Category Archives: Joanna Newsom

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.)

Scoop This Song Out Of My Brain…

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…Using some form of futuristic metaphysical song-removal-scoop!


The last five days of my life have been plagued by the last two minutes of Ragged Wood by Fleet Foxes. I’m not as keen on the album as Pitchfork or AV Club, thinking the superb first half of the album is horribly let down by the shapeless medieval folk noodlings of the latter half, and yes, considering how much time I spent going on about Joanna Newsom’s Ys (i.e. pretty much all of 2006), I appreciate those who were in my orbit during that period will think I’m taking the piss. But I’m not.

Ragged Wood is in the first half, and is one of the songs of the year, but the chord progressions of the almost ethereal surf lutes guitars in the latter half of the song have stuck in my brain like the head of a tick, and nothing do can shift them. Death Cab For Cutie, Stars of the Lid, Plaid; nothing has worked. It’s a mathematical progression that I keep running through, as if it were a Buddhist mantra, but unlike that mantra, I am not achieving transcendental calm. I’m just going slowly mad. Sister Gaius Helen Mohiam said it best; Fleet Foxes, even though I love your song, you just did a Matthew and Son on me. And for that, I unleash this image at you for creating an earworm of mathematical perfection:


Stick that in your lute and smoke it.