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Pitchfork's Top 500 Songs of the Decade


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So far:

 

411. Wilco - Handshake Drugs

 

147. Wilco - Poor Places

70. Junior Boys [ft. Andi Toma] - In the Morning

69. Arcade Fire - Rebellion (Lies)

68. Dr. Dre [ft. Eminem] - Forgot About Dre

67. Band of Horses - The Funeral

66. Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal

65. Justin Timberlake - Cry Me a River

64. Interpol - Obstacle 1

63. The Hold Steady - Stuck Between Stations

62. The Shins - New Slang

61. Wilco - Jesus, Etc.

For all the talk of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot's noisy ambiance, one of its most memorable cuts lacks any scree. The smoky backroom jazz of "Jesus, Etc.", violin swells conjuring late-night embers of a campfire fiddle jam, sees Wilco branching from careerist jangle to a complex view of America and Americana. Reprise execs famously derided the resulting Yankee Hotel Foxtrot for lacking a viable single; Wilco ended up fleeing the label, YHF masters in hand, for Warner's more niche Nonesuch imprint. Hindsight may be 20/20, but Reprise's myopia is doubly startling: "Heavy Metal Drummer" is the obvious throwback summertime jam, evoking Linklater's idyllic Dazed and Confused, but "Jesus Etc." is its wizened brother, meditating on last cigarettes amidst stabs of pedal steel and eerily dovetailing with 9/11 ("Tall buildings shake", "skyscrapers are scrapin' together"). --Mike Orme

 

http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/7691-the-top-500-tracks-of-the-2000s-100-51/4/

 

Not a bad representation so far. The rest of the list (ranks 50 through 1) gets posted Thursday and Friday.

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I must say, I'm pleasantly surprised by the songs. My only worry is that the top ten are all Radiohead, Arcade Fire, and Kanye. Not that some of them wouldn't be justified, I'm expecting Pitchfork to "pull a Pitchfork" and throw all credibility out the window at some point.

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It'll prolly be "Hey Ya" by Outkast. Everyone loves that song, from the tightest-jean wearing indie kids to the trashy girl who cuts your hair at SuperCuts and all the stereotypes in between.

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I'm predicting one more Wilco song...I Am Trying to Break Your Heart will be in the Top 20.

 

That seems reasonable.

 

If New Slang will change your life, will Jesus, Etc. change your life even more?

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JT - "My Love" will likely be top 20. Also I would not be surprised if Britney Spears - "Toxic" made it either. I want Arcade Fire to make another appearance but that seems really unlikely...

 

"Toxic" already made its appearance. I forgot where, though.

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"Toxic" already made its appearance. I forgot where, though.

 

Oh, dear. Well, its pop prowess is intoxicating, because it's been drifting in and out of my head the past couple of days :hmm

 

seriously. :yucky

 

A good song is a good song, no matter the source. The question is which songs are good, not where they're coming from...sadly.

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I must say, I'm pleasantly surprised by the songs. My only worry is that the top ten are all Radiohead, Arcade Fire, and Kanye. Not that some of them wouldn't be justified, I'm expecting Pitchfork to "pull a Pitchfork" and throw all credibility out the window at some point.

 

At some point..? I just looked thru all 430-something they've picked so far, for giggles. That list is a fucking joke.

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At some point..? I just looked thru all 430-something they've picked so far, for giggles. That list is a fucking joke.

 

Aside from most of the rap, which I just don't have too much first-hand knowledge of, the list seems pretty decent to me. I'm not sure what would make a list like that a "fucking joke."

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Aside from most of the rap, which I just don't have too much first-hand knowledge of, the list seems pretty decent to me. I'm not sure what would make a list like that a "fucking joke."

 

I'm normally pretty skeptical of anything Pitchfork-review-related, but I actually agree with this. I've quite enjoyed the list so far, and it's featured my favourite songs by a whole host of bands.

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Scanning through my iTunes, here are my 9 candidates for Pitchfork's #1 song of the decade:

 

Sigur Ros - Untitled #8 (Popplagid)

Radiohead - Idioteque (though my heart would be pulling for How to Disappear)

Outkast - Hey Ya

Outkast - B.O.B.

LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends

MIA - Paper Planes

Rihanna - Umbrella

Jay-Z - 99 Problems

Arcade Fire - Wake Up

 

I would be satisfied if all of those were scattered around the top 20. Toxic would have rounded out my list to 10, but it already showed up in the countdown.

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W(TF) is right. These are the top 500 tracks Pitchfork want to talk about, presented by Haagen Dazs. Fun, delicious, but a joke. Songs have nothing to do with it, it's a barometer of relevance that doesn't extend beyond the bubble of internet music journalism. All three Wilco entries are from the span of time Wilco was relevant to said bubble.

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Songs have nothing to do with it, it's a barometer of relevance that doesn't extend beyond the bubble of internet music journalism. All three Wilco entries are from the span of time Wilco was relevant to said bubble.

 

But they're also many Wilco fans' favourite songs (as seen in that poll here, if I remember correctly). What does that say?

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Aside from most of the rap, which I just don't have too much first-hand knowledge of, the list seems pretty decent to me. I'm not sure what would make a list like that a "fucking joke."

 

There's plenty of great music on the list, but overall it seems HEAVILY skewed to Pitchfork's darling-of-the-week bands, with token nods to some mega commercial pop and rap like Britney, Alicia, Jay-Z et al. But others like Gwen Stefani and Franz Ferdinand are getting dicked. Same for bigger acts like Radiohead and Green Day are dicked here. My beef is that some very established artists that have done great work this decade are either severely underrepresented or posting a big fat Zero on the list so far. Examples....Springsteen, Cohen, Young, all zero. Nothing for Golden Smog or Loose Fur, nothing for Mark Knopfler or Gary Louris. Nothing from In Rainbows or Icky Thump, two of the best records of the last 3 years. MMJ has 2 songs in the first 438. I think Ryan Adams has 2 also. 1 for Sufjan Stevens. Yo La Tengo, Interpol and Sonic Youth are getting token crumbs, I think 1 each. Bob Dylan has 1 song from Love & Theft, zero from MT(!) or TTL. Lucinda is shut out. Daniel Lanois shut out. Paul Simon is shut out and cmon, his record Surprise was outstanding. Sorry if Im dating myself mentioning some of these older guys. But even major up and coming rappers like Knine and Buck65 are shut out. MIA will have more songs on the list, only 1 so far though. Canadian bands like Arcade Fire, Feist-New Pornos are nearly ignored, and where are Final Fantasy and City And Colour. Anyway there are loads of examples and yeah it is pretty subjective.

 

3 for Wilco is a joke too IMO, but thats just preaching to the choir....theyve had four excellent studio releases and I wont hold my breath for anything from SBS or WTA to show up. So yeah I dont know everything but I do think its a bit of a joke......Pitchfork are a bunch of snob hipsters, imo.

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Guest Runaway Jim

Since U Been Gone will be #1.

 

It's at 21.

 

50-21 posted here

 

Glad to see Everything In It's Right Place make it. I love that song. Conversely, I don't think I've ever been as annoyed by a song as I am by Float On.

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