Pitchfork's 'People's List' loves Radiohead, shuns Twin Cities

As part of its 15th anniversary celebration last year, top indie music website Pitchfork began polling readers for their favorite albums since the site's launch. The results were unveiled today, and it looks like news of a golden age for Minnesota music hasn't yet spilled over state borders.

Zero local artists charted in the Top 200. Local-ish acts such as Eau Claire, Wis.'s Bon Iver (No. 12 with "For Emma, Forever Ago," No. 28 for "Bon Iver") and Brooklyn's the Hold Steady (No. 147 with "Boys and Girls in America") both made showings. Tapes 'n Tapes' 2006 disc, "The Loon," appeared at No. 12 in the "Liked, Not Loved" sub-category.

Here's the overall Top 10:

1. "OK Computer" - Radiohead
2. "Kid A" - Radiohead
3. "Funeral" - Arcade Fire
4. "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" - Neutral Milk Hotel
   
5. "Is This It" - the Strokes
6. "In Rainbows" - Radiohead
7. "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" - Wilco
8. "Merriweather Post Pavilion" - Animal Collective
   
9. "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" - Kanye West
10. "Illinois" - Sufjan Stevens

One neat feature of the poll is how wonky and specialized Pitchfork got with the numbers. Music nerd data miners should have a field day with all the demographic breakdowns, so I'll just provide the Twin Cities results.

Minneapolis

1. "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" - Neutral Milk Hotel
   
2. "OK Computer" - Radiohead
3. "Funeral" - Arcade Fire
4. "Kid A" - Radiohead
5. "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" - Wilco
6. "Is This It" - the Strokes
7. "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" - Kanye West
8. "Illinois" - Sufjan Stevens
9. "The Soft Bulletin" - the Flaming Lips
10. "For Emma, Forever Ago" - Bon Iver

The only outliers from the national list come at the tail end, with the Flaming Lips and Bon Iver edging out Animal Collective's "Merriweather Post Pavilion" and "In Rainbows," the third Radiohead album on the national list.

St. Paul

1. "OK Computer" - Radiohead
2. "Kid A" - Radiohead
3. "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" - Neutral Milk Hotel
4. "Funeral" - Arcade Fire
5. "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" - Wilco
6. "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" - Kanye West
7. "The Soft Bulletin" - the Flaming Lips
8. "Illinois" - Sufjan Stevens
9. "Ágætis byrjun" - Sigur Rós
10. "For Emma, Forever Ago" - Bon Iver

No Strokes for St. Paul folks, as the city nixed garage rock for Icelandic post-rock in the form of Sigur Rós' 1999 LP "Ágætis byrjun."

Is the People's List ultimately meaningless? Absolutely. But it also provides some well-executed fun. Music geeks will be hard-pressed to find a better 30 minutes of surfing this afternoon.