i apologize

I feel like being a dick and burnin you and pointing out I felt like I saw your list before. here is where every single band fell on pitchfork's list:

vivian girls-16
tv on the radio-6
m83-8
no age-3
portishead-2
fleetfoxes-1
walkmen-19
crystal castles-15
santogold-22
nick cave-32
crystal stilts-49
beach house-46

not one wasn't on it, and 8 of the 12 you listed were in the top 20! I know you said FEEL PFORKY but damn son.

the-there's... som-something wrong with th-that?

i try to maintain fairly open-minded to music

if you're only listing pfork stuff not sure how valid an open minded claim is.

edit: this may come as a huge shock but there are vast swaths and entire genres of music pitchfork only cursorily mentions and usually ignores. hell even NON WHITE GUY MADE music is usually absent.

the claim is false: he hates rap metal

brighter than creation's dark: 8.2
alegranza: 8.3
#50, Ice Cream Spiritual, 8.4
#49, alight of night: 8.1
#48, high places: 8.0
#29, stay positive, 8.4
#13, new amerykah, 7.8

why no guincho or dbt, despite having higher individual ratings than new amerykah at #13? why not give them places at #49 or 48, both of which are lower rated than both guincho or dbt? why is new amerykah even on the list? how come the list doesn't even link the full reviews? is it because people will notice dear science recieved a 9.2 and the sungiant ep only recieved an 8.7 despite being THE BEST ALBUM OF 2008?

obviously, these were individual reviewers, and unlike so many internet nerds I don't think the one reviewer determines the entire staff opinion.

I do think however, placing a band in the best new music section, does indicate some consensus. and both DBT and El Guincho recieved that honor. the shit keeps piling up; #40, the esau album, appears on only six staffers lists. so does drive by truckers; both were best new music. so an album chosen by six staffers gets to be #40; another album doesn't even appear. #50, the pony tail album that scored above dbt, appears twice. el guincho appears three times.

what metrics are at use here? it's not the staff list by any normal numbering metric: if we apply point values of the 25th place as 1 point, 24 as 2, etc, ponytail has a total of 30 points, and dbt, which is on two staffers #2 and #1 (ponytail tops off at #3 on one list), has 76 points.

so DBT is on more staffers lists. it has more value on each list. ponytail even being #3 on one list is beaten by DBT being #2 and #1.

but no DBT. it's nowhere. it's not even on their honorable mentions list.

the carter 3 and kanye's album are on almost every list. other than flying lotus's instrumental album, I didn't see any individual staffer list another hiphop album.

so yes shep, there is something NOT GOOD when your list consists entirely of pitchfork's best of 08 list or when you're using them as a reminder, because you aren't even remembering what pitchfork thought was the best albums of 08, let alone what you thought. the best of list isn't the best music; it's the best music they know pitchfork's audience will appreciate. there are dumb attempts of genre crossing with the bug and carter iii but it's obvious pitchfork views these like mysterious cultural artifacts to be presented to a hipster idol wearing a keffiyeh; they know they won't get criticized for putting carter iii up so high because they shaped their audience into thinking lil wayne's stuttering second grade snaps are some type of futuristic hiphop.

obviously it's a shit list. all lists are shit. but saying

the-there's... som-something wrong with th-that?

in regards to a list that doesn't even reflect the staff's own opinions? that's even more bullshit.

also unless you're going to say I WAS BEING SARCASTIC (don't care, I've always wanted to check the metrics behind pitchfork's dumb list and now I had an excuse) please don't argue this for everyone's sake!!!

seriously though did not expect the rabbit hole to be so bad. I had no idea that many staffers had listed DBT, two in their fucking top two albums, but they were just UNWILLING to put it even as an honorable mention. it was like scraping off a layer of dirt and uncovering horseshit.

sweet stuff there pointing pitchforkmedia's faulty list, and their strategy to appeal an audience.
But to me you went off on a tangent.
My aim is on the wrongness of making a list that happens to be strongly pitchfork influenced.

You already made your point with the openminded quote. That's valid man.

it didn't "happen" to be, he admitted he looked at the pitchfork list to jog his memory (fyi this is worse than just having pitchfork tastes as it implies you could not think of ten new albums off the top of your head that you enjoyed!) and my point is this is a bad thing to use. the list is not just limited in genre but also not even an accurate summation of the year.

I spent a lot of this year getting into styles of music that dont necessarily have a bunch of albums coming out right now

but at the same time I guess there was somewhere between 5 and 10 albums that I really enjoyed this year so whatever. I wrote some shit for the end of the year article, my list'll be there.

Man I just listened to most songs Flower Power posted and.. well you should really
come to my hometown cause it's full of that kind of music here. Not my kind of balls
though, but yeah.

Death Magnetic has to take it for me, largely because I had essentially COMPLETELY wrote Metallica off and the album kicked me right in the balls repeatedly.

Can't wait for '09 now, lots of good stuff coming out that I like. Queens of the Stone Age, baby!

Idk if you know this yet but Animal Collective's new album leaked a few days ago.

And yeah 2007 is pretty much my favorite year in music.

yeah MPP has been leaked the 25th. Not getting it till a couple days after Jan 12th (its release date).
But yeah, seems like it will be one of the best albums if not the best of 2009.

how do you put the new M83 in a best of list of anything but huge letdowns? even standing on its own its a hugely boring album

ALSO how come i never even heard of fleet foxes until a couple of days ago when everyone is suddenly talking about them. are they the new black kids?

Though not 2008 albums, this year saw the release of Matador's reissue of the first 3 Mission of Burma records (Signals Calls and Marches, Vs., and The Horrible Truth About Burma) as well as their superspecialdeluxenicenecreeders edition of Brighten the Corners by Pavement, all of which were suitably excellent.

i dont think i listened to much new music this year but i loved om's "gebel barkal" although it is just single + remix