a few days ago, the adorable blowhards at pitchfork released yet another wonderfully comprehensive and utterly questionable ‘best of’ list. this time, they’ve graced us with their not-at-all esoteric picks for the top 200 tracks of the 1990’s. after being raised through the 80’s on a steady (and much appreciated) vinyl diet of beatles, cat stevens and james taylor, the 90’s represented my first real interaction with popular music. so in theory, this list should reflect a pretty formative time for me. but like every pitchfork list, it’s hit or miss, with an extra miss thrown in there for being snobs. but like them or not, they certainly do enough homework to merit a bit of attention (and plenty of argument), so we’re calling this 90s week.

starting off with #26, ‘girls and boys’ by blur. the most useful thing about these lists is their ability to remind me of songs i’d forgot existed. like this one. but listening to it, there’s no question as to why it made the list. honestly, turn it up, and tell me 90% of the music out there today doesn’t sound exactly like this track from 1994. -d