I used to present my best-of-lists so beautifully, but now it's just a spreadsheet. But it's got three tabs! One for music, one for video and one for books. You can open the entire thing here to see it all, or you can scroll like a mad person below.
It's all stuff I've consumed during 2010. Even though I'm into trying a lot of new stuff, some oldies seep through, for instance through compilations.
It's sorted by grades, 1-10 ((Yes, I'm retardedly manic when it comes to things like this, but I've compiled that list over the entire last year at All Consuming, not this very minute.)), top scores highest (and the worst at the bottom). Some that are worthy of mentioning:
Albums
The Octopus Project - "Hexadecagon"
This is a modern archetype of what can go right when people with song-writing skills and a lot of experimental feel can accomplish. And why the hell not? This album differs so much from their next-to-latest one that I really wondered if I'd picked up the right album. It's filled with electronics, light-to-heavy rhythms and playful melodies, and the songs go on and on and on and some will become classics.
jj - "nº 3"
Gothenburg-based jj are a duo who deserve aeons of respect for their balearic, dreamy, stoned music that reverbs throughout your mind. Brilliant singing, great orchestration and a weird live-set make this group something else. Their three albums are astounding.
Neon Indian - "Psychic Chasms"
Whoa! The 1980s wants its cassette-to-cassette copy sound back, but Alan Palomo stole it. Neon Indian's debut album is filled with dreamy, stoned-out synth-based and guitar-laden tracks, wispy vocals that turn you into another place. Utterly blissful, danceable and made to be listened to under very different circumstances.
Timi Yuro - "The Voice That Got Away"
When X introduced Timi Yuro to me, I didn't really know what to expect, least of all because Elvis loved her so. Yes, she is a truly sad-voiced chanteuse with power behind her, much like Shirley Bassey but with some mysterious tinge that makes me think she's forever sad.
M.I.A. - "/\/\ /\ Y /\"
This admittedly schizophrenic and dissociated mix of paranoia, love of life and styles could belong to none other than the M.I.A.. Bombastic in the extreme.
The opening track "The Message", featuring a male lead vocalist, parodies the words of the traditional song "Dem Bones" to link Google to "the government". Kitty Empire, writing in The Observer, stated that these conspiratorial government connections to Google and the thoughts of Dzhennet Abdurakhmanova, the Russian teenager who bombed Moscow's tube system to vindicate the death of her husband, were inner-world issues pondered in "Lovealot" with "a mixture of nonsense rhyme, militant posturing and pop-cultural free-flow; her London glottal stop mischievously turns 'I love a lot' into 'I love Allah'
Don't miss out on her new mixtape, "Vicki Leekx"! Just enter yer e-mail address below and DL.
Jamaica - "Jamaica No Problem"
This band is a breath of fresh air, even though their sound is quite 80's to me! The songs are ripe with energy and lightness, as though a beach-band were produced by Daft Punk and Justice. Wait, they almost are. Anyway, listen to tracks like "Cross The Fader" and "I Think I Like U 2" and you might just fall in love. They clear clouds. Album's here.
The Red River - "Little Songs About the Big Picture"
It's solemn, acoustic, melodic and the opposite of intense. Childish in some ways, reminiscent of Bon Iver at times, but original and just nice. The melodies pop in and out of my head and the best tracks come and go.
Best Coast - "Crazy For You"
What if The Jesus & Mary Chain married Hope Sandoval ((Oh wait, that nearly happened; Sandoval and William Reid were a couple.))? I'd say this is quite the experience, melodic (heard me love that thing before?) and lo-fi in the best sense of the word. Bethany Cosentino's voice has such a melancholic glissando that doesn't slip. And her singing on the new album by The Go! Team is really nice; I'm looking forward to see what her collaboration with Weezer brings about.
SebastiAn - "Notre Jour Viendra"
If you're thinking that Daft Punk's soundtrack for "TRON - Legacy" is the bomb, think again. This one, for Romain Gavras' film, is very analogue and done without big-sounding arrangements. No big score, no 120-piece violins. SebastiAn has both managed to create the first true hommage to Wendy Carlos that I've ever heard, nodding a bit to George Delerue. Really. It's good, and still, I think SebastiAn - whenever his debut LP drops, if ever - will better himself yet.
Trent Reznor/Atticus Ross - "The Social Network"
This, however, is my favourite soundtrack of the year. I really didn't think I'd like it as much as I do, but it both helps the film and works very well on its own, which is more than enough to impress me. Simple in construction, I feel that Reznor/Ross have brought a lot to the table, shaved off the unnecessary and kept honing the album well and long. Of course, it does sound a lot like Nine Inch Nails, but keeps its own. And is better than the film.
Reissue, repackage, repackage
The Smiths - "Unreleased Demos & Instrumentals"
Hands down, the compilation, re-release of the year. I must admit, I'm no longer the Smithshead I once was, tracking down studio outtakes, hanging out at Morrissey Solo and Mrs. Shankly's (now defunct). Instead, this will do for quite some time, or at least until Morrissey releases his next solo album.
Refused - "The Shape of Punk to Come (Deluxe Version) (2 CD + DVD)"
I really discovered the greatness of this album through this reissue, a double CD with a DVD to boot. Yes, the second CD is worth it, which I often don't think is the case with reissues of this sort, dubbed "deluxe". Everything's deluxe nowadays, but this is a genius look into Refused's aesthetic. Combining anarchist ideals with hardcore music both through using traditional skate-punk instruments and electronics and making it all work, they broke a lot of barriers. Doing this while jumping about in tempi during tracks (for instance in "New Noise") and screaming/playing their hearts out really meant something.
I've got a bone to pick with capitalism/and a few to break
Aerrrrrr! The first album is great, the second album contains the band live and the DVD documents them as they're about to fall apart.
Suede - "The Best Of Suede"
Two great things about this compilation is that its remastering was overseen by both Bernard Butler and Brett Anderson. The second being that the piece-of-shit single "Positivity" is excluded from this collection.
The best thing about this, is that my love for Suede is risen from the ashes. "The ashes" being the tantamount legacy of pap Brett Anderson and company brought with them following the release of "Coming Up", which went even more south with "Head Music" and Anderson getting cleaned-up from alcohol and drugs. Sadly. Never the less, listening to absolutely beautiful songs such as "The Wild Ones", "Sleeping Pills", "We Are The Pigs" and even "Electricity", we can add the second CD that flaunts b-sides that are better than most bands' a-sides, e.g. "My Insatiable One", "Europe Is Our Playground", "My Dark Star" and "The Living Dead".
Honourable mentions
The Divine Comedy - "Bang Goes the Knighthood" Neil Young - "Le Noise" John Wesley Coleman - "Bad Lady Goes To Jail" Swans - "My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky" Mike Patton - "Mondo Cane" Robyn - "Body Talk", I, II and III Band of Horses - "Infinite Arms" LCD Soundsystem - "This Is Happening" The Radio Dept ““ “Clinging To A Scheme“
Songs
Nas & Damian Marley's "As We Enter". Shakeshakeshake. jj - "Let Go" M.I.A. - both "Tell Me Why" and "XXXO" The Divine Comedy - "I Like"
Disappointments
Carl Barât's solo album. What? Also, Courteeners' second album, "Falcon", bombed. No more ideas?