This has leaked, should of caught it earlier:

100. Various Artists - DFA Compilation #2
99. The Unicorns - Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?
98. Clipse - Lord Willin'
97. Black Dice - Beaches And Crayons
96. The Decemberists - Castaways & Cutouts
95. Unwound - Leaves Turn Inside You
94. The Strokes - Room On Fire
93. Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP
92. The Clientele - Subruban Light
91. Yo La Tengo - And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out
90. DJ/Rupture - Minesweeper Suite
89. Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
88. Viktor Vaughn - Vaudeville Villain
87. Ekkehard Ehlers - Plays
86. Bjork - Medulla
85. Keith Fullerton Whitman - Playthroughs
84. Mu - Afro Finger And Gel
83. Prefuse 73 - Vocal Studies & Uprock Narratives
82. King Geedorah - Take Me To Your Leader
81. Le Savy Fav - Emor EP
80. Annie - Annimal
79. The Go! Team - Thunder Lightning Strike
78. The New Pornographers - Mass Romantic
77. The Wrens - The Meadowlands
76. Missy Elliott - Miss E...So Addictive
75. M83 - Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts
74. Aesop Rock - Labor Days
73. Deerhoof - Reveille
72. Sleater-Kinney - One Beat
71. The Shins, Oh, Inverted World
70. Sonic Youth - Murray Street
69. Erlend Oye - DJ-Kicks
68. 2 Many DJs - As Heard On Radio Soulwax, Pt. 2
67. Herbert - Bodilfy Functions
66. Basement Jaxx - Kish Kash
65. Basement Jaxx - Rooty
64. Animal Collective - Here Comes The Indian
63. Cat Power - You Are Free
62. Iron & Wine - The Creek Drank The Cradle
61. The Books - Thought For Food
60. Spoon - Girls Can Tell
59. M.I.A./Diplo - Piracy Funds Terrorism, Volume 1
58. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever To Tell
57. Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - Hearts Of Oak
56. The Postal Service - Give Up
55. Cannibal Ox - The Cold Vein
54. Joanna Newsom - The Milk-Eyed Member
53. The Dismemberment Plan - Change
52. Max Tundra - Mastered By Guy At The Exchange
51. Prefuse 73 - One Word Extinguisher/Extinguished
50. Kanye West - The College Dropout
49. Lightning Bolt - Wonderful Rainbow
48. ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - Source Tags & Codes
47. The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow
46. TV On The Radio - Young Liars EP
45. The Arcade Fire - Funeral
44. Deerhoof - Apple O'
43. McLusky - Do Dallas
42. Manitoba - Up In Flames
41. Godspeed You Black Emperor! - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven
40. The Fiery Furnaces - Blueberry Boat
39. Radiohead - Hail To The Thief
38. The Rapture - Echoes
37. Ghostface - The Pretty Toney Album
36. The Streets - A Grand Don't Come For Free
35. Jay-Z - The Black Album
34. Sufjan Stevens - Greetings From Michigan: The Great Lake State
33. Missy Elliot - Under Construction
32. The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
31. Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - The Tyranny Of Distance
30. Clinic - Internal Wrangler
29. Fugazi - The Argument
28. Liars - They Threw Us All In A Trench And Stuck A Monument On Top
27. Broken Social Scene - You Forgot It In People
26. Fennesz - Endless Summer
25. Brian Wilson - Smile
24. Boards Of Canada - Geogaddi
23. The Notwist - Neon Golden
22. The Microphones - The Glow, Pt. 2
21. Radiohead - Amensiac
20. The Books - The Lemon Of Pink
19. Ghostface Killah - Supreme Clientele
18. Devendra Banhart - Rejoicing In The Hands
17. Boredoms - Vision Creation Newsun
16. The Strokes - Is This It
15. Dizzee Rascal - Boy In Da Corner
14. Spoon - Kill The Moonlight
13. Madvillain - Madvillainy
12. Daft Punk - Discovery
11. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
10. The Streets - Original Pirate Material
9. Animal Collectie - Sung Tongs
8. The White Stripes - White Blood Cells
7. Modest Mouse - The Moon & Antarctica
6. Sigur Ros - Agaetis Byrjun
5. The Avalanches - Since I Left You
4. Outkast - Stankonia
3. Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights
2. Jay-Z - The Blueprint
"No, you reading it right, this really is The Blueprint at No. 2, bested only by Pitchfork's Oxford-schooled golden boys. My my, how things have changed, am I right? But let's not get into a big conversation about our history with hip-hop and lists and such, for it's an ugly topic. It's much more compelling that our No. 2 album is almost completely the inverse of our No. 1; one the work of a band looking to distance themselves as far as possible from their pop-culture image, the other the work of an artist looking to declare his supremacy over the music world. Kid A was consciously designed to be radio-allergenic and promoted as elliptically as possible. The Blueprint, meanwhile, is as radio-fertile as albums come these days, and was pretty much a concept album about self-promotion.

Hopefully, I don't need to convince you that The Blueprint is any less of an artistic achievement for its directness. The record found Jay eschewing the space-filling crutches of skits and guest stars (except for Eminem) and recruiting the hottest producers of the present and the future (except for Eminem). Beat-makers like Just Blaze, Kanye West, and Timbaland laid down their most complicated tracks to try and snare Hov, but Hov couldn't be stopped: sludgy Doors loops, horror-movie soundtracks, Mexican dancehall-- all are easily taken down by his effortlessly melodic, charismatic ruminations on arraignments, drug dealings, and, of course, dissing Nas (was there ever a more productive rap battle?). Me, I prefer Jay-Z when the backing track is appropriately cinematic, soul strings swelling, fanfare blasting, everything in its right place as Sean Carter ascends his throne. --Rob Mitchum"


1. Radiohead - Kid A
"Exactly how and why Radiohead's Kid A has come to stand as the definitive artistic statement for rock-consumers born after 1975 is almost ridiculously difficult to discern. People believed, and continue to believe--sometimes manically, always fervently--in the metaphysical heft of Kid A: in its inherent aesthetic worth, its innovation, its meaning. In 2000, Kid A felt true and inscrutable, and, five years later, it somehow still does: from its chilling opening organ figure to its closing silence, Kid A is enormous-- a huge, sweeping testament to Radiohead's ever-swelling world view.

This album was an obvious departure from its predecessor, the guitar-riddled OK Computer, and alternately challenged and confounded Radiohead's core audience. Regardless, the record's supposed "difficulty" also lent it a certain sense of gravity: Kid A is confrontational and insistent, mysteriously capable of convincing some of the most stridently anti-electro guitarheads that inorganic flourishes can feel bloody and real. Consequently, in the months following its release, Kid A transformed into an intellectual symbol of sorts, a surprisingly ubiquitous signifier of self, a membership card, a confirmation. Owning it became "getting it"; getting it became "annointing it." The record's significance as a litmus test was stupid and instant and undeniable: In certain circles, you were only as credible as your relationship to Kid A. And that kind of intense, unilateral, with-us-or-against-us fandom felt oddly, uncomfortably apropos in the face of all that sound.

It is in this weird sense that this was (and continues to be) the perfect record for its time: Ominous, surreal, and impossibly millennial, Kid A's revolutionary tangle of yelpy, apocalyptic vocals, glitchy synths, and beautiful drones is uncertain about both its past and present-- and, accordingly, timeless. --Amanda Petrusich"

Source Cited
http://pitchforkmedia.com/top/2000-04/albums

How does Arcade Fire just beat Animal Collective for best of 2004, yet AC smokes AF out of the water in the 4-year countdown?

Things like that don't make much sense to me. Is it just a matter of context, or something?

yes, another list!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

wow, weird list.

I enjoy 20 of the albums mentioned.

Marshall Mathers LP is ninety-two albums too low.

also, where is Badly Drawn Boy's debut?

yeah i saw this on hipinion, as you must have done too Bee.

My question is

Where is Primal Scream's XTRMNTR?

Pretty boring list really, although I don't mind their pick for no1.

Edit: It's also missing

QOTSA - Rated R/ Songs for the Deaf
Deltron 3030
Exploding Hearts - Guitar Romantic

i may have missed some of those though

I still don't know who Annie is...

should I care?

She was U.S. ambassador to the U.N. I should think you should care a little bit.

But, you don't know much about history, eh?

Jay-Z #2? Might be the 2nd best rapper, but Blueprint is definitely not the #2 album in that time period.

I love Blueprint. It'd be in my top 5.

And also, wasn't that Sigur Ros album released in 1999?

No, I’m over them and hardly go there anymore.

Got it from the I Love Music site.

This list makes no sense, as Funeral dropped under so many others from the same year.

I have a very limited knowledge of history...it's spotty at best.

Yeah, that makes me wonder if it is even true. We'll see I guess.

Yeah, this is a really weird list. Arcade Fire is way too low, particularly considering it was just named the best album of the year. Overall, just a weird list.

I think Pitchfork is still trying to find their ass after the reformat.... and no where close to springing a new definitive list of their mistakes upon us. I call shennigans!!

Although, I do think they've stepped up the quality, I see no reason for them to pick Feb to make a statement about music of the past 4 years. Maybe in Feb of 2006 and say the best albums of the first half of the decade, but why the best of the first 4 years?.... shenanigans

Ding Ding!

Here comes the shit-mobile!




















F

Yeh, but see it was *five* years:

2000
2001
2002
2003
2004

Like that.

actually its not a bad list for a boring indie publication (who slowly began to knot themselves around themselves) and now trying ever so hard to win cred with more of the electro/pop/ilm/hiphop crowd, and not be stagnant etc

and that's why it seems (and is) so highly fucking contrived. they are like all over the place now, trying to play catch up with all these ppls.

also, under construction (which doesn't deserve to be on the list) like 40 places over missy e? so wrong. and so on. etc. etc.

i question them covering hip hop much more in the last few years. the same way people question when large corporations start showing an interest in things like skateboarding, hip hop, etc.

It seems like they came up with it in five minutes and didn't really proofread it. Dizee rascal - boy in da corner and the shins - chutes too narrow above yo la tengo - and then nothing turned itself inside out and aesop rock - labor days? Arrgghh. It does seem kind of boring, but not unexpected...I guess it's the order they put these in that bothers me, more than the albums in the list.

OMFG, yes! I'm surprised this was on there.

I'm really surprised how low Meadowlands is on the list. That absolutely shocks me.

Girls Can Tell should be much higher on the list if you ask me.

I cannot for the life of me understand why or how Interpol is number 3 on the list. I absolutely hated that album. But I guess that's just me.

And not to beat a dead horse, but JA's Come to Where I'm From is an amazing album and unlike much else and is his best album at that. It came out in 2000 and should be on there somewhere. But oh, wait, I forgot, Pitchfork ignores him. huh.

And is the new poster Rp4rk from chicago Ryan himself? Just curious.

Well, it was released Stateside in 2000 on PIAS, I believe.