Personal Favorites of 2010:
Figurines - S/T
The Brother Kite - Isolation
Field Music - Field Music (Measure)
The Juliets - S/T
Crowded House - Intriguer
Emma Pollock - The Law of Large Numbers
Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3 - Propellor Time
High Violets - Cinema
Jen Olive - Warm Robot
Post-Human Era - To Build a Fire
Honorable Mentions:
Divine Comedy - Bang Goes the Knighthood
Sad Day for Puppets - Pale Silver and Shiny Gold
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin - Let It Sway
Pernice Brothers - Goodbye Killer
Stars - The Five Ghosts
Interesting New 'n' Obscure Stuff:
The Typing Pool - Let This Be Your Lesson
Wintercoats - Cathedral EP
She Sir - Ev'ry Thing in Paris
NoJoy - Ghost Blonde
Easterling and Gildersleeve - I've Got a New Bike
Vaguely Disappointing:
Radio Dept. - Clinging to a Scheme
Adam Franklin - I Could Sleep for a Thousand Years
iLiKETRAiNS - He Who Saw the Deep
Blonde Redhead - Penny Sparkle
Amusement Parks on Fire - Road Eyes
1. Sigh No More Mumford & Sons
2. The Suburbs Arcade Fire
3. Brothers The Black Keys
4. High Violet The National
5. This Is Happening LCD Soundsystem
6. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Kanye West
7. Broken Bells Broken Bells
8. Contra Vampire Weekend
9. Halcyon Digest Deerhunter
10. Sir Lucious Left Foot...The Son Of Chico Dusty Big Boi
11. Head First Goldfrapp
12. Recovery Eminem
13. Transference Spoon
14. The ArchAndroid Janelle Mon
I've been tempted by that Aloe Blacc release. To be fair, I think it's very recent and hasn't had a lot of press if you don't follow Stones Throw.
I gotta agree with Kenny on the Mumford & Sons - and not just because I opted not to buy it after listening. Totally get their appeal, but the #1 album? Oh well, at least another list put The Black Keys in the top 3.
oh, i have a ton of them. it's a good list. i'd put runaway over round and round, but that's quibbling (i'd also put gil scott heron's the devil and me and grinderman's worm tamer in my top 5, but again, quibbling).
i'm still devouring new albums! it makes me realize that trying to cobble together a "top-50" list is a fruitless endeavor. but i'll probably try (and, truthfully, my top four spots are likely locked-up, with relatively conventional choices; it's everything after no. 4 that's a jumble).
I could more than quibble with a large portion of the list. That said, I'm currently listening to my new playlist with the 57 I have. It's an interesting way to hear them.
I'm such an album person that putting together lists of songs is baffling to me. But playlists based on what I have of other people's top song lists sounds like a good idea.
While I'm trying to take in all of these lists with the understanding that tastes differ, after another top 10 I saw yesterday it's time for me to declare that if you put Salem's King Night in your top 10 your opinion sucks...
P4k's write-up of "Round and Round" really summarizes why I just can't get into them and those "hazy, half-remembered yada yada" bands frustrate the hell out of me. That chorus is so magnificent, just so absolutely perfect, that I spend the rest of the song waiting for it to happen. For a couple minutes I feel like I'm "almost" listening to a great song, but not quite. The first few times that song was on I thought it was a bad encode or something - just way too muddled. And then we get to the 2 minute mark and... damn, it's like everything wonderful about pop music for 30 seconds... and then I'm back to waiting for it again.
I said the same thing about Animal Collective last year. Even the songs of theirs that I like make me feel like Homer Simpson, "Play 'Taking Care of Business'! ... Get to the working over time part!"
Being another album guy I also don't understand listing songs, but that seems to be the way things are going.
"Round and Round" is one of my major quibbles with the list. I simply don't 'get' Ariel Pink and the Haunted Graffiti. Another major quibble is that a lot of the hip hop on the list is dreck. The Das Racist and Tyler, the Creator tracks in particular are absolute garbage.
As for "King Night", I don't like that track, but I also don't dislike it. It's an odd track that way.
I was specifically referring to the album. The title track is pretty decent and so is the "Frost" single. But the album as a whole is very indicative of the hipster hype that will be completely forgotten about in a year. I try not to rant against people's taste too often, but sometimes certain hyped bands just come across as too transparent (best description of Salem was the A/V Club, who called them Brooklyn's version of ICP).
Funny thing was that a good half of that particular top 10 was stuff I considered overhyped and it was coming from a guy that was complaining about the hype of Vampire Weekend and Beach House...
Ah. Yeah, I haven't actually heard the whole King Night album. Anything that has a genre like "witch house", though, is likely hipster hype. Although I do like o0oo00 or however it's actually put, and I've heard them placed into the "witch house" category.
TMT mixtape of their favorite songs. I have no quibble with anyone who gives me something to listen too.
As for tracks, I'm such an album person that I generally have no idea what track people are talking about. I have, and really like, that Ariel Pink album. I have no clue which piece of it is called "Round and Round." I do know which piece says "butthouse blondies" a lot - is there a track named that?
I don't know about the music TMT lists--I haven't listened to it yet--but I can't stand the way they write about it.
"Life Under A Double Sun" starts out with a recording of a woman demanding for a man, and the audience to cooperate. Soon, their voices are obfuscated by synths and a plaintive acoustic guitar. Each instrument attempts to erase another without overbearing droning, resulting in a melody that is somehow both haunting and fleeting.
The National - High Violet
Brian McBride - The Effective Disconnect
Olan Mill - Pine
Greg Haines - Until the Point of Hushed Support
Rafael Anton Irisarri - the North Bend
Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
Max Richter - Infra
Fabio Orsi - Winterreise
Federico Durand - La siesta del cipre's
Matthew Ryan - Dear Lover (acoustic version)
Chihei Hatakeyama - A Long Journey
Olafur Arnalds - And They Have Escaped the Weight of Darkness
Marcus Fischer - Monocoastal
Clouwbeck - From Which the River Rises
Johann Johannsson - And In the Endless Pause There Came the Sound of Bees
Murralin Lane - Our House Is On the Wall
Rafael Toral - Violence of Discovery and Calm of Acceptance
Nils Frahm - Unter I Uber
Loscil - Endless Falls
Goldmund - Famous Places
The Sight Below - It All Falls Apart
Pausal - Lapses
Eluvium - Static Nocturne
Nest - Retold
Singles:
Tim Hecker - Apondalifa
Grouper - Hold/Sick
Foster the People - Pumped Up Kicks
Blackbird and the Fox - the Twilight Singers
(featuring Ani DiFranco)
Comments
Figurines - S/T
The Brother Kite - Isolation
Field Music - Field Music (Measure)
The Juliets - S/T
Crowded House - Intriguer
Emma Pollock - The Law of Large Numbers
Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3 - Propellor Time
High Violets - Cinema
Jen Olive - Warm Robot
Post-Human Era - To Build a Fire
Honorable Mentions:
Divine Comedy - Bang Goes the Knighthood
Sad Day for Puppets - Pale Silver and Shiny Gold
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin - Let It Sway
Pernice Brothers - Goodbye Killer
Stars - The Five Ghosts
Interesting New 'n' Obscure Stuff:
The Typing Pool - Let This Be Your Lesson
Wintercoats - Cathedral EP
She Sir - Ev'ry Thing in Paris
NoJoy - Ghost Blonde
Easterling and Gildersleeve - I've Got a New Bike
Vaguely Disappointing:
Radio Dept. - Clinging to a Scheme
Adam Franklin - I Could Sleep for a Thousand Years
iLiKETRAiNS - He Who Saw the Deep
Blonde Redhead - Penny Sparkle
Amusement Parks on Fire - Road Eyes
The Best Albums of 2010
1. Sigh No More Mumford & Sons
2. The Suburbs Arcade Fire
3. Brothers The Black Keys
4. High Violet The National
5. This Is Happening LCD Soundsystem
6. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Kanye West
7. Broken Bells Broken Bells
8. Contra Vampire Weekend
9. Halcyon Digest Deerhunter
10. Sir Lucious Left Foot...The Son Of Chico Dusty Big Boi
11. Head First Goldfrapp
12. Recovery Eminem
13. Transference Spoon
14. The ArchAndroid Janelle Mon
I gotta agree with Kenny on the Mumford & Sons - and not just because I opted not to buy it after listening. Totally get their appeal, but the #1 album? Oh well, at least another list put The Black Keys in the top 3.
Sorry, but Mumford and Sons sounds like watered-down Coldplay, which is itself watered-down.
FACT Mag: Top Albums
And a shout out for my friend in the Gray Flannel Suit: Top Songs Top Albums
Amazingly, (sadly?) I have 57 of them. A lot of them are singles from samplers and what not, but that's a lot!
Craig
i'm still devouring new albums! it makes me realize that trying to cobble together a "top-50" list is a fruitless endeavor. but i'll probably try (and, truthfully, my top four spots are likely locked-up, with relatively conventional choices; it's everything after no. 4 that's a jumble).
Craig
While I'm trying to take in all of these lists with the understanding that tastes differ, after another top 10 I saw yesterday it's time for me to declare that if you put Salem's King Night in your top 10 your opinion sucks...
I said the same thing about Animal Collective last year. Even the songs of theirs that I like make me feel like Homer Simpson, "Play 'Taking Care of Business'! ... Get to the working over time part!"
"Round and Round" is one of my major quibbles with the list. I simply don't 'get' Ariel Pink and the Haunted Graffiti. Another major quibble is that a lot of the hip hop on the list is dreck. The Das Racist and Tyler, the Creator tracks in particular are absolute garbage.
As for "King Night", I don't like that track, but I also don't dislike it. It's an odd track that way.
Craig
Funny thing was that a good half of that particular top 10 was stuff I considered overhyped and it was coming from a guy that was complaining about the hype of Vampire Weekend and Beach House...
Craig
As for tracks, I'm such an album person that I generally have no idea what track people are talking about. I have, and really like, that Ariel Pink album. I have no clue which piece of it is called "Round and Round." I do know which piece says "butthouse blondies" a lot - is there a track named that?
Craig
Obfuscated, indeed.
The National - High Violet
Brian McBride - The Effective Disconnect
Olan Mill - Pine
Greg Haines - Until the Point of Hushed Support
Rafael Anton Irisarri - the North Bend
Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
Max Richter - Infra
Fabio Orsi - Winterreise
Federico Durand - La siesta del cipre's
Matthew Ryan - Dear Lover (acoustic version)
Chihei Hatakeyama - A Long Journey
Olafur Arnalds - And They Have Escaped the Weight of Darkness
Marcus Fischer - Monocoastal
Clouwbeck - From Which the River Rises
Johann Johannsson - And In the Endless Pause There Came the Sound of Bees
Murralin Lane - Our House Is On the Wall
Rafael Toral - Violence of Discovery and Calm of Acceptance
Nils Frahm - Unter I Uber
Loscil - Endless Falls
Goldmund - Famous Places
The Sight Below - It All Falls Apart
Pausal - Lapses
Eluvium - Static Nocturne
Nest - Retold
Singles:
Tim Hecker - Apondalifa
Grouper - Hold/Sick
Foster the People - Pumped Up Kicks
Blackbird and the Fox - the Twilight Singers
(featuring Ani DiFranco)
- My kind of guy ! - Link