Sure enough. You have Lissie too - way up there for me as well.
Thanks, glad to be here. I don't know much about English football - I only just started getting any football except for RAI on satellite - so I figured I'd break in with music.
Don't worry about it, Umbro - many of us here have no or minimal knowledge of football ...and don't mind that. I, too, only chanced across this board many years ago because of music.
I'm very surprised at those who were unimpressed with the John Grant album. I only heard it for the first time over the weekend but I think it's astonishingly good.
...and I'm surprised that Music Go Music have only had one mention so far (and that at number 40-something in SR's top 50). I'd have thought their Abba/synth-pop amalgam would be right up many people's street, especially when they do it so well. It would make my top 5 of 2011, for sure, along with John Grant, Teenage Fanclub, The National and maybe The School.
I've never heard of Music Go Music, but Teenage Fanclub and The National would both be on my top 10 or possibly top 5 too, so I just went to iTunes to check MGM out. There's only one album on there and it's an October 2009 release - Expressions. Is there a newer one that hasn't made iTunes? Or maybe this the reason people don't have it on their 2010 list. The samples sound great so thanks.
This is the greatest radio station on the planet, by the way, playing much of what has been mentioned in this thread. A commercial-free, live-personality public station devoted to indie rock. It changed my music listening life. 89.3 in Minneapolis and streaming live 24/7 online.
I too bought John Grant's album on the basis of this thread and a some good reviews. I'm similarly unimpressed. But I haven't given it much of a chance yet.
I checked it out on myspace first and was glad I did so.
I love January for listening to last year's music without the ridiculous, self-imposed pressure to list and classify everything for the end of the year. The Natalie Merchant album is just magnificent, especially if you sit down with it and go through the poetry and the poets' biogs. It probably helps, though, if you like the darker side of folk music. But then I'd happily listen to hear singing my death sentence in Dutch.
No particular order but the standouts of 2010 for me:
Foals - Total Life Forever
Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest
Interpol - Interpol
Arcade Fire - The suburbs
Les Savy Fav - Root for Ruin
New Young Pony Club - The Optimist
LCD Soundsystem - This is happening
Disappointments
The National - High Violet. Aside from "Anyone's Ghost" a pale shadow of 'Boxer'
Gorillaz - Plastic Beach. All the ingredients are there but the songs fail to turn up.
Gayngs - Relayted
Hot Chip - One Life Stand
John & Jehn - Time for the Devil
Swans - May Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky
Fall - Your Future Our Clutter
KORT (Kurt Wagner & Cortney Tidwell) - Invariable Heartache
Yeasayer - Odd Blood
LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening
Janelle Monae - The ArchAndroid
Kelis - Flesh Tone
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Before Today
Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles II
These New Puritans - Hidden
Foals - Total Life Forever
Grinderman - Grinderman 2
Trembling Bells - Abandoned Love
Edwyn Collins - Losing Sleep
Marc Almond - Variete
Beach House - Teen Dream
I have to take issue with Nescaff saying there was no filler on 'The Suburbs'. Underneath there's probably a good album but there is plenty of dross. I found it to be a very boring album, which is something I wouldn't associate with AF. I love their previous work.
I've heard quite a bit of the Steve Mason album recently - not least on Clare Anderson's excellent 'Late Lounge' show on Jazz FM - and it sounds pretty good.
Well Lonelady, Owen Pallett, White Noise Sound and Best Coast were my most played albums in 2010 so I'd guess that must've made them my favourites.
Others that I loved (nearly) as much:
these new puritans
anika
tamaryn
caitlin rose
steve mason
beach fossils
wild nothing
zola jesus
forest swords
gil scott heron
luke abbott
foals
I also enjoyed large parts of !!!, sunshine underground, alesia's ark, avi buffalo, sleigh bells and the postmarks albums.
As for compilations big thanks to evil c (i think) for the link to the minimal wave 14track one, absolutely loved it. Didn't know any of the songs on them but most have made my music collection better!
WRT John Grant and the national share the view that neither album was a classic but still thought they were pretty good. England is as good, if not better, than anything the National have done before.
Lastly enjoyed eps (if thats the term these days) from islet, moon duo, team ghost, ringo deathstarr, factory floor and mon khmer.
As a year I think that I got more good albums than saw good new live acts but the live positive was the continual rise of shoegaze influenced bands and less poppy electronic based music. There seemed to be more bravery amongst new UK bands and that can only be a good thing.
the live positive was the continual rise of shoegaze influenced bands
Jesus Christ.
Being stuck in the pop hell that is continental Europe I've kind of lost touch with decent music, but I will big up two superb mix tapes I got my hands on:
Sway's The Delivery 2 - Lost in Transit, which has made me extremely optimistic for upcoming album Deliverance. (The first Delivery mix tape is also very good, but has some very definite bum notes - this is more or less gold all the way through)
...and I'm surprised that Music Go Music have only had one mention so far (and that at number 40-something in SR's top 50). I'd have thought their Abba/synth-pop amalgam would be right up many people's street, especially when they do it so well
Yes! They got a mention! That'll teach me to piss off and sulk for four months. Excellent group, excellent album. Abba are the obvious reference point, I suppose, but they're far more than just a pastiche act. There are elements of other things that were going on in mid/late 70's pop, from the arse-end-of-glam Suzi Quatro stylings to the Vangelisesque choral synths; and lyrically they've put themselves bang in the right frame of reference too, singing about orgies and delivering a spectacularly (faux-)dated take on the appeal of domestic violence ("Love, violent love – the hand of man, clenched in a fist/How can I endure, can I live through this savage tryst"). None of which would be worth a thing without the killer tunes that are shot through the album.
Anyways, it would have made my top 3 for 2010 had I not realised, quite literally at the last moment, that it was released in 2009 and only made its way over here last year on import.
What? Oh, go on, then, better late...
1. New Young Pony Club - The Optimist
2. Twin Shadow - Forget
3. School Of Seven Bells - Disconnect From Desire
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