Albums of the Year

Tagged as Music, Personal

Written on 2011-01-02 19:36:10

I haven't written an Albums of the Year post since the end of 2005. Generally, I don't write Albums of the Year posts either because I'm lazy and don't feel like it or am a bit sensitive about running my mouth. Obviously, such a post is stuck in the realm of subjectivity and opinion but even though I listen to *a lot* of music I never am as versed as I feel I ought to be to write one of these.

This year I've tried to be more open about my music taste though, particularly through a series of "Song of the Day" posts on Facebook, a complete log of which I've been keeping here. Each entry is a song that either came on shuffle and reminded me of why and how much I enjoy it or something that was stuck in my head. I try to limit myself to a few songs per artist so as to not flood people with whatever I've just discovered/rediscovered. It's not a perfect picture of what I've been listening to this year...but then neither is my data on last.fm.

As in previous years, a big part of this year's listening10 will be catching up on albums from the prior year that I missed. I check in on a few end of year lists over the holidays and always find a lot of good stuff that slipped past my radar. As a consequence, I'll be listing 5 albums from last year that I may have downloaded but only really "clicked" for me or were discovered in 2010 along with 10 albums actually released in 2010. Then I may list a few albums I've already found for 2011 that slipped past me or some expected home run albums that weren't. I'll update this post to expand a bit on each entry in the next week or so. Let's begin.

Top 10 Albums of 2010:
1. Laura Veirs - July Flame: I can't believe I haven't seen this on other end of year lists. It's an incredible and beautiful album that deserves far more recognition than it is getting. I've listened to this at least once a month since I discovered it. It consistently thrills and delights me.
2. The Morning Benders - Big Echo
3. Teebs - Ardour
4. The National - High Violet
5. Four Tet - There Is Love In You
6. Shad - TSOL
7. Band of Horses - Infinite Arms
8. Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record
9. Two Door Cinema Club - Tourist History
10. Tame Impala - Innerspeaker

Top 5 Albums of 2009 discovered in 2010:
1. Metric - Fantasies
2. Jay-Z - Blueprint 3
3. Jon Hopkins - Insides
4. Local Natives - Gorilla Manor
5. Bloody Beetroots - Romborama

Top 5 Albums of 2010 I'm likely to discover in 2011:
1. Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma
2. Emeralds - Does It Look Like I'm Here?
3. Janelle Monae - The Archandroid
4. Cee Lo Green - The Lady Killer
5. Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest

Top 5 Albums in 2010 that I expected to rule but were only good:
1. Gorillaz - Plastic Beach
2. Two Door Cinema Club - Tourist History
3. Massive Attack - Heligoland
4. Girl Talk - All Day
5. Band of Horses - Infinite Arms

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