Pitchfork Top 20 Albums of 2001 Poll

the only Mass Romantic song I've got left is "Letters from an Occupant" - there's something thin about the band's sound that I really, really dislike even when Neko is singing

xpost. I stand by what I said.

Off topic Jordan, but have you heard Phoenix's last album?

yes i love it.

So do I.

i hate when people describe albums as "hooky" or whatever, but the amount of guitar and vocal hooks— and how quick they move from one to the next and back, etc.— on that album still floors me sometimes.

Oh yeah, its kind of like guitar pop that has been made in a laboratory by scientists. The singer is the secret weapon I think.

Oh yeah, its kind of like guitar pop that has been made in a laboratory by scientists.

haters probably would (or do) say that with a negative connotation, but i'm totally cool with that idea.

if you like any new pornos albums better than Is This It? move to mars.

Well I haven't heard either album in its entirety, but the New Pornos songs I've heard from that album definitely beat the Strokes songs I've heard from theirs, which tended to be kind of grating to my ears.

Best year of decade no doubt. White Blood Cells the class of the list, but still it's no Love and Theft.

the argument

but i like a lot of records on that list a great deal.

better albums than anything on this list:

The Coup Party Music
Daft Punk
The Donnas Turn 21
Gillian Welch
Kristin Hersh
Ladytron
Stillmatic
the Yeah Yeah Yeahs EP

Judging from Pitchfork, 2001 was an awful year for music.

Out of the albums I have heard out of those 20, there is no single album worth voting for. The New Pornographers one may be OK judging from later albums I've heard by them.

But then, 2001 wasn't too bad after all. Travis, Super Furry Animals, Sondre Lerche and Depeche Mode all released excellent albums that year.

Yay

I like ten of those albums. Fugazi wins, I think.

Fennesz in being the elephant in the room shockah. 'Endless Summer' totally owns this list.

Prefuse. Tough call.

Endless Summer and Is This It are so much better than everything else except for maybe Idiology that it is embarrassing.

missy elliott

basement jaxx

oh right.

aaliyah s/t.

Live At Dominoes is still one of the best things ever

I kind of want to hear all 20 of these albums now. And rank them.

LIVEBLOG LIVEBLOG LIVEBLOG LIVEBLOG

I voted for 'Mass Romantic', but 'Hot Shots II', 'White Blood Cells', 'Is This It' were good albums too.

endless summer > since i left you >>>> white blood cells > is this it > amnesiac > vocal studies

tough between Cann Ox, Fennesz, Strokes, with Avalanches a little behind.

i never want to hear Leaves Turn Inside You again.

Good year. I love that O'Rourke record. It was a toss-up between Prefuse and Fugazi, but I picked Prefuse.

harping on this i know but i don't know whats so 'futuristic' 'zeitgeist'-ish about the avalanches

voted for "moss romantic". always had a thing for bryophytes.

I thought "The Moon" was one of the most gorgeous songs from '01.

Endless Summer and Since I Left You are the only albums from that list that I still listen to.

...but i don't know whats so 'futuristic' 'zeitgeist'-ish about the avalanches

I don't see it, either. The only "corny indie zeitgeist" that I've noticed in the '00s that I can tell would be a Shins/Decemberists style, as far as corny indie goes (and for my harp-- why don't they spell it "Decembrists"?)

endless summer, obviously

This list kind of divided me between "hey, 2001 was ace" and "fucking hell Pitchfork you were really trying to fulfil your remit to be as boring as physically possible weren't you?" Those awful glitchy undie rap albums are probably the worst thing here.

I voted for Since I Left You in the end because I still remember the level of excitement I felt when I first heard it but I'm pretty sure I've listened to Hot Shots II or White Blood Cells more over the years.

I'm still unexpectedly running into stuff sampled on Since I Left You, which somehow keeps it fresh for me. Even a few weeks ago, I was listening to the tail end of some John Cale album and recognized a little chunk from SILYou (can't remember which track).

This list reminds me what it was like to be in college and to live in a house full of frustrated nerds who sublimated into music. I think in a way the fact that I haven't lived in that situation for about four years helps explain why I haven't gotten as excited about new music since then.

The Moon is great (on The Glow Pt. 2) but it's only one of many highlights on that record. It has the most cohesive, consistent sound out of the 20 listed, which is no small feat when that list includes the Avalanches, Autechre and Fennesz albums. It wins for the Twin Peaks tugboat that sounds off about every 20 seconds, starting about 10 minutes into the album.

Confeld and Amnesiac clearly my faves on here.

why so much cann ox hate???

I still listen to that Circulatory System album.

cold vein, then white blood cells, then the argument, then change, then insignifigance

The ten I like, for reference, are;

Fugazi - The Argument
Beta Band - Hot Shots Pt 2
Cannibal Ox - The Cold Vein
Jim O'Rourke - Insignificance
The Strokes - Is This It?
The Dismemberment Plan - Change
Mouse on Mars - Idiology
Prefuse 73 - Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives
The White Stripes - White Blood Cells
Múm - Yesterday Was Dramatic, Today Is OK
Avalanches - Since I Left You
Fennesz - Endless Summer

Actually that's 11. I don't mind the White Stripes record. Ones in bold I really like.

I can't count. 12. I also don't mind the Mouse On Mars, though it's far from their best.

"avalanches reminds me of that old dk post where he says kanye sounds like hes rapping an emoticon after every line- first nigga with a benz and a backpack ;-) and a white man get paid off all of that :`("

This is so great.

Out of these I have to say Cannibal Ox, though I haven't heard any of the rock albums. Idiology is okay I guess, but nevertheless it was a disappointment at the time compared to previous MoM LPs, and I haven't really tried to listen to it again ever since.

The only problem I have to say about that Cannibal Ox LP is that beneath the (admittedly gripping) style it doesn't really have that much to say, but other than that it's as good as undie rap gets.

Whoops, a couple of extra words in that post.

I would've voted for The Coup's Party Music had it been on the list though. One of the best rap LPs of this decade.

better albums than anything on this list:

Also: Vespertine and I Get Wet, the latter of which would have been my number one (and was ridiculously maligned by Pitchfork in an almost unreadably off-base review). From this list, Glow Pt. 2. I'm with bernard snowy in that "I was totally into The Glow, Pt. 2 for about a year, but I can't remember the last time I listened to even a single track from it." - but whatever, it was really good. I reach for It Was Hot, We Stayed In The Water more immediately because it's tighter/only one LP but they were both really excellent records, great headphone shit but also great living-room shit, sitting around with friends and painting walruses on pieces of cardboard or whatever else we used to do in college.

Here's that PFM review of Andrew WK for anyone who missed it at the time - it's even worse than I remember, the guy is willing to out himself as the absolute worst kind of music snob possible if it gives him a solid platform from which to hate on Andrew WK.

can someone please define 'self-parody' for dom?