Pitchfork: Best 200 Albums (Last 25 Years)

[LilyLark 10,104]

5 hours ago, lavender blonde said:

So many rock/alternative albums. Looks like something I would listen to when I was in my “doing drugs” era in high school  Are straight men ok? 

LOL. I actually like a lot of this but it's so clearly slanted in favor of men and alternative rock/indie albums. The fact that there is only one album by Madonna, and Phoebe Bridgers above Outkast...it's absurd.

[Kapi08 37]

[Future Lovers 6,926]

7 hours ago, WheresMy911Alice said:

Damn is Radiohead really THAT bitch?

Why have I been sleeping on them?

Their work is not always the easiest to digest because they are incredibly experimental and tend to change styles pretty drastically from album to album. Their opus is by far OK Computer, as it manages to be experimental but also quite easy to handle at the same time. Their melodies are incredible, the song writing is always top notch, and their production has consistently been some of the crispest and most well done in any genre. For my money, their two greatest tracks are Karma Police and Paranoid Android ! The song that got me into them though was the absolutely sublime, almost other worldly Burn the Witch which also has one of the greatest music videos of all time. 

[Oriane 21,114]

Arcade Fire and Radiohead having so many albums in the list and being ranked this high is not surprising and well-deserved. I'm glad to see Lana too.

I'm very surprised to see Eminem being that low, especially considering how much rap there is in the list. He's usually very acclaimed on these kinds of lists, especially by people with similar taste.

[Fanta 5,019]

8 hours ago, Butters Stotch said:

This is the sad true. Honestly Gaga is so talented but I'm impressed she has yet to release an album that trascends and that's really impactful amongst the GP and important for the history of music itself. BTW is an amazing record and it means the world to me, but for most people is just an album. TFM is unbelievably good, but it lacks some musical magic. Don't missunderstand me, these were 2 of the greatest pop eras in history, both albums failed to make history and that's one thing Gaga has yet to achieve as an artist, singer and songwriter.

No, I think BTW and TFM definitely made history. Bad Romance is up there with some of the greatest, most iconic singles of all time - and BTW's impact (especially for and within the LGBTQ+ community) is legendary. However, besides Shallow and ASIB, Gaga has yet to captivate all audiences with a solo album without it being considered a niche. Even during her most successful eras, Gaga was consistently plagued with controversy. My definition of magnum opus, besides impact and acclaim, is a piece of work (album in this case) that brings together all different groups of people that agree this is top quality art. A Star is Born soundtrack is just that, but it's a joint effort for a film. 

I would love to see Gaga put out a rebirth album, like Ray of Light or COADF. Chromatica was a solid album but it feels like it was more so a producer's project than it was a Gaga production. I believe her when she says she sometimes feels like she doesn't wanna do it anymore because you can tell her heart is not in it creatively like it used to be. Gaga has done pretty much everything and been celebrated for it rightfully so, but if she can put out a magnum opus sometime in the future her status in the industry as top-tier icon would be catapulted to legend up there with Michael, Madonna and Whitney. With all that she's achieved, that being a goal is not unrealistic. It's just whether she has it in her or not.

And with that being said, none of this erases or downplays all of her achievements in her career as an entertainer.

[wetasspussy 609]

16 hours ago, Chromatography said:

phoebe bridgers? LOL

the punisher was iconic tbo tbh

[Ziggy 11,865]

16 hours ago, Suspiria said:

Such a boring and predictable list lmao. Mostly men, very heavily skewed towards 'alternative' rock and acoustic sounds. I hate that this is still what is seen as "good" or "real" music.

But it is vited by the public so can't blame Pitchfork for this.

Lmao it is a list chosen by readers of their site. Their readers tend to skew a bit more alt.

however, their top albums feature Kendrick and Kanye so  hell, Lana and Taylor have multiple spots on the list and not just for albums that are “alt” like folklore. 

this is a fairly diverse list all things considered. The fact that I see rap, alt rock, pop, dance pop, electronic, and rnb within the first half of the list is pretty dec. Of the last 25 years, alt rock had a critical peak. Pop had a commercial peak but it didn’t necessarily blow the critics away on a regular basis lol I wouldn’t say this is a “men not getting pop” type thing when a handful of the pop women on here have more than one album on the list (Lana, Taylor, Lorde, Björk). It’s even got SOPHIE. What do you feel is missing from this list that would make it more “accurate” with regards to the presence of non-alt rock male catering stuff?

EDIT: if anything, I’d say it’s more evident white people made this list but, again, that tends to be pitchfork readers lmao

[Ziggy 11,865]

4 hours ago, LilyLark said:

LOL. I actually like a lot of this but it's so clearly slanted in favor of men and alternative rock/indie albums. The fact that there is only one album by Madonna, and Phoebe Bridgers above Outkast...it's absurd.

Eh think the last 25 years, though. Of *albums* I think Ray Of Light is the only one that really does that. Confessions almost does but there’s a few clunkier ones in there. I think if this was songs I’d be looking for a very different sort of list lol but in the last 25 years, pop has shifted away from albums to singles so none of this is surprising when alt rock had a critical renaissance. No one is making albums like, say, NFR or Vespertine on a semi-regular basis anymore in pop music. Even Gaga, who is very “album centric” has tended to make albums that are tonally all over the place lol

[Suspiria 10,683]

1 hour ago, Ziggy said:

Lmao it is a list chosen by readers of their site. Their readers tend to skew a bit more alt.

however, their top albums feature Kendrick and Kanye so  hell, Lana and Taylor have multiple spots on the list and not just for albums that are “alt” like folklore. 

this is a fairly diverse list all things considered. The fact that I see rap, alt rock, pop, dance pop, electronic, and rnb within the first half of the list is pretty dec. Of the last 25 years, alt rock had a critical peak. Pop had a commercial peak but it didn’t necessarily blow the critics away on a regular basis lol I wouldn’t say this is a “men not getting pop” type thing when a handful of the pop women on here have more than one album on the list (Lana, Taylor, Lorde, Björk). It’s even got SOPHIE. What do you feel is missing from this list that would make it more “accurate” with regards to the presence of non-alt rock male catering stuff?

EDIT: if anything, I’d say it’s more evident white people made this list but, again, that tends to be pitchfork readers lmao

Well there are no women in the top 10, only a handful in the top 50. The second half is a bit more diverse but still. Yes Lana, Lorde and Taylor have multiple spots, but they do have that 'acoustic singer-songwriter' appeal.

But, as you said, this is a reader voted list from a particular publication, of course it can't represent everything. Even I'm just looking at it from a Western perspective - if this were from eg. a Japanese or Brazilian publication the list would look totally different.

[Ziggy 11,865]

41 minutes ago, Suspiria said:

Well there are no women in the top 10, only a handful in the top 50. The second half is a bit more diverse but still. Yes Lana, Lorde and Taylor have multiple spots, but they do have that 'acoustic singer-songwriter' appeal.

But, as you said, this is a reader voted list from a particular publication, of course it can't represent everything. Even I'm just looking at it from a Western perspective - if this were from eg. a Japanese or Brazilian publication the list would look totally different.

Of course it would, but that isn’t really Pitchfork’s demographic of readers lol if this were a list made by *them* as a publication editorial team I think it would be a different convo, but as is I think it reflects a diverse array of musical tastes within the scope of what their readership probably listens to. It has 1989 which I wouldn’t consider to be alt leaning at all, and To Pimp a Butterfly, MBDTF, and like I said, I see two Björk albums on here and neither lean very alt rock-ish in the slightest.

I also think it’s good to look at music trends over the last 25 years. Pop has shifted from making great albums to making great collections of singles whereas alt music had something of a critical renaissance especially on the album front. I think there’s actually a lot at play informing this list but first and foremost, it’s a reader’s list, ya know? And their readers are generally college-educated liberal arts types more into alt music.

EDIT: but I’ll agree that I’d shake up the ranking a bit. It’s weird that Homogenic is simultaneously called one of the best albums of all time but is not near the top of this list. But that’s my personal opinion, I guess lol

[Italian 573]

Why am I not surprised that there isn't a single woman in top 15.

Once you get past the predictable titles, there are some albums that I'm glad that are there though

[FentyGa 14,340]

21 hours ago, Andreu said:

Suddenly i dont wanna click anymore

there’s high for a pop album

 anyway BTW deserves TFM’s spot

[Adrenaliner 3,809]

Blackout???

[Guest]

23 hours ago, Fanta said:

Every time I see lists like this I realize Gaga has yet to put out a true magnum opus. Born This Way and The Fame Monster come really close, especially BTW, but it's really interesting that with all the iconic singles and record breaking there's yet to be a true Gaga 'bible' that stands the test of misogyny.

fixedt 

 

 

[Bling 31,423]

8 hours ago, No Way Home said:

Their work is not always the easiest to digest because they are incredibly experimental and tend to change styles pretty drastically from album to album. Their opus is by far OK Computer, as it manages to be experimental but also quite easy to handle at the same time. Their melodies are incredible, the song writing is always top notch, and their production has consistently been some of the crispest and most well done in any genre. For my money, their two greatest tracks are Karma Police and Paranoid Android ! The song that got me into them though was the absolutely sublime, almost other worldly Burn the Witch which also has one of the greatest music videos of all time. 

Thanks so much! I knew some of their songs like Karma Police but I had no idea they were so iconic!