This is nerdy, but I guess I kind of already talked about it a few months ago. Pitchfork redid their best of the 90s list. At first, I thought this was bullshit. To a certain extent, I still do. But the second list is pretty much indisputably better. The first list was insane, just some of the most random records. The second list has more diversity, and as such, has more classics and less completely random records. The word "random" gets overused a lot, usually in the wrong context, but there's no other way to describe it.

The first list had such a narrow scope that most of the list had this quality of "maybe that's some great forgotten record." But more times than not, that was not the case. Looking at it now, it has more of this quality of "The Spinanes? Really?" I bought the Spinanes record in question on their recommendation, and it's good but generic. The new list... much better. Even though I might not really be feeling Illmatic, it seems like it should be on a best of the 1990s list, whereas, say, Heatmiser shouldn't. It's obviously not a perfect list, by any means. But for the second list, the individual lists are archived, which is really useful. You can really work out who's completely full of shit and not smart at all, (Chris Ott) and whose tastes align with yours. (Matt LeMay and Rob Mitchum both gave the number one slot to Neutral Milk Hotel, and even though Mitchum ranked both Pinkerton and a Braid record really high, that makes me trust both of them a lot for any recommendations in the future) On the new list, there's only one indie rock record that seems to come out of nowhere: Destroyer's City Of Daughters, but it turns out that's one that surfaces on the good writers' lists pretty much exclusively. It's out of print, but I'm working on getting it off Soulseek.

The old list also had Smart Went Crazy's Con Art on it, in the number 99 spot. I bought it. Didn't like it that much... There's some good lyrics, but it's really busy, and Now We're Even is a lot better... Now We're Even would probably be my pick for one of those great forgotten indie rock records of the decade, by my reckoning. It, too, is out of print.

Of course, now they have new writers whose tastes are unknown quantities.. One of whom reviewed the upcoming Beauty Pill record today. And according to him, its not very good. I have no idea. I'll have to pick it up, either when it comes out, or more likely, when I get back to Philadelphia. The review does mention that the record lacking harmonies is a waste, (as the band has two good singers, one male and one female, just like Smart Went Crazy, and when they used harmonies, it ruled) which I'm inclined to agree with.