Pitcfork earlier today released the bottom half (51-100) of their top 100 songs of 2008. Now while I admit there are certain genres of music that I stay away from almost entirely (I'm looking at you jam band wankery and electronica), I spend an inordinate amount of time chasing down and digesting new music. Maybe I'm just too old, or maybe Pitchfork scribes are trying to out-obscure each other, but the 50 songs listed bear no relation to the music I heard this year. Yes, there's Los Campesinos! and Vampire Weekend (and even two from Lykke Li's refreshing debut), but then there's also Buraka Som Sistema [ft. M.I.A. and DJ Znobia] and WHY's "Fatalist Palmistry" (which, according to Pitchfork's Grayson Currin is "the torturous culmination of Yoni Wolf's cyclical neuroses.") Incredibly, that tune is nowhere to be found on my ipod.
You've also got "Poison Dart" by The Bug (ft. Warrior Queen) which PFer Matthew Murphy claims "seems broadcast from some post-apocalyptic future where little of the urban landscape remains intact but somehow dancehall culture has managed to survive and flourish." What!?
But my favorite bit is this description of "Enfants (Chants)" by Ricardo Villalobos written by Phillip Sherburne - ""Enfants" was essentially an extended edit of the introduction to "Baba Yaga La Sorciere", Chrisitan Vander's 1995 recreation of his group Magma's Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh, from 1973."
You've also got "Poison Dart" by The Bug (ft. Warrior Queen) which PFer Matthew Murphy claims "seems broadcast from some post-apocalyptic future where little of the urban landscape remains intact but somehow dancehall culture has managed to survive and flourish." What!?
But my favorite bit is this description of "Enfants (Chants)" by Ricardo Villalobos written by Phillip Sherburne - ""Enfants" was essentially an extended edit of the introduction to "Baba Yaga La Sorciere", Chrisitan Vander's 1995 recreation of his group Magma's Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh, from 1973."
I totally knew that... but didn't the Vander recreation come out in 1994?
Check out this list and tell me how many songs you know:
Check out this list and tell me how many songs you know:
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/147998-the-100-best-tracks-of-2008
I'd give this list a 1.7.