Music fans paid close attention when the influential review Web site Pitchfork dropped its P2K: The Decade in Music list this August. But readers shouldn’t put too much stock in it, writes Matt Siblo in our Music in Review issue. The list, he says, merely reaffirms the site’s clout and critical authority:

A glance at the peak of its top album list shows a mix of obvious consensus (Radiohead, Jay-Z, Outkast) and bands Pitchfork is arguably responsible for breaking (Animal Collective, Broken Social Scene, the Hold Steady). It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy: The decade’s best music has taken the shape of the site’s biggest success stories. Sifting through the list, it is striking how many things Pitchfork believes it got right over the past 10 years. During his description of Arcade Fire’s Funeral, the site’s biggest “find,” coming in at No. 2 on its best albums list, Ian Cohen goes as far as to question whether “there will ever be another album like Funeral?”

Read the full essay here.