Countdown to Ecstasy: 2005 Best-of Music Lists

Oh, joy -- the results are in! Another year comes to a close with another pair of Top 50 lists from Pitchfork, as well as a couple bonus tallies. Not too many surprises here, although certain ranking placements and exemptions suggest the fork slightly modifies its opinion for the end of the year. In October, for instance, the second Broken Social Scene record received an 8.4 rating and a "Best New Music" recommendation -- yet it didn't make the final 50 (whereas Devendra Banhart's Cripple Crow, which also received an 8.4, was ranked #38, and The Decemberists' Picaresque, which received an 8.3, was ranked #26). These aren't necessarily inconsistencies. The final list, I presume, is supposed to reflect the consensus of a more general, collaborative opinion and thus stand as a more authoritative, time-tested perspective. The days pass and opinions change. Now that January is on its way, though, clearly the time has come to make up one's mind about whether certain pop records are really as important as one originally thought.

Another thing I noticed was that, in the wake of these lists, there was some grumbling that Pitchfork doesn't know anything about hip-hop. An interesting sentiment and one that seems to come up from time to time -- although I'm the last person qualified to take a stance on the matter. Anyway, I'll save a more detailed commentary for a later post. For now, why not see how the fork's roundup compares with some of the others on the web.

More Best-of-2005 Lists

Metacritic

PopMatters

Stylus Magazine

Information Leafblower

Alex Ross: The Rest is Noise

Said the Gramophone

Insound Employees

And there's many, many more where these came from (though, after a while, they all start to blur together) ...

Some Other Lists that are Probably a Waste of Your Time

Every Local Album Released in Raleigh, NC

Hottest Babes in Indie Rock

USAToday.com's Top 100 People of 2005


Over here, at least people are talking while they list.