Thursday, August 27, 2009

Song of the ... er ... decade?

So, Pitchfork has published a list of the 500 best songs of the first decade of the 21st century. A few thoughts:

1. Isn't it a bit like announcing the winner of the grand final while you're still only half-way through the last quarter?

2. How is it that I have never even heard of, let alone heard, the song that has been anointed as the number one song of the first decade of the 21st century?

3. I wonder what was number 501?

4. One thing a scroll through the list has done is remind me of just how good the early Broadcast records were. And, I can now confirm after giving them another listen, are.

5. Surely the best record of the first decade of the 21st century is "I Feel Space", by Lindstrom: a record that, by looking backwards, managed to invent a version of yesterday's musical future that has, more or less, come to pass in the four years since its release. Whether this one piece of music can therefore be said to have caused music to be the way it is now, or whether Lindstrom just managed to catch the leading edge of a wave that had already begun to form, we will never know.

6. Wouldn't it be funny if the best song of the first decade of the 21st century hasn't even been released yet?