“B.O.B” by Outkast, according to the writers and editors at Pitchfork who’ve just published the last piece of their exhaustive top 500 tracks of the decade list, that is. With a Top 20 packed with Pitchfork darlings like LCD Soundsystem, Radiohead, and Animal Collective, Arcade Fire, Daft Punk, and M.I.A. the pick of Outkast’s misappropriated ode to bombing infidels has to come as somewhat of a surprise. If you had asked me when Pitchfork first started unveiling its list who would be number one, I would have answered LCD Soundsytem’s “All My Friends,” with rock solid certainty.
Even if the eventual number one is considered an upset, much of the list has a familiar feeling for long time readers. The big winners, those placing three and four songs on the list, include familiar names like the aforementioned LCD Soundsystem, Radiohead, and Animal Collective paired with some of the biggest names in rap and R&B including Jay-Z, Kanye West, Eminem, Outkast and Missy Elliott.
The Big Winners (In alphabetical order) :
Animal Collective (4): “My Girls” at 9, “Fireworks” at 35, “Grass at 73 and “Leaf House” at 117
Arcade Fire (3): “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)” at 10, “Rebellion (Lies)” at 69, and “Intervention” at 271.
Belle and Sebastian (3): I’m a Cuckoo (By the Avalanches)” at 97, “You Cover’s Blown” at 133, and “Im Waking Up To Us” at 202.
Cat Power (3): “I Don’t Blame You” at 159, “Live in Bars” at 210, and “I Found a Reason” at 358.
Daft Punk (3): “One More Time” at 5, “Digital Love” at 23, and “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” at 139.
Eminem (3): “Lost Yourself” at 104, “The Real Slim Shady” at 177, and “Without Me” at 251.
Grizzly Bear(3): “Knife” at 109, “Two Weeks” at 162, and “While You Wait for Others” at 334.
Hot Chip (3): “Boy From School” at 29, “Over and Over” at 45, and “Ready for the Floor” at 76.
Jay-Z (4): “99 Problems” at 14, “Big Pimpin'” at 31, “Takeover” at 51, and “Izzo (H.O.V.A)” at 79
Kanye West (4): “Flashing Lights” at 52, “Gone” at 71, “Jesus Walks” at 123, and “Touch the Sky” at 157.
LCD Soundsystem (3): “All My Friends” at 2, “Losing My Edge” at 13, and “Someone Great” at 22.
M.I.A. (3): “Paper Planes” at 3, “Gulang” at 34, and “Bucky Done Gun” at 215.
Missy Elliott (3): Get Ur Freak On” at 7, “Work It” at 54, and “Pass That Dutch” at 291.
Outkast (4): “B.O.B” at 1, “Hey Ya” at 12, “Ms. Jackson” at 55, and “The Whole Wide World” at 207.
Phoenix (3): “Long Distance Call” at 85, “If I Ever Feel Better” at 120, and “1901” at 228.
Radiohead (4): “Idioteque” at 8, “Everything In Its Right Place” at 24, “Pyramid Song” at 59, and “Reckoner” at 254.
Sigur Ros (3): “Svefn-G-Englar” at 36, “Vaka (Untitled 1)” at 362, and “Hoppipolla” at 388.
Spoon (3): “The Way We Get By” at 33, “The Underdog” at 130, and “Everything Hits at Once” at 204.
Sufjan Stevens (3): “Chicago” at 49, “Casmir Pulaski Day” at 154, and “For the Widows in Paradise, For the Fathers in Ypsilanti” at 441.
The Strokes (3): “Someday” at 55, “The Modern Age” at 135, and “What Ever Happened” at 468.
The White Stripes (3): “Seven Nation Army” at 30, “Fell In Love With a Girl” at 58, and “Dead Leaves and The Dirty Ground” at 116.
Wilco (3): “Jesus, Etc” at 61, “Poor Places” at 147, and “Handshake Drugs” at 411.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs (3): “Maps” at 6, “Y Control” at 213, and “Cheated Hearts” at 326.
As for surprises and disappointments, it’s a list, it’s an arbitrary ranking by a ground of people, so you will find plenty to disagree about. After all, what are lists for? Bickering.
For one, Ohio is woefully under-represented — Kid Cudi, Guided by Voices, and RJD2 are the only Buckeye Staters to crack the top 500 songs of the decade. Which leads nicely to my next complaint, namely, as Pitchfork has embraced pop, rap, R&B, and dance music over the past decade, it has come at the expense of Rock ‘N’ Roll. Sure, The White Stripes placed three singles, but their Rubber City compatriots, The Black Keys, are nowhere to be found.
Other Observations from P2K:
* Even as I complain about Rock ‘N’ Roll getting the shaft, it was nice to see the doom and drone crowd represented with Jesu at #488 (“Sliver,”) Earth at #277 (“Coda Maestro in F (Flat) Minor,”) Boris at #400 (“Ibitsu,”) and Sunn O))) at #409 (“It Took the Night to Believe.”) Now, if they had substituted “Naki Kyoku” for “Ibitsu” and “Alice” for “It Took the Night to Believe” and moved both of them up, lets say about 400 places, I would have been even more pleased.
*You may have read Pitchfork every day faithfully for the past ten years and still, there’s names on this list you’ll swear were made up. No offense to Ward 21, Jackson and His Computer, Shackleton, Schneider TM, Nathan Fake, Rex the Dog, Sticky, M.O.P, and Jurgen Paape, but who are you? Really, I want to know.
* The Flaming Lips’ “Do You Realize” at 142, Grinderman’s “No Pussy Blues” at 105, and Peter, Bjorn and John’s “Young Folks,” placing at 84, all seem vastly undervalued.
* Speaking of Nick Cave, The Bad Seeds did place two singles (“As I Sat Sadly Be Her Side” and “There She Goes, My Beautiful World”) in addition to the Grinderman track, but 2008’s Dig Lazarus Dig, an album which has no fewer than seven best of the decade caliber tracks, didn’t get one spot.
* The new lo-fi movement in garage/punk/noise is represented by No Age, Vivian Girls and Jay Reatard. Thankfully, there’s no Wavves, but there’s no Times New Viking, either.
* Seeing both Andrew WK’s “Party Hard”(129) and The Darkness’ “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” (276) in the top 500 brought a smile to my face. Hooray fun!
* Seeing Mclusky’s “To Hell With Good Intentions” at 86, also brought a smile to my face. A different kind of smile, the kind where I’m smiling because I know something you don’t know — You and your dirty, Welsh mates are living waste. Hooray snark, spite, and bile!
* Removing all references to The Decemberists, Joanna Newsome, Sufjan Stevens, The Dirty Projectors, Antony and the Johnsons, and Grizzly Bear would net a list 3% better than the original. And that’s just from a quick scan tagging overrated indie.
* I won’t speak ill of The Shins, Vampire Weekend, or Death Cab for Cutie. Compared to those on my objectionable list, these dudes rule.
* What would my list look like? That’s a very good question. I’ll publish one of my own ’round the turn of the year, and in addition to more Ohio, more Black Keys, more Times New Viking, more Nick Cave, more Boris, and more Jay Reatard, I’d find a spot or two for Black Mountain, add in Fucked Up’s post-hardcore opus, “Year of the Pig,” slide in some Black Angels and include a lot less pop, R&B, and rap, but that’s me. I’m not a popist and I don’t pretend to be one, except when we’re talking about power pop. In 2009, there’s still nothing wrong with power pop.
* All in all, it’s not a bad list and I give credit to the fine people at Pitchfork for the massive time and effort they put into dissecting ten years of popular music. It’s no small task.
What do you think? What surprised you? What pleased you? What wtf’d you?
Pitchfork P2K (Including the 500 Top Tracks of the 2000s)
20-1
50-21
100-51
200-101
500-201
