Last Friday, the online magazine Pitchfork posted their picks for the top 500 songs of the 2000's (sorry, but I don't think that the "aughts" is going to stick). If you're not familiar with Pitchfork, it's one of the most influential new music sites, and is kind of like the Rolling Stone Magazine of the Internet, except with far less Bruce Springsteen. As much as I love real print, one thing that is really great about an online magazine is that you can also listen to all of the songs!!! So this was kind of a cool thing for me!
I have to admit that I do love lists, and I will probably read every end of the decade list that I can find!! But the Pitchfork list surprised me in many ways. First of all I was like, "Is it that close to the end of the year already?!" The answer to this seems to be no, but I guess they just wanted to get a jump on things. But then I was like, "Is it that close to the end of the decade already????!!!!!" And I guess that we are getting pretty close, which is so weird!! Ten years since we were partying like it was 1999 and waiting to see if all of the lights would go out.
But my final surprise after listening to a bunch of the songs is how ridiculously weak they are!!! I know I get on my grumpy hippie pedestal sometimes (often), but seriously, if that is the best that they could find then the 000's have been freakin' pathetic!!
Just to take the top 20 (out of 500!), there are two songs that are OK ("Ignition" #19 & "Hey Ya" #12), one legitimately good song ("Maps" #6), and one legitimately good song that's mainly good because it uses a song from 1982! ("Paper Planes" #3, from "Straight to Hell", by the way). And the #1 song of the 000's? "B.O.B."!!!!! Now I can't even listen to that song once! And of course I know that this is because I'm getting old, but is this really up there with "Hey Jude", "Try a Little Tenderness", "Radio Free Europe", or ANY SONG YOU EVER HEAR ON ANY CLASSIC ROCK STATION!!!!!!! uh, sorry.
Anyway, it feels good to rant a little bit & here is my much shorter list of the best songs (so far!) I would sure love to hear anyone else's suggestions!! By the way, I'm only counting original songs and not new arrangements of trad. stuff.
Take These Chains - Uncle Earl
Mushaboom - Feist
Surprise Hotel - Fool's Gold
Paper Planes - M.I.A. (OK, it's a pretty good song!)
Everything is Free - Gillian Welch
High on a Hill - Kate Rusby
Four Leaf Clover - Badly Drawn Boy
Yankee Bayonet - The Decemberists
Bridges and Baloons - Joanna Newsom
Only Skin - Joanna Newsom
I Feel it All - Feist
Wagon Wheel - Old Crow Medicine Show
In the Beats We Trust - 3am
Mary From the Mountain - Morning Glory :)
And here is the Pitchfork list (top 20):
http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/7693-the-top-500-tracks-of-the-2000s-20-1/1/
Peace & Love to everyone!!!
5 comments:
I don't know, Patrick. I hear your angst and torture here, but I looked into the link, and the article and website in general looks pretty silly and..well...stupid. However, I do admit that I'm not too bothered by the state of current music much, as it's not my preferred medium.
They seem to have a biased towards dance or club music. And you seem to have a bias towards folky music. So, whaddya gonna do? Start your own website and make your own list...wait, you did that!
I'll leave it to you and Eric to argue out the particulars. Let me know if you agree on the top 5, and maybe I'll have a listen.
Amy
I love you, you grumpy old man. Where in the world did you find this picture?
A lot to digest here. I want to come up with a thoughtful list, but the more I though about it, the longer it became. So I'll save that for my blog sometime. (Maybe closer to the actual end of the year/decade.)
I must admit that I am pretty out of touch with a lot of popular music today, so I haven't heard half this stuff. My initial reaction to Pitchfork's top 20 is:
I am old.
Also, not enough Arcade Fire.
But Patrick, I admit I do love LCD Soundsystem and Daft Punk and can't see how anybody could diss "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley.
"Hey Ya" was great, as were "Maps" and "Paper Planes". I like "B.O.B.", though it probably wouldn't crack my personal top 500.
These lists are always preposterous. The classic is SPIN Magazine calling Teenage Fanclub's "Bandwagonesque" the best album of 1991, over "Loveless", "Achtung Baby", and a little album called "Nevermind."
But I agree, they are fun to read and argue about, and I will read all of them. Pitchfork has many such lists.
"...I must admit that I am pretty out of touch with a lot of popular music today, so I haven't heard half this stuff. My initial reaction to Pitchfork's top 20 is:
I am old.,,,"
Yeah - that pretty much sums it up. I was thinking of all my favorite artists and realized most of them could have hung out with Jerry at some point!
A few recent things that I like did pop out of my head, though - I really like Missy Higgnes "Peachy" -it has that same I-hate-the-entire-world-because-this-relationship-is-killing-me vibe of Layla, before it was neutered.
Also, of course, I have to throw my personal darlings The Dagons into the mix - check out Changeling, Skinless Jim, Amaroq, and Poison Comb.
And though they have received WAY too much play, adn I wouldn't put them in a top list - KT Tunstall's Black Horse and Lucinda William's Car Wheels (on a Gravel Road) are both really lovely.
In the Pines/Jolene sung by Sara Evans gives me chills everytime, but I think it's actually a remake of an old song.
Old, just like me! :)
Ha! You think you guys are old. The only CD's I own are Prince CD's, and the soundtracks for the Rocky Horror Picture show and A Room with a View. All the rest of our music is Patrick's. I have absolutely no comment on all of this, what-so-ever, (except for Patrick's hilarious bug-eyed grumpy old man picture). I did like some recent song or other that I told Patrick about by a band that I think is called the Airborn Toxic Event. It at least had the novelty of feeling heart-felt and it actually kind of reminded me of one of Eric's songs, so there you go.
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