The Top 50 Albums of the Year

Panda Bear, the only artist to receive the award two times: In 2007, with his album Person Pitch and in 2009 with Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion.

The Top 50 Albums of the Year is a list organized by Pitchfork Media, indicating the site's favorite albums of the year, determined by a vote conducted among the site's editors. The list has been published annually since 1999.

Pitchfork Media was founded in 1995, but the first year-end list was in 1999, when the webzine already had a considerable reputation in indie music scene, and was picked by eleven critics: Chip Chanko, Paul Cooper, Brent DiCrescenzo, Zach Hooker, Samir Khan, Neil Lieberman, Nick Mirov, Mark Richardson, Michael Sandlin, Ryan Schreiber and Brent S. Sirota.[1] It resulted in a Top 10 list, topped by The Dismemberment Plan, with Emergency & I.

In 2000 the list was expanded to a Top 20, stating: "Typically, we end the year with a list of the 10 best records, but this year, even narrowing it down to 20 didn't come easily. There were tons of great bands we wanted to mention-- there just wasn't room.",[2] the same for 2001.[3] In 2002 the list was further expanded to a top 50 and has remained in that format.[4][5]

Official title

Years Name Reference
1999 Top 10 Albums of the Year [1]
2000–2001 Top 20 Albums of the Year [2][3]
2002–2007 Top 50 Albums of the Year [4][6][7][8][9][10]
2008 The 50 Best Albums of the Year [11]
2009–present The Top 50 Albums of the Year [5][12][13][14][15]

Number-one albums

Travis Morrison, the vocalist of The Dismemberment Plan, the band that got the number-one spot in the first edition of the list.
Thom Yorke, the vocalist of Radiohead, the winners in 2000 for their album Kid A.
Win Butler of the Arcade Fire, who won in 2004 with the album Funeral.
Kanye West, the first hip-hop artist to occupy the number-one spot with his 2010 album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
Year Artist Nationality Album Top 5 Albums Ref.
1999 The Dismemberment Plan  United States Emergency & I [1]
2000 Radiohead  United Kingdom Kid A [2]
2001 The Microphones  United States The Glow Pt. 2 [3]
2002 Interpol  United States Turn on the Bright Lights [4]
2003 The Rapture  United States Echoes [6]
2004 Arcade Fire  Canada Funeral [7]
2005 Sufjan Stevens  United States Illinois [8]
2006 The Knife  Sweden Silent Shout [9]
2007 Panda Bear  United States Person Pitch [10]
2008 Fleet Foxes  United States Sun Giant/Fleet Foxes [11]
2009 Animal Collective  United States Merriweather Post Pavilion [13]
2010 Kanye West  United States My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy [14]
2011 Bon Iver  United States Bon Iver, Bon Iver [5]
2012 Kendrick Lamar  United States good kid, m.A.A.d city [12]
2013 Vampire Weekend  United States Modern Vampires of the City [15]
2014 Run the Jewels  United States Run the Jewels 2 [16]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Top 10 Albums of 1999". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 26 June 2012.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Top 20 Albums of 2000". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 26 June 2012.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Top 20 Albums of 2001". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 26 June 2012.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "Top 50 Albums of 2002". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 26 June 2012.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "The Top 50 Albums of 2011". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 26 June 2012.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Top 50 Albums of 2003". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 26 June 2012.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Top 50 Albums of 2004". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 26 June 2012.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Top 50 Albums of 2005". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 26 June 2012.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Top 50 Albums of 2006". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 26 June 2012.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 "Top 50 Albums of 2007". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 26 June 2012.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 "The 50 Best Albums of 2008". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 26 June 2012.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 "The Top 50 Albums of 2012". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 21 December 2012.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 "The Top 50 Albums of 2009". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 26 June 2012.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 "The Top 50 Albums of 2010". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 26 June 2012.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 "The Top 50 Albums of 2013". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 18 December 2013.
  16. ↑ "The Top 50 Albums of 2014". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 17 December 2014.

External links