[MadDog5145]

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/top/2005/

One of my favorite artists, Sufjan Stevens, tops the competition this year according to pitchfork

 

[discord]

deerhoof got #6? lol :|

 

[markl]

I was surprised and glad to see Jamie Lidell's Multiply on the list, it's in my top 10 for 2005 as well. Lidell used to be in a funky, glitchy electronica band called Supercollider. He sings with amazing amount of soul for a white boy (albeit a drugged-out soul man having a nervous breakdown with his nuts in a blender ). Multiply is a more straight-forward album, imagine advanced shuddering, twitchy electronica spliced with Stax soul music. Sounds awkward but it really works well. The description in pitchfork is pretty good:

Quote:

Escaping the reductive seductions of his weird-core past-- harder, faster, grainier-- Jamie Lidell multiplied himself into a new polymorphism: blue-eyed soul devotee, self-sampling beatbox (if beatboxers imitated Merzbow, perhaps), multimedia showman. Onstage, he handily strips the title "performance artist" from lesser acts with more props-- his larynx-shredding, demon-exorcising blasts of naked funk and deadpan discomfort are more Marina Abramovic than Fischerspooner. Straighter than his recordings with Crisitan Vogel as Super_Collider, and nothing like his live shows whatsoever, Multiply is Sunday morning with tea and a kiss, complete with pretty much the whole Stax/Motown/etc. catalogues playing in the background. There are just enough glitches to make the Warp label stick, but the joint's really just about Jamie doing what he does best: splitting himself six ways at once-- until he comes crashing back together in the most unexpected harmony you've ever heard. --Philip Sherburne

 

[enjoi_rootbeer]

sufjan stevens and kanye west deserved top spots, but bloc party > fiona apple? hrmmmm

 

[rextrade]

Quote:

Originally Posted by markl I was surprised and glad to see Jamie Lidell's Multiply on the list, it's in my top 10 for 2005 as well. Lidell used to be in a funky, glitchy electronica band called Supercollider. He sings with amazing amount of soul for a white boy (albeit a drugged-out soul man having a nervous breakdown with his nuts in a blender ). Multiply is a more straight-forward album, imagine advanced shuddering, twitchy electronica spliced with Stax soul music. Sounds awkward but it really works well. The description in pitchfork is pretty good:

Been meaning to check him out for a while. Will have to hit Virgin on the way home.

 

[Borat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by markl Pitchfork still sucks, but...

I really don't understand the hate for Pitchfork. It's a great resource for music news, music reviews, interviews with artists, etc. And now that they've become really popular, they are able to put on a great music event like The Intonation Festival. I mean, yeah, some of the writers they have employed throughout the years have been annoying (I'm looking at you Brent DiCrescenzo), but for the most part, it is a really excellent music magazine/webzine.

You know who really sucks? Rolling Stone, Spin, and Blender.

They rarely have any readable content and you have to pay for it. Sites like Pitchfork, Stylus, tinymixtapes, etc. have made those jokers absolutely obsolete. And not just for the indie hipster stuff, they've got hip-hop, pop, and most other kinds of popular music covered as well.

 

[saturnine]

Glad to see Antony & the Johnsons in the top 10, they definately deserve it. I don't understand how Sufjan beat them, but to each his own..

Fairly decent list.

 

[zumaro]

Looks like a interesting set of recommendations to me, from the mainstream (Sufjan Stevens, LCD Soundsystem, Kanye West) to the brazenly obscure. I think the fact that Fiona Apple even makes it into the Pitchfork top 50 tells you something about the breadth of opinion that Pitchfork covers these days - she wouldn't be anywhere near my top 50, and Bloc Party would probably be in the top 10! Glad to see an early favorite of mine Bonnie "Prince" Billy & Matt Sweeney is up there in the ratings, as well as the wonderful Animal Collective album.

I too am not sure why Pitchfork is so disliked by some - their biases are easily countered for, and within their indie-centric musical view, reviews and ratings tend to be fair and thoughtful. If you wish to hear mainly about Pink Floyd and other AOR stuff then indeed Rolling Stone and Mojo exist for you somewhere down at the local magazine store, but Pitchfork covers more than adequately most of the new music that I really want to hear about. More power to their opinionated corner of the world - at least they give me something that I can think about and argue with!

 

[markl]

Quote:

You know who really sucks? Rolling Stone, Spin, and Blender.

Yup, they suck, too.