I believe it was late last year that i discovered lala.com; a website where users could listen to (almost) any album in the world once through for free (legally), and then either buy the “web album” for a couple of bucks to keep listening to it or download the mp3 album at a competitive rate. Lala also let users sync up the music collection on their home computers so that they could listen to their music from any computer anywhere, so long as it had an internet connection (e.g. at work), no iPod required. In a word, it was AWESOME. And then Apple bought it and shut it down, and i’m still very pissed off about that.
Thanks to lala.com i was able to listen to just about every new album that came out in the first few months of 2010. I also listened to some “Top Albums of 2009″ lists, which is how i discovered UME. Although their 2009 EP Sunshower contains only five tracks, i totally fell in love with the album and the band. Nathan and i made a trek to Iowa City this fall to see them; alas, they canceled the show at the last minute. I’m definitely looking forward to a full-length album from them to come out in the new year.
For the most part, i’ve been pretty disappointed with the music released in 2010. There’s this HUGE low-fi/vintage movement, and i find it overdone and not very compelling. Sufjan Stevens, at least, took his experimentation this year in a new direction, so i thought Age of Adz was an interesting album. The National are still doing what they’ve been doing the last few years and i still really like it. Ra Ra Riot toned down their sound a touch with The Orchard and, sadly, it failed to hold my attention for very long. The Arcade Fire are doing different things but personally i don’t know what all the fuss is about. Their last two albums were both more enjoyable than The Suburbs in my opinion. I did, however, really dig OK Go’s new sound on Of The Blue Color Of The Sky, and who didn’t love all of the amazing music videos they put out to accompany it?
I did acquire a few albums this year that had more of a 2009 sound and therefore were more enjoyable for me. La Roux is one that actually was released in 2009 but didn’t really catch on until this year. LCD Soundsystem’s This Is Happening is great fun and is definitely going on my “party music” list. Chromeo’s Fancy Footwork is also good stuff, even if it is a total throwback to the ’80s. And i was very happy to stumble upon The Joy Formidable via Lala; their debut A Balloon Called Moaning is light-hearted and inspiring at the same time.
My favorite album of the year was Robyn‘s Body Talk, which she released in three separate parts and then as a full-length conglomeration at the end of the year. She managed to make me buy this album three times and it was definitely worth it. It’s pop, it’s hip-hop, and it’s a heck of a lot of fun to listen to. I wish there had been more albums like this one this year.
Kanye’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is definitely worth a mention; it’s got some pretty great tracks but at the same time i still can’t love a lot of the things the mainstream men of hip-hop say about women. We’ve heard it. Move on.
Here’s a playlist of my favorite tracks of the year. Enjoy!
Sufjan Stevens is one of those indie guys who’s been on the scene for years and really ought to have a larger following than he does because he’s just that good. We secretly love it when people like this fail to gain a lot of popularity, because it’s like a wonderful secret that only a select few people are in on.
I feel bad that i don’t have a lot more to say than than he’s very talented and prolific and i really enjoyed his album Greetings from Michigan, but sadly that’s the only other album i own. His brand new release Age of Adz is quite a lot different from that album, which was largely acoustic and folksy. This one is electronic and experimental, and i don’t think it’s for everyone but i’ve certainly found it to be intriguing. I failed to find any sort of video to go along with it, but i have found something better: you can listen to the entire album right here! If you only have time for a song or two, the first track and the one called Vesuvius are my faves so far.
Released August 24, 2010
I believe i wrote last year about how much i loved Ra Ra Riot’s 2008 album The Rhumb Line. It’s truly a great work, so i was very excited to hear that the band would be releasing another full-length album this year and purchased it right away on the release date. The Orchard has a less driving sound than The Rhumb Line and didn’t hook me right away the way that album did, but it’s slowly shaping up to be a pretty sweet soundtrack for the fall. There are definitely a few gems that make this one well worth checking out. Here’s the first single, Boy:
I snagged Body Talk, Pt. 1 from Amazon on Tuesday while it was still on sale for $5 and i’m pretty much in love with it already. Robyn is a Swedish singer/songwriter whom you may recognize for a couple of pop hits she had in the late ’90s, namely Show Me Love and Do You Know (What It Takes). Since those days her style has evolved from pop into more of a hip-hop/electropop infusion. (“Infusion” is one of our favorite words lately, by the way.) I’m already excited for Body Talk Pt. 2 to come out, and i’m also going to get her last album (self-titled, c. 2007) A.S.A.P. Take a listen to Dancing On My Own, a track that’s less on the hip-hop side and more dance-y.
I don’t actually own Two Door Cinema Club’s debut full-length album Tourist History yet (because i’m waiting for it to go on sale on amazon) but you can listen to the entire thing on myspace here, so that’s what i’ve been doing. They’re a cute little band of Irish boys who are just reaching that age where they can drink legally when they tour the U.S., and they make really, really catchy music. So check out this weird video and if you like it, listen to the whole darn album.