Tag: 2010

Isn't it a little early for best of the year lists?

Best music of 2010? Isn’t it too early too tell, given that there are another 6 weeks of the year, and we could use a little time with music before picking winners? There are already so many lists that the Largehearted Boy list of best of lists is under way, with 9 lists being added today. LHB does a similar list of lists for books.

NPR’s All Songs Considered is in on the best of the year bandwagon. But so far, it’s only gone as far as a nomination-soliciting post on the show’s blog.

My own lists have been qualified with “so far” following “year.” I really can’t pick a front runner from the 9 albums currently on my list. Yes I, like NPR, and old-fashioned enough to think in terms of albums.

Music and Months of 2010

Elvis Costello’s National Ransom came out this week. If I made a list of the year’s music with as many entries as months so far, NR would make that list.

Yes, NR does sprawl, across styles, and for over an hour, but I don’t object. Neither do I object to the sprawl of The Suburbs (at least not to that of the album with that title) so Arcade Fire join Elvis at the recent end of the list. So does Richard Thompson, with another hour-plus album. I posted about his Dream Attic when it came out, and it’s holding up well after many subsequent plays.

That’s 3 albums to add to the 5 I listed at 2010’s 6-month mark. Add John Grant’s Queen of Denmark, which I missed when it came out in the first half of the year, and my favorites of the year list is up to 9 after 10+ months.

2010 Music So Far: 6 Months, 5 Albums

Six months into 2010, it seems like a neat idea to list my six favorite albums of the year so far. Or rather, I thought it would be,until I realized that five albums stood out for me as July started. Of these, Local Natives’ Gorilla Manor retains its lead as album of the year (see a previous post for more, including video of the band).

The other four albums comprise two pairs. There’s the Brit-folk pair of Mumford & Sons, with Sigh No More, and Laura Marling, with I Speak Because I Can.

Then there’s the pair of albums that I haven’t seen on many other (any other?) albums of the year so far list, but I really like, so there. Both are folky (again with the folk) and atmospheric. Shearwater’s The Golden Archipelago does indeed shimmer.

Laura Veirs’ July Flame is delicious. It’s named after this track, which is named after a peach, which is named after the month that’s just kicked off the second half of 2010.

If you want to see other selections of albums of 2010 so far, you could check over at Largehearted Boy, that excellent music (and literature, which is a welcome bonus) blog.