2010 Magazine's Albums Of The Year Thread For Posting Lists and Discussion

i mean that's at least 15 hrs listening per week. and i probably heard about 100 newly released albums this year. soooo... what's that, like, 2 new albums per week for ~50 weeks? might listen to each one 2-3 times to digest the first time around. which takes maybe 4-5 hours of that 15. and that's not even counting 3-5 hours of shuffled ipod tunes in the office, per day.

xp to self

Glad someone pointed out to deej that you can listen to music while you work out. Also, I listen to music at work, at least about 60% of the time when not on the phone or in meetings. An hour on the train each way also affords lots of listening time. Surprised so many people on I LOVE MUSIC are blown away by people that obsessively listen to stuff.

I've got about 212 albums from this year that I started as the basis for my list-making.

part of the problem is that i still do a lot of my listening on vinyl. i certainly buy more vinyl than CDs/downloads. this inclines me to listen to many of my favorites only during the evening hours, where they have to compete with meals, friends & family, errands, TV & movies, parties, etc. plus i just don't often listen to music while i'm commuting or working. dunno why. certainly not enough so that i'd be able to listen to one or two new albums every day, on average. i mean, what about older stuff? at least two thirds of what i do listen to is over a year old...

i made a youtube playlist of the top 50 rap songz

Lots of goodness, then E-40's "He's a Gangsta," which makes me want to never look at a computer again.

― Pete Scholtes, Thursday, December 23, 2010 10:59 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

"He's a Gangsta" is a great song!

I have my entire collection backed up to 3TB of external drives at work, and listen at low levels for most of the day, and occasionally put on good sealed headphones when I'm doing something that I want to block out the chatter around me. I listen on my commute, but ironically never listen to music when I run 4-8 miles every day. It's just a habit from when I was a serious runner in college and a racing team in my 20s. I'm slower now, but did manage to get 6th/3,000 at the Santa Hustle 5K earlier this month, heh. There's safety reasons running in the dark with traffic, and not a bad idea to be alone with yr thoughts at least part of the day!

I put on music at home all the time unless watching tv/movies, and spend usually at least :45 to 4 hours with deep listening in the office with my AKG headphones, while writing/corresponding, working on site.

Glad someone pointed out to deej that you can listen to music while you work out.

^__________^

"He's a Gangsta" is a great song!

― rihanna rennavated my dick (rennavate), Thursday, 23 December 2010 20:15 (18 minutes ago) Permalink

pretty violent vid tho for sure. buttt yukmouth had a wayyy worse one this yr

Glad someone pointed out to deej that you can listen to music while you work out. Also, I listen to music at work, at least about 60% of the time when not on the phone or in meetings. An hour on the train each way also affords lots of listening time. Surprised so many people on I LOVE MUSIC are blown away by people that obsessively listen to stuff.

I've got about 212 albums from this year that I started as the basis for my list-making.

― one pretty obvious guy in the obvious (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Thursday, December 23, 2010 1:55 PM (44 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i obsessively listen to music but i cant at work & the other thing is sometimes i dont want to listen to new records? or sometimes i want to hear things a bunch of times? 300 BEST albums sounds crazy as shit to me still. i think i only hear maybe 200 total records in a year max

(and less than a quarter of those are heard more than once i imagine)

Yeah, it's really hard for me to imagine liking that many albums from a current year. (I'm not sure there are any previous years for which I could say I like that many records, though it might be possible for some years in the late 60s or 70s.) I might hear 300 albums some years, but probably closer to 200 at most.

Oh yeah, deej, I'm with you on 300 BEST part, I didn't notice that originally. My 212 is the total new albums I heard this year, at least half of that was eliminated right away when I started thinking about my lists.

i guess to be fair i listen to lots of singles/youtubes

I was going to say earlier, I don't think I could ever keep up with your level of mixtape/youtube intake.

I think there's something to be said about watching a YouTube and going, "Yeah, that's cool," and never feeling the impulse to play it again, which is probably the effect most songs we listen to have.

I listen to four or five whole new albums a week, in addition to singles, reissues, plus albums that don't make it beyond track three. So that's 250-300 a year, but no way do more than a couple of dozen of those really register with me, because I don't find time to listen to most more than once or twice. Got kids, so don't play out loud at home much; listen on way to and from work, have headphones on for an hour or two at work, but I need to know what's going on around me - and hear the phone. Makes picking the ten best quite easy though - it really doesn't require much thought.

But also "listening at low levels throughout the day" - are you really taking in much of that stuff? The stuff I listen to at work often barely registers cos my mind's on the job, not the music.

I've listened to music while multitasking most of my life. Attention varies at work of course, but it's enough that when something grabs me, I make a note of it for more focused listening later on. I have several playlists, of course. There's 2010 for albums I like from the year that obviously didn't start at 300, but ended up that at the end. So some albums I've heard dozens of times, others, just a handful. There's New for all the new stuff I'm absorbing. And of course all my other older music I still enjoy.

BTW, low volume for me might be different than for others. It's still loud enough to hear the music fine, on sort of decent Harmon Kardon speakers, and enough that my colleague ten feet away can also hear well enough to recognize stuff he knows. Fortunately he likes much of what I like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJDef09QTOg

ok this video is 100x worse than the e-40

the song, 1000x worse

Is that Tha Bizness sound opening the track? Ugh of all the producer signatures, I might possibly hate that one the most.

hardly the most objectionable thing in this lol

verges a bit too much on torture porn imo

No, you're right, it's just the first thing you hear on the song, thus the first thing I had an opinion. And yeah, I shut this off after like 45 secs.

man you guys are sensitive

i dunno whiney just not into rap fantasies about home invasion involving rape

so you're gonna throw all your Geto Boys CDs out?

ive never seen a geto boys video where they actually act this sort of thing out, no

ugh son

Probably helps that I can listen at work and use a popular streaming service but at the end of each month I usually end up with 10-12 new records I feel I've digested enough to have an opinion on, by the end of the year I'll have 100 records that I am familiar with to a degree. Most year's, be it from when I was 16 and my paper round used to pay for Our Price shopping trips to now I'll always come back to about 20 records. Also likely that five or six of those aren't in the top 20 I finished in that year's December.

i listened to somewhere around 150-200 full albums this year (plus many mixes, countless singles/trax etc) - in most cases i privilege stuff i'm likely to enjoy; unless i actually have to, i'm unlikely to listen to, say, the full ke$ha album, given how much i hate the singles. anyway i usually wind up with around 20 that i'd actively recommend from that, and about 20 more albums that aren't necessarily amazing but are still "worth hearing".

i mean, literally everything i listened to this year is on my last.fm, except the repeat plays of albums i disliked but had to listen to over and over again for work - i kind of think all critics should have one? like, our taste is part of our ~brand~.

an interesting qn might be - how many times do you have to hear an album to really get a grasp on it? obv the answer varies from album to album...

for me it's almost not how many times i hear an album but the course of time -- i trust myself much more after hearing an album 5 times over the course of a month or two than 5 times over 2 days

i haven't been writing reviews on a strict deadline for a while tho

oh yeah, pretty much agree. if you are working to deadline you have to try to second guess yourself a bit in that regard. this doesn't always work - several times i've overrated something that i thought would be a slow grower, only to never play it again. and indeed vice versa.

Without prior exposure (live, twitter snippets etc) probably five on average. If by the 4th listen I feel like I know a lot of the album already that's probably a good sign.

Kinda surprised that Corinne Bailey Rae only showed up on a few of these lists.

I like some of this LoneLady stuff, though I'm not sure how much yet. (Was not familiar with them--or her, if it's just one person--before.)

i think we should let anyone with the balls/deeplisteningskills to do a top 100 like chuck, matos or fastnbulb to post in this thread

― buzzoff (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, December 20, 2010 12:48 PM (5 days ago) Bookmark

not xhuxk, not matos, nof fast'n'bulby...but all balls. if yr favorite records aren't on the list then i either didn't hear them or didn't like them or wasn't interested in them.

1. Allison Moorer, Crows
2. Cibelle, Las Venus Resort Palace Hotel
3. Erykah Badu, New Amerykah Vol. 2: Return of the Ankh
4. The-Dream, Love King
5. Das Racist, Shut Up, Dude
6. Titus Andronicus, The Monitor
7. Calle 13, Entren Los Que Quieren
8. R. Kelly, Love Letter
9. V.A. The Scottsboro Boys, Original Off-Broadway Cast
10. Michaels Uncle, Return of Dark Psychedelia
11. Tarbaby, The End of Fear
12. Ciara, Basic Instinct
13. Mulatu Astatke, Steps Ahead
14. Shakira, Sale el Sol
15. DJ Zhao, Ngoma 4: Generation Bass
16. M.I.A., Maya
17. Henry Threadgill, This Brings Us To, Vol. 2
18. Janelle Monae, The ArchAndroid
19. Cathedral, The Guessing Game
20. Heart, Red Velvet Car

21. Sade, Soldier of Love
22. Markus Laufenberg Mumur, Ennedi
23. Guzaarish soundtrack
24. Nortec Collective, Bulevar 2000
25. Traband, Domasa
26. Ranjit Barot, Bada Boom
27. Cee-Lo Green, The Lady Killer
28. The Roots, How I Got Over
29. Al-yaman, Insanyya
30. The Morning Benders, Big Echo
31. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, The Brutalist Bricks
32. Esperanza Spalding, Chamber Music Society
33. Beppe Crovella, What’s Rattlin’ on the Moon
34. Big Boi, Lucious Leftfoot
35. Format A’3, Sync
36. Cornershop, Judy Sucks a Lemon for Breakfast
37. The Body, All the Waters of the Earth Turn to Blood
38. V.A., Fela! Original Broadway Cast Recording
39. Das Racist, Sit Down, Man
40. Kanye West, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

41. High on Fire, Snakes for the Divine
42. Raheem DeVaughn, The Love and War Masterpeace
43. Benoit Delbecq, Circles & Calligrams
44. Bruce Springsteen, The Promise
45. Speed Caravan, Kalashnik Love
46. It’s a Wonderful Afterlife soundtrack
47. Taylor Swift, Speak Now
48. Of Montreal, False Priest
49. Black Keys, Brothers
50. MGMT, Congratulations
51. Yellow Sisters, Tubab Woman
52. Manu Chao, Baionarena
53. Matorralman, Guateque Estelar
54. Vampire Weekend, Contra
55. Omar Sosa & NDR Bigband, Ceremony
56. Pat Metheny, Orchestrion
57. King Giant, Southern Darkness
58. Holy Fuck, Latin
59. Robin Holcomb and Talking Pictures with Wayne Horvitz, The Point of It All
60. Sufjan Stevens, The Age of Adz

61. Bird Show Band, Bird Show Band
62. Black Robot, Baddass
63. Chrisette Michelle, Let Freedom Reign
64. Jamey Johnson, The Guitar Song
65. My Name is Khan soundtrack
66. Nellie McKay, Home Sweet Mobile Home
67. How to Dress Well, Love Remains
68. Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, I Learned the Hard Way
69. Rob Swift, The Architect
70. Pantha Du Prince, Black Noise
71. Gil Scott-Heron, I’m New Here
72. Bettye LaVette, Interpretations
73. Jon Oliva’s Pain, Festival
74. Big Light, Big Light
75. The Doubt, Never Pet a Burning Dog
76. Alesana, The Emptiness
77. Raduza, Miluju Vas
78. Steve Raegele, Last Century
79. Untied States, Instant Everything, Constant Nothing
80. Emanuel and the Fear, Listen

81. Ruth Gerson, This Can’t Be My Life
82. Deadbeat, Radio Rothko
83. Moraine, Manifest Density
84. Elizabeth Withers, No Regrets
85. The Mynabirds, What We Lose in the Fire We Gain in the Flood
86. Mob Rules, Radical Peace
87. Yodo Gimi, 8:30
88. Virginie Teychene, I Feel So Good
89. Brandan Wright, Boiling Point
90. V.A., A Little Night Music soundtrack
91. Dennis Rea, Views From Chicheng Precipice
92. Locksley, Be in Love
93. Bezobratri, Bezobrav
94. Right the Stars, Right the Stars
95. Playdate, Playdate
96. Serena Maneesh, S-M 2: Abyss in B Minor
97. Mighty Tiger, Western Theater
98. Enter the Magical Mystery 36 Chambers mixtape
99. Solution .45, For Aeons Past
100. Shearwater, The Golden Archipelago

Well, we overlap on two albums. Not bad. Of course, I only have a list of seventeen (but that's a really lengthy EOY list for me).

American Songwriter top 50:

1.Black Keys – Brothers
2.Mumford and Sons- Sigh No More
3.Dylan LeBlanc – Pauper’s Field
4.Jamey Johnson – The Guitar Song
5.Yeasayer – Odd Blood
6.Robert Plant – Band Of Joy
7. Phosphorescent - Here’s To Taking It Easy
8. Neil Young – Le Noise
9. Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
10. Laura Veirs – July Flame
11. MGMT – Congratulations
12. Taylor Swift – Speak Now
13. Elizabeth Cook – Welder
14. Elvis Costello – National Ransom
15. Punch Brothers – Antifogmatic
16. John Mellencamp – No Better Than This
17. Zac Brown Band – You Get What You Give
18. Old 97’s – The Grand Theatre Volume 1
19. Kings Of Leon – Come Around Sundown
20. Bonnie Prince Billy – The Wonder Show of the World
21, Sufjan Stevens – The Age of Adz
22. Junip – Fields
23. Superchunk – Majesty Shredding
24. Laura Marling – I Speak Because I Can
25. Midlake – The Courage Of Others
26. Vampire Weekend – Contra
27. Justin Townes Earle – Harlem River Blues
28. Damien Jurado - Saint Bartlett
29. Lightspeed Champion – Life is Sweet! Nice To Meet You
30. Warpaint – The Fool
31. William Tyler - Behold The Spirit
32. Johnny Flynn – Been Listening
33. Mount Eerie – Song Islands Vol. 2
34. The Preservation Hall Jazz Band – Preservation Hall: An Album To Benefit Preservation Hall
35. The Dead Weather - Sea Of Cowards
36. Jenny & Johnny – I’m Having Fun Now
37. Thee Oh Sees - Warm Slime
38. Chromeo - Business Casual
39. Caribou – Swim
40. Beach House - Teen Dream
41. Jim Lauderdale – Patchwork River
42. Local Natives – Gorilla Manor
43. Joanna Newsom – Have One On Me
44. Ty Segall – Melted
45. Black Angels – Phosphene Dream
46. Dr. Dog – Shame, Shame
47. Javelin – No Mas
48. Lissie – Catching A Tiger
49. Patty Griffin – Downtown Church
50. Sun Kil Moon – Admiral Fell Promises

Caucasian-American Songwriter, amirite?

Matt: Das Racist, homeboy?

Caucasian-American Songwriter, amirite?

― The Reverend, Saturday, December 25, 2010 6:29 PM (38 seconds ago) Bookmark

c'mon their #1 album is by the black keys!

Maybe the Chromeo guys can teach R. Kelly a thing or two.

Rev: you cot damn rite I like the Das Racist stuff; they are funny and good at freestyling and they dropped a reference to my favorite Mexican crime novelist so I fell in love with them immediately. Plus, their albums were free; I would have gotten into lots of cooler hip-hop like all you guys around here but I don't download commercial albums w/out paying, and for some reason Waka Flocka Flame never got down to $9.99 at Target, which is unfortunately the basis for a lot of my musical buying decisions.

Most good hiphop isn't commercially released these days and is only available for free download so not a good excuse imo.

Okay you got me. Good job dude you win.

You been told.

Yeah but like usual I probably ain't gonna listen.

gotta stand up for those major labels

RJG: There were a lot of factors behind me having to amp down my music internet coverage this year, including death of laptop. Also, feeling about hip-hop these days like it sounds like you're feeling about R&B.