2007 Pitchfork Readers Poll

Pitchfork readers
, January 2, 2008

2007 Pitchfork Readers Poll

Welcome to the first Pitchfork Readers Poll, in which we asked you for your picks for the best album, song, live artist, and video of 2007, among other things. We originally said the polls would close before Christmas Eve, but we left them open because...hey, why not? So we're kicking off the year by hearing what you liked best about 2007, as well as what disappointed and surprised you. On with it!

Album of the Year

We asked for your five favorite albums of the year, offering a shortlist of 100 possibilties, and your overwhelming favorite was...surprise: Radiohead's In Rainbows. It frankly wasn't even close. The rest of the top 10 turned out to mirror our staff selections almost eerily: Eight of your top 10 choices also finished in our top 10. Soon after that, though, things diverge, and on the whole, seven records that finished in places #14-25 on the readers poll failed to make our staff top 50. Perhaps most notable were records by Sunset Rubdown and Menomena, two of the records that we were most surprised to find had missed out on our own list.

Also of note: Every album on our 100-strong shortlist got a first-place vote, except one (The Ponys' Turn the Lights Out), and the most frequent write-in votes were for albums by Handsome Furs, Minus the Bear, the Arctic Monkeys and Daft Punk. The list:

1. Radiohead: In Rainbows
2. LCD Soundsystem: Sound of Silver
3. Panda Bear: Person Pitch
4. The National: Boxer
5. Animal Collective: Strawberry Jam
6. Arcade Fire: Neon Bible
7. Spoon: Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
8. Of Montreal: Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
9. M.I.A.: Kala
10. Battles: Mirrored
11. Feist: The Reminder
12. Okkervil River: The Stage Names
13. Jens Lekman: Night Falls Over Kortedala
14. Sunset Rubdown: Random Spirit Lover
15. Wilco: Sky Blue Sky
16. Menomena: Friend and Foe
17. Justice:
18. Burial: Untrue
19. Deerhunter: Cryptograms
20. Iron & Wine: The Shepherd's Dog
21. The Field: From Here We Go Sublime
22. Andrew Bird: Armchair Apocrypha
22. Kanye West: Graduation
23. Modest Mouse: We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
24. The Shins: Wincing the Night Away
25. Band of Horses: Cease to Begin

The above list were your favorite records, but-- in examining which records didn't get the most votes but rather the ones that most often received first-place votes, the following topped the list. Of particular note, the Dirty Projectors and El-P records-- which didn't finish in the top 50 of the readers poll-- placed well here.

1. Sunset Rubdown: Random Spirit Lover
2. Radiohead: In Rainbows
3. Dirty Projectors: Rise Above
4. Animal Collective: Strawberry Jam
5. Wilco: Sky Blue Sky
6. El-P: I'll Sleep When You're Dead
7. Battles: Mirrored
8. Deerhunter: Cryptograms
9. Burial: Untrue
10. Arcade Fire: Neon Bible

Song of the Year

This was also a landslide, with our staff #1, LCD Soundsystem's "All My Friends", dominating the poll. As you'll see below, "All My Friends" not only accumulated the most overall points and appeared on the most ballots, but was also the song with the highest percentage of #1 votes. This time, every one of the 100 shortlisted songs received at least one #1 vote.

1. LCD Soundsystem: "All My Friends"
2. Panda Bear: "Bros"
3. M.I.A.: "Paper Planes"
4. Battles: "Atlas"
5. Animal Collective: "Fireworks"
6. LCD Soundsystem: "Someone Great"
7. The National: "Mistaken for Strangers"
8. Feist: "1 2 3 4"
9. Justice: "D.A.N.C.E."
10. Arcade Fire: "Keep the Car Running"
11. Radiohead: "Jigsaw Falling Into Place"
12. Radiohead: "Nude"
13. Arcade Fire: "Intervention"
14. Spoon: "You Got Yr Cherry Bomb"
15. Of Montreal: "Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse"
16. Spoon: "The Underdog"
17. Okkervil River: "Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe"
18. Animal Collective: "Peacebone"
19. Beirut: "Elephant Gun"
20. UGK [ft. Outkast]: "Int'l Players Anthem (I Choose You)"
21. Rihanna: "Umbrella"
22. Wilco: "Impossible Germany"
23. Jens Lekman: "A Postcard to Nina"
24. Caribou: "Melody Day"
25. Band of Horses: "Is There a Ghost?"

Again, taking the songs on the shortlist and examining which records didn't get the most votes but instead which most often received first-place votes, the following were top the list.

1. LCD Soundsystem: "All My Friends"
2. Animal Collective: "Fireworks"
3. Panda Bear: "Bros"
5. Battles: "Atlas"
6. LCD Soundsystem: "Someone Great"
7. Dude N' Nem: "Watch My Feet"
8. Dirty Projectors: "Rise Above"
9. Shellac: "The End of Radio"
10. Róisín Murphy: "Overpowered"

Best Live Act

Old favorites dominated this category, with Arcade Fire pulling a slight upset over the much-lauded (albeit much less-travelled) Daft Punk Alive 2007 show.

1. Arcade Fire
2. Daft Punk
3. Animal Collective
4. Of Montreal
5. LCD Soundsystem
6. The National
7. Battles
8. The Hold Steady
9. Dan Deacon
10. M.I.A.

Best New(ish) Act

There was a clear divide here between the top three and the rest of the pack, with the French Touch duo coming out on top. Impressively, Los Campesinos! and Vampire Weekend took the #9 and #10 spots without even having released full-length albums.

1. Justice
2. Deerhunter
3. St. Vincent
4. Dan Deacon
5. The Twilight Sad
6. The Field
7. The Besnard Lakes
8. Klaxons
9. Los Campesinos!
10. Vampire Weekend

Best Video

Here we provided a shortlist that featured the clips we had already selected as our 50 favorites, and among those the clear favorite was Feist's one-take, iPod-selling "1 2 3 4".

1. Feist: "1 2 3 4"
2. Battles: "Atlas"
3. Bat for Lashes: "What's a Girl To Do?"
4. Kanye West: "Can't Tell Me Nothing (alternate version)"
5. Animal Collective: "Peacebone"
6. LCD Soundsystem: "All My Friends"
7. Radiohead: "Ceremony"
8. Arcade Fire: "My Body Is a Cage"
9. Of Montreal: "Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse"
10. UGK [ft. Outkast]: "Int'l Player's Anthem (I Choose You)"

Most Overrated Album

Big-name artists dominated this category, which makes sense because, as a band, you need a large following in order for others to consider you overrated. Arcade Fire and Animal Collective finished well ahead of the rest of the group, with the love-it-or-hate-it Wilco record and the sophomore discs from Band of Horses and Deerhunter filling out the top five.

1. Arcade Fire: Neon Bible
2. Animal Collective: Strawberry Jam
3. Wilco: Sky Blue Sky
4. Band of Horses: Cease to Begin
5. Deerhunter: Cryptograms
6. Radiohead: In Rainbows
7. The White Stripes: Icky Thump
8. LCD Soundsystem: Sound of Silver
9. Kanye West: Graduation
10. M.I.A.: Kala

Most Underrated Album

Big-name artists also dominated this category, with the Shins and Modest Mouse-- two of the biggest indie rock bands of the decade-- disappointing some critics, but still commanding a loyal following from their fans.

1. The Shins: Wincing the Night Away
2. Modest Mouse: We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
3. Broken Social Scene Presents: Kevin Drew: Spirit If…
4. Caribou: Andorra
5. PJ Harvey: White Chalk
6. Thurston: Trees Outside the Academy
7. The Besnard Lakes: Are the Dark Horse
8. Dinosaur Jr.: Beyond
9. Electrelane: No Shouts, No Calls
10. Beirut: Lon Gisland EP

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