Last month, Pitchfork assigned its readers the emotionally harrowing task of list-making — in this case, a personal Best Album list for the years 1996–2011. The 28,000 or so ballots (of up to 100 albums) were fed into a magical counting machine, and the result is Pitchfork’s People’s List, a handy guide to what people who read about indie music actually listen to when they’re done reading about new indie music. Your most important album, as chosen by the people, is … Radiohead’s OK Computer. Your No. 2 album, as chosen by the people, is … also by Radiohead (Kid A). In fact, Thom Yorke and friends have five total albums in the Top 200 — tied only by Kanye, whose My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy snuck in at No. 9 (after the requisite Wilco and whatnot). The whole list is here; you can sort by year or city (including, hilariously, a New York–Brooklyn breakdown. Though Brooklyn did contribute more albums than any other city on the list, so don’t argue with the people. Or argue a lot; that’s what lists are made for.).
