Pitchfork album reviews have an incredible influence on a new artist's success. Favorable Pitchfork reviews have been strongly credited with "breaking" bands including Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, and Modest Mouse.
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah member Lee Sargent said, "The thing about a publication like Pitchfork is that they can decide when [success] happens. You know what I mean? They can say, 'We're going to speed up the process and this is going to happen...now!"
The influence of enthusiastic reviews from Pitchfork.com - anything above an 8.0 on their scale out of 10.0 - on new artists has disputably surpassed that of reviews from even NY Times and Rolling Stone magazine.
I've sifted through the top rated (9.0 rating or better) of Pitchfork's "Best New Music" albums. I'll start with the 9.0 albums and work up every 0.1 rating increase with each subsequent post:
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Pitchfork 9.0 Albums
[Sub Pop; 2010] "Front to back, the arrangements and sequencing are superb, and the LP is a stirring reminder that good things can happen when you move out of your comfort zone."
[ATP; 2009] "...marks a comprehensive stylistic shift for Fuck Buttons-- from experimental noise to a sort of modernized electronic take on classic post-rock structures."
[Warner Bros.; 2009] "In light of Mystics' overly processed, grab-bag quality, the holistic, audio-vérité approach on display here is remarkable-- the record is extremely dense, initially overwhelming, but unusually rewarding upon repeat listens."
[Warp; 2009] "...how very exciting much of it is; no small feat for a painstaking chamber-pop record that never once veers above the middle tempo."
[Sub Pop; 2008] "...broad spectrum of styles-- from Appalachian folk and AM country to classic rock and SoCal pop-- Fleet Foxes create a personal synthesis of the music of their peers, their parents, and even their grandparents."
[Secretly Canadian / Service; 2007] "Lekman constructs lush, romantic worlds from vinyl-crackling LP samples, while his wry, melancholic lyrics-- his sharpest and most endearing yet."
[Kompakt; 2007] "Kompakt electronic artist Axel Willner's wistful, melancholic, and yes, sublime debut album generates a blissful, dreamy, almost trance-like minimalism."
[Domino; 2006] "...draws out many of the same sensations and colors that made Last Exit one of the best debut albums of 2004."
[4AD; 2006] "Like a painstakingly fine Ingmar Bergman film, it moves slowly and deliberately, with an intense focus and refusal to turn away from disturbing "images"...even at its most dissonant and abstract, this record is human to the core."
[Def Jam; 2006] "Bursting forth with some of the most pungent yarns, potent barbs, and peerless production of his remarkably consistent career...outcome of an endlessly creative mind using experience as a compass en route to triumph."
[Mute; 2006] "...darkly ritualistic ambiance and trance-like incantations converge with shadowy tribal percussion and beautifully ethereal experimental melody."
[FatCat; 2005] "...the work of a band tapping into the narrative of Western pop while making it their own."
[Kill Rock Stars; 2005] "...short, dense songs packed into familiar forms, full-bodied vocals for unabashed, often gut-punching melodies..."
[Matador; 2005] "...their most consistent, confident, and, yes, best album to date."
[Clap Your Hands Say Yeah; 2005] "A band that mashes together Talking Heads and Neutral Milk Hotel while also stopping in to visit the shimmering, wafting ambiance of Yo La Tengo, the harmonic trickery of Modest Mouse, and the chorused guitarwork of pre-Loveless My Bloody Valentine? ...We are fucking there."
[Sub Pop; 2005] "...their most streamlined and confident album yet, resurrecting the righteous fury of their first great albums in the name of classic rock titans like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and Jimi Hendrix."
[DFA; 2004] "It's a meticulously assembled personal narrative from a label that balances its musical and commercial aspirations with an earthy, no-bullshit disposition and-- let's say it-- the world's best fucking handclaps."
[Nonesuch; 2004] "It is pleasant and assured, displaying artistic and personal growth beyond the vulnerable, shy wave of hope that drenched former Beach Boys records."
[5 Rue Christine; 2004] "Detached from the safety and set form of traditional pop music, Xiu Xiu have created an album bursting with tension, tenderness, pain and restraint"
[Output / Tigersushi; 2003] "Fucking insane."
[Universal / Strummer; 2003] "... it wants you to get off your ass and work it, and that you will be thrilled to oblige."
[Records; 2003] "When frontman Jayson Green shouts...over those raging, art-punk guitars and that sick-ass rhythm section, and the song races to a hurtling climax to explode in one last great din, the people know what time it is."
[Kranky; 2002] "Out Hud excel at creating atmospheres, allowing the listener to read into the music, and it's this subtle ambiguity of intention that makes S.T.R.E.E.T. D.A.D.'s mystique so intriguing."
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