We're an egalitarian bunch here at Higher Ed Critics. Even though our collective consists of 10 this year (expanded from the original seven), we always welcome guest posts. Here's one from fellow higher ed marketing guy/music lover Dylan Wilbanks (@dylanw), who shares his favorite albums, songs and disappointments of the year.
Dylan Wilbanks' Top 5 of 2010
When I was writing this, I found I was continually referring to a song or album’s “emotional core.” And this was a year of very, very strong emotions all over the place, from the rage of the Tea Party to the pained disappointment of the political left to the continued struggle of the unemployed to the awkward transparency of celebrities on Twitter. In that environment it feels like artistry requires ripping your heart out of your chest while committing emotional hari-kari -- and now we’re all covered in blood and guts as a result.
Strangely, it took me a while to warm to this year’s crop of albums. They all seemed short of perfect and somehow unable to capture this morass of feelings we’re all having. In the end I was split between two albums for best of, and then Kanye West came along to make the decision for me. Songs, well, there was clearly a #1 for me the moment I heard it, one we’ll look back on in curiosity and embarrassment down the road.
2010 wasn’t a world-changing year in music but a transitional year to something bigger and better. As auto-tuning plays itself out and hip-hop turns into dance music, and as the musical genres continue to fragment like broken glass, the signs all point to something emerging to take rock and pop to a whole new level. What we’re transitioning to, though, I haven’t the foggiest. I just hope it doesn’t feature any more auto-tune.
Albums
1. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Kanye West is music’s Manny Ramirez. Ramirez was a notorious distraction in the Boston Red Sox clubhouse, misplaying fly balls, skipping out on games, just being genuinely weird. And yet he was the most productive hitter on the Red Sox’ 2004 and 2007 world champion teams. The craziness was chalked up to “Manny being Manny.”
And here’s Kanye, in the midst of a two-year period where he stepped on Taylor Swift’s big moment, a very awkward conversation with Matt Lauer where Lauer continually asked Kanye how he feels about hurting the president’s feelings (a president who was compared to Hitler and burned in effigy thousands of times in his eight years in office), and a Twitter account that lets a million people enjoy his ramblings like a bunch of rubberneckers looking at a fender bender. Kanye has been, if not really self-destructive, a cautionary tale for having a personal filter and knowing when to shut up.
And what does he turn around and do? Make an album that so wows you with its audacity, with its emotional impact, with its transparency that you just have to sit there and marvel at what is in front of you, like Manny Ramirez delivering a homer over the Monster to win the game. It’s Kanye being Kanye, the most honest man in music.
2. The National - High Violet
Even though it’s #2, I still think this album is missing something. They are even better than what they sound like on High Violet, but they still haven’t found it. No matter: They are the best white guy band in America right now. They’re certainly better than Vampire Weekend, a band that looks like preppie rapists and sounds like they’re strip-mining Graceland. The National has a better record in them, but for right now this one easily beats Contra.
3. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
On Funeral, Win Butler kept the balance right between the big bombast of “Wake Up” and “Rebellion (Lies)” and the intimate but something brewing underneath sounds of “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)” and “Haiti.” Then he lost that on Neon Bible, laying it on thick like Christopher Hitchens were co-writing the songs. On The Suburbs, Arcade Fire return to that feeling, somewhat. Thematically it’s less hopeful and more weary than Funeral, but the bombast is dialed way down from Neon Bible, and the underlying message is less about Suburbs Are Evil and more about We Are Children Of The Suburbs And This Is Our Story. “We Used To Wait” is the prime example of this -- the sense of loss from Funeral, but it never goes over the top, only builds tension until it explodes, and then is as quiet as the digital extinction they sing about.
4. Sufjan Stevens - The Age Of Adz
Talk about an album that divides people. After we saw Sufjan here in Seattle, my wife said, “It was OK... but I really liked the acoustic stuff more.” Given that 80% of the concert was songs from Adz (including a full 25 minute performance of “Impossible Soul” that crescendoed with Sufjan in Kanye slat shades and the backup singers turning into fly girls), she didn’t what get she paid for.
But I was OK with it. It’s clear that Sufjan is trying to shuck off the “acoustic chamber pop” label. He’s trying to become David Byrne and getting there via Gary Numan and Captain Beefheart. And yet, he’s the same old Sufjan, turning words and sounds around each other without losing the emotional core that’s the base of all his music. And while you want to think “Impossible Soul” is the most self-indulgent sitcom-length song since Peter Gabriel put on that flower suit to sing “Supper’s Ready,” by the time the fly girls appear you understand what he’s been trying to do. He’s trying to work out his relationships with God, people, lovers, his fans, and he’s trying to do it the only way he knows how. And in his hands, it’s at times self-indulgent, but all the time it’s interesting and emotionally cathartic.
5. Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest
Noise pop has made a comeback the last few years, with Animal Collective leading the way and Sleigh Bells and Deerhunter coming behind. On Halcyon Digest, though, Deerhunter is starting to become more accessible than Animal Collective, and that can only bode well for them. “Helicopter” is as much a pop single as “My Girls” was last year, but Deerhunter sounds far more capable of repeating the experiment than Animal Collective. They wear their My Bloody Valentine influence like a merit badge, but they’re far more subtle, wanting to sneak in to your parlor with a few hundred amps rather than blast your front door down with a cacophony of buzz.
Also receiving votes: Teen Dream, Beach House; Write About Love, Belle and Sebastian; Crazy For You, Best Coast; Brothers, Black Keys; Interpreting The Masters, Volume 1: A Tribute to Daryl Hall And John Oates, The Bird And The Bee; Swim, Caribou; Tron, Daft Punk; This Is Happening, LCD Soundsystem; Have One On Me, Joanna Newsom; How I Got Over, The Roots
Singles:
1. “Bed Intruder Song,” Antoine Dodson and The Gregory Brothers
This song was 2010. A meme born from real anger and frustration run through Auto-Tune and turned into a best selling download. Covers. Mashups. How dare we see African-Americans this way, we guiltily think to ourselves. Are we laughing at him, or with him? And yet, we keep listening, because we understand the powerlessness, the need for retribution. And it’s so damn catchy.
2. “Tightrope,” Janelle Monae
2010 may be remembered as the year we first found out about Janelle Monae. I hope 2010 is; she’s incredibly talented.
3. “Runaway,” Kanye West
It’s just Kanye being Kanye.
4. “I Can Change,” LCD Soundsystem
Between looking like Brian Ferry on the cover of his latest album and this song’s opening beep-boops of 1980-era synth pop, you have to ask if James Murphy is heading down a get-off-my-lawn nostalgia for youth. And yet, this song sounds so much fresher than the source material.
5. “F**k You,” Cee-Lo Green
The song was so five minutes ago four minutes after it first hit YouTube, but that first four minutes were awesome, the most salty F-off pop song in forever delivered with incredible sweetness.
Honorable Mention: “Fly Scientist,” Chi Duly (Coldplay/Drake), “Not In Love,” Crystal Castles/Robert Smith, “Bloodbuzz Ohio,” The National, “Rill Rill,” Sleigh Bells, “The Wild Hunt,” The Tallest Man On Earth
Biggest disappointments:
MGMT - Congratulations
What went wrong, guys? Did you believe your own press too much?
Weezer - Hurley/Death To False Metal
When are we all going to admit that Weezer has degenerated into a Weezer cover band?
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Personal Top 5 - Ron Bronson
My Top 50 albums list was comprised of a cacophony of genres, representative of how I listen to music most of the time. From classical to indie, folk to jazz, hip-hop to metal, 2010 offered up a delicious buffet of musical tastes and I choose to sample from all over the map. In the end, I had to choose five albums that stood out among the rest.
Here they are:
5. Curren$y - Pilot Talk
Quite possibly the hardest working man in hip-hop this year, New Orleans native Curren$y finally hit the mainstream in 2010 releasing Pilot Talk in July and Pilot Talk II in late November. (Pitchfork gave both albums over an 8.) He rhymes a lot about what you'd consider usual rap fare -- girls, cars and his consumption of a curious product sold in Colorado dispensaries -- but what makes this brilliant is his laid-back, workmen like approach to the craft.
This isn't radio-friendly music by any stretch and the tracks aren't rife with choruses that always make them memorable. Instead, it's got the feel and flow of a mixtape, but without the abruptness and is good enough to be background music. His wordplay is second-to-none and in contrast to say, Kanye West, his braggadocio is demonstrated through the work his does on tracks.
The best hip-hop album of the year, hands down.
Standout track: Curren$y (feat. Mos Def & Jay Electronica) - The Day
4. The Tallest Man on Earth - The Wild Hunt
I debated this album and his September EP, Sometimes The Blues Are Just A Passing Bird, which might have been more complete than this album, but in the end decided to go with the full-length LP. The Tallest Man on Earth is the nom de guerre of Swedish musician Kristian Matsson and The Wild Hunt is his debut release.
The beauty of his music is it's complexity and it's simplicity -- at all once. Matsson manages to weave lush arrangements with the strum of his guitar and leave it at that. No drums or backup singers litter these tracks, so the first time you play it, it's as if he's sitting in your living room playing for you. He sounds as good on wax as he does in person (I saw him this past May) and does little to dissuade the notion that you're listening to his generation's up-and-coming troubadour.
Standout tracks include: King of Spain, The Wild Hunt, Troubles Will Be Gone
3. Tides of Man - Dreamhouse
Easily the hardest choice I had to make. Why? Tides of Man make the transition into a band that sounds like Circa Survive melded with Coheed and Cambria on this album. In other words, the ultimate emo acquired taste LP. Either you'd love it or hate it. Well, I loved it.
Standout tracks: Echoes, A Faint Illusion, Statues
Listen: Tides of Man - Echoes
2. Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me
For years, I had friends who raved about Joanna Newsom. I couldn't spend much time with her though. But the first time I heard Have One On Me, I realized that she'd crossed over into one of my favorites. This LP is easily her most accessible -- despite 3 LPs -- and that says a lot when many of the songs go on for seven minutes or more. The lyrics alone could sell you, but she mixes it with flawless arrangements that rely less on her vaunted harp and instead, let her voice and piano do the talking.
From Have One On Me, Good Intentions Paving Company, Does Not Suffice to Easy, this album is an emotive masterpiece that will demand your attention. No, it might not convert the masses to Joanna fandom, but you can't help but hear it and appreciate the handiwork.
1. Laura Veirs - July Flame
Another album of an artist I saw live in the past year. I first heard this album several weeks before it's release, at a Laura Veirs concert. I didn't like it, because it was extremely unfamiliar and I'd been pining for tracks like Spelunking, Don't Lose Yourself or Galaxies and for a while what I got were these songs I'd never heard. So I passed up a chance to get the album early, to have her autograph it or to pick it up on wax.
I waited for it to be released in January and immediately ate my words upon hearing it. It certainly lends itself better on LP, but live renditions since then still work. It's not much different than past Laura Veirs work, it's heavily reliant on her poetic folk lyricism. What makes this best, is how the entire album holds up with each song as memorable as the previous. It's beautiful, stoic and a perfect winter album.
Standout tracks: July Flame, I Can See Your Tracks, Where Are You Driving?, Carol Kaye
Saturday, December 18, 2010
10 contributors, 219 albums
By broadening our group of contributors to 10 this year, we also broadened our range of musical tastes. For this year's project, each of us shared our list of top albums -- some offered as many as 50, others as few as 10 -- and in the end, we came up with a total of 219 albums.
Despite our diverse viewpoints and stylistic preferences, we found common ground on several of the year's musical offerings but plenty of disagreement on where those commonly loved albums fall on the spectrum of overall awesomeness.
Our plan for this blog was to share our consensus picks of the top 50 albums of 2010, but because we have such a diverse viewpoint, we decided to also share our personal top five picks for the year with a bit of commentary on why those five albums are our favorites.
We will share individual picks soon. But first, let's take a look at the 169 albums that didn't quite make it into our final list. Each of these offerings is terrific in the views of at least one of our 10 contributors. Some of them even landed on individual top-5 lists, as you'll soon discover.
The also-rans: the top 51-219 albums of 2010, according to us.
Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - The Brutalist Bricks
Black Mountain - Wilderness Heart
Warpaint - The Fool
Wavves - King of the Beach
Surfer Blood - Astro Coast
Punch Brothers - Antifogmatic
Matthew Dear - Black City
David Byrne and Fatboy Slim - Here Lies Love
Dust Poets - World at Large
Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me
Various Artists - Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: Songs of John Prine
Preservation Hall Jazz Band - An Album Benefiting Preservation Hall and the Preservation Hall Music Outreach Program
Tides of Man - Dreamhouse
Local Natives - Gorilla Manor
M.I.A. - /\/\/\Y/\
Avenged Sevenfold - Nightmare
Josh Ritter - So Runs the World Away
MGMT - Congratulations
Rocky Votolato - True Devotion
The Love Language - Libraries
Steven Page - Page One
Mose Allison - The Way of the World
Curren$y - Pilot Talk
SONOIO - Blue
John Shade - All You Love Is Need
Barenaked Ladies - All In Good Time
Audra Mae - The Happiest Lamb
The Dillinger Escape Plan - Option Paralysis
Thunder - Live at the BBC (1990-1995)
KT Tunstall - Tiger Suit
Zoe Keating - Into the Trees
Neon Trees - Habits
My Chemical Romance - Danger Days
Ryan Bingham and Dead Horses - Junky Star
Autechre - Oversteps
Fitz and the Tantrums - Pickin' Up the Pieces
Tired Pony - The Place We Ran From
Gin Blossoms - No Chocolate Cake
Laura Marling - I Speak Because I Can
Cloud Cut - Light Chasers
The Union - The Union
Erykah Badu - New Amerykah Pt. 2: Return of the Ankh
Jaga Jazzist - One-Armed Bandit
Slash - Slash
Harlem - Hippies
Sarah McLachlan - Laws of Illusion
James LaBrie - Static Impulse
The City Champs - The Set-Up
jj - no. 3
Brad Yoder - Excellent Trouble
Roky Erickson with Okkervil River - True Love Casts Out All Evil
The Hold Steady - Heaven is Whenever
Pete Yorn - Pete Yorn
El-P - Weareallgoingtoburninhellmegamixxx3
Jenny and Johnny - I'm Having Fun Now
Nelson - Lightning Strikes Twice
First Aid Kit - The Big Black and The Blue
The Acorn - No Ghost
Darius Rucker - Charleston, SC 1966
Belle and Sebastian - Write About Love
The Secret Sisters - The Secret Sisters
Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings - I Learned the Hard Way
The Glitch Mob - Drink The Sea
She & Him - Volume 2
Turtle Island Quartet - Have You Ever Been..?: The Music Of Jimi Hendrix and David Balakrishnan
Atlas Sound - Bedroom Databank Volumes 1, 2, 3 and 4
The Black Angels - Phosphene Dream
MC Frontalot - Zero Day
Caribou - Swim
Zion - Atomic Clock
Zac Brown Band - You Get What You Give
Anat Cohen - Clarinetwork: Live at the Village Vanguard
Hilary Hahn - Higdin & Tchaikovsky: Violin Concertos
The Depreciation Guild - Spirit Youth
The Kissaway Trail - Sleep Mountain
Scorpions - Sting In the Tail
Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse - Dark Night of the Soul
The Two Man Gentleman Band - Dos Amigos, Una Fiesta!
dum dum girls - I will be
Good Old War - Good Old War
Marching Band - Pop Cycle
Imagination Movers - In a Big Warehouse
Dave Brubeck - Legacy of a Legend
Deadmau5 - 4x4=12
Steel Train - Steel Train
Deftones - Diamond Eyes
Versus - On the Ones and Threes
Tesla - Alive in Europe
The Walkmen - Lisbon
Weakerthans and Jim Bryson - The Falcon Lake Incident
Extreme - Take Us Alive (Live Boston 2009)
Land of Talk - Cloak and Cipher
Magnetic Fields - Realism
Merle Haggard - I Am What I Am
Midlake - The Courage of Others
Pavement - Quarantine The Past
Teenage Fanclub - Shadows
Peter Wolf - Midnight Souvenirs
Stone Temple Pilots - Stone Temple Pilots
Ginger - Ten and 10 (Two)
Mimicking Birds - Mimicking Birds
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros - Up From Below
Axis of Awesome - Infinity Rock Explosion!
J. Roddy Walston and the Business - J. Roddy Walston and the Business
Dr. Dog - Shame, Shame
Bruce Springsteen - The Promise
Jazmine Sullivan - Love Me Back
Freelance Whales - Weathervanes
The Damned Things - Ironiclast
Neil Young - Le Noise
Freedy Johnston - Rain on the City
Cee-Lo - Ladykiller
Reading Rainbow - Prism Eyes
Mike Patton - Mondo Cane
Owen Pallet - Heartland
Ozzy Osbourne - Scream
Los Campesinos! - Romance Is Boring
Ed Kowalczyk - Alive
Tom Petty - Mojo
Laura Stevenson & The Cans - A Record
The Morning Benders - Big Echo
Truth & Salvage Co. - Truth & Salvage Co.
Gorillaz - Plastic Beach
Dungen - Skit I Allt
Pernice Brothers - Goodbye, Killer
Various Artists - Many Hands: Family Music for Haiti
We Are Scientists - Barbara
Baseball Project - Broadside Ballads
Joy Kills Sorrow - Joy Kills Sorrow
Eric Martin - Mr. Vocalist 3
Manic Street Preachers - Postcards from a Young Man
Minus the Bear - Omni
Kathryn Calder - Are You My Mother?
Airbourne - No Guts. No Glory
The Whigs - In the Dark
Brooklyn Rider - Dominant Curve
Nada Surf - If I Had a Hi-Fi
Jack Johnson - To The Sea
Angus & Julia Stone - Down the Way
Blackwood Creek - Blackwood Creek
The Vaselines - Sex With An X
Dan Mangan - Nice, Nice, Very Nice
Frightened Rabbit - The Winter of Mixed Drinks
Electric Six - Zodiac
Of Mice & Men - Of Mice & Men
Eels - End Times
Taylor Swift - Speak Now
Elvis Costello - National Ransom
Twin Shadow - Forget
Meat Loaf - Hang Cool Teddy Bear
Superchunk - Majesty Shredding
Crime In Stereo - I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone
Mates of State - Crushes
Guster - Easy Wonderful
Shelby Lynne - Tears, Lies and Alibis
Alexander Melnikov - Shostakovich
John Hiatt - The Open Road
Zac Brown Band - Pass the Jar
Aloha - Home Acres
Kingsley Flood - Dust Windows
Bad Religion - The Dissent of Man
Jason Moran - Ten
Static of the Gods - Knowledge Machine
White Wizzard - Over the Top
The Unthanks - Here's the Tender Coming
Court Yard Hounds - Court Yard Hounds
Basia Bulat - Heart of My Own
Sam Amidon - I See the Sign
The Futureheads - The Chaos
Despite our diverse viewpoints and stylistic preferences, we found common ground on several of the year's musical offerings but plenty of disagreement on where those commonly loved albums fall on the spectrum of overall awesomeness.
Our plan for this blog was to share our consensus picks of the top 50 albums of 2010, but because we have such a diverse viewpoint, we decided to also share our personal top five picks for the year with a bit of commentary on why those five albums are our favorites.
We will share individual picks soon. But first, let's take a look at the 169 albums that didn't quite make it into our final list. Each of these offerings is terrific in the views of at least one of our 10 contributors. Some of them even landed on individual top-5 lists, as you'll soon discover.
The also-rans: the top 51-219 albums of 2010, according to us.
Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - The Brutalist Bricks
Black Mountain - Wilderness Heart
Warpaint - The Fool
Wavves - King of the Beach
Surfer Blood - Astro Coast
Punch Brothers - Antifogmatic
Matthew Dear - Black City
David Byrne and Fatboy Slim - Here Lies Love
Dust Poets - World at Large
Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me
Various Artists - Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: Songs of John Prine
Preservation Hall Jazz Band - An Album Benefiting Preservation Hall and the Preservation Hall Music Outreach Program
Tides of Man - Dreamhouse
Local Natives - Gorilla Manor
M.I.A. - /\/\/\Y/\
Avenged Sevenfold - Nightmare
Josh Ritter - So Runs the World Away
MGMT - Congratulations
Rocky Votolato - True Devotion
The Love Language - Libraries
Steven Page - Page One
Mose Allison - The Way of the World
Curren$y - Pilot Talk
SONOIO - Blue
John Shade - All You Love Is Need
Barenaked Ladies - All In Good Time
Audra Mae - The Happiest Lamb
The Dillinger Escape Plan - Option Paralysis
Thunder - Live at the BBC (1990-1995)
KT Tunstall - Tiger Suit
Zoe Keating - Into the Trees
Neon Trees - Habits
My Chemical Romance - Danger Days
Ryan Bingham and Dead Horses - Junky Star
Autechre - Oversteps
Fitz and the Tantrums - Pickin' Up the Pieces
Tired Pony - The Place We Ran From
Gin Blossoms - No Chocolate Cake
Laura Marling - I Speak Because I Can
Cloud Cut - Light Chasers
The Union - The Union
Erykah Badu - New Amerykah Pt. 2: Return of the Ankh
Jaga Jazzist - One-Armed Bandit
Slash - Slash
Harlem - Hippies
Sarah McLachlan - Laws of Illusion
James LaBrie - Static Impulse
The City Champs - The Set-Up
jj - no. 3
Brad Yoder - Excellent Trouble
Roky Erickson with Okkervil River - True Love Casts Out All Evil
The Hold Steady - Heaven is Whenever
Pete Yorn - Pete Yorn
El-P - Weareallgoingtoburninhellmegamixxx3
Jenny and Johnny - I'm Having Fun Now
Nelson - Lightning Strikes Twice
First Aid Kit - The Big Black and The Blue
The Acorn - No Ghost
Darius Rucker - Charleston, SC 1966
Belle and Sebastian - Write About Love
The Secret Sisters - The Secret Sisters
Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings - I Learned the Hard Way
The Glitch Mob - Drink The Sea
She & Him - Volume 2
Turtle Island Quartet - Have You Ever Been..?: The Music Of Jimi Hendrix and David Balakrishnan
Atlas Sound - Bedroom Databank Volumes 1, 2, 3 and 4
The Black Angels - Phosphene Dream
MC Frontalot - Zero Day
Caribou - Swim
Zion - Atomic Clock
Zac Brown Band - You Get What You Give
Anat Cohen - Clarinetwork: Live at the Village Vanguard
Hilary Hahn - Higdin & Tchaikovsky: Violin Concertos
The Depreciation Guild - Spirit Youth
The Kissaway Trail - Sleep Mountain
Scorpions - Sting In the Tail
Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse - Dark Night of the Soul
The Two Man Gentleman Band - Dos Amigos, Una Fiesta!
dum dum girls - I will be
Good Old War - Good Old War
Marching Band - Pop Cycle
Imagination Movers - In a Big Warehouse
Dave Brubeck - Legacy of a Legend
Deadmau5 - 4x4=12
Steel Train - Steel Train
Deftones - Diamond Eyes
Versus - On the Ones and Threes
Tesla - Alive in Europe
The Walkmen - Lisbon
Weakerthans and Jim Bryson - The Falcon Lake Incident
Extreme - Take Us Alive (Live Boston 2009)
Land of Talk - Cloak and Cipher
Magnetic Fields - Realism
Merle Haggard - I Am What I Am
Midlake - The Courage of Others
Pavement - Quarantine The Past
Teenage Fanclub - Shadows
Peter Wolf - Midnight Souvenirs
Stone Temple Pilots - Stone Temple Pilots
Ginger - Ten and 10 (Two)
Mimicking Birds - Mimicking Birds
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros - Up From Below
Axis of Awesome - Infinity Rock Explosion!
J. Roddy Walston and the Business - J. Roddy Walston and the Business
Dr. Dog - Shame, Shame
Bruce Springsteen - The Promise
Jazmine Sullivan - Love Me Back
Freelance Whales - Weathervanes
The Damned Things - Ironiclast
Neil Young - Le Noise
Freedy Johnston - Rain on the City
Cee-Lo - Ladykiller
Reading Rainbow - Prism Eyes
Mike Patton - Mondo Cane
Owen Pallet - Heartland
Ozzy Osbourne - Scream
Los Campesinos! - Romance Is Boring
Ed Kowalczyk - Alive
Tom Petty - Mojo
Laura Stevenson & The Cans - A Record
The Morning Benders - Big Echo
Truth & Salvage Co. - Truth & Salvage Co.
Gorillaz - Plastic Beach
Dungen - Skit I Allt
Pernice Brothers - Goodbye, Killer
Various Artists - Many Hands: Family Music for Haiti
We Are Scientists - Barbara
Baseball Project - Broadside Ballads
Joy Kills Sorrow - Joy Kills Sorrow
Eric Martin - Mr. Vocalist 3
Manic Street Preachers - Postcards from a Young Man
Minus the Bear - Omni
Kathryn Calder - Are You My Mother?
Airbourne - No Guts. No Glory
The Whigs - In the Dark
Brooklyn Rider - Dominant Curve
Nada Surf - If I Had a Hi-Fi
Jack Johnson - To The Sea
Angus & Julia Stone - Down the Way
Blackwood Creek - Blackwood Creek
The Vaselines - Sex With An X
Dan Mangan - Nice, Nice, Very Nice
Frightened Rabbit - The Winter of Mixed Drinks
Electric Six - Zodiac
Of Mice & Men - Of Mice & Men
Eels - End Times
Taylor Swift - Speak Now
Elvis Costello - National Ransom
Twin Shadow - Forget
Meat Loaf - Hang Cool Teddy Bear
Superchunk - Majesty Shredding
Crime In Stereo - I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone
Mates of State - Crushes
Guster - Easy Wonderful
Shelby Lynne - Tears, Lies and Alibis
Alexander Melnikov - Shostakovich
John Hiatt - The Open Road
Zac Brown Band - Pass the Jar
Aloha - Home Acres
Kingsley Flood - Dust Windows
Bad Religion - The Dissent of Man
Jason Moran - Ten
Static of the Gods - Knowledge Machine
White Wizzard - Over the Top
The Unthanks - Here's the Tender Coming
Court Yard Hounds - Court Yard Hounds
Basia Bulat - Heart of My Own
Sam Amidon - I See the Sign
The Futureheads - The Chaos
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
15 Christmas Songs You Need To Know
Ah, the holiday season. As a little primer for our forthcoming list of the top albums from 2010, I thought it would be instructive to take a look at some holiday songs that full somewhere below the "classic" tag. If you don't know these songs, you should. I spent way too much time ranking my 2010 list, so we'll just do this one in alphabetical order:
1. Barenaked Ladies (featuring Michael Buble) - Elf's Lament Couldn't find a proper video for this, so we'll go with this live one, sans Mr. Buble. Cute, catchy, and far and away the high point of their largely throwaway "Barenaked for the Holidays" from a few years ago.
2. Blues Traveler - Christmas The "Very Special Christmas" series is largely hit or miss for me; you could make a great "Very Special Christmas Greatest Hits" based on your own individual preferences. For me, this one (and the Extreme song below) stand out for me. I love the part at the end with the layered vocals.
3. Crash Test Dummies - The First Noel There's a video for this! I'm thrilled. There's nothing not to love Brad Roberts' voice, and although their holiday album is a little thin also, Brad's songs are excellent. "Jingle Bells" is a hit for me too.
4. Darkness - Christmas Time (Don't Let The Bells End) Oh, how I miss The Darkness.
5. Extreme - Christmas Time Again I'm an admitted hair metal fanboy, but I just love the way this ends, with the segue into "Noel." There are a couple of pretty good hair metal Christmas albums out there, but this is the only song you might already have in your collection.
6. Firehouse - Christmas With You I don't have any idea where this song came from or where I found it, but these guys were/are one of my favorite bands, and I was excited to see that they'd released this.
7. Hanson - anything off Snowed In, really Hanson's "Snowed In" is probably my favorite Christmas album. (There, I said it.) The harmonies are tight, the arrangements are great. Well worth the investment.
8. Billy Idol - Merry Christmas Baby Yes, a Billy Idol Christmas record. Surprisingly good, actually.
9. Billy Mack - Christmas Is All Around The one from "Love Actually," one of the great underrated Christmas movies of our time.
10. Marvelous 3 - Merry Christmas I can't find a version of this online anywhere, but the Marv 3 are maybe the best band you've never heard of. Three albums that got lost in the shuffle before their record label dropped them; this song, according to a fan site, appears on a radio station holiday compilation from 2000. Not their greatest work, but I wanted to get Butch Walker on this list somewhere.
11. Oak Ridge Boys - Hallelujah Chorus I love love love this.
12. Joe Pesci - If It Doesn't Snow On Christmas (NSFW) "Where'd you get these kids from, a bleeping jail?" Brilliant.
13. SNL - Christmas Coming To The USA This makes me cry with laughter every time I see it. It's just so stupid, it's brilliant, and the four of them really sell it.
14. Ringo Starr - Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer Ringo's all over the place lyrically here (particularly from 1:12-1:40), and it's like Mark Hudson said "You know what, Ringo? That take totally sucked, but we're leaving it in there, because it's hilarious."
15. Wesley Willis - Merry Christmas The world misses you, Wesley Willis. There will never be another.
Feel free to contribute any forgotten classics of your own below.
1. Barenaked Ladies (featuring Michael Buble) - Elf's Lament Couldn't find a proper video for this, so we'll go with this live one, sans Mr. Buble. Cute, catchy, and far and away the high point of their largely throwaway "Barenaked for the Holidays" from a few years ago.
2. Blues Traveler - Christmas The "Very Special Christmas" series is largely hit or miss for me; you could make a great "Very Special Christmas Greatest Hits" based on your own individual preferences. For me, this one (and the Extreme song below) stand out for me. I love the part at the end with the layered vocals.
3. Crash Test Dummies - The First Noel There's a video for this! I'm thrilled. There's nothing not to love Brad Roberts' voice, and although their holiday album is a little thin also, Brad's songs are excellent. "Jingle Bells" is a hit for me too.
4. Darkness - Christmas Time (Don't Let The Bells End) Oh, how I miss The Darkness.
5. Extreme - Christmas Time Again I'm an admitted hair metal fanboy, but I just love the way this ends, with the segue into "Noel." There are a couple of pretty good hair metal Christmas albums out there, but this is the only song you might already have in your collection.
6. Firehouse - Christmas With You I don't have any idea where this song came from or where I found it, but these guys were/are one of my favorite bands, and I was excited to see that they'd released this.
7. Hanson - anything off Snowed In, really Hanson's "Snowed In" is probably my favorite Christmas album. (There, I said it.) The harmonies are tight, the arrangements are great. Well worth the investment.
8. Billy Idol - Merry Christmas Baby Yes, a Billy Idol Christmas record. Surprisingly good, actually.
9. Billy Mack - Christmas Is All Around The one from "Love Actually," one of the great underrated Christmas movies of our time.
10. Marvelous 3 - Merry Christmas I can't find a version of this online anywhere, but the Marv 3 are maybe the best band you've never heard of. Three albums that got lost in the shuffle before their record label dropped them; this song, according to a fan site, appears on a radio station holiday compilation from 2000. Not their greatest work, but I wanted to get Butch Walker on this list somewhere.
11. Oak Ridge Boys - Hallelujah Chorus I love love love this.
12. Joe Pesci - If It Doesn't Snow On Christmas (NSFW) "Where'd you get these kids from, a bleeping jail?" Brilliant.
13. SNL - Christmas Coming To The USA This makes me cry with laughter every time I see it. It's just so stupid, it's brilliant, and the four of them really sell it.
14. Ringo Starr - Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer Ringo's all over the place lyrically here (particularly from 1:12-1:40), and it's like Mark Hudson said "You know what, Ringo? That take totally sucked, but we're leaving it in there, because it's hilarious."
15. Wesley Willis - Merry Christmas The world misses you, Wesley Willis. There will never be another.
Feel free to contribute any forgotten classics of your own below.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
The critics return
We're back -- and bigger than ever.
Last year, you'll recall, seven of us got together to compare notes and musical tastes on our favorite albums of the first decade of the 2000s. The result was our 10-post countdown.
We had so much fun last year that we are returning with an expanded group. Please welcome the three new members of our collective of higher ed music aficionados: Chris D'Orso (who weighed in late with his own best-of-the-decade list), Mike Petroff and Jenna Spinelle.
Our group is now busy compiling our individual lists and will soon compare notes and present our top 50-ish of 2010 for your viewing and listening pleasure. Already in the process, I've discovered some great new music, and we hope you will, too.
Stay tuned.
Last year, you'll recall, seven of us got together to compare notes and musical tastes on our favorite albums of the first decade of the 2000s. The result was our 10-post countdown.
We had so much fun last year that we are returning with an expanded group. Please welcome the three new members of our collective of higher ed music aficionados: Chris D'Orso (who weighed in late with his own best-of-the-decade list), Mike Petroff and Jenna Spinelle.
Our group is now busy compiling our individual lists and will soon compare notes and present our top 50-ish of 2010 for your viewing and listening pleasure. Already in the process, I've discovered some great new music, and we hope you will, too.
Stay tuned.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Best of the '00s: a contrarian chimes in
When fellow higher ed guy Chris D'Orso (@cdorso on Twitter) got wind of our end-of-decade countdown project, he asked if he could also take part. "Of course," we said in unison, even though we were well under way with this project. But being the egalitarian group that we are, we offered Chris the opportunity to submit his list. Well, Chris finally obliged us, but being an iconoclastic sort, he decided to share only those albums we somehow overlooked in our consensus picks. Weighing in to stick up for the supergroups, guyliner bands, '70s icons and other overlooked musical entries of the decade just passed, here's Chris.
So we fancy ourselves music critics, eh? Well, I guess it falls to me to take care of all the bands and artists who aren't all the hippy-dippy Bright Eyes/Tegan and Sara crap. First, a little about me: born in the mid-70s, my musical passions developed in high school with the rise of hair metal and then grunge; when I sang with a band in the early 90s, we played everything from Poison and Def Leppard to Pearl Jam and Nirvana. I listen to music all... the... time; my mp3 player is one of my most prized possessions, and has over 8,700 songs on it these days.
With that, I give you 25(ish) records (what's a "record"?) that my esteemed colleagues missed in their review of the 2000s, in vaguely priority order:
Stone Gods – Silver Spoons & Broken Bones
Born out of the ashes of The Darkness, the three guys who were not Justin Hawkins made an EP and a record that sound exactly like you want it to… riff-heavy melodic rock, just without the JH glam falsetto. Brilliant record that I could listen to over and over. Looking forward to more stuff from these guys, although I don’t believe they have a US record deal.
Dream Theater – Black Clouds & Silver Linings
The kings of progressive metal put it all together this year for their finest single disc of material since “Images and Words.” They took the metal, the pop, the rock, and the progressive and boiled them down to six songs that are the essence of what DT is.
Silvertide – Show & Tell
One of the best one-off albums I own. Released in 2004, the band broke up shortly thereafter, which is too bad, because eleven songs is just not enough from these guys. In the Allmans/Skynyrd tradition, but a couple of years too early to catch the Black Stone Cherry/Answer train. Hope they find a way to make it back, but I doubt they can capture a moment quite like this.
Tesla – Into The Now
My second favorite band of all time, this is the essential current Tesla album. Catchy, pop-tinged choruses, driving guitars, and Jeff Keith’s trademark raspy squeal. A disc I could listen to over and over.
Thunder – The Magnificent Seventh
The simple brilliance of “I Love You More Than Rock N Roll” is enough for me to put this on this list, but add “I’m Dreaming Again,” “The Gods of Love,” “Fade Into The Sun”, and “Amy’s On The Run,” the best song about crossdressing since “Lola”? Damn, that’s good.
Butch Walker – Left of Self-Centered
A wild pop-rock romp that should have sold millions of copies. Every song is catchy as hell.
Coheed & Cambria – Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume 1: From Fear Through The Eyes of Madness
As pretentious as the title would lead you to believe, this is Claudio Sanchez’s world, and we’re all just observers. I honestly have no idea what’s going on in this wild story, which means Sanchez is either brilliant or completely delirious. (Or both.) Either way, once you get past his ear-splitting voice, this album is metal bombast that puts My Chemical Romance to shame.
Baseball Project – Vol 1: Frozen Ropes & Dying Quails
A side project from a couple of alt-rock icons, this disc is worth it just for “Ted Fucking Williams.” A great listen for any serious baseball fan.
Marvelous 3 – Ready Sex Go
Say what you will about the direction Butch Walker’s recording career has gone since the dissolution of the Marvs, but if you’re going to go out, go out in style. Completely derivative of its time in early 2000 – crunchy guitars, poppy harmonies – but completely devoid of any mainstream success, the Marv 3 might be the best pop-rock band you’ve never heard of.
Bowes & Morley – Moving Swiftly Along
Luke Morley – El Gringo Retro
I group these two discs together as they came out around the same time (2001-2002) and both feature the main songwriter from my favorite band, Thunder, guitarist Luke Morley. There isn’t a bad song on either disc; “Moving” dangerously presages Thunder’s late-00s cookie-cutter songwriting (consecutive songs are called “Don’t Take Your Love Away,” “Dance The Night Away,” and “You’re Drifting Away”), but every tune will leave you singing.
Counting Crows – Hard Candy
In college, we played “August & Everything After” so many times I’m surprised my CD isn’t broken. Then Adam Duritz followed up with the somewhat darker “Recovering the Satellites” and the forgettable “This Desert Life,” both of which contained a few catchy pop songs… but it’s “Hard Candy” that finds its way into my head over and over. It’s “August” with a pop sheen; catchy as hell from beginning to end.
Darkness – Permission to Land
Oh, The Darkness. Where to begin? It’s hard to get past Justin Hawkins’ voice, either fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your perspective. They took everything that was good about melodic hard rock and turned it on its ear, with wailing choruses and inane lyrics about “believing in a thing called love.” But really, what’s so bad about that?
Jet – Get Born
Better than the Strokes, better than The Vines… every song on this album could have been a hit single. (“Look What You’ve Done” joins Train’s “Something More” as the best Beatles songs of the 2000s.)
Kaiser Chiefs – Employment
Kaiser Chiefs – Yours Truly, Angry Mob
I fell in love with “I Predict A Riot,” and the rest of the “Employment” disc and its follow-up are in the same vein; good, honest British punk-pop. The Arctic Monkeys got more critical acclaim, but the Kaiser Chiefs are much more accessible.
My Chemical Romance – The Black Parade
The best of the guyliner bands to come along in the mid-00s, Gerald Way created a universe for the band and put out a dynamic, brilliant power pop record that demands to be played loudly from start to finish. Only Green Day’s “American Idiot” did the pop-rock opera better during the decade.
Tinted Windows – Tinted Windows
What do you get when you smuch the pop of Hanson, the crunch of Smashing Pumpkins, the groove of Cheap Trick, and the quirkiness of Fountains of Wayne? This disc, 35 minutes of pure bubble-gum groovy goodness. Two enormous thumbs up.
Velvet Revolver – Contraband
One of the few supergroups who really make it work. Truly the sum of its parts; Scott Weiland provides the growl, and the backbone from Guns N Roses (Slash, Duff, and Matt) provide the whomp. Sounds a little like GNR, a little like STP, but really a work of its own.
Butch Walker – Letters
Butch got a little more introspective here; “Joan” is a piano ballad about an abusive relationship, and “Mixtape” is a wistful remembrance of lost love. But the rockers show that Butch can still bring that as well, and even though the old hair metal fans wrote this record off as too emo, Butch is very much a product of his times, and like all of his stuff, should get a lot more play.
The Wildhearts – Must Be Destroyed
Most folks don’t realize that pop music can be so blisteringly hard, or that heavy metal can be so melodic. Ginger, prolific frontman of the Wildhearts, melds the two brilliantly. 1993’s “Earth vs the Wildhearts,” sadly out of print, is a masterpiece; this, their big American return, is just as good. (Why is all the good music British?)
Alice Cooper – The Eyes of Alice Cooper
From what I’ve read, Alice fans don’t like this disc. I think it’s the best work he’s done since the 80’s; it’s just Alice. Stripped back, raw, with crunchy guitars and sparse melodies. For a guy who’s reinvented himself so many times (shock rocker, hair metal hero, dutiful Christian, golfing old man), straight rock-n-roll Alice might be his finest.
Andrew W.K. – I Get Wet
For “Party Hard” alone; never has a piano rocked so damn hard.
Wolfmother – Wolfmother
The sturm und drang of Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, ostensibly updated for a new millennium – but it’s totally not. Many of these songs wouldn’t have been out of place in the 70’s, but at the same time, it somehow ounds totally fresh. Considering Andrew Stockdale broke up the band after this album and reformed it with entirely different guys, I don’t know that they’ll ever reach this height again. (I’ve tried 2009’s “Cosmic Egg,” but can’t get into it yet.)
Warren Zevon – The Wind
His final album, recorded as he was near death. “Keep Me In Your Heart” – considering the context – might be the most beautiful song ever recorded.
Ben Folds – Way To Normal EP (Fake “Leaked” Version)
In an attempt to outsmart the pirates, Ben “leaked” fake versions of some of the songs from his forthcoming album; the problem was that once the album was released, the “fake” versions of the songs (notably “Bitch Went Nutz” and “Lovesick Diagnostician (Dr. Yang)”) were better than the “real” ones. (Oops.)
So we fancy ourselves music critics, eh? Well, I guess it falls to me to take care of all the bands and artists who aren't all the hippy-dippy Bright Eyes/Tegan and Sara crap. First, a little about me: born in the mid-70s, my musical passions developed in high school with the rise of hair metal and then grunge; when I sang with a band in the early 90s, we played everything from Poison and Def Leppard to Pearl Jam and Nirvana. I listen to music all... the... time; my mp3 player is one of my most prized possessions, and has over 8,700 songs on it these days.
With that, I give you 25(ish) records (what's a "record"?) that my esteemed colleagues missed in their review of the 2000s, in vaguely priority order:
Stone Gods – Silver Spoons & Broken Bones
Born out of the ashes of The Darkness, the three guys who were not Justin Hawkins made an EP and a record that sound exactly like you want it to… riff-heavy melodic rock, just without the JH glam falsetto. Brilliant record that I could listen to over and over. Looking forward to more stuff from these guys, although I don’t believe they have a US record deal.
Dream Theater – Black Clouds & Silver Linings
The kings of progressive metal put it all together this year for their finest single disc of material since “Images and Words.” They took the metal, the pop, the rock, and the progressive and boiled them down to six songs that are the essence of what DT is.
Silvertide – Show & Tell
One of the best one-off albums I own. Released in 2004, the band broke up shortly thereafter, which is too bad, because eleven songs is just not enough from these guys. In the Allmans/Skynyrd tradition, but a couple of years too early to catch the Black Stone Cherry/Answer train. Hope they find a way to make it back, but I doubt they can capture a moment quite like this.
Tesla – Into The Now
My second favorite band of all time, this is the essential current Tesla album. Catchy, pop-tinged choruses, driving guitars, and Jeff Keith’s trademark raspy squeal. A disc I could listen to over and over.
Thunder – The Magnificent Seventh
The simple brilliance of “I Love You More Than Rock N Roll” is enough for me to put this on this list, but add “I’m Dreaming Again,” “The Gods of Love,” “Fade Into The Sun”, and “Amy’s On The Run,” the best song about crossdressing since “Lola”? Damn, that’s good.
Butch Walker – Left of Self-Centered
A wild pop-rock romp that should have sold millions of copies. Every song is catchy as hell.
Coheed & Cambria – Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume 1: From Fear Through The Eyes of Madness
As pretentious as the title would lead you to believe, this is Claudio Sanchez’s world, and we’re all just observers. I honestly have no idea what’s going on in this wild story, which means Sanchez is either brilliant or completely delirious. (Or both.) Either way, once you get past his ear-splitting voice, this album is metal bombast that puts My Chemical Romance to shame.
Baseball Project – Vol 1: Frozen Ropes & Dying Quails
A side project from a couple of alt-rock icons, this disc is worth it just for “Ted Fucking Williams.” A great listen for any serious baseball fan.
Marvelous 3 – Ready Sex Go
Say what you will about the direction Butch Walker’s recording career has gone since the dissolution of the Marvs, but if you’re going to go out, go out in style. Completely derivative of its time in early 2000 – crunchy guitars, poppy harmonies – but completely devoid of any mainstream success, the Marv 3 might be the best pop-rock band you’ve never heard of.
Bowes & Morley – Moving Swiftly Along
Luke Morley – El Gringo Retro
I group these two discs together as they came out around the same time (2001-2002) and both feature the main songwriter from my favorite band, Thunder, guitarist Luke Morley. There isn’t a bad song on either disc; “Moving” dangerously presages Thunder’s late-00s cookie-cutter songwriting (consecutive songs are called “Don’t Take Your Love Away,” “Dance The Night Away,” and “You’re Drifting Away”), but every tune will leave you singing.
Counting Crows – Hard Candy
In college, we played “August & Everything After” so many times I’m surprised my CD isn’t broken. Then Adam Duritz followed up with the somewhat darker “Recovering the Satellites” and the forgettable “This Desert Life,” both of which contained a few catchy pop songs… but it’s “Hard Candy” that finds its way into my head over and over. It’s “August” with a pop sheen; catchy as hell from beginning to end.
Darkness – Permission to Land
Oh, The Darkness. Where to begin? It’s hard to get past Justin Hawkins’ voice, either fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your perspective. They took everything that was good about melodic hard rock and turned it on its ear, with wailing choruses and inane lyrics about “believing in a thing called love.” But really, what’s so bad about that?
Jet – Get Born
Better than the Strokes, better than The Vines… every song on this album could have been a hit single. (“Look What You’ve Done” joins Train’s “Something More” as the best Beatles songs of the 2000s.)
Kaiser Chiefs – Employment
Kaiser Chiefs – Yours Truly, Angry Mob
I fell in love with “I Predict A Riot,” and the rest of the “Employment” disc and its follow-up are in the same vein; good, honest British punk-pop. The Arctic Monkeys got more critical acclaim, but the Kaiser Chiefs are much more accessible.
My Chemical Romance – The Black Parade
The best of the guyliner bands to come along in the mid-00s, Gerald Way created a universe for the band and put out a dynamic, brilliant power pop record that demands to be played loudly from start to finish. Only Green Day’s “American Idiot” did the pop-rock opera better during the decade.
Tinted Windows – Tinted Windows
What do you get when you smuch the pop of Hanson, the crunch of Smashing Pumpkins, the groove of Cheap Trick, and the quirkiness of Fountains of Wayne? This disc, 35 minutes of pure bubble-gum groovy goodness. Two enormous thumbs up.
Velvet Revolver – Contraband
One of the few supergroups who really make it work. Truly the sum of its parts; Scott Weiland provides the growl, and the backbone from Guns N Roses (Slash, Duff, and Matt) provide the whomp. Sounds a little like GNR, a little like STP, but really a work of its own.
Butch Walker – Letters
Butch got a little more introspective here; “Joan” is a piano ballad about an abusive relationship, and “Mixtape” is a wistful remembrance of lost love. But the rockers show that Butch can still bring that as well, and even though the old hair metal fans wrote this record off as too emo, Butch is very much a product of his times, and like all of his stuff, should get a lot more play.
The Wildhearts – Must Be Destroyed
Most folks don’t realize that pop music can be so blisteringly hard, or that heavy metal can be so melodic. Ginger, prolific frontman of the Wildhearts, melds the two brilliantly. 1993’s “Earth vs the Wildhearts,” sadly out of print, is a masterpiece; this, their big American return, is just as good. (Why is all the good music British?)
Alice Cooper – The Eyes of Alice Cooper
From what I’ve read, Alice fans don’t like this disc. I think it’s the best work he’s done since the 80’s; it’s just Alice. Stripped back, raw, with crunchy guitars and sparse melodies. For a guy who’s reinvented himself so many times (shock rocker, hair metal hero, dutiful Christian, golfing old man), straight rock-n-roll Alice might be his finest.
Andrew W.K. – I Get Wet
For “Party Hard” alone; never has a piano rocked so damn hard.
Wolfmother – Wolfmother
The sturm und drang of Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, ostensibly updated for a new millennium – but it’s totally not. Many of these songs wouldn’t have been out of place in the 70’s, but at the same time, it somehow ounds totally fresh. Considering Andrew Stockdale broke up the band after this album and reformed it with entirely different guys, I don’t know that they’ll ever reach this height again. (I’ve tried 2009’s “Cosmic Egg,” but can’t get into it yet.)
Warren Zevon – The Wind
His final album, recorded as he was near death. “Keep Me In Your Heart” – considering the context – might be the most beautiful song ever recorded.
Ben Folds – Way To Normal EP (Fake “Leaked” Version)
In an attempt to outsmart the pirates, Ben “leaked” fake versions of some of the songs from his forthcoming album; the problem was that once the album was released, the “fake” versions of the songs (notably “Bitch Went Nutz” and “Lovesick Diagnostician (Dr. Yang)”) were better than the “real” ones. (Oops.)
Monday, May 3, 2010
The 20 best songs of the year (so far)
It's barely May, and it's already been a banner year for music. Album after solid album has come down the pike, and some stellar tracks have been spread far and wide via MP3 blogs. I'm pretty pleased with the collection I've amassed this year to date, and I wanted to take this opportunity to share some of my favorite songs of the year (so far) with you. Sure, the year isn't even half over, but the fact that we're just a third of the way in and I'm already busting to the gut with awesome songs and amazing albums has got to be a good sign. What will 2010 bring next? Be sure to follow along with my blog, where every Friday I post my top five music-related events/insights/acquisitions of the week.
Tracks aren't arranged in any particular order, though this Magnetic Fields song probably is my song of the year, at present.
2. Yeasayer - Ambling Alp
5. Local Natives - Airplanes
7. Frightened Rabbit - Swim Until You Can't See Land
11. Caribou - Odessa
16. The Kissaway Trail - Sdp
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