@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.

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.

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?

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 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.

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.

@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.