Pitchfork Releases 2007 Best Of List (And A Playlist For The Top Ten)

Download: Burial - "Archangel"
Download: The Field - "Sun And Ice"
Download: Battles - "Leyendecker"
Download: Spoon - "The Underdog"
Download: Animal Collective - "Peacebone"
Download: Of Montreal - "Suffer For Fashion"
Download: Radiohead - "Nude"
Download: M.I.A - "Jimmy"
Download: LCD Soundsystem - "All My Friends"
Download: Panda Bear - "Comfy In Nautica"


Earlier today, P4K posted their Best-Of List For 2007. Read the Fork's thoughts about their 50 favorite albums of 2007 here, and or see what they were by looking below:

50 Tinariwen - Aman Iman: Water Is Life
49 Dizzee Rascal - Maths + English
48 Robert Wyatt - Comicopera
47 Yeasayer - All Hour Cymbals
46 Marissa Nadler - Songs III: Bird on the Water
45 Ricardo Villalobos - Fabric 36
44 Les Savy Fav - Let's Stay Friends
43 Stars of the Lid - And Their Refinement of the Decline
42 Ghostface Killah - The Big Doe Rehab
41 Life Without Buildings - Live at the Annandale Hotel
40 Beirut - The Flying Club Cup / Lon Gisland EP
39 The White Stripes - Icky Thump
38 Wu-Tang Clan - 8 Diagrams
37 Grizzly Bear - Friend EP
36 Iron and Wine - The Shepherd's Dog
35 Black Lips - Good Bad Not Evil
34 James Blackshaw - The Cloud Of Unknowing
33 King Khan & the Shrines - What Is?!
32 Sally Shapiro - Disco Romance
31 Deerhoof - Friend Opportunity
30 Caribou - Andorra
29 Bon Iver, For Emma - Forever Ago
28 Dinosaur Jr. - Beyond
27 Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
26 Various Artists - After Dark

25 The Tough Alliance - A New Chance / New Waves EP
24 Dan Deacon - Spiderman Of The Rings
23 Studio - Yearbook 1
22 Okkervil River - The Stage Names
21 Dirty Projectors - Rise Above
20 Liars - Liars
19 Feist - The Reminder
18 Kanye West - Graduation
17 The National - Boxer
16 Lil Wayne - Da Drought 3
15 Justice - †
14 Deerhunter - Cryptograms / Fluorescent Grey EP
13 Jay-Z - American Gangster
12 No Age - Weirdo Rippers
11 Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala
10 Burial - Untrue
09 The Field - From Here We Go Sublime
08 Battles - Mirrored
07 Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
06 Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
05 of Montreal Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
04 Radiohead - In Rainbows
03 M.I.A. - Kala
02 LCD Soundsystem - Sound Of Silver
01 Panda Bear - Person Pitch

Up top is a playlist consisting of one song from each of Pitchfork's top ten albums of the year.

What I found to be interesting were the omissions. For example, the 'Fork heaped praised on the likes of St. Vincent,(and rightfully so), who nonetheless was excluded from the top 50. Furthermore, Forked hyped bands such as The Twilight Sad, Menomena, and The Black Kids, aren't anywhere to be found. Even more interesting is that the scribe of the glowing Black Kids review, Marc Hogan, didn't even put Wizard Of Ahhhs on his best-of 2007 list. Very interesting, indeed.

Up top is a playlist of one track from the Pitchfork's top ten albums of the year.

(Jonathan Graef)

Reminder: Reader's Polls Are Due On Monday

So far, exactly none of you have sent in your submissions to our first ever reader's poll. Ouch, baby. Very ouch. But that's alright, because you still have the weekend, which is plenty of time to participating by sending your top ten lists to info@minneapolisfuckingrocks.com (though it's the holidays, so not even the fact that you have Saturday and Sunday off is a guarantee for free time).

ANYWHO, here are the rules once again: Take your favorite 25 records of the year, and split them into three categories. Ten albums that you thought were the most innovative, creative, and challenging records of the year; ten albums that you thought displayed the best songwriting/craftmenship, or were the best in sheer listenability; and the 5 albums that you thought were underrated. Lastly, list 5 records that you thought were overrated.

Polls are due on this Monday. The day after we tally the votes, we'll put up or one poll. Sounds good?

Once again, the email is info@minneapolisfuckingrocks.com

(MFR Staff)

Hey You! Yes, You Reading This Through Either Elbo.Ws Or The RSS Feed! Participate In MFR's First Ever Reader's Poll!!!!

Hey there Readers -

Us folk here at the blog decided to conduct our first ever readers poll. Hopefully, this will become our annual feature, but that all depends on your level of participation. All you have to do is think of 25 records you thought were the best in 2007 and divide them up into three different categories.

The first category? The top ten records in terms of sonic creativity and artistic innovation.

What we mean in this category are the albums that you thought did the best job of pushing the soundscape envelope and were ambitious in their vision and scope. For example, you might think about listing EL-P’s I’ll Sleep When Your Dead (for being a dystopian futuristic sci-fi hip-hop album); Battles’ Mirrored; To Kill A Petty Bourgeiosie’s The Patron; or Kala by M.I.A.

Now think of the ten albums this year that you thought were the best in terms of sheer listenablity and songcraft. These would be records that didn’t necessarily re-invent the musical wheel, but did an awe-inspiring job of creating the music that we play over and over again. Perhaps one might list Feist’s The Reminder; Boxer by The National; Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible; or Cold & Kind by The 1900s.

As for records that may split the difference, such as Of Montreal's Hissing Fauna or LCD Soundsystem's Sound Of Silver? That’s entirely up to you. We’d hope that these distinctions will inspire debate amongst yourselves which will be a constructive way of discussing how one should value the merits of a record.

After that, think of the 5 most overlooked records of the year and 5 of the most over-praised albums of the year. Once you have done of all that, send in your lists to info@minneapolisfuckingrocks.com and we’ll tally them up and display the results on the blog. Then, the next day, we will reveal our own picks with a list and MP3s of the bands who we chose.

Deadline line for the poll is a week from today (Monday, Dec. 17). Hope you participate and we look forward to hearing what you have to say.

Once again, here is our email: info@minneapolisfuckingrocks.com

(MFR Staff)