JDK's Favorite Music of 2010: Misc.

Here are the last odds and ends from my far-too-long series on 2010 music:

Best Non-2010 Songs

• Four Tet - My Angel Rocks Back And Forth
  One of the most beautiful electronic slow-jams ever written, or performed, or programmed, or whatever.

• Japandroids - Coma Complacency
  It's actually pretty amazing to see (or rather, hear) the progress Japandroids made from their first two EPs to Post-Nothing. "Coma Complacency" is probably the only track that wouldn't seem too out of place on their debut LP. The shout-along chorus comes close to the highs of the many non-verbal moments of Post-Nothing.

• Lightning Bolt - Dead Cowboy
  2010 was really The Year of Lightning Bolt vis a vis bands I had never once heard (or even heard of) until then. "Dead Cowboy," instrumentally, is one of the more brilliant LB songs - though it peaks at the middle of the song and doesn't get any more ferocious - and if you look up the lyrics, it's one of the best anti-Bush songs out there.

• Radiohead - Kid A
  After switching off between "Knives Out" b-side "Fog" and OK Computer closer "The Tourist," I think I might finally settle on "Kid A" as my favorite Radiohead song. Not only is it part of the one-two punch of Kid A album proper openers - in addition to first track "Everything In Its Right Place" - that announced Radiohead was no longer a mere rock band, but it also takes the oft-chided Dada lyrics and weaves a ghastly tale about the corruption of the self and the pain of childhood. It's also a gorgeous song, with its simple glockenspiel (right?), watery guitars, and Thom Yorke's robotized voice occasionally broadcasting a startling humanity (much like the sentient speak-and-spell of "Fitter Happier" accidentally emoting).

  Bonus: Look up John Mayer's cover of "Kid A" on YouTube. Yeah, yeah, if you're a hardass you'll say it ruins the song, but hearing an all-guitar, non-cyborg version is worth it.

Best Non-2010 Albums

• Lightning Bolt - Wonderful Rainbow
  Again: The Year of Lightning Bolt. While I'll get around to posting my lost-gestating JDK Radio with my favorite LB cuts across their four albums, Wonderful Rainbow is really the best point of entry into the band's canon. It deftly balances the bold experimentation of Ride The Skies, the maximalism of Hypermagic Mountain, and the noisiest-of-all-four Earthly Delights. Wonderful Rainbow hits the sweet spot of balancing killer songs with sequencing and overall musicality that creates that most strange of beasts: the unified noise-rock album. Just looking at the tracklist is like running down LB's greatest hits, with "Assassins," the semi-famous "Dracula Mountain," the universe-exploding "2 Towers," the breather "Wonderful Rainbow," and the frontal assault of "Duel in the Deep."

• Four Tet - Rounds
  Without trying to sound too reductive, 2010 was also a big year for Four Tet. My enjoyment of 2010 LP There Is Love In You steered me to the man's back catalog. He's never hit a sour note, but Rounds really solidified Four Tet's sound as dance music that doesn't rely on a huge beat or anything too brooding or sexualized. Each song has its own earworm, from the harp of "My Angel Rocks Back And Forth," the piano line of comedown "Unspoken," and the silky basslines atop superhuman drumming on "As Serious As Your Life."

• Radiohead - Kid A
  I think this has been well-documented. After every list ever crowned it the Best Album of the 00s, I gave it a few more shots. And, rather obviously, the record revealed to me it's bone-simple secret: listen to the whole thing, all at once. It's a master's course in sequencing - and a sequencing that, apparently, nearly broke the band apart - even moreso once you figure that there were plenty of great cuts that were scrapped and later revived for Kid B Amnesiac.

Best Live Show
Titus Andronicus @ 7th St. Entry

Not too many differences from this, though without meeting the whole band and, inexplicably, Craig Finn. As I said in my other music write-ups, this was just when The Monitor was getting the kind of play from this blogger as to suggest it might make it on some mighty year-end List. Add to it the huge surprise that they could shred live just as good as the album proper.

Craziest Show (Tie)
Lightning Bolt @ Triple Rock

My first write-up remains fairly accurate. In retrospect, it was too bad I was really only familiar with Wonderful Rainbow, since a) they didn't play much of it, and b) I was fixated on "2 Towers" played in the set proper or as some sort of obvious encore choice. I definitely wear rose-colored glasses thinking back on this show, since there were definitely times when I was not enjoying myself in the least. It's also a shame that they closed with the encore "Dead Cowboy," which is now one of my favorite LB songs, and back then I barely knew it. (It's very much like how I saw Death From Above 1979 at Intonation 2005 before I gave a shit about DFA, and I started to enjoy them, naturally, after they broke up.)

Sleigh Bells @ Triple Rock

This was oddly shocking. This, uh, old blog post still has the details right. And whereas Lightning Bolt will always be a sort of cult band and I'll probably see them again (either at the Triple Rock or 7th. St. or First Ave.), Sleigh Bells will probably continue to skyrocket (Exhibit A: I heard one of their songs on a promo for an ABC show) or simply just vanish and I won't have this experience again. Or, specifically, I won't get to freak out in a sweaty pit of sweaty guys with Alexis Krauss hanging over me and then leaping on top of me.

Biggest/Best Surprises of the Year

• Fang Island
  Did everyone forget about these guys? I haven't seen a single year-end list with this fine album from this fine band. Their music is just, I don't know, inspiring. Forget that muzak shit that pump into all the Lands in the Magic Kingdom; they need to play Fang Island throughout the park-wide PA at Disney World.

• Phantogram - Eyelid Movies
  I remain the only man in existence who seems to know this band exists, despite slipping tracks into muxes and having a perpetual offer to send the whole album to anyone who asks. (Whenever that happens, though, my enthusiasm toward turning others onto something usually has a backfiring effect.) Probably mentioned elsewhere, but this was the first CD I bought since Broken Social Scene's self-titled in 2005.

• My Titus Andronicus odyssey with a special guest appearance by Craig Finn
  Again: Well documented.

Predictions for 2011

• Confirmed albums from the following:
  The Decemberists
  The Go! Team
  James Blake
  Mountain Goats
  The Rural Alberta Advantage
  And many more I have forgotten, don't care about, or don't know about

• Probable albums from the following:
  Atlas Sound
  Broken Social Scene presents
  Fuck Buttons
  Handsome Furs
  Health (new album proper and maybe Disco 3)
  Japandroids
  Radiohead or Thom Yorke
  Sunset Rubdown
  The Thermals
  Weezer

• Maybe a little nasty, but what the hell: Bethany from Best Coast and/or Nathan from Wavves graduate from weed to coke; coke overdose. World realizes it'll do just fine without Best Coast and/or Wavves. Preferably both.

• Possible band breakups (not that I want it to happen): !!!, Broken Social Scene (if that's even possible), Crystal Castles, Japandroids, Surfer Blood, Wavves (more later), Wolf Parade (already)

• Rivers Cuomo monkeys with the Weezer line-up and releases Alone III comp.

• Kevin Shields cockteases new My Bloody Valentine album, releases one track, then decides to just make a Kevin Shields record.

• Posthumous release no. 1 from Jay Reatard and nos. 2, 3, and 4 from Michael Jackson.

• Deerhunter releases at least two EPs and a bunch of standalone "virtual 7-inches."

• Japandroids compile 2010 (and 2011?) 7" singles with their b-sides to make a full-length comp. OR the singles go on their second studio album; a second album is made regardless.

• Wavves also loses its bassist (the drummer recently quit), effectively no longer Nathan and the Jay Reatard Band.

Unreasonable wishlist for 2011

• Death From Above 1979 reunion tour.
  
• Bradfox Cox tours with former Reatard band, plays all Jay Reatard covers.
  
• Boards of Canada tours. Or releases a new record. Either would be great.
  
• 250 GB iPod Touch.
  
• New Radiohead live album. Or a new version of "Fog" on the next LP.

Trends that need to die

• Songs that end abruptly, e.g. Deerhunter's "He Would Have Laughed," Spoon's "The Mystery Zone," etc. It always makes you wonder if you got a bad leak.

• Pitchfork's 100-point decimal rating system. It's been a joke for a while now. Like what if Kanye got a 9.9 instead of a 10? At the very, very least, it needs to get scaled back to a 20-point scale on .5 intervals. Beyond that, just an integer 1-10 system would be fantastic. Better still is a five-point scale with no half-points. Or, shit, binary Recommended or Not Recommended. Or just, egad, a text review with no score. They can keep their stupid Best New Music, though.

• Old found photos used as album covers, especially when there is neither the band's name nor the album title. I'm looking at you, Crystal Castles 2, Deerhunter's Halcyon Digest, Fang Island, Emeralds' Does It Looks Like I'm Here?, Los Camp's Romance Is Boring, Sleigh Bells' Treats.

• Self-titled albums that either a) aren't a band's first album, or b) is part of a discography that already has a self-titled album. Offenders: Crystal Castles, Marnie Stern, Weezer (who will certainly offend in the future).

I think that finally/exhaustively covers the year in music. Until December 2011/January 2012!

JDK's Favorite Music of 2010: Albums (Part 2)

The following are all great albums, but by the time the deluge of year-end lists hits full force, I'm sure you've had your fill of people telling you what you should like. I'll try to keep it short.

Baths - Cerulean

For those of you looking for the middle ground between bedroom electropop and freaked-out Flying Lotus beats.

Beach House - Teen Dream

Beach House: For when sunny-day funeral dirges sound appropriate.

Broken Bells - Broken Bells

I like enjoying something as inoffensive as Broken Bells if only because you don't have to worry about a backlash.

Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record

Hard when you peak with an album almost a decade ago (You Forgot It In People) and continue to limp along, prolific as fuck (counting "solo" albums), and still not anywhere near making a hit as concise as "Cause = Time" or so daunting as "Almost Crimes."

Caribou - Swim

Cee-Lo Green - The Lady Killer

If Gnarls Barkley dissolved, at least we'd have this. That, or I'll listen to anything Green sings.

The Chemical Brothers - Further

Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles 2

Some would say it's a little too tame. Some.

Dom - Sun Bronzed Greek Gods EP

Let's hope they've got enough freshness for an LP proper.

Emeralds - Does It Look Like I'm Here?

Great background for doing crossword puzzles.

Fang Island - Fang Island

#2 Surprise of The Year. An indie band with shredding, harmonizing guitars? One of the rare shows I went to see them open and then skipped the second band and headliner.

Forest Swords - Dagger Paths

I actually recommended this as the monthly rec for Lake Minnetonka Magazine. It was the December issue and they wanted something "Christmasy." I opted for "wintry," though this is more like "wandering the wintry apocalypse."

Four Tet - There Is Love In You

For many later-explained reason, 2010 was a huge year for Four Tet and me. Consider some killer hook in the epic "Love Cry," but that one track led me to scour the man's back catalog and elevate There Is Love In You to List status.

Free Energy - Stuck On Nothing

A solid band from an era I was just a few years too young to remember.

Frightened Rabbit - The Winter of Mixed Drinks

No debate: Best album title of the year.

Gold Panda - Lucky Shiner

Ridiculous the difference between Gold Panda's limp Unreleased Medical Journal CD-R and this. I saw him live, and his knob-twisting and button-jamming were much more along the lines of Lucky Shiner than the whispery Journal.

Girl Talk - All Day

Always the Girl Talk vs. The Hood Internet debate and the dwindling difference between the acts. The Hood Internet's last few mixtapes have skewed toward shorter tracks, more Girl Talk-y, and now Girl Talk releases an album that has samples run longer than five seconds and sounds rather Hood Internet-y. No real surprise he gave it away for free: given the length of the samples, the album would get buried quick by DMCA takedowns. And while there's a varied response about GT's shifting direction, at least his three most-recent albums can stand apart from the others. Me, I prefer Feed The Animals, which straddled the linear path from the schizo Night Ripper to the just-mash-ups All Day.

The Hold Steady - Heaven Is Whenever

Holy Fuck - Latin

Never occurred to me that the obvious, dumb response to hearing this band is "Holy Fuck!" That, or that's the proper response to their fantastic video for "Red Lights."

The Hood Internet - The Great American Mixtape / Trillwave

Copy and paste my Girl Talk write-up. Even though these are two bonafide mixtapes, there was no The Mixtape Vol. V proper, so neither of these felt definitive. Add to it that a lot of tracks have been floating around forever as singles ("Shoeing Horses in 1901," "And The Definitive Winner Is…" and, most oddly, the year-in-reject-winning "Deer Assault") and it didn't seem to achieve maximum freshness. There was also late-2009 talk that The Hood was making an album of original material for a '10 release. Here's hoping '11 sees both that and Vol. V.

Hot Chip - One Life Stand

Japandroids - 7" Singles

Think what you want of the dashed-off "Art Czars" and the driving "Heavenward Grand Prix," since "Younger Us" is probably the best cut to not make Post-Nothing.

LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening

Too bad the band is, more or less, breaking up; I'd absolutely love to hear an LCD record where no song is longer than four minutes.

Liars - Sisterworld

Finally a Liars album I can throw my whole weight behind.

Local Natives - Gorilla Manor

Major Lazer & La Roux - LazerProof

2 + 2 = 5.

Marnie Stern - Marnie Stern

A fairly brave artistic turn to get away from the finger tapping. Also, not much need to repeat, but "Transparency Is The New Mystery" is heart-rendingly fantastic.

Matthew Dear - Black City

No Age - Everything In Between

Here's how you follow up Nouns: don't apologize for the noise, but don't be afraid to sing.

Phantogram - Eyelid Movies

#1 Surprise of the Year. One of those rare times you go to a show and see some opener you'd never heard of, only to end up, post-show, buying their CD, which was the first CD I bought in five years. Here's hoping history will elevate this criminally-underheard album. And, obv., anyone who wants a taste, let me know and I can hook you up.

The Roots - How I Got Over

The definitive hip-hop album of 2010 for those not into Kanye, Big Boi, or Lil Wayne. Or for those who just like listening to one of the tightest rhythm sections around today.

School of Seven Bells - Disconnect From Desire

Sleigh Bells - Treats

Some would mark this as a Surprise, but it seems appropriate that each year has a buzz album that comes from nowhere, racks up play counts, gets seen live, then slowly fades unless they vomit up a quick EP holdover or something. Chalk it up to winter, as this is not a winter album. Hopefully they stay relevant a little bit longer than the barely-similar Go! Team. (Also, Sleigh Bells' live show was ridiculously good whereas The Go! Team at Intonation 2005 was a textbook case in how to badly execute something with pre-recorded material. From Sleigh Bells' playbook: When the pre-recorded stuff is happening, don't stand around but get up in the crowd's face. Like, with vigor.)

Spoon - Transference

Surfer Blood - Astro Coast

I try not to think about this too hard. And forget "Swim"; "Floating Vibes" is where it's at.

Team Ghost - You Never Did Anything Wrong EP

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - The Brutalist Bricks

Not sure what's better or worse: Fronting a band in which every release is Good, But Not Great or having half your output mediocre and the other half just a tick beneath great.

Tobacco - Maniac Meat

You get a secondhand high off this album.

Vampire Weekend - Contra

The Walkmen - Lisbon

Wolf Parade - Expo 86

Well, Wolf Parade might be gone for good (Hiatus announcement and all), and I'm not sure if I would've liked a proper Last Record (if such a thing exists) or just Expo 86, which leaves the book open.

Yeasayer - Odd Blood
The worst cover art of the year.

There's also invariably a crop of albums you've got an eye for that fall either mildly or completely flat. These are those records: the biggest disappointments of 2010.

Best Coast - Crazy For You

Lot of buzz. And a lot of crazy/lazy rhymes. The latter and the sloppy instrumentation (e.g. no real change in sound at all) make the whole thing blur into a big, runny, painted-in-giant-yellow-crayon smear.

Born Ruffians - Say It

How do you follow up a record that had such solid tracks as "Barnacle Goose," "Hummingbird," "I Need A Life," "Little Garcon," "Foxes Mate For Life," "Red Elephant," and the absolutely-massive, probably-life-affirming "Kurt Vonnegut"? By releasing a turd with nothing that comes close to any of the above.

Gorillaz - Plastic Beach

You have to work on a Gorillaz album to separate wheat and chaff. Out of this whole mess, you can pull "Stylo," "On Melancholy Hill," and maybe you can stretch it with the inclusion of novelty "Superfast Jellyfish."

One funny thing I guess I can share: When I heard this leaked, I downloaded a torrent off The Pirate Bay that sound-guy Kyle (a true-blood Gorillaz fan) and I listened to en route to Minneapolis for a shoot. We both thought it was okay. About two days later I realized it wasn't the Plastic Beach leak at all but some random album. No clue what the latter actually was.

Interpol - Interpol

More viable snark to say they've been going downhill since Day 1.

Les Savy Fav - Root For Ruin

Let's be nice and say that any band would have a hell of a time coming off the giant high of Let's Stay Friends.

M.I.A. - MAYA

Part terrible album, part hate because of M.I.A.'s whining and Palinesque remarks like, "Give war a chance." (Also: Tied for worst album cover of 2010.)

MGMT - Congratulations

Don't know if this should even count, since the only stuff I listen to off Oracular Spectacular are "Kids," "Time To Pretend," and "Electric Feel." But from what I've heard, there are nary a hook, not even in single "Flash Delirium."

The New Pornographers - Together

Probably better than Challengers, but nowhere near as good as Twin Cinema and earlier. Hell, not as good as Destroyer's Trouble In Dreams / Bay of Pigs and Neko Case's Middle Cyclone. On that note, aren't we due for another A.C. Newman album?

Sufjan Stevens - All Delighted People EP

A clearinghouse of ideas. Not particularly viable ones, at that.

Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz

I thought Sufjan himself admitted his complete inability to play electric guitar. That should be a fair warning. And, here, there's not so much a fusion of typical Sufjan orchestral arrangements mixed with electronics, but rather just both styles playing over each other and failing to congeal. Also, this is not the mythical Sufjan/The National collaboration that everyone has an indie-boner for.

The Thermals - Personal Life

Now that I've gotten into Fuckin A and More Parts Per Million, it's pretty hard listening to post-The Body, The Blood, The Machine records by The Thermals. The uptempo stuff simply isn't there, and the sluggish beat drags down a lot of material that would play a lot better as two-minute punk blasts.

Tokyo Police Club - Champ

Again, not so much a critique versus their first album as wanting a whole album crammed with something as good as "Your English Is Good" stretched out past forty minutes.

Wavves - King of the Beach

First album: shit. Second album: too in-the-red to tell. Third: Am I supposed to be impressed by the cleaned-up sound? It just exposes the lack of any worthwhile instrumentation.

Weezer - Hurley

No more how low they go, I always listen to Weezer's newest releases. Granted, The Red Album only yielded "Pork And Beans" (which was an honestly-good track), and Raditude only had that obnoxious single, but there's nothing that sticks out here. Sorry, dudes. Back to listening to the far-superior Rivers Cuomo comps.

In the spirit of full disclosure, here are all the other 2010 albums I've listened to that haven't been mentioned.

!!! - Strange Weather, Isn't It?

Allo Darlin' - Allo Darlin'

Ariel Pink's Haunted Grafitti - Before Today

Atlas Sound - Bedroom Databank Vol. 1-4

Autolux - Transit Transit

Avi Buffalo - Avi Buffalo

Band of Horses - Infinite Arms

Big Boi - Sir Lucious Left Foot

The Black Keys - Brothers

Blitzen Trapper - Destroyer of the Void

Blonde Redhead - Penny Sparkle

The Books - The Way Out

Broken Social Scene - Lo-Fi For The Dividing Nights

ceo - White Magic

Chromeo - Business Casual

Current$y - Pilot Talk

Das Racist - Sit Down, Man

The Dead Weather - Sea of Cowards

Delorean - Subiza

DJ Jazzy Jeff & Mick Boogie - Summertime: The Mixtape

Dr. Dog - Shame, Shame

The Drums - The Drums

Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma

Flying Lotus - Pattern + Grid World EP

Frankie Rose and the Outs - Frankie Rose and the Outs

Future Islands - In Evening Air

Gold Panda - Unreleased Medical Journal CD-R

Grinderman - Grinderman 2

Health - Disco 2

Here We Go Magic - Pigeons

High Places - High Places vs. Mankind

How To Dress Well - Love Remains

Indian Jewelry - Totaled

James Blake - EPs

Janelle Monae - The ArchAndroid

Jimi Hendrix - Valleys of Neptune

The Juan Maclean - DJ-Kicks

Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twitter Fantasy

Klaxons - Surfing The Void

Los Campesinos! - Romance Is Boring

Magic Kids - Memphis

The Magnetic Fields - Realism

Male Bonding - Nothing Hurts

Massive Attack - Heligoland

Max Richter - Infra

Maximum Balloon - Maximum Balloon

Menomena - Mines

MGMT - Congratulations

Mick Boogie & Terry Urban - The Great American Mixtape: Side B

The Morning Benders - Big Echo

My Sick Uncle - (500) Days of Weezy

The New Pornographers - Together

Owen Pallett - Heartland

The Radio Dept. - Clinging To A Scheme

Rogue Wave - Permalight

Royksopp - Senior

She & Him - Volume Two

Shearwater - Golden Archipelago

Stars - The Five Ghosts

Suckers - Wild Smile

Sun Kil Moon - Admiral Fell Promises

Superchunk - Majesty Shredding

The Tallest Man On Earth - The Wild Hunt

Tame Impala - Innerspeaker

The-Dream - Love King

Toro Y Moi - Causers of This

Trash Kit - Trash Kit

Twin Shadow - Forget

Ty Segall - Melted

Weekend - Sports

Wild Nothing - Gemini