Pitchfork Top 50 Albums of 2002

49: Dälek
From Filthy Tongue of Gods and Griots
[Ipecac]

48: Tom Waits
Alice and Blood Money
[Anti]

47: Songs: Ohia
Didn't It Rain
[Secretly Canadian]

46: Blackalicious
Blazing Arrow
[MCA]

45: Acid Mothers Temple
In C
[Squealer]

44: Hrvatski
Swarm & Dither
[Planet µ]

43: Pretty Girls Make Graves
Good Health
[Lookout!]

42: Beck
Sea Change
[Geffen]

41: Talib Kweli
Quality
[MCA]

40: Derek Bailey
Ballads
[Tzadik]

39: Kevin Drumm
Sheer Hellish Miasma
[Mego]

38: Eminem
The Eminem Show
[Interscope]

37: Secret Machines
September 000
[Ace Fu]

36: DJ /Rupture
Minesweeper Suite
[Tigerbeat6]

35: Hot Snakes
Suicide Invoice
[Swami]

34: Tim Hecker
Haunt Me, Haunt Me, Do It Again
[Alien8]

33: Rjd2
Deadringer
[Def Jux]

32: Philip Jeck
Stoke
[Touch]

31: Isis
Oceanic
[Ipecac]

30: Mr. Lif
I Phantom
[Def Jux]

29: Sigur Rós
()
[Fatcat/PIAS/MCA]

28: Missy Elliott
Under Construction
[Elektra]

27: The Walkmen
Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone
[StarTime]

26: GZA
Legend of the Liquid Sword
[MCA]

25: Neko Case
Blacklisted
[Bloodshot]

24: McLusky
McLusky Do Dallas
[Too Pure/Beggars]

23: Ekkehard Ehlers
Plays
[Staubgold]

22: Fire Show
Saint the Fire Show
[Perishable]

21: Wire
Read & Burn 01 & 02
[Pinkflag]

20: Hot Hot Heat
Make Up the Breakdown
[Sub Pop]

019: Deerhoof
Reveille
[5RC/Kill Rock Stars]

018: The Streets
Original Pirate Material
[Vice/Atlantic]

017: Fennesz/O'Rourke/Rehberg:
The Return of FennO'Berg
[Mego]

016: Black Dice
Beaches & Canyons
[DFA]

015: Enon
High Society
[Touch & Go]

014: Sleater-Kinney
One Beat
[Kill Rock Stars]

013: Keith Fullerton Whitman
Playthroughs
[Kranky]

012: Max Tundra
Mastered by the Guy at the Exchange
[Tigerbeat6]

011: El-P
Fantastic Damage
[Def Jux]

10: Liars
They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top
[Mute]

09: Sonic Youth
Murray Street
[Geffen]

08: Boards of Canada
Geogaddi
[Warp]

07: Notwist:
Neon Golden
[City Slang]

06: Spoon
Kill the Moonlight
[Merge]

05: Flaming Lips
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
[Warner Bros]

04: The Books
Thought for Food
[Tomlab]

03: And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead
Source Tags & Codes
[Interscope]

02: Wilco
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
[Nonesuch]

01: Interpol
Turn on the Bright Lights
[Matador]

Time for mass suicide, then.

Really, I found 2001 to be much more interesting in so many ways.

The thing about this year was there were a whole lot of albums that were fair to good, but really none that rose above that.

But anyway, yeah, proclaiming this year to be so great and then putting Interpol at #1 just negates the very idea of 2002 being great for music.

(This isn't making grammatical sense to me, either. Sorry, I'm on hour 24 here.)

Pfft ha no.

i think they pulled that idea of MoB influence out of their ass, tho (wtf?!) echo i can see, but burma?! proof positive that influence does not exist!!

none, mel? have you heard the streets album at all? it's phenomenal.

um, maybe in the top 50 of MOST CRIMINALLY OVERRATED ALBUMS. EVER.

really, whats so special about this if you've ever heard and _enjoyed hearing_ Closer ? It's worse than a "watered down" version, it's more like a mockery, what with that voice. notice how the "2 or 3" good tracks are the instrumentals? bitchy as it is to say, the haircuts don't help either. but, right, there's 'potential" there... is potential to become original and musically interesting supposed to count when the only thing that makes you interesting right now is just how unoriginal you are ?

the streets album isn't phenomenal either, it's just wowing people that a "such a young" 2 step guy who made it in his bedroom can actually write witty/funny/intelligent lyrics, and do the mockney accent thing. if the same beats were behind a lyricless album, would it get the same attention?

Maybe they were, uh, listening to the vocals?

OH NO GOD FORBID PEOPLE LIKE WILCO AND THE FLAMING LIPS AND INTERPOL! Christ, I thought Trail of Dead was the most ludicrous thing on there.

Can we please have a moratorium on "OMG PITCHFORK ARE INDIE STOOPIHEDZ" threads?

nate what about interpol's vocals reminds you at all of MoB? i'm sincerely curious. to me they sound nothing alike

A BUNCH OF THE ALBUMS EVERY INDIE COLLEGE RADIO STATION WILL PLAY AND BUNCH OF RANDOM CRAP THAT ISN'T ALL THAT GOOD BUT WE'LL HEAP PRAISE ON IT

I can't think of an album on there other than maybe Beache & Canyons that I consider "great". Most of that stuff is just "good."

that was the first sentence!!

Oh, and that list is CRAMMED with great albums. It's got some shit on there, too, but enh. That's just my tastes.

Sailboating? Should Christopher Cross write a song about Pitchfork-bashing?

that makes no sense.

Mark, Nitsuh, Dominique.

Since they're all ILMers, perhaps they'll be gracious enough to share.

(As long as I'm on my list, Interpol was tied for 3 w/the Roots. Yoshimi was 5th. OMG EL-P!!!!! was second. Do I officially have ILM's Most Boring Taste?)

Most pleasant surprise: dj/Rupture, and a good write-up by Mr. Dahlen.

Surprise omissions to me: Farben or Akufen. I'd have thought Mark and Chris Dare would like them quite a bit, and maybe some others, too.

But they ARE so alike. Both groups (Burma & the pols') sycophantic reverence towards their idols is inexcuseable. At least Interpol can fall back on simulation theory or something.

V

!!! OMG, you didn't say that, vic.

AMG writers always figure prominently in my ilx dreams, i just havent had a chance to post on that "omg i dreamt of ned ragget" board yet

1. Max Tundra - Mastered by Guy at the Exchange
2. Tok Tok vs. Soffy O - s/t 2 x 12" LP
3. Sugababes - Angels with Dirty Faces
4. Golden Boy with Miss Kittin - Or
5. Schneider TM - Zoomer
6. Ms. John Soda - No P or D
7. Saint Etienne - Finisterre
8. Justin Timberlake - Justified
9. Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights
10. Akufen - My Way
11. Russian Futurists - Let's Get Ready to Crumble
12. Streets - Original Pirate Material
13. Black Heart Procession - Tropico del Amore
14. Cornelius - Point
15. Royksopp - Melody A.M.
16. Deerhoof - Reveille
17. Fischerspooner - #1
18. Soulwax - As Heard on Radio Soulwax Volume Two (2ManyDJs)
19. Legowelt - Klaus Kinski EP
20. Hot Hot Heat - Make Up the Breakdown

Hmm, every record on your list I've heard, I like. I really need to hightail it down to weekend records and pick up that Tok Tok.

And Nitsuh: You did the Missy write-up and she didn't even make your top twenty? Strange.

The last three slots were really based on astounding single songs rather than being Great Albums ("The Violent Light Through Falling Shards", "Paint The Silence" and "Blood On The Motorway"). I really don't understand people caring about Missy Elliot or Eminem's latest...some of the least creative records I've heard in recent memory, espec. Missy, which has like 10 of the most obvious samples imaginable. The Chameleons and Kitchens of Distinction comparisons, while accurate, presume Interpol have ever heard those bands, which I doubt.

I was right about Beck! (#42)

I'm sure their onstage fashion sense is just a fluke as well, right?

I've heard you speak, MC Kellman. You rock the house.

Try to ignore the whole "why does ILM hates us?" angle for a second. Claiming a year end list to be effective because it is a year end list seems a bit circular, no?

0. VA, Improvised Music from Japan
1. Bob Drake, Skull Mailbox
2. Ellery Eskelin, 12+1 Imaginary Views
3. Ekkehard Ehlers, Plays
4. Gyorgy Ligeti, The Ligeti Project II
5. Black Dice, Beaches & Canyons
6. Acid Mothers Temple, In C
7. Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Ensemble, Dreams
8. Hrvatski, Swarm & Dither
9. John Zorn, IAO
10. Philip Jeck, Stoke
11. Lars Hollmer, SOLA
12. Seiichi Yamamoto, Crown of Fuzzy Groove
13. Satoko Fujii, Bell the Cat
14. Max Tundra, Mastered By Guy at the Exchange
15. Amon Tobin, Out From Out Where
16. Keith Fullerton Whitman, Playthroughs
17. Acid Mothers Temple, Electric Heavyland
18. Christian Vander, Les Cygnes et Les Corbeaux
19. Flying Luttenbachers, Infection & Decline
20. Derek Bailey, Ballads
21. Acid Mothers Temple, Univers Zen ou de Zero a Zero
22. Otomo Yoshihide, Ensemble Cathode
23. Fucking Champs, V
24. Tujiko Noriko, Make Me Hard
25. 2 Many DJs, As Heard on Radio Soulwax
26. Musica Transonic, Hard Rock Transonic
27. Rovo, Flage
28. Paul Lansky, Alphabet Book
29. Yuko Nexus6, Journal de Tokyo
30. Tom Waits, Blood Money

I wasn't allowed to count the Improvised Music from Japan box because it was 1) live and 2) a box set. I tried to argue that it was as much a part of 2002 as No New York was for 1978, but no dice. Anyway, I'm generally happy when after all the votes are counted, I have anything left to blurb.

Not sure what you mean by "us" (or "ILM", or for that matter, the whole nebulous "ILM vs. us" construct), but I honestly wasn't trying to be tautological here. The key word is the last word in this sentence: "If you didn't like PF in the first place, it's not like it's going to change your mind about anything, but as a year-end list it does its job well, which is to say that it reflects the tastes the PF staffers over the course of the last year accurately". Too often, the process of compiling a bunch of individuals' lists into one big institutional list can result in some weird, lopsided rankings (which some have argued has happened here, i.e. OMG INTERPOL #1 WTF) depending on how the votes were tallied. For instance, SPIN seems to compile its year-end lists by chucking out the window everything it had been saying for the previous twelve months and starting over from scratch. Pitchfork's list is one of the more coherent and cohesive lists they've put together, but it still managed to surprise regular readers (though no rude shocks— heck, I don't even think that Interpol at #1 is that much of a stretch).

Anyway, back to the actual list: I'm thrilled that the Books album got placed so high, a bit surprised that the Spoon album did well (I'm a huge Spoon booster, but I don't think they've made their career-defining album just yet), Deerhoof yay, and thank god that Beck didn't get anywhere near the top 20.

Why do people always assume that a comparison between two bands implies intentionality? I don't think it follows at all?

Dominique and I are the title fight in the Obscurism Vs. Populism Cage Match

Who's on which side?

(venus glow: i'd enjoy it immensely if you'd cite your evidence of burma's "sycophantic reverence to their idols". thanks in advance!)

Anyway I predict that my list will be a chief contender in the "perversely mixing the obscure and populist" sweepstakes. I like the presence of Justin Timberlake on Nabisco's list though. I want to look into a bunch of stuff on Dominique's list.

Amen brother.

I really liked the list; although I totally disagree with Interpol. I find them to be okay, but not original enough to be #1. Not by a long shot. I'd have to give that to Flaming Lips.

Sometimes parts of the list reak of token but frankly, I don't give a damn, as it helps me discover music I wouldnt normally listen to.

Chris Ott in massive missing the point shockah!!!

W-w-what? "Indefensibly tributary????" The point of the Missy record, in one aspect at least, was to recreate this imagined golden age of hip-hop with those samples, with the rhymes, etc. In many ways the record is a period piece -- why is this so hard to fathom?

And what point is created by being covert with one's influences? I mean, does that matter in any way, shape or form? How is that at all relevant? Your post completely baffles me.

Which obviously explains why Interpol was Number 1....

Haven't you heard? Derivative is the new new!

All I really have to say about this list is that if it stopped at 11, it would be nearly perfect.

Oh yeah, allowing their jam-band friends on stage in NYC.

Merry Christmas!

V

But Chris I still think you're missing the point. The use of recognisable samples in Under Construction is not the result of Missy and Timbaland wanting to make music like they used to dance to and going to the most obvious records on their shelves. Rather, they're deliberately chosen to trigger the most frequent recognition for the most number of listeners in order to make a point about the specific nature of Missy and Timbaland's nostalgia - a nostalgia which is repeatedly explained to be not theirs alone, but a collective nostalgia. Collective nostalgia by its very nature revels in the overly familiar, because it gets by on cultural touchstones that "we" can take for granted as having shaped everyone's awareness. That's why heaps of people go to eighties revival nights as Madonna or Cyndi Lauper or Michael Jackson, but no-one goes as the drummer from The Minutemen (so far as I know!) - what's the point?

Likewise, for Missy and Timbaland, using unfamiliar samples would unnecessarily obscure the nature of the album's retro-fetish - it would bog the approach down in an overly loaded understanding of what their eighties hip hop "golden age" actually was, rather than what it felt like to someone like Missy who, strictly speaking, was probably too young to have an incredibly intimate knowledge of the source material. And it's only really the feeling that the duo are trying to evoke - the samples are largely decorative, and often their retro qualities exist in deliberate contrast to still-very-futurist grooves. In contrast most other current "golden age" hip hop shies away from obviousness in samples but boringly champions an aged + authentic approach to groove construction.

Ultimately I think the retro samples on Under Construction are used in a similar manner to the the way pop songs are used on the 2 Many DJs album, which is pushing an idea about pop as much as Missy is pushing an idea about hip hop. As both are essentially "arguments" as much as they are records, it only makes sense that their creators would cite the most recognised and persuasive precedents in support of their position.

(ten points deducted from anyone who distinguishes the 2 Many DJs album on the basis of it being a mix album)

Tom Petty to thread!

Yes well this is one of the interesting aspects of the Missy album from a critical perspective: as Tom noted originally it turns the entire futurist-mainstream/traditionalist-underground divide on its head. I guess what I'd argue, similar perhaps to Scott, is that there's elements of Missy's approach which do not merely involve but are in fact based upon a (perhaps deliberate) misremembrance of the past, and the subsequent jumbling up of past, present and future within the one track. Essentially, you could take any of these tracks and quite quickly point to an element that could not have actually existed in old-skool hip hop, whether it be in Missy's rapping or the production.

So there's this constant sense of frission and friction arising from the interaction between the various elements; which is probably why the album oddly reminds me of a lot of bootlegs I've heard this year, as well as particularly diverse cross-generational mixes and sample-based albums such as As Heard On Radio Soulwax and Since I Left You - all of which execute deliberate timeclashes as well as soundclashes.

Conversely, the approach of Jurassic 5 - who I enjoy - and groups like them, by attempting to perfect a certain production technique (and flow technique as well) lends them a definite sense of stylistic coherency and cohesion, but as time-travel expeditions go, it's definitely a one-way trip. I'm not going to say that this makes their sort of retro automatically less defensible or appealing than Missy's, but for me it sort of pales in comparison to Missy's brand of time-travel, which is a bit like that wonky New Year's Eve time machine in the video for Will Smith's "Will 2K".

If it's not clear BTW, I think Under Construction is awesome.

rereading it now, i guess i think i see what tim f. is sayin', i.e., that Tim appropriations draw the link between his certain hip hop tangent and the hip hop of the masters. but aren't those old-skool signifiers inherint in Tim's pre-U.C. production (as new skool aesthetics are inherit in J5's sound) without him having to be overt about it? can you imagine the sort of reponse J5 would get if they tried to appropriate Tim's or El-P's sound into theirs?

edit: i just saw Tim's new post, but haven't the time to respond right now.

1. Keith Fullerton Whitman - Playthroughs
x. Farben - Textstar
2. Tim Hecker – Haunt Me, Haunt Me Do It Again
3. The Books – Thought for Food
4. Boards of Canada – Geodiggi
5. Yume Bitsu - The Golden Vessyl of Sound
x. Ekkhard Ehlers - Plays
6. Black Dice – Beaches and Canyons
7. Max Tundra – Mastered By the Guy at the Exchange
8. Jim O'Rourke – I’m Happy, I'm Singing, and a 1, 2, 3, 4
9. Philip Jeck - Stoke
10. Aluminum Group – Happyness
11. Acid Mothers Temple – In C
12. Markus Guentner - In Moll
13. Jan Jelinek/Computer Soup – Improvisations & Edits
14. MRI – All That Glitters
15. Phil Niblock - G2, 44+/ x2
16. Tanakh – Villa Claustrophobia
17. Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battle the Pink Robots
18. Metro Area – Metro Area
19. Schneider TM – Zoomer
20. Fennesz, O'Rourke, Rehberg - The Return of Fenno'berg

Nothing too surprising. I usually want to write about my favorite records, so you've seen me weigh in on most of these.

Akufen wouldn't have made my Top 50. I thought that was a very average record with one unbelievably great song ("Skidoos"). I've been baffled by the appeal of it all year.

My "official" ballot didn't contain either the Ehlers or Farben, b/c my understanding was that they were both considered compilations and thus were not eligible for inclusion. Also, bear in mind that Pitchfork's system allows any album reviewed on the site in 2002 to be eligible (O'Rourke, Hecker, Guenther, etc.).

Compiling the Pitchfork list is difficult b/c of the No Compilations and No Various Artists rules, the focus on the v. trad. usage of the word "album" limits things.

1. Keith Fullerton Whitman - Playthroughs
x. Farben - Textstar
2. Tim Hecker – Haunt Me, Haunt Me Do It Again
3. The Books – Thought for Food
4. Boards of Canada – Geodiggi
5. Yume Bitsu - The Golden Vessyl of Sound
x. Ekkhard Ehlers - Plays
6. Black Dice – Beaches and Canyons
7. Max Tundra – Mastered By the Guy at the Exchange
8. Jim O'Rourke – I’m Happy, I'm Singing, and a 1, 2, 3, 4
9. Philip Jeck - Stoke
10. Aluminum Group – Happyness
11. Acid Mothers Temple – In C
12. Markus Guentner - In Moll
13. Jan Jelinek/Computer Soup – Improvisations & Edits
14. MRI – All That Glitters
15. Phil Niblock - G2, 44+/ x2
16. Tanakh – Villa Claustrophobia
17. Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battle the Pink Robots
18. Metro Area – Metro Area
19. Schneider TM – Zoomer
20. Fennesz, O'Rourke, Rehberg - The Return of Fenno'berg

Nothing too surprising. I usually want to write about my favorite records, so you've seen me weigh in on most of these.

Akufen wouldn't have made my Top 50. I thought that was a very average record with one unbelievably great song ("Skidoos"). I've been baffled by the appeal of it all year.

My "official" ballot didn't contain either the Ehlers or Farben, b/c my understanding was that they were both considered compilations and thus were not eligible for inclusion. Also, bear in mind that Pitchfork's system allows any album reviewed on the site in 2002 to be eligible (O'Rourke, Hecker, Guenther, etc.).

Compiling the Pitchfork list is difficult b/c of the No Compilations and No Various Artists rules, the focus on the v. trad. usage of the word "album" limits things.