My favorite albums of 2010

Fantastic year for music. I had nearly 20 legitimate top-10 choices – probably the most I’ve ever had. But enough chit-chat. You know the drill. Here it is, my 10 favorite albums of 2010, in no particular order. An asterisk denotes “with honors.” They’re all albums I find myself coming back to, time and again.

Yeasayer – Odd Blood

*Sharon Van Etten – Epic

*Deerhunter – Halcyon Digest

The Tallest Man on Earth – The Wild Hunt

Arcade Fire – The Suburbs

Minus the Bear – Omni

Local Natives – Gorilla Manor

Jonsi – Go

Jeremy Messersmith – The Reluctant Graveyard

*The Head and the Heart – The Head and the Heart

Favorite song of the year: Fitz and the Tantrums – “Moneygrabber”

Honorable mention albums:

Laura Veirs – July Flame

Mumford and Sons – Sigh No More

Josh Ritter – So the World Runs Away

The Morning Benders – Big Echo

The Black Keys – Brothers

LCD Soundsystem – This Is Happening

Horse Feathers – Thistled Spring

The 3/4 Year in Music

Wow. It’s been awhile since I posted, huh? Yeah. Sorry ’bout that.

I remember thinking, way back in February, that there were already two albums destined to be among my favorites of 2010 – Yeasayer and Local Natives. Now, nine months into 2010, those albums still make the year-end cut for me – and there have been plenty more since then. It’s already been a great year for music. Here are some of my favorites so far:

Minus the Bear – OMNI

Arcade Fire – The Suburbs

Josh Ritter – So Runs the World Away

The Head and the Heart – The Head and the Heart

Sharon Van Etten – Epic

Laura Veirs – July Flame

Mumford and Sons - Sigh No More

Yeasayer – Odd Blood

LCD Soundsystem – This Is Happening

I think I’m hyper enough as it is.

I sure do love Superchunk. I get to see them live tomorrow at the MAHA Festival in Omaha.

‘This next one…is the first song…on our new album”

Thanks to NPR’s “All Songs Considered” blog, I’ve been inspired to post again. Here, in no particular order, are my 14 favorite album opening tracks. (Why 14? Because 10 wasn’t nearly enough, but I couldn’t think of a legitimate No. 15)

“Jimmy James” - Beastie Boys, from the album Check Your Head

“This next one…is the first song…on our new album” – and hence began one of the most influential albums of my youth. Just a killer opening track.

“6’1″” - Liz Phair, from Exile in Guyville

People say some opening cuts are “game changers.” They change your expectations of that artist, or a genre, or the entire musical landscape. This song was a game changer on a game-changing album, in so many ways.

“Honey” – Moby, from Play

Stunning - from an album that stunned many, including me.

“Rock ‘n’ Roll Star” – Oasis, from Definitely Maybe

Has there ever – EVER – been a more appropriate first song on a band’s first album?

“Jackson Cannery” – Ben Folds Five, from Ben Folds Five

Again, one of those songs that hit me square between the eyes. It was like nothing else at the time. Love at first listen.

“Big Exit” - PJ Harvey, from Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea

An anthemic opener on a gorgeous album.

“Torch Singer” – Buffalo Tom, from Big Red Letter Day

One of those songs that lets me know within the first few chords, “Oh, I’m gonna love this band. I don’t even need to hear the rest.”

“Mojo Pin” – Jeff Buckley, from Grace

A perfect introduction to this amazing artist and his perfect album.

“Trying to Tell You I Don’t Know” - Freedy Johnston, from Can You Fly

See “Torch Singer” comment above.

“I Will Dare” – Replacements, from Let It Be

In my book, this song is beyond words. I’ve already wasted too many.

“Begin the Begin” – R.E.M., from Life’s Rich Pageant

Some opening songs ease you into an album. Others, such as this one, plunge you head-first. From Peter Buck’s opening riff, right on through Michael Stipe’s closing lyrics (“A philanderer’s tie, a murderer’s shoe/Let’s begin again, begin the begin/Let’s begin again”), you’ve been put on notice with this opener.

“Radio Free Europe” – R.E.M., from Murmur

R.E.M. seemed to put the world on notice with this song, the lead track on their debut album.

“Misunderstood” - Wilco, from Being There

Game. Changer. Wilco’s not your standard country-rock band, folks.

“I Am Trying to Break Your Heart” - Wilco, from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Wilco’s not your standard band, folks.

Quote of the day

“Without music, life would be a mistake.”

-Friedrich Nietzsche

Music to-do list

About the time I hit a music rut and start  consistently spinning through my iPod like a hamster in a wheel, looking for something – ANYTHING – worth listening to, I scan the list of “upcoming releases” and see a glut of promising new albums in the next two months.

The National, New Pornographers, Josh Ritter, Mynabirds, Black Keys, Jeremy Messersmith, Broken Social Scene, Stars, Everest, Gaslight Anthem, Rufus Wainwright, Damien Jurardo, Dinosaur Feathers, Band of Horses…Oh, and I’ve been wanting to catch up on more Stephen Malkmus and Wedding Present. That should last me a few months.

(I’ll do this as I check off items)

I would go out tonight/But I haven’t got a stitch to wear

Oh, but now I do.

Too little, too late…or maybe not…I dunno

Figures. Three days after I write how stupid the record industry is for just now lowering CD prices, when no one buys CDs anymore, I go online and order my first two physical CDs in nearly a year: American Gong, the new album by Quasi, and Thistled Spring, by Horse Feathers, which comes out April 20. Both from the always-reliable Kill Rock Stars label.

I’m not sure what inspired me to resist the instant gratification of iTunes and wait 5 to 7 days for delivery of music. Maybe it was all the recent discussion of digital files vs. CDs. Maybe it was more time spent on the never-ending project of unpacking and alphabetizing my CD collection. Whatever it was, I can’t wait to get those CDs.

(So I can instantly burn them, of course, and listen to them as crappy little audio files on my iPod)

Too little, too late

So, one of the biggest record companies in the world – Universal Music Group - announced it’s going to experiment with lowering the retail price of compact discs to $10 or less. Always ahead of the curve, those record companies. Three (of many) reasons this doesn’t matter:

1) Record companies already have lost an entire generation of music buyers when it comes to CDs. People mid-20s and younger have never bought CDs – especially when they were $15.99. This is the digital music generation – they either found it free (OK, stole it) online or bought it through iTunes. Physical CDs are a foreign concept.

2) And don’t give them the “sound quality” argument – these people only know music as heard via compressed digital files, often through their tinny computer speakers.

3) Where are people going to buy these reduced-priced CDs? Quality, independent record stores are nearly extinct, and stores like Target and Best Buy aren’t exactly the places to find cutting-edge music. An example I like to cite: I live in a college town of 200,000+ and we now have no decent record store.

If this is wrong, I don’t wanna be right

I’m not sure if this qualifies as a “guilty pleasure” or not – and I’m not even sure I believe in “guilty pleasures’ when it comes to music - but I’ve just discovered the Ben Folds a capella album, released last year. And I can’t stop listening to it. Basically, Ben Folds recorded about a dozen university accapella groups singing his songs. Everything from “Selfless, Cold and Composed,” from the Ben Folds Five days, to more recent solo tracks such as “You Don’t Know Me.”

So, I’ve decided a person could hear this album and either think: 1) This is so cheesy. If I wanted this, I’d watch “Glee,” or 2) This is insanely catchy and a testament to the song craft of Ben Folds. Call me cheesy – and I don’t watch “Glee” - but I think it’s insanely catchy and that Ben Folds is kinda brilliant.

Here’s an audition video for one of the winning groups.