Idolator

Panda Bear? Explain? Somebody? Please?

@SuperUnison: No, because I'd've rather seen Japanther.

Maybe I'm losing my mind, but I don't remember Caribou's Andorra getting a good rating originally, but there it is, 8.3, when I just looked. Same goes for Bon Iver. Did they change it? Dunno. They've edited ratings before.

@therichgirlsareweeping: whoa, really? I think you forgot to listen to the album. Armchair Apocrypha is my favorite album of the year.

@pgwp: No, I listened to it and wept profusely. The whole swirly-jam angle really bummed me out. Zzzzzzzzzzz. I used to love Andrew Bird (and have the pictures from SXSW 2002 to prove it, as well as all the Squirrel Nut Zippers records he guested on...), but I cannot get behind his new stuff. At all.

@Jfrankparnell: Wait, didn't P-fork spooge all over Bon Iver originally? That's why I avoided for so long, but to my peril. That record is gold, and the Bon Iver live experience is AMAZING.

ha, yes.

Let's think about this too much:

If we/they went by their rating system alone, assuming there was a science and consistency to it, their top ten, at least, would be (i did this quickly, please forgive omissions and correct my mistakes sympathetically):

1. 9.4 tied: Radiohead's In Rainbows, Animal Collective's Strawberry Jam and Panda Bear (9.4)

2. 9.2 LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver (9.2)


3. 9.1 Battles - Mirrored (9.1)


4. 9.0 tied: Jens Lekman - NIght Falls; The field - from Here we go Sublime (9.0)


5. 8.9 tied: Deerhoof (on list waaaaay down at #31), Deerhunter, MIA (8.9)


6. 8.8 Feist - The Reminder (8.8)


7. 8.7 tied: Kanye West, Of Montreal, Dan Deacon, Villalobos' Fabric comp, Life Without Buildings, James Blackshaw, Okkervil River


8. (8.6) tied: Jay-Z, The National, Stars of the Lid, Iron & Wine, Tough Alliance


9. (8.5) tied: Lil Wayne, Menomena,* Spoon, Grizzly Bear, Sally Shapiro, Liars


10. (8.4) tied: Justice, Black Kids*, UGK*, Throbbing Gristle*, Arcade Fire, Pipettes*, Simian Mobile Disco* Dinosaur Jr, Dizzee Rascal, Burial

*Not on full list at all

A lazy list? An arbitrary rating system. When it was reviewed, Menomena scored an album rating that was better than 42% of the albums listed here, but didn't make it onto the list. UGK, Pipettes, Simian Mobile Disco, Black Kids, and Throbbing Gristle all review-rated above 32% of these listed selections, and didn't make the list. Lower, more well-rated and ignored albums show up, naturally, some with good arguments (!!! gets an 8.0 but doesn't beat Lon Gisland (7.8) to the party?) some not (Icky Thump (8.0) but no Papercuts (8.3).

Boy, I bet Throbbing Gristle is mad.

@Labtheque: It did, I believe. Is Schreiber DeRogatis-ing writers all the time out there?

@scottpl: If by Service you mean Labrador, then sure. Personally, if you guys ever get to Rough Bunnies Weisse Wessen Dreck Am Stecken then I'll have a Swedish twee bingo (G-42! Ooh, I'm going diagonal!)

@sfbeary: The fifth Swede is The Field, surprisingly enough.

TTA and Jens are good friends -- not only does he sample them, he even plays badminton with them! Not quite as incestuous as Constellation or E6, but still kind of funny. (Erlend Oye's Whitest Boy Alive side project is also on Service, and he's also a good friend of Jens')

I only mentioned the Service thing because Labrador's releases (Club 8, Sambassadeur, and Irene) got snubbed, despite p4k loving SKWBN last year, if I remember correctly.

I don't know what our Idolators have against twee or Sweden. Unless it's backlash from the actually brain-rotting I'm From Barcelona. God, that was terrible.

@Jfrankparnell: I could've sworn it had a different rating too. Didn't something similar happen to the Knife too last year?

I've been running the daily editorial content for more than three years now and no rating has ever been changed after publication over that time.

Also, a Club 8 review has been filed and will run in early Jan., and reviews of those other two Service releases should be filed soonish as well. (If you're really filling out your Swedish pop scorecards at home, a review of The Honeydrips will also appear next month.).

Pipettes were on last year's list, and the LP was also reviewed then. And if it really needs to be said, the reviews are the opinions of one writer at one time during the year and the year-end votes are the consensus opinions of the entire staff at a different time of the year.

it's voting based not numerically

i was a little surprised that Rhys Chatham's A Crimson Grail didn't make the list. thank god the national wasn't in pitchfork's top 10. the paste list was beyond disappointing.

no UGK=coal in P4K's stocking...

@Labtheque: Oh, I underestimated the number of Swedes - Sally Shapiro, Jens Lekman, Studio, and TTA, whom I hadn't heard until now. (Who's the fifth Scandinavian?) On first listen, I'm not so crazy about TTA's vocals, but I like the song and the arrangement on that one where they're cuddling on a scooter with the flowers. Does that kind of boy/boy stuff make some Idolator peeps uncomfortable? Or is it their beauty? I haven't gotten a good look at Studio, but most of these Swedes on the Pitchfork list are so strikingly pretty/handsome that they'd intimidate the average Jonas Brothers fan, let alone indie types used to their heroes looking like they smell bad. I'm new here and I don't mean to jump to conclusions, but none of the Pitchfork-approved Swedes are exactly macho or reassuringly homely. The guy behind Shapiro has a photo on his website that suggests he could've played the role of God in an an old Ingmar Bergman movie.

@stephenbush: No, I totally hate Kala. It's okay, you're not alone. I'm with you on the omissions too, save that Low record. Not so good.

I saw a picture of Menomena once. Their saxaphone player looked like everything I could hate about indie rock rolled into one punchable representation.

It's easy to gripe about any year end list, and it's easy to gripe about most any pitchfork review for that matter, but this is two years in a row they've chosen my favorite album. So, I guess they're almost as cool as me, except that I'd heard of them before they existed.

I'm probably the only person in the world who absolutely hates MIA's Kala, so I'll just pretend the #3 spot is a "missing in action" tribute to a bunch of great albums that didn't make the list:

Apparat - Walls

Gui Boratto - Chromophobia


Boris with Michio Kurihara - Rainbow


Earth - Hibernaculum


Electrelane - No Shouts, No Calls


Grinderman - s/t


PJ Harvey - White Chalk


Lee Hazlewood - Cake or Death


Low - Drums and Guns


Om - Pilgrimage

And I don't think the Arcade Fire placement is a snub, but simply an accurate placement of a good-but-not-great album. Neon Bible is enjoyable and relatively strong, and is a good top 30 album. Whereas, for example, Icky Thump belongs nowhere near a top 50 list.

@graeffufighting: That news is priceless.

@Charlie Kerfelds Jetsons Tee:

@kisskisskiss:

That Knife album is still better than most of the albums released this year. (Same with Joanna Newsom.) And apparently I am the only person who would put Liars in my top five, along with edIT, Miss Li, Scout Niblett, and....Radiohead.

I can't believe no one has mentioned that not only was Wizard Of Ahhhs not included on P4Ks best-of, but the guy who wrote the gushing review of The Black Kids (Marc Hogan), didn't even put that record on his individual best-of 2007 list: list[www.pitchforkmedia.com]

@sfbeary: What I think is weirder is that out of the five Scandinavian artists listed, three of them are on the same label (TTA, Jens, and Studio are all on Service).

But I really love Jens. He also gets bonus points for being a ridiculously nice guy.

@futurehorse: By the time I read down to the top five in the list I knew which ones would be there -- except I assumed Menomena had to be in there, and completely forgot about Panda Bear.

Maybe it's because I'm from Portland, but it seems weird that neither Blitzen Trapper nor Menomena made the list. P4K was a staunch supporter of both.

Oh, and both Jens and Sally Shapiro are making my list this year. Sorry Jess.

@therichgirlsareweeping:

yeah for me dirty projectors live is incredible. I guess you can either get down or you can't get down.

This is naturally my favorite list thus far, although I don't think person pitch is all that. I lke the "edits" of the songs that floated around before the album came out. I prefer 3 minutes of a loop rather than 12

what's the tallying process like? you'd think that two top 10 votes for paramore would be enough to bump them into the top 50...

@SuperUnison: Nope, I'm also psyched to see No Age this high, although that write up really was one of those "remember when they hit in 2008 that we liked them first!" type things. Still, that record got the praise it deserved. It was good to see Burial in the top 10. I was kinda upset to see Times New Viking, UGK, and the Besnard Lakes albums curiously omitted, though.

I love how the Dirty Projectors are a love-em-or-leave-em band. I've seen them do songs from Rise Above twice (and a few other times over the past several years) and every time it was ... transcendent. But there's no accounting for taste, I guess.

Jens can be taken or left, but I quite like Sally Shapiro and am glad to see her on the year-end list.

And yes, I still listen to that Knife record.

I initially loved the Panda Bear record but over time most of the songs resembled little more than Beach Boys remixes.

I'm surprised Jess missed this obvious joke, but it might be because the coffee hadn't kicked in yet. But I'll go ahead and make it...

Rating: 5.4

@cassidy2099: Actually, I still listen to that Knife record. But I don't mind being the exception that proves the rule.

In general: Yeah. No Andrew Bird anywhere? No Electrelane?

I saw the Dirty Projectors open for Grizzly Bear once. I even have the awesome Burlesque poster for that show. They were ... fine? I guess? I dunno. I wasn't impressed, but it wasn't like having frozen weasels jammed in my eye sockets either.

I haven't given it a shot, but I have trouble imagining that album of Black Flag covers is as revelatory as I've heard... Maybe I should go give that a try...

@therichgirlsareweeping: Re: Liars, no.

How they followed up "Drum's Not Dead" with that, I'll never know.

haha "Pitchfork" in quotes... made me laff out loud.

plus y'all know who really "deserve the DAP"..;)

@scott pgwp: Are you for real? That Andrew Bird record was the worst thing ever. Besides all the other terrible, lazy records released this year that didn't make this list. Pleased to see Ted Leo didn't rate.

Did anyone actually like that Liars record? Ew!

But yay for Bon Iver (what does one do with self-released things that will get a label release next year?), Studio and the Dirty Projectors. Which is to say, once you get out of the top 10, this isn't the worst list ever.

Les Savy Fav should be higher. Still, is anyone else as pumped as I am to see No Age ranked so high?
Also, the defacto snub (compared to everyone else) of Neon Bible almost makes not seeing Boxer in the top 10 worth it. Deerhunter I clearly should have paid more attention to.

Finally, I guess this cements the notion that; despite having 3 classic songs and a bunch of stuff I can take or leave, LCD made the consensus pick for album of the year.

I'm glad that Pitchfork has embraced "tooth/brain-rotting twee Nordic indie pop/dance" and not just the aggressively serious/bleak/credible electronica. Doesn't Idolator ordinarily go bonkers when other publications dismiss entire sub-genres of music, particularly on the pop side? Besides, Sally Shapiro and Jens Lekman are both from Sweden, not Norway; Studio isn't all that poppy, and none of them strike me as particularly brain-rotting. I'm with you on most of your other best-of-2007 appraisals, but this one reminds me of your hatred for "Umbrella." I just don't get it.

I think the list is alright, to be honest. I mean, compared to most of what we've seen, particularly the disappointing AV Club list? It's pretty okay.

So American Gangster is the best rap album of the year. Right. It would've been nice to at least see UGK make the cut, considering that it was on as many staffers' lists as most of the albums in the lower reaches of the list.

Anyone still listening to that Knife record? Of course not. Panda Bear? Whatev's. Good to see Ghostface and Jay-Z, but even I have to be honest and say the Wu-Tang record is a bust.

@Jfrankparnell: Neon Bible, that is

bummed and perplexed to see that Andrew Bird didn't crack the list.

It doesn't even belong there

To be fair, this IS the first list I've seen to include James Blackshaw. I give Pitchfork credit for that.

That being said, I find it strange that a track from Sir Richard Bishop's "Polytheistic Fragments" made the top tracks of 2007, while the album didn't secure a place on the top albums of 2007 list.

@HowardDecker: As for Burial, Untrue is as much for everyone as Maxinquaye was a few years back.

...which is amusing because I also think Maxinquaye is way overrated. (The Nearly God album and Pre-Millennial Tension are what made me a fan.)

@Charlie Kerfelds Jetsons Tee: You are correct, sir!

@Weezy F Baby: i agree whole heartedly, that record is absolute bilge.

The world needs more Sally Shapiro. (Well, I do, anyway.) Jens I'm not so sure about.

As for Burial, Untrue is as much for everyone as Maxinquaye was a few years back. It's not like Cyrus (Random Trio)'s From the Shadows was the one that was going to catch on outside the dubstep cult, good though it is.

I saw Dirty Projectors open for Jarvis Cocker and it was the worst
thirty minutes of music I heard in all of '07. Do people actually like
that band, or do they just like Black Flag songs?

First list to include Dirty Projectors!

@Ned Raggett: HEYO!

[i]Untrue[/i] is for everyone...with insomnia.

Arcade Fire snub has to be the funniest in the list.

19: Feist, The Reminder

* * *


27: Arcade Fire, Neon Bible

Good job, Pitchfork.

"Icky Thump" is TOTALLY better than "Comicopera." Yep. Far superior...

...morons.

Untrue is a great album. I tried playing it for my grandfather, who still listens to Three Dog Night on 8-track. He didn't really get it.

A quick glance:

Huh? Really?:

Dizzee Rascal, Maths + English


Jay-Z, American Gangster


Okkervil River, The Stage Names


Caribou, Andorra


Stars of the Lid, And Their Refinement of the Decline

Coming to their senses and omitting, despite loving all year::

Postmarks

Sunset Rubdown


Voxtrot


Ponys


Shins


Blitzen Trapper

And now they ignore for no good reason::

Boris & Michio Kurihara Rainbow

Electrelane


Lee hazlewood


Soft Circle

this sally shapiro nonsense has got to end.