The Oh-Blog-A-Tory Best Of 2010 List (v1.5)

category: Commentary
by The Beat,

Music in 2010 has picked up right where it left off in 2009. Artists are pressing more vinyl (yay!) and recording to cassette (pass) but one thing is for sure – self-releasing one’s own music has never been easier. Free digital downloads are becoming increasingly more common – 5 of my big nods below are 100% free. Many critics have complained about an over-saturation of music in our underground circles but dedicated blogs and voluminous, music-streaming havens (Rhapsody anyone?) help us separate the wheat from the chaff. Anyone who tells you there’s nothing new worth listening to/owning/buying/going to see is clearly not looking in the right place – or they’re not looking at all.

Below is a list of 2010 albums worth mentioning so far this year – in both positive and negative light. I linked to a notable track from each release. I could blah blah blah on and on about each album but I figure most people who collect their music ‘on-the-go’ grow a little tired of most blogger’s repertoires of positive descriptors/hi-5′s/malapropisms plus you can always refer to the Mini-Beats section of the site if necessary. Less talk, more rock.

The Most-Definite Nods

Beach House – Teen Dream (Norway)
Magic Man – Real Life Color (Magic Man)
Sleigh Bells – Treats (Crown On The Ground)
Broken Social Scene – Forgiveness Rock Record (Meet Me In The Basement)
Sarah Jaffe – Suburban Nature (Clementine)
Snowden – Slow Soft Syrup EP (So Red)
Hussalonia – Attention Deficit Disorder EP (All of My Verbs Are Infinitives)
The Besnard Lakes – Are The Roaring Night (Albatross)
Yeasayer – Odd Blood (Ambling Alp)
Rogue Wave – Permalight (Stars and Stripes)
Clogs – The Creatures In The Garden of Lady Walton (Red Seas)
Wiggly Tendrils – Romance In The Executive Branch (The Fires Of Mount Vernon)
Dinosaur Feathers – Fantasy Memorial (Teenage Whore)
Jeremy Messersmith – The Reluctant Graveyard (Violet!)

Honorable Mentions

La Strada – New Home (Wash On By)
EF – Mourning Golden Morning (Sons Of Ghosts)
The Franks – Duh EP (Health Sciences)
CocoRosie – Grey Oceans (R.I.P. Burn Face)
Black Tambourine – Black Tambourine (Throw Aggi Off The Bridge)
Cults – Go Outside 7″ (Go Outside)
Coolrunnings – Babes Forever EP (Better Things)
Secret Cities – Pink Graffiti (Pink Graffiti Pt. 1)
Weakerthans – Live At The Burton Cummings Theatre (Left and Leaving)
Keepaway – Baby Style EP (Yellow Wings)
Drink Up Buttercup – Born And Thrown On A Hook (Doggyhead)
Dum Dum Girls – I Will Be (Bhang Bhang I’m A Burnout)
My Education – Sunrise (Sunrise)
Yukon Blonde – Yukon Blonde (Loyal Man)
Nathaniel Rateliff – In Memory Of Loss (Early Spring Till)
Caribou – Swim (Odessa)
Cloud Nothings/Campfires – Split (Cloud Nothings – Little Raygun)
Man/Miracle – The Shape Of Things (Back Of The Card)
Titus Andronicus – The Monitor (Four Score Part Two)
Nada Surf – If I Had A Hi Fi (Electrocution)
The Helio Sequence/Menomena – Split 7″ (Helio Sequence – Converter)
Cloud Cult – Running With The Wolves EP (Running With The Wolves)
Fanfarlo – You Are One 7″ (You Are One)
Medications – Completely Removed (Long Day)
Milhaven – Milhaven (Supervulkan)
Jónsi – Go (Kolnidur)
Thinking Machines – Work Tapes (Parallax)
King Of Prussia – The Time Of Great Forgetting EP (Waitin’ For Something)
Kisses – The Heart Of The Nightlife (Bermuda)
Wye Oak – My Neighbor/My Creator EP (My Neighbor)
Virgin Of The Birds – Banquet Years EP (Let Me Be Your Bride)
Hussalonia – Alonia EP (Is There A Save Me Look Painted On My Face?)
Bettie Serveert – Pharmacy of Love (Semaphore)
Surfer Blood – Astro Coast (Take It Easy)
Tunng – …And Then We Saw Land (Hustle)
Moddi – Floriography (Rubbles)
Jack Rose – Luck In The Valley (Blues For Percy Danforth)
Shapes Stars Make – These Mountains Are Safe (Sunrise)
Frightened Rabbit – The Winter Of Mixed Drinks (The Wrestle)
Spy Island – At The Vegan Witch Trials (Hot Weather Anatomy)
Field Music – Measure (Measure)
Galleries – Galleries EP (Underground Overground)
Basia Bulat – Heart Of My Own (The Shore)
Broken Bells – Broken Bells (insert ‘cease & desist’ letter here)
Vampire Weekend – Contra (Cousins)
Electric Litany – How To Be A Child & Win The War (February)
Janelle Monáe – The ArchAndroid (57821 feat. Deep Cotton)
Hammock – North West East South EP (South)
Lab Partners – Moonlight Music (It’s Funny)

Not So Much…

The Apples In Stereo – Travellers In Space and Time
Fionn Regan – The Shadow Of An Empire
Damien Jurado – Saint Bartlett
William Fitzsimmons – Derivatives
Gogol Bordello – Trans-Continental Hustle
65daysofstatic – We Were Exploding Anyway
The Radio Dept. – Clinging To A Scheme
Kaki King – Junior
Matt Pond PA – The Dark Leaves
Ted Leo – The Brutalist Bricks
Miles Kurosky – The Desert Of Shallow Effects
Josiah Wolf – Jet Lag
Xiu Xiu – Dear God, I Hate Myself
Laura Gibson & Ethan Rose – Bridge Carols
Toro y Moi – Causers Of This
The Magnetic Fields – Realism
First Aid Kit – The Big Black and The Blue
MGMT – Congratulations

Comments

1 Comment so far

hampsterdam | 09 July 2010, 11:36
why no love for radio dept?