OK Computer (1997)
Bonnie “Prince” Billy, I See a Darkness (1999)
Flaming Lips, The Soft Bulletin (1999)
Radiohead, Kid A (2000)
…And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, Source Tags and Codes (2002)
Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002)
Kanye West, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010)
Fiona Apple, Fetch the Bolt Cutters (2020)
Interesting that …Trail of Dead didn’t even make the top 200 after a score like that. It really is a great album.
That’s not really how “The 200 Best Albums of the Last 25 Years” works.
mmm
Huh? How else should it work? The Pitchfork readers were asked to vote for the best albums of the last 25 years, and I argued that Costello and Byrne did their best work before that, so I don’t understand your objection.
Topic: the best albums from 1968-1970
“What, no Beatles White Album? No Abbey Road?”
“Those can’t possibly be among the best albums from 1968-1970 because the Beatles best albums are Sgt. Pepper and Revolver”
Did Costello and Byrne release anything exceptional in the last 25 years?
They’ve both had some solid work in those years, but it’s kind of hard to think of anything that floats up to the top 200 of the last 25 years. As it’s a readers preference poll, it seems pretty natural to me that choices would center around more recently formed bands, and that older bands with a great back catalog will have their more recent work be perhaps subconsciously downgraded. I mean, I think Wire has put out some work that I would call among their best (and work I would put in my own Top 50 of the last 25 years), starting with the Read & Burn EPs, but with Pink Flag, Chairs Missing, and 154 in their back-catalog, it’s hard to remember how good their stuff from the past decade and a half is.
I like “Painted From Memory”, Costello’s collaboration with Burt Bacharach very much, but I doubt it belongs among the 200 best albums of the last 25 years. And that was my point, his and Byrne’s output in the last 25 years was too weak to be considered.
Here’s a list from a couple years ago of (at the time) Pitchfork’s 128 10.0 rated albums:
Interesting that the two Zep albums are II and Physical Graffiti. I have to wonder if they just didn’t rate the other ones.
Ah, I see - I think my list was of reviews that were contemporaneous with the album release. They sure do love the old classics, it seems.
Clearly I’m in the minority here, but I’ll go ahead and list these as some of my personal favorites (while acknowledging that your mileage is different):
Elvis Costello: “The River in Reverse” (with Allen Toussaint), “National Ransom”, and (especially) the aforementioned “Painted from Memory” (with Burt Bacharach).
David Byrne: “Love This Giant” (with Annie Clark) and “Everything That Happens Will Happen Today”.
I’m also going to throw in Jack Whites’ “Lazaretto” and/or “Blunderbuss”.
mmm
Now granted, this is the editorial staff and not the readers, but I looked up those albums on Pitchfork to see how they were reviewed:
Costello:
The River in Reverse: 6.1
They apparently did not review either National Ransom or Painted from Memory
Byrne:
Love this Giant: 5.9
Everything That Happens Will Happen Today 7.6
Jack White:
Lazaretto: 7.1
Blunderbuss 7.8
I think most Jack White fans (and I happen to be one of them) prefer his stuff with the White Stripes and threw votes behind those albums instead.
Interesting. Out of curiosity I checked the reviews on Allmusic.com:
Costello:
The River in Reverse - 9
National Ransom - 9
Painted from Memory - 9
Byrne:
Love this Giant - 9
Everything That Happens Will Happen Today - 7
Jack White:
Lazaretto - 8
Blunderbuss – 8
And, just for fun, Radiohead:
Kid A – 10
OK Computer – 10
In Rainbows – 9
mmm