Articles

The Best Albums of 2010
plus honorable mentions and let-downs
2010 was an amazing year of music, in my opinion. I had to listen/re-listen to a lot of albums to get a comprehensive and true-to-my-thoughts list compiled. The album descriptions and reviews are written in a simple style, due to the fact that I get really pissed when I read music reviews that give me extremely obscure information, imply knowledge of at least 6 other unrelated albums, and use adjectives that normal humans would never use to describe anything. On top of that, those kinds of reviews usually don’t even give me a good idea of what the album sounds like, and I would probably spend less time listening to the album than trying to figure out what each sentence means.
Anyway, after hours and hours of work, I present to you my year-end music list!

Let-Downs

MGMT – Congratulations
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51PxuDIVTBL.jpg
MGMT released an insanely catchy, wide-appeal collection of songs a few years ago on Oracular Spectacular. …

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v609/Johnnyheat_/15-pilgrim.png
Anamanaguchi - Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game (Original Videogame Soundtrack)

A perfectly constructed video-game soundtrack starts off the list. Anamanaguchi step up from their honorable mention last year and merit a place by releasing nostalgic glitchy beats to adorn toe tapping and button bashing moments in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World game. The soundtrack on its own glimmers a fresh spark within mainstream music, taking things to a whole new (secret) level. The trajectory of the band hasn't changed at all since Dawn Metropolis, they are still as hyperactive as ever, innovative and bursting with extra lives from the '80s. Without a doubt some songs only thrive within the context of the game, but Another Winter and Just Like The Movies express a versatility that mean they would go down well at any house-party-with-guests-who-once-spilled-spaghetti-on-a-SNES. …

Write down your Top 20 Artist, then add the first song you ever heard, the song that made you fall in love with them and the song you currently like best.

1. Autechre

first: что-то из Incunabula
love: Bike
current best: Eggshell

2. Jean-Michel Jarre

first: Oxygene IV
love: Oxygene IV
current best: Equinoxe, Pt.4

3. KMFDM

first: что-то из Don't Blow Your Top
love: Glory
current best: Split

4. Primal Scream

first: что-то из Screamadelica
love: Slip Inside This House
current best: Stuka

5. Boards of Canada

first: что-то с Geogaddi
love: Hi Scores
current best: Peacock Tail

6. Coil

first: что-то с Horse Rotorvator
love: The First Five Minutes after Death
current best: Triple Sun

7. Nine Inch Nails

first: что-то с The Downward Spiral
love: A Warm Place
current best: Leaving Hope

8. Aphex Twin

first: Come to Daddy
love: Windowlicker
current best: Windowlicker

9. Venetian Snares

first: что-то с Rossz Csillag Allat Szueletett
…

Kicked off June with two crackers I had just picked up: High Violet by The National and Crystal Castles ( II ) by Crystal Castles. Had heard a couple of preview tracks from High Violet which just sounded very, er, National, but as an album it all works beautifully. Afraid of Everyone is superb, paranoid and clinging lyrics, a beautiful tune and probably my favourite track so far this year. Little Faith is another cracker with a filmic and rainlashed feel, while Anyone's Ghost is almost jaunty by comparison to the rest of the album. Overall there seems to be a lot about inner city paranoia going on, though I do find it amusing that England contains the line "You must be somewhere in London, you must be loving your life in the rain" at a time when London's had a heatwave that's lasted more than 3 hours for the first time in years.
Crystal Castles ( II ) is a different kind of a corker. I like where the samples have come from (Stina Nordenstam, Sigur Rós)…

Hello anyone and everyone!! Well, I have had a more than crazy few months since I last blogged about my favorites of 2010 thus far... Music wise, it's been more than eventful, with plenty more amazing releases to listen to (but obviously I'll be getting on to that a little later!) and, most excitingly, the seeming return of the music video as a trendy art-form. True, some bands do take it upon themselves to unleash at least one amazing video for each of their albums these days, but we've already been spoiled-more-than-silly with audio-visual accompaniments to some rather brilliant (or not really) singles this year. Contenders for the year-end blogs include Vampire Weekend's celeb-heavy tennis match for Giving Up The Gun; Hot Chip and director Pete Serafinowicz's boyband execution parody for I Feel Better; and, last but by certainly-no-means-least, Romain Gavras and M.I.A.'s blisteringly brilliant clip for Born Free that really has to be seen to be believed... …

Crystal Castles – Crystal Castles

The second eponymous album (confusing right?) has been rushed to an early release because of an internet leak. It just goes to show how eagerly anticipated some music is. The initial reaction to Crystal Castles is aversion – it seems at first like a blitzkrieg of static and sharp electronica with screeching indecipherable vocals. That’s certainly what first track ‘Fainting Spells’ sounds like. If you can battle through the first impressions of Crystal Castles you start to realise why they’re so explosively popular. ‘Celestica’ is track two, smooth and soulful – not traits you would normally associate with the raucous live persona of Alice Glass. However, ‘Doe Deer’ is a short but scything barb of a track, filled with noise, distortion and piercing screams but it feels like an instant rave classic with distorted fanfare reminiscent of 90’s hardcore dance. ‘Baptism’ follows in a similar vein, drawing influence on big dance hits but throwing a new…