I really shouldn't waste any time writing about a list like that, but here we go.
I mean, I actually counted, and something like 49 out of 200 are women(I'm including the Beach House records there). In a perfect world, you'd like a 50/50 split, but 25% isn't terrible. And then 7 of the top 20 are black artists.
IMO there are bigger things to criticize about the list. I understand that readers voted on this, so this isn't the Pitchfork staff's opinion, it's just a popular vote in the end, and all lists like this are totally subjective, but just some thoughts...
First off, there seems to some recency bias. But that's just a gut response, I could be wrong.
I continue to simply not get the adulation for Kanye West, and that he has seven albums on here mystifies me. That's all I'll say about that.
I have no problem with Radiohead getting six, on the other hand.
I love In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, so I'm happy to see it there, but it is perhaps a bit too high.
Of the three Outkast records there, Spearboxx/Love Below is ranked lowest, which surprises me. I'm not too familiar with their work outside SBLB, but it was the "biggest" of their albums.
Some noticeable omissions:
I know it's the cool thing to not like Coldplay and they haven't been great in a long time, but A Rush Of Blood To The Head was one of the biggest albums of the 00s and it certainly belongs on a list like this. Maybe Parachutes and VLV too, but even if those don't make it Rush should.
I realize that most of Tupac's work was before 1996, but All Eyez On Me came out in 1996. One of the biggest albums of perhaps the most legendary MC ever doesn't make the cut.
Hot Fuss is another of the biggest records of the 00s that didn't make it.
Surprised there's no Lykke Li here, as she used to be a Pitchfork darling.
There are two back albums here, but Midnite Vultures and Morning Phase don't make the cut.
Sigur Ros's "Agaetis Byrjun" is there, but not "()".
Muse's Absolution has an argument.
Would've though Franz Ferdinand's debut would've snuck in.
Timberlake's 20/20 Experience Part 1 was a massively successful pop record just eight years ago, with a huge single to boot. Maybe readers don't wanna vote for him because the Britney stuff?
And here are some that I had little to no expectation of being on a P4K list - so I'm not at all surprised - but that I think should've been.
No RHCP. Obviously they were never, ever a Pitchfork kind of band, but Californication was an enormous album, Stadium Arcadium won grammy awards, etc.
Green Day's "American Idiot" was huge.
Audioslave's debut was one of the best rock records of the 00s imo.
Some 96-99 records that I feel have an argument -
REM's "New Adventures"
Tori Amos's "From The Choirgirl Hotel"
Beastie Boys' "Hello Nasty"
Smashing Pumpkins' "Adore"
DMB's "Crash" or "Before These Crowded Streets"
and although I'm not really familiar without it outside "Bittersweet Symphony", I know The Verve's "Urban Hymns" has a lot of fans here.
And finally, not to be that guy, and obviously I never ever expected them to make a P4K list in 2021, but no Shuttlecock. Just from their 21st century work, ATYCLB was huge album. But even if you don't want to do that, "Pop" falls in the time frame, having come out in 1997.
But whatever, it's just another list. In the end, the biggest conclusion I draw is that I simply don't have much in common with a large bulk of P4K readers in terms of listening habits outside of a mutual love of Radiohead.