Category Archives: Arcade Fire

Listmania ’10! Music Round-Up

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Whenever I do these stupid-ass lists I always try to keep the numbers down, and the music list is usually easy. I might only listen to about 20 albums a year, and it’s hard to find more than ten that I really love. This year I’ve had to do a top 15 because it’s been the best year of music I can remember, and I know I should’ve listened to even more, or given certain albums more times (I know Cosmogramma by Flying Lotus needs more than the hasty listen I gave to it). Even more annoying is that that crazy bastard Yeezy only went and released the most critically-acclaimed album of the year in December, and like an idiot I didn’t bother listening to the various streamed tracks earlier in the year because I wanted to wait to hear the whole damn thing in one go. As a result I have only listened to it about seven times in its entirety. That it still ranks so highly here is a testament to its obvious brilliance.

The only other thing making me a little hesitant about this list is that I found out this morning that somehow I have been listening to Joanna Newsom’s incredible triple album in the wrong order. Having thought that it was a little odd to have the last disc be composed of almost exclusively slow and mournful songs, it now makes perfect sense. Sadly I haven’t had time to listen to the whole thing in the proper order: as I’m an album snob who thinks the track order is an essential aspect of the work, who knows if that would affect its position here? The world awaits any future amendments to this post, I’m sure. Anyway, here is the conservative list of an almost middle-aged white man with not enough hip-hop in his music collection, a man who wishes Animal Collective could release an album every year, and whose only experience of playing music is playing Rock Band, which is ALMOST EXACTLY THE SAME AS PLAYING AN INSTRUMENT so there, musicians with a stick up their arse. #annoyedbymusiciansdissingmyfavouritegame

Best Albums:

15. Marnie Stern – Marnie Stern

14. The Monitor – Titus Andronicus

13. The Wonder Show of the World – Bonnie “Prince” Billy and the Cairo Gang

12. The Courage of Others – Midlake

11. Does It Look Like I’m Here? – Emeralds

10. High Violet – The National

9. Crazy For You – Best Coast

8. The ArchAndroid – Janelle Monae

7. Contra – Vampire Weekend

6. Fang Island – Fang Island

5. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy – Kanye West

4. Have One On Me – Joanna Newsom

3. This Is Happening – LCD Soundsystem

2. The Suburbs – Arcade Fire

1. Halcyon Digest – Deerhunter

Best Album Tracks:

10. Risky Biz – Marnie Stern

9. Goodbye – Best Coast

8. Desire Lines – Deerhunter

7. Troublesome Places – Bonnie “Prince” Billy and the Cairo Gang

6. Esme - Joanna Newsom

5. Bring Down – Midlake with Stephanie Dosen

4. Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) – Arcade Fire

3. Treeton – Fang Island

2. I Want To Be Well – Sufjan Stevens

1. Lost In The World – Kanye West and Bon Iver

Best Singles:

10. Rocket - Goldfrapp

9. Revival - Deerhunter

8. Boyfriend - Best Coast

7. Cold War – Janelle Monae

6. Four Score and Seven – Titus Andronicus

5. This Too Shall Pass – OK Go

4. We Used To Wait - Arcade Fire

3. Bloodbuzz Ohio - The National

2. Runaway – Kanye West feat. Pusha T

1. Radar Detector – Darwin Deez

Best Album Track That Will Soon Be Released As A Single: Run - Vampire Weekend

Best Opening Track: Dance Yrself Clean – LCD Soundsystem

Best Closing Track: He Would Have Laughed – Deerhunter

Best Video: Drunk Girls – LCD Soundsystem

Best Song From A TV Show: Gunfight Epiphany – Rob Duncan (the theme tune to Terriers)

Best Animal Collective-Related Song: Stick To My Side – Pantha Du Prince (feat. Panda Bear)

Coming soon: way too many blogposts about my movies of the year. (ETA: In case some humorless musician sees my earlier comment and is enraged by my Rock Band moaning, I was being facetious about the game while being totally serious about sticks up arses.)

A Large List of Music I Enjoyed This Year

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Usually when someone makes a list of their favourite music of the year, they consider the large (or small) amount that they came into contact with, and will strip out all of the crap, then all of the not-so-crap, then the good, then the very good, and merely leave the outstanding, the life-changing, the most perfect albums and songs. I admire that, and think it is a great skill to have. I too try to do that, but this year, screw it. I’m just going to namecheck very nearly every album I’ve heard, and then contrive a bunch of nonsensical categories for them to fit into. To the one or two albums I heard this year that didn’t get on here, I’m sorry.

Favourite Albums of the Year:

Person Pitch – Panda Bear
Strawberry Jam – Animal Collective
Neon Bible – Arcade Fire
Because Of The Times – Kings of Leon
In Rainbows – Radiohead
Cease To Begin – Band of Horses
And The Refinement Of The Decline – Stars of the Lid
Release The Stars – Rufus Wainwright
Icky Thump – The White Stripes
The Stage Names – Okkervil River

Honourable mentions:

All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone – Explosions in the Sky
Some Loud Thunder – Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Armchair Apocrypha – Andrew Bird
Saltbreakers – Laura Viers
Mirrored – Battles

Best album that was released in the US in 2006 but in the UK in 2007 and I want to put on the main list but feel it would be wrong to do it:

Boys and Girls in America – The Hold Steady

Best album that was released in the UK in 2006 by a band I have seen live and I actually had a copy of but only got around to listening to as a result of their Mercury Music Prize nomination:

Fur and Gold – Bat for Lashes

Disappointments of the Year:

Drums and Guns – Low (It’s obviously a brilliant and thought-provoking album, but I found it impenetrable and it left me cold. Basically, it was like being called an idiot by an album, and I’m taking revenge by sticking it down here.)
Hello Love – Be Good Tanyas (I hate putting this here as the first half of the album is wonderful, but the latter half washes over me totally. I’ve tried and tried and tried to warm to it, but it’s not happening.)
Volta – Bjork (It’s almost a return to form, but falls frustratingly short of the mark.)

Albums that might have gotten into the list given more time and more listens:

Magic – Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
Sound of Silver – LCD Soundsystem
Boxer – The National
The Flying Club Cup – Beirut

Favourite Jazz Album of the Year:

Being There – Tord Gustavsen Trio [I think you mean the Turd Ferguson Trio. Embarrassing. -- Canyon]

Favourite Hippety Hop Album of the Year:

Liberation – Talib Kweli and Madlib

Favourite Protest Album of the Year:

We’ll Never Turn Back – Mavis Staples

(Yes, they were pretty much the only jazz, hip-hop, and protest albums I heard this year, but if you don’t tell anyone, I won’t either.)

Favourite Instrumental Soundtrack of the Year:

The Fountain – Clint Mansell feat. Mogwai and The Kronos Quartet (Runner-up: Zodiac by David Shire)

Favourite Compilation Soundtrack of the Year:

Once (Runner-up: Black Snake Moan)

Album I would never buy as the band would probably use the money to fund their happy slapping empire:

Favourite Worst Nightmare – Arctic Monkeyfuckers

Favourite album that makes me seem like I’m down wiv ver kidz:

Men’s Needs Women’s Needs Whatever – The Cribs

Favourite Singles of the Year:

Atlas – Battles
Fireworks – Animal Collective
No Cars Go – Arcade Fire
Stuck Between Stations – The Hold Steady
Conquest – The White Stripes
Joanna Newsom and the Ys Street Band EP – Joanna Newsom
Get Lucky – New Young Pony Club
Men’s Needs – The Cribs
All My Friends – LCD Soundsystem
Wanderlust – Bjork (not a single yet, but it will be)

Favourite Album Tracks of the Year:

Unless It’s Kicks – Okkervil River
The Runner – Kings of Leon
Yankee Go Home – Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
I’ll Work For Your Love – Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
Islands on the Coast – Band of Horses
Ootischenia – Be Good Tanyas
Hiding on the Staircase – New Young Pony Club
99 and 1/2 – Mavis Staples
Reckoner – Radiohead
Between My Legs – Rufus Wainwright
Gold – Interference
Drink Deep – Laura Viers

Sweetest song about a drug overdose:

Chill Out – The Hold Steady

Best post-rock cover version of a Stephen Sondheim song:

Don’t Bother They’re Here – Stars of the Lid (covering Send In The Clowns)

Best old blues standard by an actor who has played a Jedi, an superhero, a supervillain, a junkie, a shark expert, and an Afro-wearing former hitman who now walks the earth like Kane from Kung-Fu:

Stack-O-Lee – Samuel L. Jackson (also the best scene in Black Snake Moan)

Most Pointless Album of the Year:

Proof of Youth – The Go Team (Even though Chuck D is on it, it sounds identical to the previous album. It has the same progression through the album, the same structure, practically the same samples. I gather the main chap in the band has defended it, stating that he’s the only person making music like this so he should keep to the same furrow, but my God, man, there’s honouring the rules of the new genre and then there’s copying and pasting into a new folder.)

“Don’t Get It” Album of the Year:

Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga – Spoon (The critics fell over themselves with this, and obviously there is some ambition and a lot of variation, but it puzzled me, as did the praise. It’s alright, but really rather bland.)

Overrated Album of the Year:

Myths of the Near Future – Klaxons (Amy Winehouse, or Bat for Lashes, wuz robbed.)

Annoyingly Ubiquitous Hero of the Hipster-o-cracy:

Mark Ronson (As I’ve said before in other circles, he’s the Mike Flowers it’s mandatory to like, except that Mike Flowers was awesome, and Ronson is a dreary, name-dropping, too-cool-for-school rash on the arse of pop, and he can go away now kthxbai.)

Worst Album of the Year:

Leaving The Nest – Benjy Ferree (I tried to give this a proper listen, but everything about it made me angry and nervous. It was on Domino so I thought I would like it, but it baffled and annoyed me. Like a medieval lute player got transported to Mars and came back to play arrangements of their folk music. Never again!)

Worst Song of the Year:

Young Folk – Peter, Bjorn and John (Shut up shut up shut up shut up!!!! You’re nothing but a cute whistly bit and then three minutes of bland indie-pop and the love you engender is entirely unjustified. I HATE YOU!!!!)

Other Worst Song of the Year:

1234 – Feist (After hearing her first album, I wasn’t sure if I liked her or not. When I realised she was part of Broken Social Scene, I figured I should give her a chance. One million unwanted but enforced listens of this song later, and I’ve up made my mind. Go away, Feist. You annoy me.)

::re-reads list:: I do go on, don’t I.