The final piece of my countdown puzzle is as always, my annual mixtape. Coming up with a songs of the year list is just too overhwhelming (hell, I have a hard enough time with the albums), so I like to put out a mix of the songs that defined the year in music for me. This year I managed to fit 18 songs into my 80 minute CD-R, but these are not necessarily my favorite 18 songs of the year. As a matter of fact, this was an especially tough year to figure out my mixtape because some of my favorite songs were just way too long and took up too much space. That’s the reason you won’t see any Titus Andronicus, Joanna Newsom, Sufjan, or LCD Soundsystem songs. There’s also some great songs I left off because the band had previously been on a mixtape and I wanted to get some new blood on to the mix this year.
Anyway, to the stats: As I already said, there’s 18 songs on this year’s mix. Only 5 of the songs come from albums that made my top 10, and 6 from 11 thru 25 albums. That means only 11 of the 18 songs come from albums in my top 25. That certainly has something to do with all the great tracks this year, but is also because, as I stated, I wanted to mix it up a little this year. (Pun intended? Yes.) The lowest ranked album with a song on the mix is “July Flame” from Laura Veirs’s album of the same name, which chimed in at #59 in my final rankings. I don’t have any songs from EPs, which is a rarity for my mixes.
So there you go. Below you can find the songs that will be spinning around my car’s cd player for the next few weeks, whenever I forget to bring my ipod with me. As I always remind people, this is not a ranking. The songs are listed in order of how they appeared on their respective albums. If you want to see my entire top 25 albums list in one easy place, head on over to my Amazon.com list and check it out (as well as all my lists for the past 10 years). Last, but not least, for the 3rd year in a row Amy Boyd has created my Mixtape album art for me. I’m taking care of her cat, so, it’s the least she could do. If you know her or ever happen to randomly meet her, tell her what an awesome job she did, once again.
[“World Sick” – Broken Social Scene :: Forgiveness Rock Record]
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[“Floating Vibes” – Surfer Blood :: Astro Coast]
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[“Go do” – Jónsi :: Go]
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[“Excuses” – The Morning Benders :: Big Echo]
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[“July Flame” – Laura Veirs :: July Flame]
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[“Airplanes” – Local Natives :: Gorilla Manor]
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[“Crash Years” – The New Pornographers :: Together]
We’re halfway through what has been a fantastic year for music, so it’s time for me to summarize 2010 in my usual Mid-year fashion. Despite the lack of posts here on the blog, I’ve still been keeping up with new releases just as much as I usually do (although it’s been harder to find the time to listen to them as intently as I want). With that said, this post is a very preliminary look on the music of 2010 and is all subject to change by the time I get to my end of the year list. But this is my initial jab at what the year has looked like for me at its mid-point.
Joanna Newsom
Top 10 albums (plus one) of 2010 (in order of release date):
Beach House – Teen Dream
It’s going to be hard for this one to not end up in my top 10 at the end of the year. As I said in my 1Q Review, I’ve never been a huge Beach House fan, but along comes Teen Dream which is easily my favorite Beach House release and the first one I truly love from start to finish. It was 2010’s first great release, and for me one of the year’s biggest surprises.
[“Norway” – Teen Dream]
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Local Natives – Gorilla Manor
Probably the year’s finest debut album comes from this Los Angeles quintet. It’s got a bit of Grizzly Bear, a dash of Fleet Foxes, some Vampire Weekend, and even a little of fellow Californians The Dodos, but they’re not blatantly ripping off their influences, which is refreshing. Granted, I’m not as big into this album as others, but it is an impressive release and the group does what they do very well. Their future is bright.
[“Sun Hands” – Gorilla Manor]
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Fang Island – Fang Island
I really can’t get over how much I love this album. Maybe it’s because it’s only half an hour long and is just incredibly fun to listen to with no pretensions. As busy as life can be, sometimes an album with no smoke or mirrors that gets straight to the point and just plain rocks is exactly what is needed. Fang Island’s debut could not have come out at a more perfect time.
[“Daisy” – Fang Island]
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Joanna Newsom – Have One on Me
And then on the flip side of the Fang Island album, you have Joanna Newsom’s epic triple LP which clocks in at over 2 hours. But the beauty of Have One on Me is that even with the time and effort required to give it a listen, it is quite accessible and is much easier to navigate than the albums predecessor, Ys. The multi-instrumentalist is on top of her game on this one and may have put out the best album of 2010.
[“Good Intentions Paving Co.” – Have One on Me]
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Titus Andronicus – The Monitor
Speaking of epic albums…nothing in 2010 can quite match on the “epic scale” what Titus Andronicus does on The Monitor. The album flows together as one glorious masterpiece that is extremely ambitious, and just so freaking huge. The blood, sweat, and tears put into the album from this young group is almost palpable throughout the listen. No easy task.
[“Four Score and Seven” – The Monitor]
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The Morning Benders – Big Echo
While Big Echo isn’t The Morning Benders debut album, it might as well be, because the improvement on this sophomore release from their previous work almost makes them indistinguishable from where they were. Much of that is thanks to the help from Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor who stepped up to produce this album, and man, you can hear the impact he had right from the start. They went from writing dinky little three minute generic pop songs to full-fledged sophisticated songwriters in a snap. Just watch this, and you’ll be an instant fan…guaranteed.
[“Excuses” – Big Echo]
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The Radio Dept. – Clinging to a Scheme
For fans of The Radio Dept., this album was anticipated for a long time. And I mean a long time. While their last release was only four years ago, the release date for this album just seemed to keep getting pushed back. And for a band that has been around in some form for 15 years to be sitting on only two full length album releases, patience had to be running thin for Radio Dept. diehards. Well, the Swedish pop group finally released Clinging to a Scheme and while it may have underwhelmed some fans expecting a bit more than 10 songs at 35 minutes, and disappointed those hoping for more of the lo-fi shoegaze tracks of their previous work, I think it’s an immensely enjoyable collection of finely tuned pop songs.
[“Heaven’s on Fire” – Clinging to a Scheme]
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Broken Social Scene – Forgiveness Rock Record
Another great release from the Canadian super-group, borrowing from their usual foray of indie-rockers all over the landscape, however this time it seems a little more of a condensed group as many Broken Social Scene mainstays only show up as guests. I think it works very well, as this is one of their most focused releases and for me can stand up against any of the band’s albums. While I do expect more of the Broken Social Scene Presents: albums to be done in the future, I really hope we don’t have to wait another 5 years for the next BSS release.
I mean honestly, they have released three straight masterpieces. High Violet may not be as immediate as Boxer, but it doesn’t take a backseat to that album in song-writing prowess by any means. They can do no wrong at this point and are easily one of the best American bands going today. It has a legit chance to make The National my first two-time winner of album of the year. My review covers it pretty well.
[“Afraid of Anyone” – High Violet]
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LCD Soundsystem – This is Happening
If this is indeed the final album under the LCD Soundsystem moniker for James Murphy, he’s sending it out in very fine fashion…although that shouldn’t really be a surprise. This is Happening is another excellent collection of Murphy’s dance-rock tunes with an opening twosome of “Dance Yrself Clean” and “Drunk Girls” which is possibly the finest openers of any album this year, with the former currently out in front for my favorite track of 2010.
[“Dance Yrself Clean” – This is Happening]
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The Gaslight Anthem – American Slang
The Gaslight Anthem took the Bruce Springsteen comparisons up a notch on their latest release, American Slang. The New Jersey quartet’s last album, The ’59 Sound, was quietly one of the best in 2008 and was such an homage to Springsteen that the Boss himself took some time out to perform on stage with the group. Well, with American Slang, The Gaslight Anthem have put together another set of pure American rock that expands on those influences especially in the vocals. This one doesn’t quite have the nostalgia and rock/garage-punk fusion that made The ’59 Sound such a brilliant release, but it’s still 10 fantastic rock songs full of hooks and the blue-collar charm that makes them so appealing in the first place.
[“American Slang” – American Slang]
Biggest Surprise:
Owen Pallett – Heartland
In all honesty, Teen Dream probably goes here, but I wanted to give it to something other than what mentioned above, so Heartland from Final Fantasy Owen Pallett gets this award. This may not have been a big surprise to others, but as I said in my 1Q Summary, I was never a big fan of Pallett’s previous work, so I didn’t expect to get into this album as much as I have.
[“Lewis Takes Action” – Heartland]
Biggest Disappointment:
Blitzen Trapper – Destroyer of the Void
Unfortunately, there were a few releases I could’ve put here, but I’ll go with the latest album from Blitzen Trapper. Their last album was soooo good and featured one of the best songs in the last few years in “Furr”, but this album is just blah, running short on memorable melodies and extremely boring. I was hoping for much more, but I think Furr may have been a high water mark for these guys because none of their other stuff even comes close to matching it.
It may be hard to call this one underrated considering at this point it hasn’t really even been, uhh, rated at all. Now, clearly there have been reviews, but as of this point there is no page on Metacritic. The reviews I’ve seen haven’t been bad, it’s just I would have expected more attention considering how well their debut EP was received last year. With an internet sensation in “It Gets Your Body Movin'”, which even managed to find its way on my 2009 Mixtape, I expected Wild Smile to be one of the more highly anticipated releases of the year, but upon its release there hasn’t really been much talk. And that’s a shame because it really is an impressive debut album and expands on the sound of their EP in ways I wasn’t really expecting.
[“Black Sheep” – Wild Smile]
Most Overrated:
Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Before Today
Isn’t it interesting how as soon as this whole glo-fi/chillwave craze is all the rage, the critics are all of the sudden all about Ariel Pink, who has been making this kind of music for years? Granted, Before Today is his best produced album and features his best work, but I guess I just don’t quite get the genre. It’s enjoyable, but deserving of album of the year talk?…No. (However, “Round and Round” is pretty fantastic.)
[“Round and Round” – Before Today]
Need to Give More Listens:
Sleigh Bells – Treats
I almost put this as my most overrated, but I decided to hold off on that and give it a few more listens because I really don’t think I’ve given it enough of a shot. Pretty much everyone has this as one of the top albums of 2010 and I’ve seen it called the “future of music”, so I should give it the benefit of the doubt and give it a few more tries. However, it’s not out of the question that when all is said and done, I’ll indeed consider it overrated. I will say this…it is freakin’ LOUD.
Posted by Hawkins 
A Round of Sound 