Pitchfork's top 50 albums of 2012

It was okay. I liked a bunch of albums in the top 20 (would have liked to see Cloud Nothings higher though).

Animal Collective, Twin Shadow, Woods, Wild Nothing, Father John Misty, Titus Andronicus, and The Tallest Man on Earth were all big snubs IMO.

Am I the only person that doesn't get the whole Frank Ocean thing? I mean, I really don't get it, it's some shitty R&B singer. What makes that so great?

I dunno, sounds like everything else in that genre that's come out the past 5 or so years. Mediocre.

Never even listened to Frank Ocean. R&B isn't really my thing.

Pitchfork has an agenda that they're looking to advance.

I like that one song by Tame Impala, but other than that they pretty much bore the shite out of me

TNGHT should have been higher, that album/EP is fricking great

Shields was terrible. I gave it many repeat listens because I love Grizzly Bear, but man I really didn't enjoy it at all

Bat for Lashes should have been higher, and I don't even dig that kind of music at all

I would have thought Alt-J would have made it, but oh well. I guess it wasn't pretentious enough to make their list.

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they are paid by a lot of these labels to include them on these "best of" lists

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Is there evidence of this, or is this speculation?

I am by no means a Pitchfork supporter. I'm more in line with Baloo's philosophy. Find reviewers whose tastes you find agreeable, and check out who they like.

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hipster overload on that list

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It's Pitchfork, the magazine FOR hipsters. That's like criticizing The Source for ranking a bunch of rap albums.

I'm with y'all on the Diamond Rugs snub. McCauley is the man. And Pitchfork really champions music that does not rock in the least. I've kind of tuned them out over the past ten years. I'm far more in line with the AV Club or Paste.

I'm pretty shock Pitchfork ranked Cloud Nothings at all. Their blurb for it is befuddling:

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Last year, a lot of ink was spilled commemorating the 20th anniversary of Nevermind, though musically speaking, 1991 seemed much farther from 2011 than it actually was. Many indie bands lined up to pay tribute by recording Nirvana covers, but few seemed to be overtly influenced by the bygone rock era that Nirvana came out of. Where were the rock records with a fat bottom end and guitars that left animalistic scrape marks on your forearms? Were indie bands even interested in making that kind of record anymore? Finally, the cacophony cavalry arrived in the form of Cloud Nothings’ Attack on Memory, the first in a series of noisy blows that battered indie-rock throughout the year-- take a bow, Japandroids, the Men, and Screaming Females, among others-- finally restoring some of the piss and vinegar that had been drained out by prog-folk, Brooklynite art-rock, and chillwave. (Doesn’t chillwave already seem like it happened 10 years ago?)

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Yeah, there are a lot of bands that make music influenced by Nirvana and there are lots of bands who like to rock out... almost none of whom are championed by Pitchfork. For Pitchfork to turn around and say, "where are the indie rock bands who rock?" is shockingly dishonest. They don't rock out because they want to get a good review in Pitchfork, and you do that by not making a cacophony. Pitchfork is for the Brooklyn crowd who are the children of the art punks who were too scared to go to a real hardcore show.

Where was the noisy indie rock? Really? I mean, it's not like the Hold Steady and Drive by Truckers have been under a rock. Or what about Trail of the Dead? Or fricked Up? The Thermals? Hell, before they broke... the friggin' Black Keys? It's just that Pitchfork has been steadfastly ignoring them while pretending Yeasayer rocks anyone's world. Or that drone rock is interesting.

I've heard of maybe 5.

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Yeah, there are a lot of bands that make music influenced by Nirvana and there are lots of bands who like to rock out... almost none of whom are championed by Pitchfork. For Pitchfork to turn around and say, "where are the indie rock bands who rock?" is shockingly dishonest. They don't rock out because they want to get a good review in Pitchfork, and you do that by not making a cacophony. Pitchfork is for the Brooklyn crowd who are the children of the art punks who were too scared to go to a real hardcore show. Where was the noisy indie rock? Really? I mean, it's not like the Hold Steady and Drive by Truckers have been under a rock. Or what about Trail of the Dead? Or fricked Up? The Thermals? Hell, before they broke... the friggin' Black Keys? It's just that Pitchfork has been steadfastly ignoring them while pretending Yeasayer rocks anyone's world. Or that drone rock is interesting. 

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Every thing I wanted to say but put so much more clearly. The only words I could come uo with were "frick Pitchfork" and American Aquarium's burn.flicker.die should make any top 50 2012 list