Anyone want to guess P4K's top ten albums of the year? They announce the top 20 on friday. Here's my guess.

1. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy- Kanye West
2. Halcyon Digest- Deerhunter
3. The Suburbs- Arcade Fire
4. Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty- Big Boi
5. The ArchAndroid (Suites II and III)- Janelle Monae
6. This is Happening- LCD Soundsystem
7. Have One On Me- Joanna Newsom
8. Cosmogramma- Flying Lotus
9. Plastic Beach- Gorillaz
10. Treats- Sleigh Bells

I have no idea. Your list is fine, but then you kinda remember yourself that you still left High Violet, Teen Dream and Ariel Pink out of the top 10 and i can't see that happening. It's going to be pretty tough.

I think they accidently leaked the list themselves so I couldn't say. Will reveal tomorrow whether this is correct and, if it's not, I'll have a stab.

Basically, there's a doubling up of some artists - LCD Soundsystem, Deerhunter and Janelle Monae, for example - which leads me to believe it's a singles list. But the images used are album covers and all the BNMed records are in the top 25; plus further down.

The only thing is these images are interspersed with ones from the 90s list and some are missing so its hard to clarify.

I can tell in the morning whether its legit or not

Well based on the songs list it looks like LCD Soundsystem and Kanye are the big winners (both placed 2 songs in the top 12).

Meanwhile, it doesn't look promising for Sufjan. Pitchfork's song list was a top 100, and ZERO of them were by Sufjan.

I'd have to go with:

1. Kanye
2. LCD Soundsytem
3. Arcade Fire
4. Deerhunter
5. Janelle Monae
6. Beach House
7. Big Boi
8. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti
9. Joanna Newsom
10. Vampire Weekend

James Blake also did surprisingly well on the song list, so he might place in the top 10.

ETA: No Flying Lotus on the songs list either. I was disappointed in those omissions.

I don't think Joanna Newsom and Beach House are going to be placed lower than Monae. My chances of seeing Archandroid inside the top 5 were killed after Cold War failing to make the top 25 tracks. I guess she might sneak in, like The National, inside the top 10. Sleigh Bells also looks a strong contender, but maybe Ariel Pink will overtake it. I have no idea of how this list is going to take shape. Hopefully we see Sufjan inside the top 20, Robyn's Body Talk also looks like a nice contender and James Black might sneak in too, since regularly a new artist scoring a top 10 track scores a top 25 album. The top 10 songs were basically:

1. Ariel Pink
2. Kanye West
3. LCD Soundsystem
4. Robyn
5. Big Boi
6. Kanye West
7. Joanna Newsom
8. James Blake
9. Arcade Fire
10. Janelle Monae

And i love Round and Round, but it does reminds a lot of Marianne Faithful's Broken English song.

Right, turns out the images 'leak' was a mix of albums and singles. I'm just going to predict as I would have normally:

1/ Kanye
2/ Big Boi
3/ Deerhunter
4/ The National
5/ LCD Soundsystem
6/ Beach House
7/ Arcade Fire
8/ Sleigh Bells
9/ Flying Lotus
10/ Ariel Pink
11/ Joanna Newsom
12/ Janelle Monae
13/ Gorillaz
14/ Titus Andronicus
15/ Sufjan Stevens

This was my prediction a week ago, and I'll stick by it.

Pitchfork's review of Twisted Fantasy talks about Kanye's personality and the lyrics but it doesn't reference the actual music once, except for a cursory mention that one song samples Aphex Twin.

I guess that highlights the fork's real priorities.

Kanye and Big Boi wont be first and second. That would be like electinga black president AND a black vice president. Predictions are a little tougher this year cause there were so many good albums, but I would be shocked if Kanye didn't finish first and LCD Soundsystem second.

1. Kanye
2. LCD Soundsystem
3. Big Boi
4. The National
5. Flying Lotus
6. Beach House
7. Deerhunter
8. Sleigh Bells
9. Janelle Monae
10. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti


While Flying Lotus didn't make the songs list, I still think he'll do fine on the albums - Cosmogramma really is more of an "album" album. Arcade Fire definitely wont make the T10, and I would be shocked if Sufjan cracked the T30.

Sufjan will make the top 20, same goes to Gorillaz, Best Coast, Robyn, Janelle, The Walkmen, Erykah Badu and Sleigh Bells. I think Joanna Newsom is going to make the top 10, but fail to make the top 5. I think that Arcade Fire or The National are going to sneak into the top 10 and maybe even make the top 3 like Silent Shout did back in 2006. The top 10: Kanye, Big Boi, Ariel Pink, Deerhunter, Beach House, Flying Lotus, Deerhunter, LCD Sounsystem, Joanna Newsom and Arcade Fire/The National. Don't ask me the order. I guess is dumb to think that albums that received the 9.2 rating and placed tracks inside the top 20 are not going to make the top 10 albums. After Good Intentions Paving Company placing ahead of Tightrope and plenty of other tracks is kinda hard to not see Newsom ranked inside the top 10 albums and even beat Monae.

You're probably right about Newsom finishing above Monae. Their songs list isn't always a great indicator of what their albums list will look like though, hence the Flying Lotus prediction.

That said, I just noticed that Sufjan didn't put a single entry to the songs list. I'm changing my prediction from "not inside T30" to Sufjan doesn't make the list at all. Had the album been realeased by an artist that wasn't an indie legend off hiatus I think it probably would have gotten a 6. something.

cant wait seeing who wins!!!!!!!

Somehow I totally forgot about The National, I think they'll probably make the top 10 so kick Vampire Weekend out. I think Pitchfork will stand by VW though.

Out of the top 10 a little, Crystal Castles (8.5/10) and No Age (8.8/10) have both great chances of making the top 15, but do you guys think that Yeasayer will make the list? They gave a 6.1 and every time they have an opportunity they say how mess it was, but since is a staff, that album might make an appearance inside the top 50 or at least have an honorable mention tomorrow. Releases that might make the top 50-30 albums or get an honorable mention:

Caribou's Swim*
Charlotte Gainsbourg's IRM*
Dum Dum Girls's I Will Be
Antony & The Johnsons' Swanlights
Avi Buffalo's Avi Buffalo
Belle & Sebastian's Write About Love
The Books' The Way Out
Broken Social Scene's Forgiveness Rock Record*
Delorean's Subiza*
Fang Island's Fang Island*
Four Tet's There Is Love In You*
Girls's Broken Dreams Club EP*
Hot Chip's One Life Stand*
Liars's Sisterworld*
Owen Pallet's Heartland*
Perfume Genius' Learning
Pantha Du Prince's Black Noise
The Root's How I Got Over
Spoon's Transference
Surfer Blood's Astrocoast*
The Tallest Man On Earth's The Wild Hunt*
Tame Impala's Innerspeaker*
These New Puritan's Hidden
Wavves's King of the Beach*

(*) Best New Music

Long Shots

Laura Marling's I Speak Because I Can
The Hold Steady's Heaven Is Whenever
Laurie Anderson'sHomeland
M.I.A.'s Maya
MGMT's Congratulations
The New Pornographers's Together
Of Montreal's False Priest
Shearwater's Golden Archipelago
Shining's Blackjazz
Sufjan Steven's All Delighted People EP (It has chances if appears together with The Age of Adz)
Wolf Parade's Expo 86
Warpaint's The Fool

must resist amfrolling, must resist amfro-- oh wait, there's a tinymixtapes list coming in... yipppeeee, butterflyne pastellohs..

In their blurbs for the songs "Power" and "Runaway," they talked mainly about Kanye's personality as well. Not sure why they can't focus on the music of what's supposed to be a landmark release.

Actually, I've decided to change my guess just before they announce the albums.

1. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy- Kanye West
2. Before Today- Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti
3. Halcyon Digest- Deerhunter
4. Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty- Big Boi
5. The ArchAndroid (Suites II and III)- Janelle Monae
6. This is Happening- LCD Soundsystem
7. The Suburbs- Arcade Fire
8. Have One On Me- Joanna Newsom
9. Teen Dream- Beach House
10. High Violet- The National

01. Kanye West- My Dark Twisted Beautiful Fantasy
02. LCD Soundsystem- This is Happening
03. Deerhunter- Halcyon Digest
04. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti- Before Today
05. Big Boi- Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty
06. Joanna Newsom- Have One on Me
07. Arcade Fire- The Suburbs
08. Sleigh Bells- Treats
09. Beach House- Teen Dream
10. Janelle Monae- Arch-Android

The National were #28 it seems. So far all of my top 10 choices are in the running still!

I didn't see The National's low placement coming, and then The Age of Adz three spots later at 25 was a pleasant surprise since I was starting to think they would leave it off entirely.

My (original) lineup is still in the running - I should have remembered to always stick with your gut.

I'm pretty sure this is what's left:

Kanye
Big Boi
LCD Soundsystem
Beach House
Joanna Newsom
Arcade Fire
Sleigh Bells
Deerhunter
Flying Lotus
Ariel Pink
Monae
Titus Andronicus
James Blake
The Radio Dept.
Robyn
Owen Pallet
Caribou
How To Dress Well
Erykah Badu
Vampire Weekend

Anything missing there?

Edit: Actually I think No Age will make it, so kick someone out, probably Badu

Kanye at #1 (surprise surprise) but look at the blurb. Four sentences long, and one was just a long recap of all the controversies he's been a part of this year. It's almost like they don't actually take the album seriously, because there has been almost no commentary about the album musically.

This was the most predictable in terms of picks, but surprising in terms of spots list from the Fork yet. I never thought i'd see Contra at #6. Or Suburbs out of the 10 just like The National @ 28.

Pitchfork (US) EOY 2010

50. Wavves - King of the Beach
49. Wild Nothing - Gemini
48. Forest Swords - Dagger Paths
47. Women - Public Strain
46. Matthew Dear - Black City
45. Gil Scott-Heron - I'm New Here
44. Kylesa - Spiral Shadow
43. Tame Impala - Innerspeaker
42. Drake - Thank Me Later
41. Delorean - Subiza
40. Abe Vigoda - Crush
39. Best Coast - Crazy For You
38. Rick Ross - Teflon Don
37. Zola Jesus - Stridulum EP
36. Emeralds - Does It Look Like I'm Here?
35. Gorillaz - Plastic Beach
34. Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles
33. The Tallest Man on Earth - The Wild Hunt
32. Tyler, the Creator - Bastard
31. Woods - At Echo Lake
30. The-Dream - Love King
29. The Fresh & Onlys - Play It Strange
28. The National - High Violet
27. Four Tet - There Is Love in You
26. Twin Shadow - Forget
25. Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz
24. Hot Chip - One Life Stand
23. Das Racist - Sit Down, Man
22. Girls - Broken Dreams Club EP
21. The Walkmen - Lisbon
20. Oneohtrix Point Never - Returnal
19. How to Dress Well - Love Remains
18. Erykah Badu - New Amerykah Part Two: Return of the Ankh
17. Caribou - Swim
16. Sleigh Bells - Treats
15. Robyn - Body Talk
14. Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma
13. No Age - Everything in Between
12. Janelle Monáe - The ArchAndroid
11. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
10. Titus Andronicus - The Monitor
09. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Before Today
08. James Blake - The Bells Sketch EP / CMYK EP / Klavierwerke EP
07. Joanna Newsom - Have One on Me
06. Vampire Weekend - Contra
05. Beach House - Teen Dream
04. Big Boi - Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty
03. Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest
02. LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening
01. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/7893-the-top-50-albums-of-2010/

I re-listened to Contra last night - it's pretty good, yeah, but I find it a tad strange that it makes #6 in a really strong year whereas the far, far superior debut only made #7 in a comparatively weak year.

Ditto Deerhunter @ no.3 but that's just me.

Also, 3 EPs = LP? Or are they just making a stand about James Blake?

Pitchfork cares far more about the culture of an album than the album itself.

Pitchfork is the rebellious son of Rolling Stone. It resents it's father, and swears never to be like him. Then it grows up, and starts settling into the same habits it's father did.