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Pitchfork Media’s 50 Best Albums of 2009 ?

Topics: Music | 1 CommentBy admin | December 2, 2009

No, it’s not here yet. Have suggestions for another cool source of indy music? In the meantime we’ll amuse ourselves with insane infographics that break down Pitchfork’s lists in bizarre detail.


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It’s time once again for me to start drooling as I await the Pitchfork Media 50 Best Albums of 2009. The annoying thing about one of the best of the “best of 2009″ music lists is that they won’t post it until it’s almost 2010! Until then, we’ll have to endure the inevitable mind-numbing assault of year-end “best of” lists from thousands of other sources. It took me awhile to figure out what exactly it was about Pitchfork’s list that draws me in and basically dictates my listening habits for about three months of the year: it’s the fact that every year, I utterly and completely disagree with about half of it! In their staff’s striving for uber-hipness, they end up exploring the remote fringes of pop that even weirdos like me are unwilling to embrace. Along the way though, I’m forced to listen to indy acts that otherwise wouldn’t have crossed my radar. The problem with lists like NPR’s Best Music Of 2009 (So Far) or Paste Magazine’s lists with the same name is that whether it’s poll-driven like NPR’s list, or staff-selected as in the case of Paste’s, they’re both from mid-year! They also tend to be topped with obvious choices like Animal Collective’s “My Girls” or Grizzly Bear or Neko Case songs. I mean c’mon. Who doesn’t like Animal Collective? They’re like the Beach Boys of the 21st century, produced by Cocteau Twins. So…we grumbled about our frustration with finding the best of the “best of” lists last year about this time, and didn’t get much feedback. So don’t bother offering suggestions this year, we don’t care what you think. Until Pitchfork’s list comes out, we’ll just amuse ourselves with this insane but fascinating collection of Pitchfork listsĀ  presented as infographics, broken down by genre, gender, and other factors. See an example below. And if you haven’t even checked out the 2008 list yet, we did a roundup last year with Torrent searches and Amazon preview links here.

The graphs below are cropped and resized. see the originals at VerySmallArray.com

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  1. Posted by » Pitchfork Top 50 Albums of 2009 - With Torrents? - Dissociated Press on 12.20.09 8:43 am

    [...] came a little early for me this year; I was just complaining recently that Pitchfork’s annual staff picks of the the 50 best albums of the year wouldn’t be [...]