Pitchfork's Top 50 Albums of 2009

My buddy Derek got married a few months back, and I met his wife Cathleen at the wedding for the first time.  So her knowledge of me was limited to anything that Derek had told her, and the info that's up on my Facebook.  She immediately engaged me with a discussion about music, and I liked her right away.  Commenting on my list of favorite bands on FB, she said something along the lines of "Read Pitchfork much?"

It's true.  She had me pegged.  The online music publication Pitchfork has done much to shape and influence my musical tastes these past few years.  If I see that an album has gotten "Best New Music" honors from Pitchfork, I can be pretty sure it's something I wanna check out.

That said, I've come a long way since I first started reading Pitchfork and various music blogs, and I believe that the musical opinions I have now are (mostly) my own.  I fashioned my Top 10 Albums of 2009 a little while back, and I put Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion up at the top because it's an amazing and gorgeous album that I've listened to over and over, not because it received raves from P-Fork.

Pitchfork has released their Top 50 Albums of 2009 list, and it just so happens that MPP takes their #1 spot as well.  Three other albums (Dirty Projectors' Bitte Orca, The Flaming Lips' Embryonic, and Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest) share spots on our respective Top 10 lists too.

But I do take some major issues with their list.  The following 2 albums were robbed:

Wavves - Wavvves

Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer

These records are fantastic, and yet they don't even make the Top 50?  Instead, they have stuff like Girls' Album and The xx's The xx in their Top 10.  Gross.  I like both of those albums alright, but they're just not Top 10 material.  Not even.

Also, the Atlas Sound album Logos should definitely be higher than #18.  I have it at #2 on my list.

You can read the list here. Or right here, after the jump...

50 Woods - Songs of Shame
49 Cass McCombs - Catacombs
48 DOOM - Born Like This
47 Zomby - Where Were U in '92?
46 Dan Deacon - Bromst
45 The Mountain Goats - The Life of the World to Come
44 tUnE-yArDs - BiRd-BrAiNs
43 Cymbals Eat Guitars - Why There Are Mountains
42 A Sunny Day in Glasgow - Ashes Grammar
41 Baroness - Blue Record
40 Mos Def - The Ecstatic
39 Jim O'Rourke - The Visitor
38 Major Lazer - Guns Don't Kill People-- Lazers Do
37 The Antlers - Hospice
36 Dinosaur Jr. - Farm
35 jj - jj n° 2
34 Passion Pit - Manners
33 Bibio - Ambivalence Avenue
32 Bear In Heaven - Beast Rest Forth Mouth
31 Sunn O))) - Monoliths & Dimensions
30 Röyksopp - Junior
29 Yo La Tengo - Popular Songs
28 Micachu and the Shapes - Jewellery
27 Various Artists - 5: Five Years of Hyperdub
26 Bon Iver - Blood Bank EP
25 DJ Quik & Kurupt - BlaQKout
24 Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle
23 Memory Tapes - Seek Magic
22 Wild Beasts - Two Dancers
21 Neko Case - Middle Cyclone
20 Real Estate - Real Estate
19 The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
18 Atlas Sound - Logos
17 The Very Best - Warm Heart of Africa
16 Antony and the Johnsons - The Crying Light
15 Japandroids - Post-Nothing
14 Neon Indian - Psychic Chasms
13 St. Vincent - Actor
12 Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz!
11 Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport
10 Girls - Album
09 Fever Ray - Fever Ray
08 Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
07 Bat For Lashes - Two Suns
06 Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
05 Raekwon - Only Built for Cuban Linx... Pt. II
04 The Flaming Lips - Embryonic
03 The xx - The xx
02 Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
01 Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion