Albums of the year thoughts...

Tagged as Music

Written on 2010-11-14 20:21:27

I've been enjoying a lot of music of late and since the year is coming to an end thought it might be fun to try and think about what my Top 5 Favorite Albums I've found this year are. Obviously then this is about personal preference rather than some supposedly objective notion of quality. Hopefully I'll write a follow up piece in the first week or so of 2011 with my final thoughts/judgments.

Last.fm has some strong data-based opinions on this but they're also wrong about some things. For example, at some point I managed to play Bibio's album or a song or two off of it but then forgot and had to leave to do something. Except my player was on repeat...and scrobbling. It kind of makes me wish that last.fm stopped paying attention to scrobbles if the same track had already been scrobbled 10 or more times. Or exposed an option to enable such behavior.

Shoo-ins include:

• Laura Veirs - July Flame (This record is staggeringly beautiful and makes me wonder how I had never heard of Laura Veirs before. I find myself convinced that everyone everywhere should enjoy this album. It sounds that gorgeous.)


• The Morning Benders - Big Echo (It's insanely listenable. I just put it on and catch myself nodding my head regularly.)


• Metric - Fantasies (I know, it's from 2009. I just discovered it. Deal. Need to move? This is your album. Infectious.)

Other possibilities include:

• Jay-Z - The Blueprint 3 (The first half really wants to win, the second half not so much.)


• The National - High Violet (It's uniformly gorgeous but too dark to be listened to as much as I'd like...)


• The Bloody Beetroots - Romborama (I did listen to this a decent amount but I just don't love it that much.)


• Local Natives - Gorilla Manor (For a random debut this was quite impressive but my listening tapered off after a bit and I haven't gotten back to it quite yet.)


• Band of Horses - Infinite Arms (I enjoyed this album and still listen to it some but it's nowhere near as good as their previous two albums. And to be fair, I spent the first half of this year discovering and falling in love with those previous two albums so maybe they'll sneak into my final list.)


• Tame Impala - Innerspeaker (Another delightful album that my listening has tapered off for.)


• Teebs - Ardour (I've just started listening to this but it's *very* enjoyable. We'll see how long it keeps up.)


• White Rabbits - It's Frightening (I listened to this a lot early this year but it trailed off and it's doubtful it will make it on my list though it is a solid album.)

Albums I expected to be shoo-ins that really weren't include:

(NOTE:  Being on this list doesn't mean the album is not in the running. It means I expected it to be a shoo-in.)

• Gorillaz - Plastic Beach (After Demon Days I was prepared for an incredible album. I was thoroughly underwhelmed by Plastic Beach though think Empire Ants is one of the better songs Gorillaz have produced.)


• Massive Attack - Heligoland (This was much closer to my expectations after a few listens than Plastic Beach but I'd still put on Blue Lines or Mezzanine long before Heligoland. Hopefully the Burial remixes will come to fruition. To be fair I spent half the year waking up to Paradise Circus. It's that good.)


• Four Tet - There Is Love In You (This is a very good album but I don't listen to it that much. Whether that's because of how minimal it is or not I'm not sure.)


• Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record (This wasn't as good as I was hoping but was more in the realm of Heligoland level disappointment than Plastic Beach. Meaning it's good it just doesn't measure up to previous efforts. Really, BSS will probably never top You Forgot It In People for me. World Sick, Sweetest Kill and All to All are insanely good songs though.)


• Two Door Cinema Club - Tourist History (I got really hooked on a number of early singles and EPs by this band after discovering them through Bryan O'Sullivan's twitter feed. They're wildly good and infectious pop. Good high-energy music. Hell, they were the soundtrack for the first half of the year along with lots of Band of Horses. But they reworked the singles on the EPs and I think the new versions are worse. This is a really good album but not quite a shoo-in. And it really should've been. Keep your eyes on these kids.)

I was hoping I'd find an analog to last year's discovery of Jon Hopkins' Insides or Ametsub's Nothings of the North but I haven't yet. If you know of something along those lines I should be hearing, please do let me know. Granted, since I discovered those albums late last year/early this year they could make it in my final list but we'll just have to wait and see. All for now.

• ← Previous
• Next →