get the lowdown on my hoedown

[hey, did you ("you"?) notice how i haven't been making any references to last.fm in any of my 2010 year-end hoo-hah? ha!]

the magnetic fields were one of my very top last.fm artists in 2010 (#3 in fact, behind joanna newsom and hot chip, – isn't it nice when lists line up with reality like that?), and they're probably going to become my overall most-played artist in a matter of days, due to my preparations for the upcoming 69 love songs cover party (which will be amazing) [and which was also part of the reason they scored so many listens last year, along with needing to bring my girlfriend up to speed, getting excited about the movie, and an autumnal obsession with "100000 fireflies"] however i didn't even really listen to, or like, their 2010 album, realism, all that much. but, there was that one very (overly?) catchy song [hm, they're very tiny there] about scientology, which is sort of like the title track for this mix, except that it's not actually on it (cuz i ran out of space, but maybe it's better that way anyway):

title: H'010NANNY! [SONGS of 2010]
date: december 2010. the 22nd-ish? format: cd-r,+blogpost
packaged: with 2010isLove, at least most of the time, together in a devious white foldy.

come and take our personality quizzzzzzzz:
1. "When I Still Have Thee" – Teenage Fanclub
2. "Zorbing" – Stornoway
3. "Ain't That The Way" – Devon Sproule
4. "I Heart NY" – Samuel
5. "Heaven, Sittin' Down" – Phosphorescent
6. "Gloria" – Jonny
7. "'81" – Joanna Newsom
8. "Free Translator" – The Books
9. "Hang With Me (Acoustic)" – Robyn
10. "You Better Mind" – Sam Amidon (with Beth Orton)
11. "You Are Not Alone" – Mavis Staples
12. "My Heart Is A Drummer" – Allo Darlin'
13. "I Didn't See It Coming" – Belle & Sebastian
14. "Horchata" – Vampire Weekend
15. "All Yr Songs" – Diamond Rings
16. "Hormones" – Tracey Thorn
17. "Love And Do What You Will" – ceo
18. "Indeed" – Georgia Anne Muldrow
19. "Whole New Way" – Scissor Sisters
20. "All Matter" – Bilal
21. "I Can Change" – LCD Soundsystem
22. "Alley Cats" – Hot Chip

i didn't make a "favorite songs of 2010" list, not really. i made this mix, which has already been much acclaimed ("massive," somebody said, or maybe it was "major"), and which i am enjoying (still) surprisingly much (unlike last year's songs mix [scroll down, scroll down] which i was kind of already sick of by the time i made it, and have barely listened since.) and now, so that you'll have something to listen to, and look at, while i ramble on about the songs/artists/albums(?), it's now also a video playlist:


1. "When I Still Have Thee" – Teenage Fanclub

wow, what a glorious song! pretty close to perfect, i think. simple structure, simple chords that somehow sound fantastically fresh. i love the gradually expanding arrangement: first just clean, eternal, Byrdsian jangle guitar (and a bit of piano for emphasis), sounding like a fanfare, then the drums (and full band) crashing in (with "the rolling stones") for verse two, and then, surprise, even more!: warm, glowy churchy organ, (right on the word "hymn"!) for verse three. and a few more crafty details: sweet lil guitar solo that builds right up to and wraps around the penultimate refrain, then a nifty little cadence to bring it back around one last time. hard to believe it's well over three minutes; it feels so much like an elemental 2:30.

tremendous lyric too: again, quite simple but also wholly unexpected. yes, i enjoy mocking it for the preposterous pronoun in the refrain (which feels mostly like a blatant reach for a rhyme...though i suppose you could make an argument that it fits in with the "modern hymn" bit?) but it really just makes it all the more endearing(ly earnest.) elsa heard it as being about religion or god. it seems to be about several things at once which are really all the same thing: love, the goodness of life, and, most especially, music. specifically, [indie] pop, or rock and roll i guess; from the western isles to the tasman sea, i.e. scotland to new zealand, the heartlands of this particular strain of p!o!p!, incl. the name-checked go-betweens (who are australian) [and apparently this cornish band i have never heard of.] who knows what rolling stones song they're talking about [any wild guesses?], but i love that the singer describes it as being written "for him"...also, "a minor song in a major key" is reminiscent of erstwhile new world janglers the gigolo aunts but even better executed i'd say.

i never really paid too much attention to teenage fanclub, at least post-bandwagonesque (which i've liked but never loved), even though i always figured i should. and now, probably, i shall [also, see jonny, below.] i was surprised by how much their new 'un, shadows, sounded like the clientele (okay, a slightly more awake version of the clientele.) the whole album is pretty lovely, with lots of nice string bits and so on, but this one is far and away the standout for me...it's the kind of song, i knew right away, that will never lose its power to make me smile through any little heartbreak, and that is something to cherish. ok, on we go...


2. "Zorbing" – Stornoway

wow, what a glorious song! speaking of the western isles, stornoway is on one of them, though stornoway are not from there, they're from cowley, a part of oxford, which is mentioned in this song ["zorbing through the streets of cowley."] zorbing is highly fascinating, and i would love to learn more about it, but that's not really what this song's about. it's about love, of course, new love more specifically, and though zorbing is a pretty brilliant metaphor for the feeling (floating, tumbling, disoriented, inside a bubble), but wisely i think, they don't force it or make it fit too neatly, but find various other more and less outlandish ways (thunderstorms, sensory dissociation) to describe the same thing which are just as compelling.

this is one of those songs (like "when i still have thee," i suppose) that manages to express almost exactly the same feeling musically as it does lyrically; in this case an irresistible, barely controlled giddiness (the short eruptive trumpet breaks are almost too much – isolated from context they might be unbearably twee – but they provide exactly the release that the song needs.) another slowly building arrangement with wonderfully crisp details all arranged just so (love that slightly subliminal jaunty piano and of course the low laddish harmonies and bouncy bass.) and i haven't even mentioned the melody, which is a marvel unto itself.

this is the kind of song that, as i think rae said about hefner's "i took her love for granted" [which i wrote about at length here, and which it could probably argued is the solitary reason i am still a devoted darren hayman listener], makes me remember why i love indie-pop.

actually, for some reason [because this was technically first released in '09?] i'd intended to include "i saw you blink" instead, which is almost equally wonderful (the rest of beachcomber's windowsill, very very good as it is, is trying for something somewhat different and can't quite match these two pinnacles) but this fit better for some reason.



3. "Ain't That The Way" – Devon Sproule

wow, what a – well, actually this is a slightly different situation here. of course, it is glorious, like most everything the dazzling ms. devon does, plays or is. (even if the album this kickstarts, ¡don't hurry for heaven!, was a bit of a let down for me after her untouchably great last one.) this is a pretty astonishing piece of songcraft, right up there with "keep yr silver shined" and "plea for a good night's rest," which really could not have been written by anybody else. this one might actually be more immediately captivating and endearing than either of those. i don't know anybody else who does this thing, intricate and breezily poetic but homespun and humble at the same time, nearly the way dev can. actually, her poetics are less high-flown than usual here, and her virginny drawl (which feels maybe just slightly exaggerated on this one) makes it more feel even down-home.

not to get into too many of the little details, i'll just point out maybe my favorite lyric, in the surprise cyclical sorta-canon coda (which is all great), she hears on the way home "new ry cooder on the radio." then there are the little twinklies which lead us nicely into...



4. "I Heart NY" – Samuel
...a rather different vision of home. (hey, there's that word again...) a total out-of-nowhere hit for me (i have basically no sense of who or how many other people are even aware of it; i know next to nothing of this samuel, except that i think he's got a major label contract now. and i haven't heard any of his other songs, but i'm suspecting that maybe we all will in the near future?) an uncannily enchanting piece of candyfloss pop – unusually for this style [q.v. lenka, marit, etc.] sung by a male, which maybe tempers the candyflossness of it a bit (?) and partially explains why i hear a surprising degree of swag alongside the disney twinkles... could also be the zip-a-dee-doo-dah hip-hop beat (reminds me of "hard knock life" a bit) and the subject matter, not just that it's about new york (and a much more touching and cogent ode than, for instance "ny state of mind"), an unabashed celebration in spite of broken bicycles, pot paranoia, boredom and alienation. [also cf. hip-hop,] i like that "what makes [him] real" is the inexplicable queasiness he feels in his stomach.

p.s. i might have a soft spot for songs that mention coney island: "from out here," "strange powers," what else, lou reed of course, and that gybe! thing... (also, i was on coney island during a blackout!)



5. "Heaven, Sittin' Down" – Phosphorescent

aw sooky. another sweet groover. [nb. album version is better, but for some reason not on the yootoob...] the first time i heard this (on the train back from nj, as elsa was on her way moving up to boston) i was sure it was a trad. cover (partly because of the r.l. burnside album of the similar title, which i've not heard), but evidently no, it's a phosphy original, albeit based around a nicked line (cuz it is the title of a gospel oldie or sumpin.) well, add this one to the instant new sing-along standards pile, right on top of "wagon wheel" (and similarly, could easily see people just writing their own verses for this. i never even notice the verses anyway.)

i 'specially love the slightly loose, rushed scansion of that crucial, wrenching third line of the chorus ("i wish those nights of pleasure and those days of pain weren't so tightly bound.") never really thought about this, but the song sounds so jaunty yet is about utter exhaustion, so that's neat.



6. "Gloria" – Jonny

jonny = norman blake from teenage fanclub + euros childs from gorkys zygotic mynci, welshy goofball (though, as it turns out, maybe not quite as much of a goofy welshball as gruff rhys, cwwddyhthythgd.) seems likely he provided much of the goofiness of this song, but who knows. it's the first song from their free downloadable first ep (album coming soon, on merge!?) this is, awesomely, about gloria estefan, and if you hadn't noticed it's the third song on this mix so far to mention other musical artists by name, an appropriate unintentional theme for me. [i think there's two others still to come, unless james murphy slipped something by me.]

anyway, jonny, "gloria," short (!!) and sweet, couldn't resist. will probably be teaching this one at sing-alongs too.



7. "'81" – Joanna Newsom

sort of the obvious "single" from have one on me, i guess, in that it's short (but longer than the micro-sized "on a good day") and has a simple-ish, very catchy melody. "good intentions paving company" seems to be the consensus de facto standout, and it's also my favorite, in part because i love singing it and playing it on the piano. [but it's too long, natch, plus was already on the original (and frankly preferable) version of t-shirt weather. they're both spring songs, btw, unless this is summer.]

i love singing this one too – even though her phrasing is maddeningly difficult to pin down (slippery as a naked trout) – and i can almost imagine other people learning how to sing it as well, something i'd be hard pressed to say about any of her other songs (well honestly it's not true about this one either.) maybe it's more that i just want to sing it to other people, and have them hear it, and be comforted: "the unending amends you've made are enough for one life: be done. i believe in innocence, little darlin', start again; i believe in everyone."



8. "Free Translator" – The Books
equally as much comfort, utterly negligible sense. the story of this song is here. "Machines are dumb, but sometimes they do brilliant things because they can’t help themselves."

(also, the sufficient clues to the mystery of its palimpsestuous source material, which has had me curious for a while now, are in the comments to that tumbl. oddly enough – or not – this song does a surprisingly decent job of preserving the existential, open-ended feel of the unnamed original song which it "translates"; not unlike the semi-surrealist charlie king parody of said song i heard him sing years ago.)

i'd like to hear a bedtime story (a la "the story of hip-hop") or maybe a superhero comic about the instantly distinctive entities listed at the end of the song: the adventures of meteorological man and whirlwind girl, with their sidekicks, a careful goat and a talking plant. and a squid in a bag. etc.



9. "Hang With Me (Acoustic)" – Robyn

the best song of robyn's (aptly called) "magic 2010," i'm pretty sure. and, in this version, one of the few pieces of that output which comes close to matching the breathtaking, honest emotional nuance she achieved at the emotive peak (i.e. robyn's heart-stoppingly clear-eyed closing suite) of her magic 2005. [which isn't necessarily to say i like the disco single version any less.]

a subtly key moment: "i know what's on your mind/there will be time for that too": slyly, ambiguously supplementing her touchy-feely with some touchy-touchy, in a way that lets you know this couldn't have been written by anyone else (except maybe prince.)

oh, and just one little amendment i'd make, for my own selfish purposes: fall recklessly, headlessly in love with me; it won't all be heartbreak blissfully painful insanity.




10. "You Better Mind" – Sam Amidon with Beth Orton

awesome. [in the original, literal sense, even.] sam amidon was essentially new to me this year (though, turned out e's known him since they were at folksinging summer camp together), but this was maybe the most tragically overlooked alb of the year in my book. (even more than allo darlin', yes, because i recognize their somewhat more limited appeal, and because this is the more distinctive, original accomplishment.) this is both possibly my favorite cut (tho the sweetly sneaky r. kelly reenvisioning "relief" is close) and a good representation of the album as a whole. heard right, i think this song and this rendition just might be capable of putting the fear of god into ya. (also: nice to hear beth's voice again.)



11. "You Are Not Alone" – Mavis Staples

from old gospel sung by a young folkie to a song written by a young folkster for an old gospeller to sing. (and with moderately oppositional messages, to boot.) jeff tweedy wrote this for mavis staples' same-titled album, which he also produced, and much as you can absolutely hear the tweedy in it (the writing that is), staples and the song fit one another comfortably and completely. it's such an immediate standout (and instant classic) that it's a shame he didn't write more for the album.

message-wise, this isn't terribly far off from what joanna newsom tries to convey in "'81," and it's easily at least as powerful, probably more, particularly in the truly striking forcefulness the lyric adopts – taking on overtones of police aggression – in conveying its intent to get that message across: "open up this is a raid/i want to get it through to you: you're not alone." how fundamental that is, yet how hard to hear. by now we've seen quite a handful of old, faded (in terms of their visibility, at the very least) soul titans attempting to recapture some glory by basking in the genre's recent reflourescence, but this is one moment that really rises above the pack and manages to feel unambiguously vital.



12. "My Heart Is A Drummer" – Allo Darlin'

"deep down in the place where music makes you happiest," – i've said it before and i'll say it again: it's a place allo darlin' know well – do you really have life to waste on music that's less vibrant and direct and upfront than this song is? ok ok. it's not actually as good as graceland, and it doesn't have the carefully calibrated perfect-pop detailing of, for instance, the first two songs on this mix. (even the impressively convincing faux-afrique highlife outro, which in context doubles as a sly graceland nod, and which is the song's best showcase for bassman bill, the allo's greatest secret weapon – is more a triumph of feeling than of composition.)

no, this song's unabashed strength is in its personality, which, happily, is way more than enough to carry it. it's in the music, which positively bursts; it's in elizabeth morris' adorably accented vocal (notably, in the way she sings "telephieone"), and most of all, actually, it's in what she's singing. [also, it's in the fittingly handmade, albeit possibly too goofy, cankerblossom-esque video, which i hadn't seen until now – i've mostly avoided looking at the videos whilst writing these blurbs, probably for the best in the interests of ever getting this finished.]

"do i have to say i'm sorry for my happiness?" – she asks it almost weakly, as though it's actually a question. but there's more to the story than that: one of the things i love about this song is that it's about the comforting, satisfied self-knowledge of subtle, hidden depths of fortitude and resilience: the singer might seem all gushy and gooey as she slides her feet up and down the wall, but she's knows that she's actually stronger than you are. "baby, you don't know, but my heart is as strong as a drummer." (never mind that heart cancer might not be precisely what asthmatic smokers need to be mindful about.) some folks have pointed out the chorus' melodic similarities to cyndi lauper's breakout hit, which never really stuck out to me, but coincidental as that connection may be the two songs do have something similar to teach us: there is power in just wanting to have fun.



13. "I Didn't See It Coming" – Belle & Sebastian

polychrome in the 2010's
you go disco and i'll go my way

still not entirely sure how i feel about write about love as a whole (that is, whether i love-love it or merely like-like it) but this, track one, which just jumped out of the speakers from the first time i plopped it in, the day after it came out, at my birthday listening party, this just might be the best thing belle & seb have done since... well? waitress at least, though that's only two albums back. and this has a maturity and confidence that the closest parallels of that era ("your cover's blown"; "cuckoo," maybe; the excellent and overlooked "stay loose") don't quite.

eh, it doesn't really feel right to compare: in its stylistic freedom, formal adventurousness, impressionistic style, and fluid, unrepentant musicality, this consolidates many of the strengths of b+s mark 2; but then again, it also feels like something totally new. even if something about it (the lyric?) vaguely calls to mind "electronic renaissance." ["make me dance/i want to surrender" – what a dizzyingly potent little fragment.] anyway, it stands with the band's very best, of any era.

even if it flattens out a bit when it opens up (in the late-middle, before launching into the maddeningly beautiful tail-section that less-classically-versed music writers would probably describe as a "fugue"), and even though, when i'm listening to it, i wish it didn't fade out like that. or so fast. or ever. anybody can write about love: this song sounds like it. and the title makes it self-fulfilling prophecy.



14. "Horchata" – Vampire Weekend

my favorite songs from contra – an album that i adore for no real reason other than that i love listening to it, which sounds like a trivial statement but strangely doesn't feel that way [maybe it actually is as good as graceland?] – my favorite songs are all right at the end: "giving up the gun" (evidently my SotY), righteous banger "diplomat's son," and the momentously ineffable quasi-title track. but with the former well and adequately repped on both 2010islove and feet active vol. 1 (hm, i really ought to get that mix up here), and the latter on t-shirt weather, it was tricky to know what to rep contra with here, as few of the album's other great songs particularly stand out to me as being more great than the great rest. (according to my blog, the evidently-popular "white sky" was an early favorite of mine too, but i don't entirely remember that.)

i chose "horchata," even though it seemed a bit obvious, even though i initially thought it was overly goofy, because i really have continued to sing it, and it remains singularly playful and delightful, and also i liked the way it fit in to the belle&seb fade-out. at one point this song felt a bit like a hold-over from the sound of first album, but although it probably does work as a stylistic bridge to some extent it also definitely fits in, and works well as an opening statement.

my favorite things about this song are: the xylophones, the clattery offbeat rhythms, the full wistful singing on the chorus/bridge ("here's a feeling..."), the wormy, wiggly melody, the periodic mix-n-match drop-out-and-build-back-up that happens at the end, the all-over-the-place kitchen-sink arrangement, the sudden stop at the end. pretty much everything except for the lyrics, which are fun too.



15. "All Yr Songs" – Diamond Rings

i mighta overrated this album (i really wanted it to be reminiscent of warren zevon..), but this song is supa dope, any way. it's got a peppy fun cheap/sloppy bedroom fi steez but secretly it is really neatly and snazzily arranged. lots of subtle stuff going on. it has acoustic guitar breakdowns! it has beach boy "oohs"! it has (synth) bass come in on the second verse! it has bongos, mixed low on the chorus! and: it has a vibraslap! (like free energy's "something in common," absolutely one of my favorite songs of 2010 that didn't come out in 2010 because it was only on the ep and not the album for some crazy reason, but otherwise should totally be here. i want to keep a running tally of vibraslap songs but it's hard to remember, as they're best when used sparingly.)

this song is also totally sweet in the lyrics/sentiment department too. the sunscreen part always makes me think about best coast, but i don't like any best coast songs nearly this much. she should be more sing-songy. oh-woah-oh-oh-oh-woah-oh-oh-oh. i guess this was viral-ish in '09 but whatevs i didn't catch it until the album this year. woot!



16. "Hormones" – Tracey Thorn

hard to get past the attention-getting (and admirably non-traditional) subject matter [her menopause coinciding with her daughter's puberty], which tracey treats in typically frank, affecting, non-sensationalized fashion, but the music of this is pretty great too; nicely groovy, handclaps, neat piano riff, nice guitar punch-ups. it's probably the best song on love and its opposite for both reasons – though "oh the divorces" is also something pretty special. it's an album i can certainly appreciate and respect plenty, tho (and i don't think it's just b/c of my age) it didn't quite floor me like out of the woods did (and does.) but that's an unusually special recording. anyhow, tracey is still one of my favorite voices, and i'm happy to spread the love.



17. "Love And Do What You Will" – ceo

there is something so befuddlingly other about the tough alliance and, now, ceo – having spent plenty of time with their albums, and writing about them, and digesting white magic in particular (and it's not a long album), i still feel like; for instance, out of the albums in my top ten for 2010, ceo's is by far the one i'm least able to comprehend, or feel like i connect with, on a human level. which can make it hard to say exactly how much, or even whether, and certainly why, i like it.

but it's equally hard to deny that they/he make some pretty fantastic music, phenomenal both on its own terms and in its utter singularity. i'm also pretty sure that white magic is even better, and even more sui generis, than the tough alliance output to date. and it's great both as an album and as individual pieces. this song is great, for instance. i can't really tell you what's going on – there are tons of interesting sounds, an interesting, syncopated beat, a catchy melody, a catchy riff or two, some enthusiastic singing – but if we can "love and do what love and do what we want we will," [as someone once said of prince's equally inscrutable "7": if "together we'll love through all space and time,"] it can't be all that bad, can it?



18. "Indeed" – Georgia Anne Muldrow

though i sort of half forgot about her for a while – after i missed her show and left my copy of king's ballad in matt's cd player (which i should try harder to recover) – i was rocking the GAM jams pretty hard in the early part of the year, and this is definitely one of the sweetest and the fonkiest. it's an entirely touching, heartfelt, if not a little quirky, celebration of kids: "i love the mess out the children..." who can't get down with that?



19. "Whole New Way" – Scissor Sisters

i feel a little bad that i didn't find better ways to express my love for scissor sisters in 2010. night work is a pretty terrific piece of work from end to end, definitely a surprise and a step up for a group i'd all but written off – much as i loved their debut (and it's probably only gotten better with time), it somehow never seemed like they were fully able to live up to their potential. but this one is a total treat, chock-full of pop thrills, and i don't really understand why it was so overlooked.

for some reason it's a little tricky to take individual songs out of the context of the album, maybe because they have such a strong shared stylized aesthetic. this song (which is also shoehorned in at the end of 2010islove, paired up with "rude boy" for a deviant little quickie) isn't necessarily my favorite thing from the album (i think i like "skin tight" and "running out" slightly more, though it's a hard call), but it might be the best stand-alone cut. it's pretty delightful, either way. "subtext"-wise, the entendré-filled lyrics are winking pretty impossibly hard (ana matronic's overly labored live introduction/"apology" for this song, both times i saw them this summer [on the same day] was almost wince-inducing), but that's obviously a lot of the point, and the fun.



20. "All Matter" – Bilal

by contrast, i have pretty much no idea what this song is about. (apart than love, of course.) didn't know what to make of this cat when i saw him open for erykah badu this summer, and after a bunch of listens through the in any event staggering airtight's revenge, i still don't really know, but i think it's a good kind of making. as intriguing and often enjoyable as it is, there's been precious little in the recent wave of loose, clunky, atmospheric, post-dilla "broken-beat" electro-funk, whether instrumental or vocal (erykah, quadron, flying lotus, sa-ra – stuff that, for instance, andy kellman loves) that's really grabbed me. this one did it with just one little ineffable snatch of liquid vocal soul magic, which feels like i could listen to it forever. "you ain't even gotta try/all you've gotta do is realize..."



21. "I Can Change" – LCD Soundsystem

the new lsd screensaver album is bookended by towering standouts ("dance yrself clean", "home") or else the singles are the towering standouts ("drunk girls", "pow pow") or maybe it's all standouts (well, except, sorry, "somebody's calling me") or, i dunno, but this is the slyly crucial centerpiece after all, a quintessential "album cut" only in that it is fully and undeniably in and of its album, not that it can't work outside of it, and in any case it's the best solution to the quandary that "all i want" doesn't measure up to "all my friends" (quite), and nothing here touches "someone great" (even if "you wanted a hit" has the right feel for it), and yet this is happening is somehow a more complete and cohesive and consummate work than sound of silver, half of which now almost feels like throwaways in retrospect (actually, it felt that way at the time, tho i still loved it, and i still love it.)

"i can change" has only a few changes, but plenty of good lines (bad poetry my foot), if maybe not as many quotables as some others. but more than that its string of casual, lucid observations about relationships (which might or might not add up to a narrative sketch i've never bothered to really trace) add up to a vaguely wry, witty, alternately (or simultaneously?) cynical and hopeful meditation on modern (always modern) love that doesn't need much coherence to be curiously moving. and failing that, the bleeps and the beats – which, perhaps tellingly, barely change at all over the course of the track – offer some motion of their own.



22. "Alley Cats" – Hot Chip

one life stand is my favorite album of 2010. what is my favorite song from one life stand? "brothers"? the title track? "thieves in the night"? ["happiness is what we all want/may it be that we don't always want"...pretty hard to argue with that] earlier mixtape inclusions "hand me down your love" (on t-shirt weather) or "i feel better" (on 2010islove)? i'd almost be tempted to say the utterly sublime osborne remix of "take it in," although of course that's not on the album.

the truth is, i don't have one. this is about as close to a perfect album – not just in the sense of having no weak tracks, but having no tracks that are even notably weaker than any of the others – as i can think of in recent memory (a strange arrangement, my post-facto #1 of 2009, fits this bill too.) which isn't to say to say that all of the tracks are perfect: indeed, i could probably point to distinct, frequently lovable imperfections in just about every one. (that's called idiosyncrasy, and it's a large part of the appeal...though admittedly it's not nearly on the level of, say, kanye west.)

just at the moment, though, i'm having trouble coming up with anything that's particularly imperfect about "alley cats." it's not especially good for dancing to. joe isn't a technically brilliant singer. the words are quizzical and often hard to make linear sense of... but in this context, that last is actually a decidedly good thing (and probably the previous one too) – the lyrics feel warm and thoughtful and personal and as full of odd inscrutable private codes and pet references as an intimate chat between two lovers.)

one life stand, from its title on down, is overflowing with fresh, simple, unexpected and economical figurative yet immediate ways of talking about love, and this song has several: "we wear each others heads like hats"; "you painted a song...and now it is in my lungs"; the wonderfully succinct list of why people are like unhappy cats ("restless, needs attention, loses patience, seeks affection.") also, this song, like the album in general, recognizes that love is not only about two people: there are also pets, and parents, and plants, and even pop bands ("do you dig germs?"), and a whole lifetime full of those things together, even when the things you love want to kill one another, all of that, all together, is what makes up a life of love. that's all.

So I think it's time for us to have a post...

ok, here it is. 115+ tracks of pure, mashed-up 2010 dance bangers, from ~100 bpm all the way up to ~95, in just under 80 minutes.

download it here (it's just one long track, though if you want it broken up for some reason i might get around to doing that at some point...) or you can stream it below. tracklist is down there too, but don't read ahead if you want to be surprised...

it's time to cut a rug:



WELL, OBVIOUSLY WE HAVE A TRACKLIST IN MINCING PARK (spoiler alert!):
0. Cornelius / 2010
1. Four Tet / Angel Echoes
2. Kanye West / Runaway
3. Houses / Soak It Up
4. LCD Soundsystem / Dance Yrself Clean
5. Javelin / Vibrationz
6. The Books / The Story of Hip Hop
7. Big Boi / Shutterbug
8. RJD2 / Let There Be Horns
9. D'eon / Recession Proof ($40 Paycheque)
10. Gil Scott-Heron /New York Is Killing Me
11. Aloe Blacc / I Need a Dollar
12. Mayer Hawthorne / No Strings
13. Rihanna ft. D.R.A.K.E. / What's My Name?
14. Nicki Minaj / Your Love
15. YG / Toot It And Boot It
16. Los Rakas / Abrazame [Uproot Andy Remix]
17. Gyptian / Hold Yuh
18. Holy Fuck / Latin America
19. Liz Phair / Bollywood
20. Escort / Cocaine Blues
21. The Black Keys / Tighten Up
22. B.o.B ft. Bruno Mars / Nothin' On You // Nothin' On You [Villains remix]
23. Matthew Dear / You Put A Smell On Me
24. Sia / The Fight
25. Alphabeat / The Spell
26. Eli "Paperboy" Reed and the True Loves / Name Calling
27. Azari and III / Reckless With Your Love [Tensnake Remix]
28. Lindstrom and Christabelle / Baby Can't Stop
29. Marina and the Diamonds / Shampain
30. Copy / Real Scared
31. M.I.A. ft. Jay-Z / XXXO [Fulton Yard/Waltboogie Remix]
32. Daft Punk / Derezzed
33. Diskjøkke / Big Flash
34. The Arcade Fire / Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)
35. The Books / I Didn't Know That
36. Taio Cruz / Dynamite
37. Caribou / Bowls
38. Lady Gaga ft. Beyonce / Telephone
39. Gorillaz / Stylo [Alex Metric Remix]
40. Ratatat / Drugs
41. Nas and Damian Marley / As We Enter
42. Tensnake / Coma Cat
43. Ke$ha / Tik Tok
44. VV Brown / Everybody
45. Bjørn Torske / Bergensere
46. Clive Tanaka Y Su Orquesta / Neu Chicago
47. the cast of "Glee" / Teenage Dream
48. Storm Queen / Look Right Through // [dub version]
49. The Roots / How I Got Over
50. Delorean / Real Love
51. Tanlines / Real Life
52. The Chemical Brothers / Swoon
53. Soulja Boy / Pretty Boy Swag
54. School of Seven Bells / Heart Is Strange
55. Robyn / Don't Fucking Tell Me What To Do
56. Sky Ferreira / One
57. Yeasayer / O.N.E.
58. Swedish House Mafia / One
59. Katy Perry / California Gurls
60. Far East Movement ft. Cataracs / Like a G6
61. Hot Chip / Hand Me Down Your Love
62. Hot Chip / I Feel Better
63. LCD Soundsystem / Pow Pow
64. Robyn / Dancing On My Own [Fred Falke Mix] // [Chew Fu Extended Remix] // [J-Wow/Buraka Som Sistema Smoked Summer Remix]
65. Yolanda Be Cool & DCUP / We No Speak Americano
66. R2Bees ft. Wande Coal / Kiss Your Hand
67. Shakira / Waka Waka (Esto Es África)
68. Jusa Dementor / African Air Horn Dance
69. ceo / Come With Me
70. Cee-Lo / Fuck You
71. Duck Sauce / Barbara Streisand
72. Kylie Minogue / Put Your Hands Up
72. Wiley and Chew Fu / Take That
73. The Russian Futurists / Hoeing Weeds Sowing Seeds
74. Kingdom / Bust Broke
75. Justin Bieber ft. Ludacris / Baby
76. Joe / Claptrap
77. Malachai / Snowflake
78. Sleigh Bells / A/B Machines
79. Dominique Young Unique / Show My Ass
80. DJ Zinc Ft. Ms. Dynamite / Wile Out
81. Ramadanman / Work Them
82. Vampire Weekend / Giving Up The Gun
83. An Horse / Camp Out [R.A.C. Mix]
84. Katy B / Katy On A Mission
85. Kingdom ft. Shyvonne / Mind Reader
86. Rick Ross / B.M.F.
87. Girl Unit / Wut
88. Ludacris / How Low?
89. Major Lazer vs. La Roux ft. Candy Redd / Independent Kill
90. Jonsí / Boy Lilikoi
91. Yelawolf / Good To Go
92. Belle & Sebastian / I Want The World To Stop
93. Die Antwoord / Enter The Ninja
94. Janelle Monae / Cold War
95. The Gregory Brothers and Antoine Dodson / Bed Intruder Song
96. Kanye West / POWER
97. Sleigh Bells / Rill Rill
98. Drake / Over
99. The National / Bloodbuzz Ohio
100. Willow Smith / Whip My Hair
101. Wiz Khalifa / Black and Yellow
102. Taylor Swift / Mean
103. Nicki Minaj / Did It On 'Em
104. Grovesnor / Turn Your Radio Up
105. The New Pornographers / Moves
106. Rihanna / Rude Boy
107. Scissor Sisters / Whole New Way
108. Bonobo / Kiara
109. Sade / Soldier of Love
110. The Knife with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock / The Colouring of Pigeons
111. Iyaz / Replay
112. Free Energy / Bang Pop
113. Liz Phair / Bang! Bang!
114. Mark Ronson ft MNDR & Q-Tip / Bang Bang Bang
115. Gold Panda / You
116. Javelin / Intervales Theme
"I like your beard" - Ke$ha

i've been making these year-end megamixes for five years now, and i really think this is the best i've ever done. it's probably the most consistently danceable; it's nicely varied and pretty well-balanced stylewise [with a fun and unanticipated abundance of clapping songs]; it's relatively technically smooth [my latest mixmethod – recording each track "live" in traktor separately and then importing the results into garageband for editing – adopted for the first time here mostly out of necessity – worked out really nicely and was surprisingly quick and easy, not that that stopped me from obsessively tweaking and fussing with things after the fact] and, in particular, it has a lot of extended blends that i really enjoy (many of which suggest mashy titles that make we want to break this down into individual tracks, like Coma Ke$ha, Swoon Swag, and my hands-down favorite, Snow My Ass, Babyflake.) even if it does get pretty out of control in the last ten-fifteen minutes, as i tried to cram in probably way too many of the still unused tracks on my must-use list.

i also like how it reflects certain extra-musical aspects of 2010, such as the continued ravages of the recession [tracks 9-11], the african world cup/vuvuzelathon [tracks 66-68], the ascendancy of glee [trk 47], and the [relative] absence of lil wayne.

i could probably go on about this mix for quite a while, but ultimately i think it probably more or less speaks for itself. i do, though, want to quickly acknowledge a couple of my sources for finding all these amazing songs... most of these inclusions were already favorites well before i started mixing, but part of the fun of putting these things together is also poking around and trying to find some things i might have missed. this year the resident advisor top 50 tracks list was particularly helpful and intriguing... tipped me off to "work them" and "claptrap," both of which i have been enjoying tremendously both in the context of this mix and outside. (i really should figure out a way to follow these things better...) the singles jukebox, a regular haunt of mine, was where i initially discovered plenty of these, most notably "take that" and "wile out," which have been solid faves all year, as well as "katy on a mission" and "toot it and boot it" (h/t to bedbugs for reminding me of the latter.) lastly, gregzinho, by special request, clued me in to "kiss your hand" and "abrazame (uproot andy rmx)" and also put in a good word for "we no speak americano," which probably wouldn't have made it otherwise. so, thanks guys! (and thanks jeff for getting me to shoehorn in "dynamite." wouldn't be the same without it.)

two zero one zero

2010 was a massive year for me in many ways, and, maybe more than in a while, music was a specific and intrinsic part of that: not just in the usual way of years being book-ended and de-facto-defined by listy/mixy nerdage, but in the in-the-moment experience of music helping to enhance and create the year's distinct character as it went along...

a general, gushing sense of all things firing on all cylinders, goodness and life and love springing up at every turn, high highs and low lows, the rush and comfort of the familiar-made-fresh, new things from old, rediscovery and revisitation, vibrancy and potency and possibility and life stretching out in strange and settling ways, and feeling ready, but not anxious, for it to arrive.

the very lived experience of it felt especially vivid, season by season: remember the blizztacular snowpocalypse?! {the night i fell in love with "angel echoes"} and the springiest springtime of my life, for sure (sweet, not fleeting)! {when that fateful, be-witchy joanna newsom re-directed my life once again} then there was a double-edged summer of loose ends, brownian instability and a couple of major meltdowns at home [meterological/horticultural, technological, personal/cohabitational...] {and also lazerproof living room dance parties} b/w endless rural road trips with my blueberrybaby and her blueberrymobile, full (too full) of ice cream and swimming and seafood and sweet little back-country towns ... and then the coziest, homeiest autumn – both resting up at the roost and flitting off to be with my home-away-from-home – leading up to the most fully festive december i can remember. {and a little record player asking "will you please spend new year's with me"...} wow...i hadn't even thought it all through like that before now, but truly, what a year it was...!

as often for me, the year [and, incidentally, the decade] started musically with a diversion into older music, in this case the manifold, mash-tastic sounds of the 2000s, via my january-engulfing mixburst project [which still hasn't quite gotten its due, i feel, though i've got a sense its last gasp hasn't yet passed] – other such forays came with bit of n'awlins noodling in march, a late-springtime round-up of sixties-era dancefloor stylings for our house sockhop, a midsummer investigation of woody guthrie in conjunction with the grapes of wrath and his birthday singalong, and un p'tit trawl of pop français for the like-titled event i dj'd for the philly jewish film fest in november [the results of which i really ought to post here sometime...]

but, really, i had precious little time in 2010 for anything from previous decades. right from the start, i was thrilled by a near-constant stream of new ishness. my AMG coverage skewed more to brand-new-new releases than ever before, and it was also the first year i was covering shows for CP on a regular near-weekly basis; both of these things meant that i was listening to and processing possibly more new music than i ever have, and definitely doing more to stay on top of what was coming out any given week, who was touring when, etc. etc. and it was exciting times! i saw tons of great shows, had a lot of fun writing, got many many great cds in the mail, generally felt like i was riding and cresting with the cycle. not to say that i'm necessarily keen on jumping back in for this year's go-round, but we shall see to that soon enough...

here are some lists: 20;10.

20 albums
1. Hot Chip, One Life Stand
1. Joanna Newsom, Have One On Me
3. Allo Darlin, Allo Darlin
4. LCD Soundsystem, This Is Happening
5. Robyn, Body Talk, Pt. 1-3 [Pt.1 if I have to choose]
6. Vampire Weekend, Contra
7. Javelin, No Màs
8. Sam Amidon, I See The Sign
9. ceo, White Magic
10. The Books, The Way Out
11. Scissor Sisters, Night Work
12. Yelawolf, Trunk Muzik [mixtape]
13. Free Energy, Stuck on Nothing
14. Malachai, Ugly Side of Love
15. Tracey Thorn, Love and Its Opposite
16. Big Boi, Sir Lucious Leftfoot: Son of Chico Dusty
17. Belle and Sebastian, Write About Love
18. Alphabeat, The Spell/The Beat Is...
19. Stornoway, Beachcomber's Windowsill
20. The National, High Violet

[1-8, and especially 1-6, feel totally solid – those are all absolute 5-star albums in my book – beyond that, it's carefully calibrated and yet still so arbitrary-seeming...nevertheless, continued to nearly 100 on the sidebar...enjoy?!]

10 songs:
Vampire Weekend - "Giving Up The Gun"
LCD Soundsystem - "Home"
Dominique Young Unique - "Show My Ass"
Joanna Newsom - "Good Intentions Paving Company"
Teenage Fanclub -"When I Still Have Thee"
Javelin -"Intervales Theme"
Devon Sproule - "Ain't That The Way"
Glasser - "Home"
Robyn vs. Salt'n'Pepa, "Push it Fembot (A Rokk Pie N Mash-up)"
Big Boi feat. George Clinton, Too Short & Sam Chris - "For Yo Sorrows"

[much harder to narrow down; nearly impossible to meaningfully numerate. hence. see also, soon: H'010nanny]

i'll have a bunch to say more specifically about the year's music in the next couple of posts, which will cover my pair of 2010 year-end mixes, but for now i'll just sketch a rough narrative of my year in music, inserting my best-of list rankings just in case they mean anything (mostly because it looked nice last year), framed around the curiously seasonal stylistic clustering that i kept noticing throughout the year – hard to say how much these month-or-two micro-trends were observable on a larger scale (they do make some amount of marketing sense, i suppose), but they definitely stood out to me as the seasons moved along.

the early months saw a lot of new records from well-established old favorites – as highlighted here; the Magnetic Fields, Spoon and Vampire Weekend {#6} [whom i came to love far more this year...i guess i can now accept matt's claim, which i'd forgotten, that it's "the first album of the new decade"] – Alphabeat {#18} (poor, misbegotten danes), Eluvium {#24} (essential wintertime) and, above all, Joanna Newsom {#1} & Hot Chip {#1•}, who made the two utter masterpieces – both, incidentally, with the word "One" in their titles – that jockied for the #1 spot on my year list [and ultimately sort of end up sharing it, though at my most honest i have to give the hot nod to the chippies].

new faves by old friends continued to be perhaps the most notable recurring theme of this year's music, with notables including the Books {#10}, Liz Phair {#22}, Nellie McKay, the Roots {#74}, Big Boi [i.e. ex-Outkast] {#16}, ceo [i.e. ex-TTA] {#9}, the Extra Lens [/sub-Mountain Goats] {#61}, Tracey Thorn {#15}, albeit via a slightly underwhelming detour away from electronics, the New Pornographers {#27}, who cut very possibly their best record since Electric Version – high praise coming from me, even if i still tend to underrate it almost as much as most people did, the Arcade Fire {#31} (it was shocking, but ultimately reassuring, to discover that i am still capable of fairly loving this band), Cee-Lo, Taylor Swift {#58}, Belle & Sebastian {#17}, and, most especially, LCD Soundsystem {#4} and Robyn {#5}, both of whom owned this year, in their own way, probably even more than JN and HC.

(and sure, there were also plenty of disappointments and misfires along the way from several once-dependables, most notably M.I.A. [whose album i may someday bring myself to revisit, but it's gonna take some doing], Damon Albarn [whose Gorillaz have never been my favorite of his projects, but in past i'd always been pleasantly surprised to discover their records after the fact; this time i jumped in from go and found a bewildering emptiness that i swear i've listened to, but can tell you almost nothing about...], the aforementioned Spoon [sigh], and even ye gods Elvis Costello, Jonathan Richman [fine but feckless, which is to say their albums have yet to make me give much of a feck], David Byrne and The Knife [both of the latter in curio-collaboratory mode, making conceptual opera/theater/narrative pieces that i have dutifully enjoyed listening to but not managed to fully plumb, which isn't a great sign.])

but i'm getting ahead of myself... the early part of the year also offered a clutch of accessibly sprightly, tuneful electronic albums from the old-guard likes of Four Tet {#29}, Caribou {#75} [forever in tandem; great to see that they're still growing that way], Bonobo {#67}, plus Pantha du Prince {#83}. and it did yield a few fast new friends; some splashy-delic and sample-happy [Javelin {#7}, Malachai {#14}], others fervent and folky [Mynabirds {#21}, Sam Amidon {#8}, Phosphorescent {#25}] also, fine and fancy rambling with Free Energy whose video shoot i missed [to garden, dang it!] but whose moniker sums up the spirit of the season maybe better than anything.

and then it was the summer of, as i've mentioned, Immaculate dance-pop. with the season signaled by LCD, the charge led by Robyn [holy hosannah Batman, Robyn Returns! was maybe the most beautiful musical mega-event of the year... she even revamped up the remix game for the occasion - I'd kill to get my hands on a fully-stocked "Dancing on My Own" 12", but i'm not convinced it actually exists...] and solid soldiering on the part of the mighty Kylie {#84}, Kelis {#76}, Sia {#89}, ceo {#9}, Scissor Sisters {#11} and Delorean {#72}, massive mixtapes from A-Trak {#86} and Major La Roux-zer {#63}, and fine chart fodder from B.o.B, Ke$ha {#80} 'n' Katy Pee. [h.m. Goldfrapp {#95}, Marina {#82}, and Sky Ferreira, from whom I looking forward to hearing more than just "One." good work keeping with the title theme though, Sky, (and, also, Yeasayer and Swedish House Mafia.]

and then it was September and there was a sudden outpouring of "serious" dark/arty prestige indie rock from mostly established acts [Deerhunter, No Age, Walkmen, Women, Abe Vigoda, Blonde Redhead, Crocodiles] little of which i really got into, save for the Arcade Fire, which came out in August but otherwise mostly falls in line there...seriously it felt like no-fun back-to-skool indie music Oscar season all of a sudden. meanwhile there was also a similar/simultaneous upsurge of variably artsy/abstract/fuzzy/hazy/gauzy/dreamy/blissy/questionably chillwave-associated? new indie stuff going on: How To Dress Well {#55}, Glasser {#51}, Teengirl Fantasy {#77}, Tamaryn, Candy Claws, Salem, among others, which may not all have had all that much to do with each other really, but seemed like some kind of convergence, and seemed like some new sort of thing happening, and certainly seemed like something that it was important for me to figure out. [of these, the first three crystallized as things i am at least fairly interested in, and it turns out they're all pretty different from each other, but i couldn't necessarily tell that in advance.]

(i never really got a handle on witch house (did anyone?), and meanwhile i mostly managed to avoid figuring out all that much more about dubstep this year either, despite Diplo's curatorial efforts, except that i guess most of it is kinda post-dubstep by now, or something? like, also despite spending an awful lot of time with Darkstar {#69} 's North almost-but-not-quite connecting with it...still feeling undecided [though "Aidy's Girl" is still awesome] but it's pretty obviously not dubstep at all...anyhow what do we call the mellower pretty stuff in this diaspora? i've only recently been digesting James Blake, which seems like something decidedly else as well...not entirely sure I get it yet, but it's nice enough to listen to. Likewise Mt. Kimbie and Ramadanman both of whom I've found exceedingly pleasant on at least one occasion or another. but this stuff mostly just seems like the new IDM, and i feel like i'm having the same slippery, unpredictable relationship with it that i had with the old IDM...well, hoping for some solid, solidifying full-lengths in future. it takes full-lengths i think. for me. or comps'll do... f'rinstance, on the more up tick; apparently i'm going to need to spend more time the Night Slugs comp too, that one snuck up on me...i might be just starting to understand "Wut," but again not entirely convinced... however, Permanent Vacation I can get with: funky disco and house, just like i like it. so, needing to get my hands on that too...) [/end electronica digression]

the rest of the year was more of a mixed bag, including many of the aforementioned old favorites, and also Diamond Rings {#26} (whom i did/do overrate somewhat, i suppose, but it's awfully easy to feel fond of him) and Sufjan {#52}, which I'm warming to, but mostly it was – especially in November/December– the most incredibly egregious glut i've ever seen of 'strategically-deployed' X-mas shopping seasonable R&B product, sorry, torrents, sorry, releases?: Rihanna {#29}, Nicki Minaj {#51}, R. Kelly, Jazmine Sullivan, Cee-Lo, Shakira, Ciara, Michael Jackson, Soulja Boy, Diddy-Dirty Money, Black Eyed Peas, Girlicious, Keyshia, Keri, Jamie Foxx, Ghostface, Young Jeezy, Kid Cudi and I'm sure I'm missing several, and, oh yeah, a little something from Kanye West... save, ok, for 'Ye (hang on, let me finish...) that's in roughly descending order of how much I can be bothered to care, although if these had been spaced out through the year a bit more I might have made more time for them (pace The-Dream...sigh, I'm sure I'll get around to liking him eventually. I did make a bit of progress this year...) Dunno what to say about this lot except that the Rihanna singles are pretty undeniable, and I look up to picking up plenty of these albums in used bins over the next few years... [in fact, I've already started - snagged the new Trey Songz for $2 last week.]

Kanye, Kanye, Kanye. OK. I have to say I have enjoyed MBDTF {#30} (meh, disappointing acronym...shall we just call it Twisted?) a lot, which is at least a fair amount more than I expected. It's probably replaced 808s as my favorite KW album – significantly, because it's at least as interesting. I guess it makes some amount of sense as an across-the-board consensus pick [though, really, why couldn't it have been This Is Happening!? – it's no less willfully obdurate, and has a much snappier title], though I can't really fathom it as something that you would give a perfect 10/10... [if anything, it seems like a perfectly imperfect 9.9/10 – no way is this album 1% better than Homogenic] well, sigh. anyhow – some catchy tunes and fun beats, and even some pretty good rapping, though there's also so much bone-headed clunkiness on there, musically, lyrically and production-wise... ok whatever.

So, speaking of: two notable areas that have more or less run throughout the year for me, in contrast to much of what i've been discussing above, are hip-hop and, to a lesser extent, indie pop. as I predicted/planned at the year's outset, i listened to substantially more rap this year than the past few, even if I never did get around to writing a post called 2K h1p-h0p or some such... got a lot of enjoyment out of Big Boi {#16} and the Roots {#74}, for sure, but my favorites were actually two new discoveries, Yelawolf {#12} and Dominique Young Unique {#23; top three song}, both formidable presences with fairly (though not entirely) divergent energies on the mic. also really enjoying the Curren$y mixtapes {#32} lately, as promised, and working my way into Rick Ross, Wacka Flocka Flame, and Das Racist {#49} (great, but somehow not as much of an instant click as they seem like they should be). definitely enjoying Nicki Minaj too (the pop stuff on her album doesn't bother me too much, though I guess I didn't have quite the same expectations other people, and after a bit of waffling [i listened compulsively for about a week this summer, then set it aside for months], i have to admit that Drake {#34} album is extremely compelling and well done, even in its cornier aspects.

As for indie-pop, the big whooping news was of course Allo Darlin {#3}, by some measure my favorite NEW band of 2010, and also the one i most successfully spread love for amongst my loves and friends (even if i did miss their real show, stupid stupid stupid...) Big ups to Stornoway {#19} too on that front (and they did get the chance to blow me away in concert.) Otherwise, Lucky Soul {#85} delivered a worthy follow-up that's just missing some crucial ballads to really connect, Teenage Fanclub {#40}, whom I've barely paid attention before, impressed me mightily, with a few songs in particular, and best twees alive (pretty much?) Belle and Sebastian {#17} made a somewhat mixed-bag record that has at least one of their all-time greatest songs, and at least a handful of pretty good ones. I guess Best Coast {#92} count too. and I guess they're ok.

On a related note: with a few obvious exceptions on the dance-pop front [R-byn, c-o, A-phabeat], and a couple of low-pro Smalltown electrofolks [Diskjokke {#73}, Bjørn Torske {#78}], there was extremely little Scandinavian music that got me at all excited this year – a major change from the last three-four-five years. I liked jj's follow-up {#54} maybe more than I wanted to admit (though it's still a sizable disappointment), I really dug the Love is All {#90} for a brief moment there, I'm enjoying the new Britta Persson {#59} , and, for maybe the first time, a couple of Finnish groups – Husky Rescue {#98} and Regina – caught my attention. And there were a few Hybris releases – Monty, Elias – that probably deserve more of it. Also, Silje Nes, Olafur Arnalds and Ölof Arnalds [no relation? this is confusing] made some amount of prettiness, and perhaps Jonsí did as well, though I'm dubious [except in the visual realm. there; yes.] But I have – so far – found little to love in the new ones from The Ark and Billie the Vision and the Dancers, who are two of my very favorite artists of the last five-ten years, and the Labrador records output mostly failed to shake me up either [Radio Dept, Club 8...Sambassadeur {#94} was oh-kay.] Oh yeah, and I hated the Jenny Wilson album, and Junip and First Aid Kit were boring. I already addressed The Knife, though I am curious about this Oni Ayhun business. (also, i've been draggin my feet on reviewing a number of the aforementioned albums.)

So. Have I dropped enough names yet? There's still a number of things I haven't even mentioned, like (mostly) rock music. Which I listened to a bunch of as well, maybe the most in a while. Like Tame Impala {#91}, The Futureheads, The Black Keys, Wavves {#99}, Dr. Dog {#79}, Foxy Shazam, and the aforementioned Free Energy {#13}. And do The National {#20} even really count as rock anyway? [Somehow their album went from boring off my pants to top 20...i think it had something to do with watching the snow fall to it.]

Well anyhow. There is no end to this story, really. It goes on and on and on. And it goes on and on and on... on to the next!