I know everyone usually gets upset about certain pitchfork reviews. Sometimes they can be right, sometimes they can be way off..its the nature of reviewing. I was particularly upset this week that they gave a 15 year old album the title of Best new music (I know its a Sunny day real estate re-issue and an important album, blah blah blah). Meanwhile, my #1 album of the year contender, Intuit by Ramona Falls, scored a very respectable 8.0 but I suppose doesn't warrant a "best new music" title. It was bad enough a few weeks ago when they were giving the titles to Radiohead re-issues and giving Kid A a 10.0. I still use the site for various music news things, but I'm increasingly disappointed in their reviewing when they seem to be hailed as the be all, end all of indie music knowledge.
I was also going to whine about their top 500 songs of the 2000's but was just linked to this fantastic buddyhead article that does a much better job than I could:
http://www.buddyhead.com/lil-wayne-2000-pitchfork-snorts-a-decade/
Post some of your favorite alternative music review websites!
Thursday, September 03, 2009
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I think Pitchfork gives Best New Music status to most of the rereleased records they examine, because the records in questions are often known as classics across the board, not just by Pitchfork (Radiohead, SDRE, The Vaselines, many more I'm sure). I'm pretty sure they don't count it as being one of the best of this year, because it's a reissue.
Someone made an interesting comment on the Buddyhead article about how since Pitchfork is known for reviewing independent, unknown music, their list shouldn't have included so much pop fodder, which I think they should have probably done because nobody needs to tell us how popular "Remix to Ignition" and "Since U Been Gone" were when they came out. An argument I had about the list was that it just seemed like they set their iPod on shuffle for most of it, but I mean, I think anyone else's list of the 500 best songs of a decade would come off like that as well. Trying to make that countdown was just sort of a ridiculous idea to begin with, but at least they tried, I guess.
Also, I don't think the reviewer said anything bad about Intuit but still gave it an 8.0. That doesn't really make sense, either. Numerical rankings are just super subjective, and they only lead to confusion rather than clarity.
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