Posted August 23, 201212 yr Pitchfork :: The People's List Best Albums 1996-2011 http://pitchfork-features-cdn.s3.amazonaws.com/peopleslist/static/images/cover-basic.jpg Last summer, we took a week to celebrate Pitchfork's 15th anniversary with a series of features exploring our history and archives. One of our more ambitious concepts at the time was The People's List, a readers' poll of the best albums of Pitchfork's first 15 years. On paper, it's not such a wild idea. But while we could have hastily thrown together a barebones version on deadline, we felt the project had more potential. A year later, that project is complete. And thanks to those who participated, The People's List isn't just a list-- it's also a comprehensive look at how our readers' varying backgrounds, environments, and personal preferences influence the music they love. Drawing from 27,981 ballots, the feature opens by ranking the 200 albums that received the most votes in total from all ballots combined. From there, we parsed the data by age, gender, genre, and year to show how these variables affect the outcome. We've also broken the results down geographically, listing the favorite albums of the 25 countries and 25 U.S. cities that submitted the most ballots. One of the most exciting things for all of us at Pitchfork was looking at the individual choices of voters who shared their lists on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and elsewhere. Seeing all these ballots from current and former contributors, from our peers at other publications, from artists, and from friends, reminded us that we experienced the music of these past 15 years together. But even more interesting was seeing how we experienced it differently. If you read Pitchfork regularly and follow our annual readers polls, you probably have a pretty good sense of which artists are our readers' favorites. And indeed, it should come as no surprise that Radiohead remain the clear-cut favorite, racking up enough votes to win first and second place. As you'll see, though, the surprises far outnumber the expectations. We hope you have as much fun with the results as we did. 01 Radiohead OK Computer 02 Radiohead Kid A 03 Arcade Fire Funeral 04 Neutral Milk Hotel In the Aeroplane Over the Sea 05 The Strokes Is This It 06 Radiohead In Rainbows 07 Wilco Yankee Hotel Foxtrot 08 Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion 09 Kanye WestMy Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy 10 Sufjan Stevens Illinois 11 LCD Soundsystem Sound of Silver 12 Interpol Turn On the Bright Lights 13 Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago 14 The Flaming Lips The Soft Bulletin 15 The xx The xx 16 Arcade Fire The Suburbs 17 Modest Mouse The Moon & Antarctica 18 Fleet Foxe sFleet Foxes 19 The Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots 20 Radiohead Amnesiac 21 The White Stripes Elephant 22 The White Stripes White Blood Cells 23 Grizzly Bear Veckatimest 24 The National Boxer 25 Broken Social Scene You Forgot It in People 26 Daft Punk Discovery 27 Vampire Weekend Vampire Weekend 28 Bon Iver Bon Iver 29 DJ Shadow ...Endtroducing 30 Beck Odelay 31 Belle And Sebastian If You're Feeling Sinister 32 Beach House Teen Dream 33 Modest Mouse The Lonesome Crowded West 34 LCD Soundsystem This Is Happening 35 OutKast Stankonia 36 Phoenix Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix 37 Elliott Smith Either/Or 38 Arcade Fire Neon Bible 39 Kanye West The College Dropout 40 Radiohead Hail to the Thief 41 Panda Bear Person Pitch 42 Madvillain Madvillainy 43 The Postal Service Give Up 44 Animal Collective Strawberry Jam 45 Sigur Rós Ágætis Byrjun 46 The Avalanches Since I Left You 47 The Shins Chutes Too Narrow 48 Dirty Projectors Bitte Orca 49 Spiritualized Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating in Space 50 Beck Sea Change 51 Björk Homogenic 52 The Magnetic Fields 69 Love Songs 53 Modest Mouse Good News for People Who Love Bad News 54 The National High Violet 55 The Shins Oh, Inverted World 56 Arctic Monkeys Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not 57 Yo La Tengo I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One 58 Kanye West Late Registration 59 Massive Attack Mezzanine 60 Burial Untrue 61 Yeah Yeah Yeahs Fever to Tell 62 Boards of Canada Music Has the Right to Children 63 Deerhunter Halcyon Digest 64 Bloc Party Silent Alarm 65 M83 Hurry Up, We're Dreaming 66 Jay-Z The Blueprint 67 Animal Collective Feels 68 Queens of the Stone Age Songs for the Deaf 69 Sigur Rós ( ) 70 Franz Ferdinand Franz Ferdinand 71 James Blake James Blake 72 Daft Punk Homework 73 Portishead Third 74 The National Alligator 75 Animal Collective Sung Tongs 76 The Strokes Room on Fire 77 Wilco Summerteeth 78 Elliott Smith XO 79 Justice † 80 Deerhunter Microcastle/Weird Era Cont. 81 TV on the Radio Dear Science 82 Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues 83 The Knife Silent Shout 84 Outkast Aquemini 85 TV on the Radio Return to Cookie Mountain 86 Built to Spill Keep it Like a Secret 87 Air Moon Safari 88 Vampire Weekend Contra 89 OutKast Speakerboxxx/The Love Below 90 Kanye West Graduation 91 Wolf Parade Apologies to the Queen Mary 92 LCD Soundsystem LCD Soundsystem 93 The Antlers Hospice 94 Jay-ZT he Black Album 95 Of Montreal Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? 96 Spoon Kill the Moonlight 97 Spoon Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga 98 M.I.A. Kala 99 Girls Album 100 The Microphones The Glow, Pt. 2 101 Joanna Newsom Ys 102 Aphex Twin The Richard D. James Album 103 The Dismemberment Plan Emergency and I 104 Built to Spill Perfect from Now On 105 Grizzly Bear Yellow House 106 Interpol Antics 107 M83 Saturdays=Youth 108 The Weeknd House of Balloons 109 Bonnie "Prince" Billy I See a Darkness 110 Blur 13 111 Sufjan Stevens Greetings from Michigan: The Great Lakes State 112 J Dilla Donuts 113 St. Vincent Strange Mercy 114 Justin Timberlake FutureSex/LoveSounds 115 Destroyer Kaputt 116 Feist The Reminder 117 Ryan Adams Heartbreaker 118 Weezer Pinkerton 119 Iron & Wine Our Endless Numbered Days 120 Real Estate Days 121 Eminem The Marshall Mathers LP 122 Girls Father, Son, Holy Ghost 123 Flying Lotus Cosmogramma 124 Elliott Smith Figure 8 125 PJ Harvey Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea 126 Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Clap Your Hands Say Yeah 127 Jay-Z / Kanye West Watch the Throne 128 Sufjan Stevens The Age of Adz 129 Crystal Castles Crystal Castles 130 Band of Horses Everything All the Time 131 Sleigh Bells Treats 132 Japandroids Post-Nothing 133 Yo La Tengo And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out 134 Battles Mirrored 135 My Morning Jacket Z 136 Björk Vespertine 137 Titus Andronicus The Monitor 138 Gorillaz Plastic Beach 139 Sufjan Stevens Seven Swans 140 PJ Harvey Let England Shake 141 St. Vincent Actor 142 tUnE-yArD sw h o k i l l 143 Joanna Newsom The Milk-Eyed Mender 144 The Unicorns Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone? 145 Caribou Swim 146 Passion Pit Manners 147 The Hold Steady Boys and Girls in America 148 Tame Impala Innerspeaker 149 at Power You Are Free 150 Te Walkmen Bows and Arrows 151 poon Gimme Fiction 152 Beck Midnite Vultures 153 Beach House Devotion 154 Yeah Yeah Yeahs It's Blitz 155 Wilco Being There 156 Silver Jews American Water 157 Fugazi The Argument 158 The New Pornographers Twin Cinema 159 Fever Ray Fever Ray 160 Grandaddy The Sophtware Slump 161 D'Angelo VooDoo 162 Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti Before Today 163 Beirut The Flying Club Cup 164 The Streets Original Pirate Material 165 Mogwai Young Team 166 ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead Source Tags & Codes 167 M.I.A. Arular 168 Tom Waits Mule Variations 169 Joanna Newsom Have One on Me 170 The Decemberists The Crane Wife 171 Boards of Canada Geogaddi 172 Frank Ocean Nostalgia, Ultra. 173 Ghostface Killah Supreme Clientele 174 The Libertines Up the Bracket 175 The Tallest Man on Earth The Wild Hunt 176 Robyn Body Talk 177 Janelle Monáe The ArchAndroid 178 Kurt VileSmoke Ring For My Halo 179 The Rapture Echoes 180 Andrew Bird Andrew Bird & the Mysterious Production of Eggs 181 Kanye West 808s and Heartbreak 182 Clipse Hell Hath No Fury 183 Big Boi Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty 184 TV on the Radio Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes 185 Stereolab Emperor Tomato Ketchup 186 The Wrens The Meadowlands 187 My Morning Jacket It Still Moves 188 The New Pornographers Mass Romantic 189 Godspeed You! Black Emperor Lift Your Skinny Fists like Antennas to Heaven 190 Deerhunter Cryptograms 191 Spoon Girls Can Tell 192 M83 Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts 193 Bright Eyes Fevers and Mirrors 194 Girl Talk Feed the Animals 195 Santogold Santogold 196 Belle And Sebastian The Life Pursuit 197 Cut Copy In Ghost Colours 198 The Pains of Being Pure at Heart The Pains of Being Pure at Heart 199 Drake Take Care 200 Jens Lekman Night Falls Over Kortedala http://pitchfork-features-cdn.s3.amazonaws.com/peopleslist/static/images/intro-stats.jpg http://pitchfork-features-cdn.s3.amazonaws.com/peopleslist/static/images/chart-artistranks.jpg http://pitchfork-features-cdn.s3.amazonaws.com/peopleslist/static/images/chart-musicyears.jpg http://pitchfork-features-cdn.s3.amazonaws.com/peopleslist/static/images/chart-geo.jpg Say what you want about Pitchfork and their readers but that is a wonderful list! So many incredible albums that are generally left out of similar lists by NME and co. :wub:
August 23, 201212 yr I'm a huge fan of Pitchfork but not because of their taste. I read the site purely to enjoy the standard of writing of its contributors. I'm delighted to see Discovery, Ys, Mezzanine, Untrue and FutureSex/LoveSounds in there. And the world still ignores Deloused in the Comatarium :drama:
August 23, 201212 yr :( no crystal castles II. and massive attack shockingly low! some fantastic albums in there however.
August 23, 201212 yr Have Muse ever made a great album though? I wouldn't say so. Plenty of excellent songs but 'Origins of Symmetry' is by far their best effort for me, and that certainly has its weak points.
August 23, 201212 yr As unfashionable is it might be to say so - I think Black Holes and Revelations is my favourite Muse album.
August 23, 201212 yr Always thought they were alright. Fantastic songs here and there but never been that big of a fan. I have no idea how all the hate started, though. Every time I read a comment section about them there's is a quite fair amount of negative stuff in between. Edited August 23, 201212 yr by Thomsen
August 23, 201212 yr This is an un-shockingly terrible list. Why do I care what a bunch of boring straight white males are listening to? The highest scoring solo female record isn't even in the Top 50 smh and it's better than pretty much everything here also like only two bands in the top 50 even have female members in the band why did i even bother doing this i dont know LOL like i knew this would be the result it's a shame too because I think most of the writers for pitchfork are actually pretty decent and they do cover a relatively nice array of music most of the time (though it is obviously catered to their main audience - white men), but their readership is obviously far less credible. I honestly think in like 5-10 years time they'll be irrelevant (not gone or anything there will just be a new "Pitchfork" and Pitchfork will be seen as a Rolling Stone/NME type of music source)
August 24, 201212 yr Author This is an un-shockingly terrible list. Why do I care what a bunch of boring straight white males are listening to? The highest scoring solo female record isn't even in the Top 50 smh and it's better than pretty much everything here also like only two bands in the top 50 even have female members in the band why did i even bother doing this i dont know LOL like i knew this would be the result it's a shame too because I think most of the writers for pitchfork are actually pretty decent and they do cover a relatively nice array of music most of the time (though it is obviously catered to their main audience - white men), but their readership is obviously far less credible. I honestly think in like 5-10 years time they'll be irrelevant (not gone or anything there will just be a new "Pitchfork" and Pitchfork will be seen as a Rolling Stone/NME type of music source) Find me another top ten as good as that and I'll side with you.
August 24, 201212 yr How can you think a list is good that features only men in the top 50??? The majority of which are white? Like I'm not trying to question the quality of each album individually (though let's be honest Is This It? is a total snoozefest, I just don't get why people love that album, so boring 2 me), but this list just reflects how much the music journalism industry is run by men (white, straight men). I don't have anything against Pitchfork really (they've definitely tried to include a lot more writers lately who listen to genres outside of white dudes with beards playing indie rock - they've had more R&B, pop, and queer music coverage which is good — and obviously no one at Pitchfork curated this list), but this list was basically just created by a bunch of bros in the end. Soooo boring and one sided. I could give plenty of lists which I think are far more interesting and diverse, obviously no list is more correct. That's not really the point of why this list fails though.
August 24, 201212 yr How can you think a list is good that features only men in the top 50??? The majority of which are white? Like I'm not trying to question the quality of each album individually (though let's be honest Is This It? is a total snoozefest, I just don't get why people love that album, so boring 2 me), but this list just reflects how much the music journalism industry is run by men (white, straight men). I don't have anything against Pitchfork really (they've definitely tried to include a lot more writers lately who listen to genres outside of white dudes with beards playing indie rock - they've had more R&B, pop, and queer music coverage which is good — and obviously no one at Pitchfork curated this list), but this list was basically just created by a bunch of bros in the end. Soooo boring and one sided. I could give plenty of lists which I think are far more interesting and diverse, obviously no list is more correct. That's not really the point of why this list fails though. Four sweaty boys with guitars tell Ben NOTHING about his life! (that lyric looks so much worse written down)
August 24, 201212 yr hoLLa i'm like way overreacting its just a silly list lol sorry for getting all negative in this thread i just got kinda mad when i first saw it like ughhhh
August 24, 201212 yr Author Is This It? = most over-rated album in the last 4 billion years Ok, yes. I had blocked that inclusion out and just presumed LCD Soundsystem were number ten. I AM WHITE STRAIGHT AND MALE I CANNOT HELP IT.
August 24, 201212 yr LCD Sound System are highly over rated in my opinion. I've never heard one tune by them that did anything for me. Also, In Rainbows :(
August 24, 201212 yr Author I do understand the criticism. I just think in comparison to other user-voted lists (NME, Q etc) this is a brilliant selection (regardless of what number everything might be). Obviously Silent Shout and YS are far too low, amongst others.
August 24, 201212 yr Author LCD Sound System are highly over rated in my opinion. I've never heard one tune by them that did anything for me. Also, In Rainbows :( You're no longer welcome in this thread! Sound of Silver is an incredible album. :wub: Someone Great :wub:
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