Year-End Analysis, Part III: The Knife Runs Away With The Pitchfork Poll

noah | December 19, 2006 12:47 pm
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Pitchfork followed up its Stereogum-confusing singles list with its top-albums-of-’06 list today; heading the pack is Silent Shout, the admittedly spectacular album by icy Swedish duo The Knife.

THE GOOD: A mostly solid top 10, capped by Scott Walker’s insane The Drift. Is this the first time an album sampling a piece of meat being punched made the upper echelons of the ‘Fork’s chart? THE BAD: Destroyer’s Rubies, which came out in February, gets this year’s “Forgotten Favorite” award–it placed at No. 18, behind the just-okay Sunset Rubdown and the soporific Band Of Horses. THE WHAAA?: Can a list be surprising in its, well, unsurprisingness? Because this list feels like the definition of consensus–nearly every place was telegraphed by this year’s “Best New Music” and “Recommended” tags, even the Liars’ shocking-to-some No. 5 showing.

Pitchfork Feature: Top 50 Albums Of 2006 [Pitchfork] Earlier: Year-End Analysis, Part II: Pitchfork Was Over “Crazy” Before You Even Heard It