Pitchfork Names 100 Best Indie Rock Albums, Led by Pavement

Pavement's 1994 album Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain tops Pitchfork's newly published list of the 100 Best Indie Rock Albums of All Time. Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation, Liz Phair's Exile in Guyville, Elliott Smith's Either/Or and Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea complete the top five.

Editor-in-chief Jeremy D. Larson framed the project as an exercise in definition. Indie rock, he wrote, is "primarily an American musical art form that began in earnest around 1980, started to really take shape in 1988, and has since splintered into many forms." The rules: guitars, drums, a singer, and release on an independent label — "with one exception."

What got excluded — and why

The list omits the Velvet Underground, the Breeders, the Strokes and LCD Soundsystem, all of whom issued major works through major labels. My Bloody Valentine, Cocteau Twins, the Fall and Joanna Newsom sit out because they belong primarily to another genre. Larson calls this "Larson's Law of Lists: The first reaction to any list is to point out what is not on it."

The tightest definition in the feature is eight words long. Lou Barlow of Dinosaur Jr. and Sebadoh defined indie rock in 1991 as "a new generation of electric white boy blues." Pitchfork asked Barlow and more than 30 other musicians, label heads and writers to weigh in on what indie rock is — and is not.

How the list is organized

Every album on the list shares something with at least one other entry. Artist Marco Quadri illustrated 85 categories organizing the records by sound, region, influence, style, drug habits and cultural impact. The albums span from the Feelies' 1980 debut Crazy Rhythms to Geese's Getting Killed, released in 2025.

What the entries say

The blurbs carry some of the strongest first-person criticism Pitchfork has published this year:

• Steve Albini, on recording Bedhead's final album Transaction de Novo: "No detail was too small to sweat, no crack in the veneer not worth gluing and clamping."
• Jim O'Rourke, quoted on his own 2001 record Insignificance: "There's nothing more dishonest than an earnest man."
• Chan Marshall, asked of Moon Pix: "Would y'all pay for my ticket to Australia so I can get the fuck out of where I'm at?"

The full top 20 includes R.E.M.'s Murmur, the Stone Roses' debut, Interpol's Turn on the Bright Lights, Sufjan Stevens' Illinois, Arcade Fire's Funeral, Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Sleater-Kinney's Dig Me Out and Yo La Tengo's Painful.

The list rewards career-defining risks. Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was rejected by Reprise Records as unmarketable; the band streamed it free online, was dropped, then re-signed by another imprint of the same corporation. Liz Phair recorded half of Exile in Guyville alone in her childhood bedroom on a four-track. Cat Power wrote Moon Pix at 25 to escape nightmarish hallucinations.

Why the ranking still matters

Larson concedes the tension between celebration and commerce. "Modern commerce demands a ranked list, and we stand by the fact that some albums weigh heavier in the balance of music history," he writes, before concluding: "Whether by natural selection or immaculate conception, indie rock will live forever."

The bylines span more than 25 Pitchfork staff writers and contributors, including Jenn Pelly, Philip Sherburne, Jayson Greene, Ian Cohen and Anna Gaca. With entries stretching from 1980 to 2025, the list doubles as a working history of independent music's past 45 years — and an open invitation for readers to build a better one.