Pitchfork '90s Readers' Poll • Page 2

i wrote the blurbs for orbital “halcyon,” aaliyah “one in a million,” and mariah “always be my baby”

 

Arthur Russell getting play on both is cool

 

The songs list is cool, lots of omissions in my book but that’s how it’s gonna be. I’m also juuust too young to know some of the cuts from earlier in the 90s that are a little farther outside of my wheelhouse.

Pretty wild that one of the 3-4 best songs ever written is at #113 tho

 

Not even the wrong Built to Spill song but like, the seventh-choice Built to Spill song at best

nothing from the best rap album of the 90s imo (Illmatic) is wild af

 

Haven’t looked at albums list yet, will later today

 

I was being half serious with my song list (Sandstorm being the most tongue in cheek), but the almost complete erasure of 90s dance/europop is baffling to me. It was everywhere!

 

This or That? Play Pitchfork’s 1990s Music Battle Game

What’s the Story is losing to both Parklife and that one Pulp album, don’t tell @phaynes12

 

so they gave bias sorter a facelift

 

Yes basically lol

 

20 of my favorites in no order.

Palace Brothers - Viva Last Blues
Bonnie Prince Billy - I See A Darkness
Silver Jews - American Water
Smog - Knock Knock
Lucinda Williams - Car Wheels On A Gravel Road
Gillian Welch - Time The Revelator
Tom Waits - Mule Variations
Pharoah Monch - Internal Affairs
Songs Ohia - Axxes & Ace
John Prine - The Missing Years
Mos Def & Talib Kweli - Black Star
Nick Cave - The Boatman’s Call
Eels - Elctro Shock Blues
Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of..
Son Volt - Trace
The Lemonheads - It’s A Shame About Ray
The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs
Mos Def - Black On Both Sides
Digable Planets - Blowout Comb
Fugees - The Score

 

The Pitchfork Staff’s Favorite One-Hit Wonders of the ’90s

 

I honestly can’t believe pitchfork is dead. It turned into something much different and less personally useful than it was to me from like 2004-2015, but it is still completely shocking to me to see it swallowed up let alone by GQ. End of an era feeling

 

Immediately one of the stupidest media industry decisions of all time, and there have been a lot of stupid media industry decisions, especially in the past 5-10 years. I want to know who proposed it.

 

I’d guess some consultant hired at the behest of some hedge fund that I assume owns a lot of Condé Nast. Safe to assume that’s where all dumb decisions like this come from

end of an era for sure! a lot of my favorite writers who still do work for them are freelancers now anyway tho

 

There’s a special ring of hell specifically reserved for most “consultants.”

 

It is super disheartening that there's also the potential for old reviews to be taken down/paywalled. Not just the lack of regular new material.

 

I’m curious if the remaining freelancers will even stick around. I think back to the almost complete “abandon ship” moment that The AV Club had a few years ago.

 

Fucking shook tbh. The single most influential music site of my lifetime. Without Pitchfork and Chorus/Absolutepunk I would be a very different person entirely, or at the very least have worse taste. I have checked them both every single day since 2002.

 

Also, as a father of 4 kids it’s websites like Pitchfork that I have relied heavily on to stay up to date with music. Crushing.

 

Now you have to create an account to read the reviews. Still free, but we are already seeing changes, and it would not surprise me if these reviews eventually become paywalled.

Edit: Looks like they may have removed that, but it was a thing earlier today.

 

Apparently they all got fired by Anna Wintour on a video call where she didn't take off her sunglasses, which I'm reading conflicting information on whether it's for a medical reason or not, but yeah. Also: