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2. Drake - "So Far Gone"
Pitchfork Score: 7.4
Deserved Score: 8.2
Despite the fact that So Far Gone was the hottest hip-hop release of early 2009 and Drake had a bigger initial buzz than any rapper since maybe 50 Cent, Pitchfork slept on the mixtape for several months, waiting until "Best I Ever Had" was already near the top of the Billboard charts to finally publish a review. And while Drake's effective debut helped push hip-hop toward more indie-friendly sounds, many reviewers at the time, including Pitchfork, treated it as almost irredeemably corny. Even most of the doubters have come around to accepting Drake's undeniable talent, but that should have already been clear from the melodic hooks and haunting atmospherics of this groundbreaking mixtape.
3. Daft Punk - "Discovery"
Pitchfork Score: 6.4
Deserved Score: 9.5
Pitchfork has come a long way in the last 12 years, and few reviews exemplify this change better than founder Ryan Schreiber's tepid take on Daft Punk's classic album from 2001. The site has gone back and corrected this stance on the French duo's music in later reviews and features, and this year Daft Punk was the subject of a cover story and a highly complimentary Best New Music rating. It's unlikely, in other words, that this review has kept many people in the years since from paying attention to Daft Punk. Songs like "One More Time" and "Digital Love" have managed to cut through the broader cultural consciousness in a multitude of ways. However, it's revealing to see how foreign dance music seemed to an indie audience in 2001 as opposed to today, when genre lines are less important and Pitchfork is one of this style of music's biggest boosters.
4. Andrew W.K. - "I Get Wet"
Pitchfork Score: 0.6
Deserved Score: 6.0
In the intervening years from 2001 to 2012, Pitchfork managed to scrounge up an extra eight points of esteem for this over-the-top mission statement from partying and unironic fun's foremost ambassador, Andrew W.K. This self-correction shows a shift in Pitchfork's approach over time, but it's also an indication of how much the experience of being a music lover has changed. Back in the day, the really hardcore indie music fans showed how intense they were by showing an almost academic seriousness. Today, loving music has a lot more to do with finding something fun wherever it might happen to be. Andrew W.K.'s cheesy and sincere love of fun might have been eyeroll-inducing when it was first introduced, but today it's nice to have someone willing to cut through the cynicism of the Internet and just preach the gospel of having a good time.
5. Gorillaz - "Demon Days"
Pitchfork Score: 6.9
Deserved Score: 8.6
Excerpt: "Though the results of his exuberant mixing and matching are uneven at times, Albarn's obsessions fit together just often enough to again make Gorillaz more than mere Adult Swim novelty."āRob Mitchum
For the '90s indie rock generation that established and defined Pitchfork's initial editorial approach, Damon Albarn will forever be the guy from Blur, which casts everything he does in a different light. For those who came up listening to music in the early 2000s, Gorillaz might as well be his main project, and Demon Days is his seminal album. For many younger people, it may have also been their first introduction to '90s underground rap figures like MF DOOM and De La Soul or their first brush with pop music that sounded truly weird. Songs like "Dare" and "All Alone" are abrasive, especially compared to the easy funk of a smash hit like "Feel Good Inc.," but they quickly reveal themselves to be tantalizing, warped pop products in their own right. Few albums with such mainstream visibility had such creepy sounds as the strung-out "Kids With Guns" or the jarring "White Light," making Gorillaz one of the best entry points for a new generation of people interested in warped music that caught them off guard, much as the way indie rock had done for a cohort before them.
6. Death Cab for Cutie - "Transatlanticism"
Pitchfork Score: 6.4
Deserved Score: 8.0
Today, Pitchfork would never run a review like William Morris's skeptical take on Transatlanticism, which may have literally just been, as he jokes, his notes that he didn't have time to turn into a full review for his editor. There is something kind of sad about the fact that the site doesn't really run silly conceptual ideas like this anymore, but it would also be a bummer if people overlooked Death Cab's best and most important album because of such a vague write-up. So briefly let's celebrate the triumphant takes on bummer and uncertainty contained in tightly written songs like "The New Year" and "The Sound of Settling." Let's make a nod to that easily maligned and overly precious glove compartment of "Title and Registration," the kind of understated song that Death Cab would abandon for directness on its major label follow-up. Let's enjoy the crash of "Expo 86" and "We Felt Like Giants" as they wash over us, and let's remember why we cared about Death Cab to begin with.
7. Bon Iver - "For Emma, Forever Ago"
Pitchfork Score: 8.1
Deserved Score: 9.6
Let's not underestimate the importance of that coveted Best New Music stamp. For Emma, Forever Ago got a very complimentary write-up and a solid 8.1 score, but it flew under a lot of people's radar when it first came out. Perhaps bearded folk music dudes don't make good fodder for the hype cycle. But over the course of the following year, after a re-release on Jagjaguwar and bolstered by the promotion of singles like the spare sing-along "Skinny Love" and the quiet ballad of acceptance "Re: Stacks," the album picked up more momentum. Today it's rightfully considered as a classic of modern folk, the rough, emotionally raw introduction to one of contemporary music's most distinctive voices.
8. Jay Z - "The Blueprint 3"
Pitchfork Score: 4.5
Deserved Score: 7.5
It's safe to say that most people don't remember a lot of the album cuts on Blueprint 3, many of which were, as noted in Pitchfork's review, surface-level attempts to latch on to current trends and incorporate of-the-moment rappers. However, while Jay Z had long been seen within hip-hop as the genre's biggest star, it took the singles from this album to truly cement his place in mainstream pop's highest echelon. "Empire State of Mind" was Jay's first No. 1 single on the Hot 100, and hits like "On To The Next One" and "Run This Town" remain some of his strongest crossover pop bids. As a result, this album is what many audiences outside of rap know Jay Z for, and, while it had some flops, it showcases his willingness to keep trying new things rather than continuing to retread the same sound that initially made him famous. It may not be the best Jay Z album, but it's still an essential listen for anyone trying to understand the superstar's career and crossover appeal.
9. Childish Gambino - "Camp"
Pitchfork Score: 1.6
Deserved Score: 6.7
Sure, at first there's something that seems a little disingenuous about Donald Glover's rap careerāit doesn't seem fair to brag about how rich you are when you made your money from being a successful comedian or to complain about how not being "hood" enough is holding back your rap career when Drake is the most prominent artist in hip-hop. But Ian Cohen's insistence that Childish Gambino is holding straw man arguments or playing solely for laughs ignores just how well-madeĀ an album Camp is. The production, from Glover's pal and go-to sitcom composer Ludwig Goransson, is lush, ambitious and unique, and, while some of the punchlines are groaners, the lyrics of songs like "Outside" and "Kids (Keep Up)" are deeply endearing and affecting.
10. Mumford & Sons - "Sigh No More"
Pitchfork Score: 2.1
Deserved Score: 7.0
Excerpt:Ā "Live, it's probably their closer, but 'Dust Bowl Dance' hints that Mumford & Sons are in the costume business. They're playing dress-up in threadbare clothes."āStephen M. Deusner
Pitchfork's takedown of Mumford and Sons as a commercialized facsimile of indie and folk aesthetics undoubtedly helped cement the band's role as the butt of any joke involving mandolins. But while they may dress like parodies of themselves and make blockbuster songs better geared toward arenas than quiet campfire sing-alongs, the earnest English balladeers take folk elements and make hits. These songs, which do admittedly follow a similar formula of dramatic buildups, feel engineered for soundtracking dramatic road trips and meaningful early evening walks through busy cities. The pained wallow of "Little Lion Man" and the uplifting bombast of "The Cave" may be cheesy, but that's kind of the pointāand one that many miss when they buy in wholesale to Pitchfork's charge that the band is merely playing dress-up.
11. The Roots - "The Tipping Point"
Pitchfork Score: 5.4
Deserved Score: 8.0
Excerpt:Ā "Sadly, The Roots seem to be following the Black Eyed Peas' lead on The Tipping Point-- and not just musically."āNick Sylvester
The Roots have safely sailed into that point of acceptance where just about everyone agrees they're great but few people are that excited by them or pay them particularly close attention. It's easy to treat all their albums as uniformly great, or at least uniformly nice, so a review that challenges that idea is pleasantly jarring. Yet while The Tipping Point is almost assuredly the weakest Roots album, it's totally deserving of more than a quick dismissal as a meandering piece of middlebrow neo-soul. Recent Roots albums have been harder hitting, but The Tipping Point, along with Phrenology are better suited to throw on when you'd rather vibe out.
12. Mac Miller - "Blue Slide Park"
Pitchfork Score: 1.0
Deserved Score: 6.2
Excerpt: "Unless you buy into Miller's persona-- and why would you?-- Blue Slide Park offers you nothing that you can't find done more much artfully by, say, Curren$y."āJordan Sargent
Mac Miller reputedly took the terrible critical reception to his debut pretty hard, and Pitchfork was the harshest of the pack (he did recently have his moment of vindication when Pitchfork reviewer Jordan Sargent profiled him for Spin). You can see what he'd be disappointed about: Who could really get that mad about an album full of party raps that talked about missing your childhood park? It's true that Mac Miller wasn't stunningly unique on his debut, but he was no more deserving of scorn than the scores of other rappers with little more to talk about than their cool clothes. In many ways, the backlash against Miller seems to have been as much against the perceptions of his audience as against the actual music. The production on Blue Slide Park is rich and interesting, and Miller shows a real talent for making songs people want to sing along with, especially on "Frick Park Market" and "Smile Back." If there was a bright side to the panning, though, it's that it seems to have pushed Miller in weirder directions and toward exciting collaborators like Earl Sweatshirt and Ab-Soul rather than encouraging him to follow in the pop footsteps of his Pittsburgh buddy Wiz Khalifa.
13. Lil Wayne ā "I Am Not a Human Being II"
Pitchfork Score: 3.9
Deserved Score: 6.8
Excerpt: "No song on II is meaningfully distinguishable from the next. Everything pumps out in an undifferentiated slurry of interchangeable dick jokes, drug references, and lame puns."āJayson Greene
Lil Wayne has undeniably fallen off from his glory days, and rap critics have been quick to point it out. Jayson Greene tore I Am Not A Human Being II apart for its rehashed ideas and lazy attitude, critiques that aren't entirely undeserved. However, the rush to point out the immensity of Wayne's decline ignored the reality that there are still some monster songs on this album. Wayne's diminished rapping creativity doesn't mean he's lost all his pop instincts, nor has it kept his collaborators from putting in admirable efforts. In fact, with "No Worries," "Love Me" and "Rich as F***," this album contains as strong a run of singles as anything Wayne's put out post-Carter III, making it easy to enjoy, if hard to admire.
14. Kanye West - "The College Dropout"
Pitchfork Score: 8.2
Deserved Score: 9.8
It's not like Pitchfork tore Kanye's debut apartāalthough for a Best New Music rating and score of 8.2, the review is, as it notes itself, rather critical. But College Dropoutāconsidered Kanye's best or second best by a large swath of his fansādoes seem underrated in retrospect. While each of Kanye's later albums is held up as more or less undeniable art on Pitchfork, this one gets a nod as simply a very good hip-hop album. Hindsight, naturally, has made it easier to forgive the album's flaws: The career narrative of "Last Call" is more compelling now that the story of Kanye's early years isn't as frequently repeated, for instance. The skits are skippable, yes, but we've long since cut them from our playlists now that we're not listening to the album on CD. Lyrical "juvenalia" on once-maligned songs like "New Workout Plan" or "School Spirit" feel lighthearted and exciting compared to his current seriousness, while the upbeat soul production feels soothing next to the orchestral ambition of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and the grating clash of Yeezus. Now we know that this version of Kanye would facilitate the careers of Drake, J. Cole, Kid Cudi, Mac Miller, Kendrick and many more, so the importance of College Dropout is clearer. But the great songs were always there, if sometimes unrecognized, from the beginning.
15. Avett Brothers - "I and Love and You"
Pitchfork Score: 5.8
Deserved Score: 8.1
For the most part, Pitchfork's reputation for being willfully difficult or elitist is undeserved. However, one common trope that reinforces this perception is the site's tendency to pan a previously independent band's major label debut. I And Love And You is widely considered to be one of the best contemporary new country/folk albums there isāit was record that thrust them far enough into the spotlight to Ā land a chance performing alongside Bob Dylan at the Grammys. Despite this review's skepticism, its lyrical sincerity is one of the record's strongest assets rather than a shortcoming. The crisp production, thoughtful songwriting and delicate harmonies of tracks like "I And Love And You" and "Laundry Room" offer a modern, refreshing take on traditional sounds, giving a perfect example of the way that folk music continues to carve out new significance even in the current era.
16. Das Racist - "Relax"
Pitchfork Score: 6.3
Deserved Score: 7.5
Das Racist were obviously pretty over the idea of being Das Racist by the time they got around to putting out their official album, and that apathy is something that Ian Cohen definitely picked up on in his frustrated take on Relax. The album really couldn't touch either of the group's mixtapes, particularly the fantastic Sit Down, Man. Yet while Relax had little of the rapid-fire silliness of those projects, it had plenty of moments of enjoyable stupidity and brief flashes of a different tone that hadn't surfaced on the group's mixtapes. "Relax" served as something like a prelude for Heems's solo career, while "Booty In The Air" was a primer for the absurdity that Kool A.D. has embraced since the group dissolved. Lead single "Michael Jackson" is probably the best outright song that Das Racist ever made. Relax wasn't brilliant, but it was funnier and more fun than it was given credit for.
17. 2 Chainz - "Based on a T.R.U. Story"
Pitchfork Score: 4.5
Deserved Score: 7.1
There wasn't anything particularly profound about 2 Chainz's album, which, like David Drake noted in his review, seemed to almost force its way into making people care. But while its dirty jokes and one-note punchlines get a little tired when played straight through, Based on a T.R.U. Story has been an ongoing gift in terms of enjoyable singles, from "No Lie" to "Birthday Song" to "I Luv Dem Strippers" to "I'm Different." Presenting the album as a failure to deliver on the promise of a few specific mixtape tracks overlooks how fun it still manages to be. 2 Chainz does generally thrive in shorter formats, but it's a solid encapsulation of his work and an album that anyone paying attention to hip-hop in 2012 and 2013 should be familiar with.
18. Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros - "Up From Below"
Pitchfork Score: 4.1
Deserved Score: 8.2
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros is part of that rare breed of indie band that's managed to pick up quite a following in spite of Pitchfork's ongoing ambivalence. While a cynic might ascribe that level of success to the commercial-friendly, "focus-grouped" sheen that constituted reviewer Paul Thompson's central critique, it's more likely due to the simple fact that the band manages to make music that successfully applies traditional (and therefore familiar) sounds to modern life. Up From Below evokes the ideas of the late '60s and early '70s, but its restless jumble of styles could have only come from the multifaceted present. And then there's the band's massive hit, "Home," which is so essentially appealing it even managed to break through the cynicism filter of an otherwise skeptical review.
19. Nas - "Untitled"
Pitchfork Score: 3.8
Deserved Score: 7.4
Widely considered an embarrassing concession after an initial grab for attention, Untitled was dismissed by Pitchfork's Ian Cohen and others as one of Nas' worst albums. And yes, it may have been overshadowed by the DJ Green Lantern collaboration from the same era, The N***** Tape. But it also wasn't nearly as bad as people made it out to be. Rather, songs like "America," "Project Roach" and "Y'all My N****s" took a frank look at raceāand gender inequalityāin a way that few equally high-profile rap releases did previously or have done since. Musically, it may have been a little flat, but all the complaining about how Nas was watering down his message by compromising on the album's title overshadowed what a radical release it still was.
20. The Mountain Goats - "The Sunset Tree"
Pitchfork Score: 7.2
Deserved Score: 8.4
Although Pitchfork ranked The Sunset Tree as the 102nd best album of the 2000s, a look back at the site's original take on it makes the appeal puzzling, since the focus is almost exclusively on the descriptive power of the first four songs. While it's fair to say that "This Year" is probably the best song Darnielle's ever written, so much of The Sunset Tree's power is in the disarming beauty, subtle terror and understated poppiness of songs like "Dance Music," "Up The Wolves" and "Hast Thou Considered the Tetrapod." And if there's specific power to be found in Darnielle's decision to write a biographical album, it's most distinct in closer "Pale Green Things," a gorgeous dissection of the conflict inspired by the loss of someone responsible for substantial pain.
21. Devendra Banhart - "What Will We Be"
Pitchfork Score: 4.0
Deserved Score: 6.3
Devendra Banhart's version of folk has always verged on being off-puttingly weird, and his attempts at globalism and experimentation on his major label debut provided obvious targets for Pitchfork's disappointed takedown. What Will We Be does have a few multicultural clunkers, but it's a pretty fitting introduction for a broad audience, with soft, accessible songs like "Can't Help But Smiling," "Goin' Back" and "First Song For B." It's certainly not nearly as weird or jumbled as this review makes it out to be, its global strains mostly coming as understated rhythms in otherwise straightforward songs. It can be easy to malign an albumāespecially a high-profile moment from a well-regarded niche artistāfor indulging in some frustrating tangents rather than sticking to its core strengths, but there's nothing that strays so far here as to suggest it undermines Banhart's appeal.
22. The Mountain Goats - "Tallahasee"
Pitchfork Score: 6.7
Deserved Score: 8.4
Tallahassee got knocked for being a concept album, but anyone who's ever struggled to rationalize a flawed or destructive relationship after the fact will probably see it as much more than that. Like any great Southern Gothic work, it's richly evocative of its setting but also turns a specific feeling of doom into something universal. Songs like "No Children," "Southwood Plantation Road" and "Game Shows Touch Our Lives" are among the most immediately affecting of any tracks that John Darnielle has ever written. Rob Mitchum may have dismissed the easy lyricism of the "friends" line above, but it's a signature example of the way Darnielle can cut through his detailed vignettes and flashes of symbolism to devastate with a single moment of honesty. Anyone who's ever felt betrayed by someone close will find the album cathartic rather than contrived.
23. Rihanna - "Unapologetic"
Pitchfork Score: 4.5
Deserved Score: 6.6
True to its marketing pitch, Rihanna's last album was heavily judged as a referendum on her personal life, and Jessica Hopper took a similar stance, interpreting the music as joyless, lonely, manufactured and borderline exploitative. It's true that Unapologetic doesn't have quite the same obvious hit power as some of Rihanna's other albums, but it does have some more interesting moments, from the dramatic crash of "Diamonds," to the icy shimmer of the Mike Will Made It-produced "Pour It Up," to Future's gorgeously weird turn on the emotionally spellbinding "Loveeeeee Song." Rihanna's never been an album artist anyway, but this is one of her most satisfying front-to-back efforts with many of her more fascinating deep cuts, such as the seven minute "Love Without Tragedy/Mother Mary."
24. Coldplay - "A Rush of Blood to the Head"
Pitchfork Score: 5.1
Deserved Score: 8.0
Two of Pitchfork's most reliable critical stances are that whatever band the U.K. rock press is hyping is overrated (Alt-J anyone?) and that Coldplay is boring. A Rush of Blood to the Head, which is arguably Coldplay's best album and the source of two of its most beloved hits, got slapped with both distinctions (this was when there were critics really hyping the band, before the "boring" narrative fully took hold). The review completely overlooked the sweeping catharsis of "The Scientist" and the fragile coda "Amsterdam," which remains one of Chris Martin's most poignant and vulnerable songs. Parachutes may have been the album that made Coldplay famous, but their sophomore effort is a large part of why they became superstars. Contrary to what Pitchfork argued, it showed the band strengthening their songwriting and ramping up the excitement.
25. Nicki Minaj - "Pink Friday"
Pitchfork Score: 6.5
Deserved Score: 8.8
Yes, Nicki Minaj's debut felt like a bit of a letdown based on the promise of a rapper who had already stacked up an impeccable resume of boundary-pushing guest verses and mixtape tracks, and then-Pitchfork-Editor-in-Chief Scott Plagenhoef's review expressed the same disappointment many felt on the first listen to this album. But Pink Friday mostly let her early fans down because in many ways it was an introduction to who Nicki Minaj was about to become: a pop star capable of wearing many different hats. It featured massive hits like "Moment 4 Life," "Right Thru Me" and the sleeper "Your Love," which may not have been the songs everyone was expecting from Nicki, but were part of what helped make her such a broad-based success. Most importantly, though, bonus track "Super Bass," which didn't even get a mention in the review, is one of the best pop songs of the last few years and still the biggest single of Nicki's career (it did get a revisionist āBest New Trackā nod when it was released as a single the next spring). It's easy to write off a slightly disappointing album right after it comes out, but Pink Friday had more to offer than many first gave it credit for.
26. French Montana - Excuse My French"
Pitchfork Score: 3.5
Deserved Score: 7.2
Ian Cohen is right about one thing: French Montana is not a good rapper. Nor is he in any way the most memorable part of his debut album. He gets outrapped by everyone from Nicki Minaj to Ace Hood on Excuse My French. He even, as Cohen argued, sounds a little bit bored sometimes. But nobody was going into this album expecting it to be profound or game-changing. At a time when actual rap albums mean less and less, it's satisfying to hear a major label project come out that offers fun, if essentially meaningless, songs front to back. Whether it's a weird Chicago appropriation like "Paranoid," a shameless grab at The Weeknd's style on "Gifted" or the low-stakes mayhem of "Ballin' Out," these songs achieve their goals even if they don't innovate. Excuse My French may be little more than an excuse to turn up, but it doesn't deserve to be tuned out.