Best of 2010

Sorry to the faithful readers in the delay of this post. And without further ado...

2010 Albums
1. The National - High Violet
2. Mumford and Sons - Sign No More
3. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
4. Beach House - Teen Dream
5. Tallest Man On Earth - The Wild Hunt & Sometimes The Blues ...
6. Anais Mitchell - Hadestown
7. Justin Townes Earle - Harlem River Blues
8. Nathaniel Rateliff - In Memory Of Loss
9. Josh Ritter - So Runs The World Away
10. Laura Marling - I Speak Becasue I Can

2010 Mixtape
When I put this list of songs together, I started by identifying every song that made an impact on me in 2010. It could have been a fun song, a catchy song, a meaningful song or a mood setting song. Then I tried to narrow it down to a manageable number, and eventually I trimmed it enough to fit on the old fashioned blank CD. Then came the hard part; how do I sequence the songs in a way to make the mixtape descriptive of my year? I tried to identify the reasons behind my reactions to each song and use those reasons to organize the mixtape.

Dream Sequence
I spent a good portion of 2010 having dreams, trying to understand them or chasing them down. Turned out this manifested itself in a good number of the songs chosen
528491 - Hans Zimmer
A curveball. Good to start out with a curveball to get the listener off balance, but this song represents the most impactful sound waves to hit me in 2010. Anybody who was anxiously anticipating Inception got excited any time they heard these deep, powerful foghorns. This was also one of the smartest songs of the year. Read more here.

The Dreamer - Tallest Man On Earth
This song made me stop in my tracks in the first 10 seconds. Rare to do to me anymore. I must’ve listened to it 12 times in a row after that.
Awake My Soul - Mumford and Sons
Best song on one of my favorite albums. And a great Take Away Show to boot.
Cloudy Shoes - Damien Jurado
Doesn’t specifically mention dreams in the song, but it has the same atmosphere that accompany most of my dreams.
Change of Time - Josh Ritter
“I had a dream last night, and when I opened my eyes…”

The Trying Time Section
Somebody once told me that man can do anything if he knows there will be an end to it. I responded that I could do anything as long as I could listen to music throughout, with or without an end.
Rambling Man - Laura Marling
“Its funny how the first chords you come to, are the minor notes that come to serenade you”
Wait For Me - Anais Mitchell f. Ben Knox Miller and Justin Vernon
“But if all you got is your own two legs, you best be glad you got them”

The Train Section
Workin' for the MTA - Justin Townes Earle
I love trains and I spent a good deal of my year on trains. And I especially like songs about trains. Country songs about trains and in old New York.

In Concert Highlights
Early Spring Till - Nathaniel Rateliff
Saw him open for The Low Anthem and I didn’t expect much. I was half paying attention to him when a couple songs into his set he played this song. The sincerity in his voice cut through the crowd chatter and drew me in.
Postcards From Italy – Beirut
Summertime, outdoors, Balkan folk.
Afraid Of Everyone - The National
One of the highlights from my musical highlight in 2010. This was the fourth song they played when I saw the in Oakland, but the first song that crushed me. Matt Berninger sings with a lot of feeling and emotion and it comes across on their records, but that only captures about 5% of the power of him singing live. This song really had that power.

The Upbeat Section
Not much to say here other than these songs got a lot of dance time in 2010.
Everlasting Light - The Black Keys
Walk In The Park - Beach House
Moves - The New Pornographers
Rill Rill - Sleigh Bells
Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) - Arcade Fire
Home (RAC mix) - Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

Best of 2010 List

Charlie T and I talked many times about how 2010 was not a year for the faint of quality. Some have said that the year was lesser, but that's bunk. The quality releases of 2010 were such that it made making a Top 10 list almost impossible. Here's where I landed. Unlike most lists, I'm saying "screw anticipation" and sticking #1 at the top. No reveal, nothing.

1) The National- High Violet

This album’s spot at #1 is meaningful beyond just it being the best record and the one I listened to and wanted to listen to the most in 2010. It’s meaningful because it sets the precedent for this reckoning and judgment, the critical philosophy that governs how I picked my favorite records of 2010. There are some albums on this list (and off it) that suffered because of the expectation (mine, the public’s, the band's) that follows releasing a great record. That can mean that we expect albums to build on (to quote the Miami Heat about themselves) greatness. It can mean we have our own arbitrary expectation of what a band should do next (the most unfair of our expectations). And it can also mean that we simply expect the album to be at least as good as the previous one, which is fair but also pretty subjective and even a little arbitrary.

The National met expectations at the crossroads and ran over them– with furious frenetic drums, shoutalong choruses, catharsis, mumbles, blood, buzz, and more. This album is NOT Boxer Pt II. But nothing that I loved about Boxer prevented me from loving this record. It took parts of that record, evolved them, and mixed them with new elements and angles and approaches. The results are great, an album that I had no problem listening to back-to-back-to-back, a feat unheard of in my ADD-riddled impatient 21^st Century mp3-single mind.

Charlie T and I talked about the challenge of not being able to pick THE one standout favorite track (initially, at least, “Fake Empire” on Boxer). At different times, different songs leapt out, pushing the others aside. But just temporarily. The song I like least (“Runaway”) is a favorite of most of my friends, which says something for the well-roundedness of the record.

2) Justin Townes Earle- Harlem River Blues (+ his contribution to the John Prine tribute record)

Steve’s kid. It has to be said. Especially with a middle name like Townes, which I’ve heard he opted to include later in his career. Might as well embrace it all, I guess. He fares better than most famous musicians’ kids (Julian Lennon, Wilson Phillips, etc) and jumps to the adults’ table with Teddy Thompson and Rufus Wainwright.

From the first line of the first song, I was sold. And, mind you, I was bracing myself to hate it. Hype filter set to UNBELIEVABLY HIGH. And the first song just rolled over me. “Lord, I’m going uptown to the Harlem River to drown. Dirty water gonna cover me over and I’m not gonna make a sound.” It’s the first song in a long time that I just repeated over and over and over.

But it’s not just that song. It’s the beauty of “Christchurch Woman” and patient story of “MTA.” It feels old and new. It feels borrowed and original. Mostly, it feels like a guy finding his voice, an authentic voice. It’s the record I’ve been hoping to hear from Ryan Adams for awhile now- Americana that nods to its roots and keeps adding leaves. Oops. There’s that expectation again.

3) Over The Rhine – The Long Surrender

This won’t even come out til January. But I couldn’t wait. I decided not to do this album the injustice of sitting on it for a year and letting its beauty and impact be lessened by time. So here it is.

A year ago, I got to hear Linford and Karen (the two writers/players/singers in OTR) in a songwriting class, talking about how their unique and unorthodox music career allowed them to grow, and how it allowed them to devoutly believe that– 20 years into the game– their best record was still ahead of them. What other bands can say that their best record would come out 20 years in? The Beatles didn't even last 10 years. (Don't take this as a knock on The Beatles. I am a ridiculously big Beatles fan.) The Stones– a model of career longevity if not continued creative relevance– recorded Undercover in their 21st year, not a landmark record and nowhere near even THEIR Top 10.

I got to hear them preview these songs last September at the Mercy Lounge in Nashville and was blown away, praying that the recorded versions would live up to their in-concert promise.

And Joe Henry captured it. And by “it” I mean the greatness and beauty and devastation and sadness and sweetness of these songs, the power and subtlety of Karen’s incredible voice, the movement, the moment, and, yes, the best record of Over The Rhine’s career. Not a dud in the mix.

4) Tallest Man On Earth- The Wild Hunt (+ the EP)

I jumped to my kneejerk “Way Too Dylanesque” stance on this one and a friend pointed out, “If this was actually Bob Dylan, you would worship these songs.”

He was correct. These songs, while I don’t find myself listening to the whole record in any one sitting (but, hey, sometimes the blues is just a passing bird), are great. Desperate, tender, brash, passionate, sad, poetic. And what a great guitar player.

5) Anais Mitchell- Hadestown

If we’re talking about expectation, I had none with this one. I literally bought it because the album art and cast of musicians intrigued me. I had no idea what to expect. And was shocked by how much I loved it.

There was a month where this was in contention for the #1 spot. Its ambition– a modern day folkie take on an old myth, sung by a murderer’s row of great indie and folk voices (Mitchell, Justin Vernon, Ani DiFranco, Greg Brown, the guy from The Low Anthem), part folk and part Broadway– is staggering. Mitchell has vision and guts. And the songs are good. And if you can get a guy who has a hairtrigger gag reflex when it comes to anything even remotely Broadway to dive headfirst into your record, you’re getting somewhere.

I'd say there were a few ambitious releases this year (Kanye for one) and this has to be in the club.

6) Jakob Dylan- Women & Country

Jakob, you are forgiven for that last postage stamp of a Wallflowers album. This collection is gorgeous, well written, smart, effortless. And Neko Case and Kelly Hogan's perfect vocals don’t hurt. I found myself going back to this record more than I ever thought I would. Sure, it has the mark of T-Bone Burnett, but since when is that a bad thing?

7) Josh Ritter- So Runs The World Away

Unfair expectation dropped a good Ritter album out of the Top 5. Completely unfair and I'm sure time will prove me wrong. Just because I thought it would be something that it’s not, I initially didn’t gravitate towards this album like I thought I would. But if you take a killer live show and the Josh Ritter Pantheon songs “The Curse” and “Change Of Time”, it refuses to be denied. In 5 years, I will still be talking about this record, but I just can't honestly put it ahead of the others as a document of THIS year. Lame, I know.

8) The Lower West- Only The Dead Know Brooklyn

A collection of honest, authentic lo-fi songs by the prolific, dynamic Dominic Moore with a new cast of characters that brings more piano and bass to the mix than usual. Dominic is one of my favorite songwriters and he shines all over this one, his range leaping from explosive to sleepy and everywhere in between.

9) Laura Veirs? Damien Jurado? Horse Feathers? Patty Griffin? Arcade Fire?

No, this isn't a tie. It's indecision and refusal to make a decision. Veirs and Horse Feathers were latecomers, leading a late and furious charge for the Top 10. But Patty and Damien had the writing. And Arcade Fire had the je ne se Quebequois.

10a) Dr. Dog – Shame Shame

10b) Tift Merritt – See You On The Moon

This, however, is a tie. A tie for tenth between two albums that I didn’t listen to as much as the rest, but every time a song came on from one of the records, I loved it and had to chastise myself, “Why aren’t you listening to this all the time?” It still holds. Why, Spike, why?

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Laura Marling – I Speak Because I Can

Elvis Costello – National Ransom

Peter Gabriel – Scratch My Back

Megafaun – Heretofore

Janelle Monae – The Archandroid

Breathe Owl Breathe – Magic Central

Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More

Beach House – Teen Dream

Black Keys – Brothers

Mose Allison – The Way Of The World

Mavis Staples – You Are Not Alone

Jim Lauderdale- Patchwork River

Robert Plant- Band Of Joy

Broken Bells

GOOD BUT DIDN’T KEEP ME INTERESTED

The Hold Steady – Heaven Is Whenever (a TBC staple. It hurt me to do this.)

Retribution Gospel Choir – 2 (killer leadoff track, less thereafter)

The Weepies – Be My Thrill

Jonsi

Broken Social Scene – Forgiveness Rock Record

A LITTLE DISAPPOINTED IN

Carolina Chocolate Drops – Genuine Negro Jig (so much hype that didn't do much of anything for me)

Ryan Bingham- Junky Star ( I love Ryan. This album felt a little blah to me. Uninspired maybe?)

Ray Lamontagne & The Pariah Dogs

ADMIT THAT I STILL NEED TO CHECK OUT

Frightened Rabbit

Charlotte Gainsbourg

Spoon- Transference

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Jason Collett

The Head & Heart

Drew Grow & The Pastors Wives

Sufjan Stevens – The Age of Adz

Drive By Truckers

2010: Bracing For The Pantheon?

Not to get all Bill Simmons on you, by which I mean "immediately and rashly overreact to an isolated incident, impregnating it with more meaning than it ever ought to have ("HOOPS ARE DEAD IN CLEVELAND AFTER LEBRON'S LAST LOSS"), spitting out superlatives ("THE CELTICS ARE AN EMBARRASSMENT" and "RONDO IS THE BEST PG IN THE LEAGUE!!" within weeks of each other) like they ought to be etched in stone ASAP*. But, here I go: is 2010's year of music angling to be a pantheon year? I know it's early and many of these albums still have to measure up to the ol' test of time, but I don't think the question is wrong. It feels like a supernaturally good year and it has to be asked:

Will 2010 go down as one of the great years in the history of music?

The National//High Violet

I know it's early, but it's about time TBC got a chance to counter all the Animal Collective and Beach House premature hype over the past year with something we think is actually deserving. I can't remember the last time I heard an album all the way through and wanted to hear it over again. And again.

The Hold Steady//Heaven Is Whenever
Josh Ritter//So Runs The World Away

Two TBC perennial favorites with what I suppose you could call transitional albums. On our initial listens, we agreed that Heaven Is Whenever gave us a great new chapter in the Hold Steady canon. We disagreed on the highpoints of So The World Runs Away, so that jury is still out

Broken Social Scene//Forgiveness Rock Record
Mose Allison//The Way Of The World
The Black Keys//Brothers
Dr. Dog//Shame
Anais Mitchell//Hadestown

There were 2 weeks where this albums sang the words "ALBUM OF THE YEAR" to me every day. Somehow the musical-hater in me could swallow a folkie musical based in mythology with guest spots by Justin Vernon, Ani Difranco, Greg Brown, and the dude from the Low Anthem. I am a sucker for ambitious high concept that's well executed (Janelle Monae, we'll get to you). And adorable voices like Anais Mitchell's.

Retribution Gospel Choir//2
Damien Jurado//Saint Bartlett
Frightened Rabbit//The Winter of Mixed Drinks
Jason Collett//Rat a tat tat

Four albums from some TBC usual suspects. Will they fare as well as Stay Positive? Or will they go the (still respectable but kind of disappointing) route of Yonder Is The Clock, following up a great record with a good one? I have my guesses, one of which is pretty obvious by the fact that I haven't dared buy the Jason Collett record yet.

Jakob Dylan//Women & Country
Patty Griffin//Downtown Church
Neon Trees//Habits (come on. Animal is catchy as catch.)
Peter Gabriel//Scratch My Back
Broken Bells//And I just got too lazy to look up album names. Bad journalism? It's a BLOG!
Jonsi's solo album
Horse Feathers
Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings
Bettye Lavette
Sarah Sample
Sayde Price
Spoon
Mumford & Sons
Tallest Man On Earth
Beach House
Drive By Truckers
New Pornographers

And still (potentially) to come:
The Arcade Fire
Tift Merritt
Blitzen Trapper
Sun Kil Moon
Nada Surf
The Roots
The Weepies
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Stars
Wolf Parade
Crowded House
Los Lobos
Fleet Foxes
Eels
Beastie Boys
Robert Plant//Band of Joy (his follow-up to Raising Sand)
the actual release of Sparklehorse + Danger Mouse

And stuff I should check out:
Roky Erickson + Okkervil River
Avi Buffalo
Caribou
Carolina Chocolate Drops

Maybe the most interesting to me. NPR will do that with their special, literate, elitist Kool-Aid

Janelle Monae
Flying Lotus
Titus Andronicus
LCD Soundsystem
Merle Haggard
Laura Marling
Morning Benders
Sleigh Bells
Angus & Julia Stone
White Hinterland
Crystal Castles
The Besnard Lakes

Now, on a mass scale, I don't know that anything ever (especially in the post-mp3 world) will ever compete culturally and on a massive scale like a year that includes the Beatles and Stones and Dylan and Cash and...yeah. But as far as great and meaningful music that matters? This year has to at least sit at the kids' table while we wait for the results of the test of time.

Last year had a solid top 15 albums, but both Spike and I found a lackluster overall year to be saved by a few stellar albums. This year doesn't look like it'll have that problem.

I've often asked friends if they could only pick one YEAR of music, what year would it be?

In this new series, Annual Reports, we'll list albums from particular years and maybe even try to rate the years against each other. Some of it will hopefully help us see how 2010 fits in context and some of it will help those of us who maybe weren't there (or alive) to see/hear music in a new contextual lens, and the rest will just be an excuse to talk about music.

As the year goes on, we'll return to this post, revisit the names, see how they're shaking out. Next stop, though, is the nearly universally heralded 1967.

"Its More Engaging When You Don't Know"

The National's Matt Berninger tried to describe the lyrics to "Bloodbuzz Ohio" in a veiled string of words and then ended it with, "Its more engaging when you don't know." That really sums up my draw to The National and more specifically, his lyrics. The same can be said about most of my favorite things, I like not knowing exactly what the intent is. I like having the space to fill in the blanks.

Nothing kills a movie for me like seeing 5 different trailers, each one getting increasingly more revelatory about the plot and showing "all the good parts". You could get me to see just about anything, or at least be excited about seeing it, by not showing me much more than the name of the film and some shots of each actor in the movie. Beyond that, you're giving me too much information and my interest wanes. Again, its more interesting to watch it unfold.

The same goes for sports. If I have a game on the DVR and I mistakenly catch the score before I've seen the whole game, I won't even bother. Its not that I don't want to watch the game, but it takes away my main motivation for watching; answering the question of who is going to win. The NBA Playoffs this year have been surprisingly entertaining. Sure there have been plenty of no-shows and series sweeps, but that is going to happen and even some of those series were entertaining (Phoenix/San Antonio).

I've enjoyed the suspense of the games, but I haven't enjoyed the hyperbole surrounding the cast of characters involved. THis goes back to the need to not know. Every announcer, writer, analyst and goofy-dressed reporter has used up their lifetime allotment of exaggeration in this playoffs alone. Rajon Rondo is the best point guard in the game. Rondo made the greatest play in Celtics' history. No he isn't and no he didn't. But does he have at least 3 exciting plays a game? Yes. Can't we just leave his place in history undefined until he strings together a couple seasons, yes I said SEASONS, full of the play we've seen from him recently? LeBron James is the greatest athlete in the history of the game. Wherever LeBron goes will turn that franchise around. You have to say something nice about Early Exit LeBron but both those comments are way off base. Great Athlete? Yes. Franchise Player? Yes. Beyond that? Lets leave it open for debate. Don't just sling hyperbole for the sake of needing to say something. The list goes on and on. Pau Gasol, best bigman in the game. Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah, best young tandem to team up with. Knicks, best opportunity to become a legend.

Say anything like this, and I'm immediately disengaged. I'd rather wonder how good someone can become and how good they are than see them ranked "all-time". I'd rather hear the questions than the answers, and don't think I'm alone.

Top 200 Albums of The Decade (1-10)

'Tis the season to be listing. So we'll add ours to the pile. This one? THE BLACK CONVERSE'S BEST ALBUMS OF THE 00'S (since Charlie T consulted and wisely opted not to compile his own). Yes, this is supposed to be a hoops and music blog, even if we don't always do the greatest job showing it.

So...

200ish albums nominated in a manner so unscientific, so anti-methodical that it might actually be genius. Why is In Rainbows so low? I don't know. You're right: it should be higher. And what about this year's albums, why so low? Again, you're right, but I felt like they needed more time-testedness.

All in all, these are the albums that meant something to me/us this decade- a decade that saw me at two different colleges, in 4 big breakups, graduate, first big job, move to NYC, get married, move to UT, have a kid. Big stuff. Rather than elaborate on every single one, I've picked some at random to talk about and just listed the remainder. Surely this list will change tomorrow, maybe tonight. But I'll stand by it today.

So let's get to it. Ladies and gentlemen, "our" Top 10 of the 00's. (Notice how we don't make you rifle through a heap of albums before getting to the meat. Yeah, we rule. You can read the also-rans later on.)

10. The Hold Steady- Boys And Girls In America

We've never hid our love of The Hold Steady on TBC. And we ain't starting now.

This album was- poetically, considering the subject matter- my fist-pumping gateway drug.

9. Beck- Sea Change

Like I said, this decade saw 4 big heartbreaks. And this album was there for half of them.

The 1-2 combo of The Golden Age and Guess I'm Doing Fine still destroy me.

My favorite Beck album by a sampleslide. Or kitschslide. Or schtickslide. Whatever.

8. Sun Kil Moon- Ghosts of the Great Highway

Mark Kozelek's best record.

If you need more explanation than that, you need more Mark Kozelek in your life.

Particularly your ears.

Sad, mournful, nostalgic, gorgeous.

7. Ryan Adams- Heartbreaker

This album changed the way I listen to music forever. Most fans have spent a good deal of time wishing Ryan Adams would revisit this world. I spend that time just happy he ever did.

"Come Pick Me Up." Best Song of the Decade? Or Best Song Ever?

The album art, however, has always been baffling to me.

6. Coldplay- A Rush of Blood To The Head

Oh, Coldplay, we hardly knew thee.

5. Radiohead- Kid A

No Top 10 list is complete without it.

Understandably.

People think that In Rainbows was their groundbreaking move.

How about recording an amazing-but-not-particularly-radio-friendly follow-up to OK Computer?

It saved them from themselves. And gave us all an incredible record.

4. Arcade Fire- Funeral

All of these records are great,

but I think 20 years from now

this will be the one that was perhaps

the most game-changing.

Listen to Fanfarlo,

one of our favorite records of 09,

and tell me differently.

3. Bon Iver- For Emma, Forever Ago

Too soon, you say?

That's funny. I was thinking, "too low."

2. The National- Boxer

Everything about this album works for me.

Smart lyrics and melodies, especially in light of the mumbliness.

Incredibly moving and layered arrangements.

And if it has a weak spot, well, it doesn't so stop pretending it does.

1. Wilco- Yankee Hotel Foxtrot