Top 30 Most Listened of 2010

You thought you were never getting this list...

Starting January 1st, 2005, I decided to pull a little masochistic prank on myself. I decided to pay strict attention to the playcounts of all the different songs in my library. If I listened to a song, it got counted - be it in the car via CD, at a club, or on the radio. Obviously, it can't be 100% perfect (buzzed at a bar laughing with friends isn't exactly the best time to note "hey! this is that one obscure b-side to the Oasis song I like, does anyone have a pen? I'm never going to remember that they played this in 4 hours.), the point is... I get closer than most. Last.fm helps a ton in that regard. So does the fact that I hate the radio stations available to me, and most of the songs I listen to are off of CDs that I own.

Speaking of CDs, this year, my listening habits changed unconsciously from a mostly song-based listening approach to a mostly album-based one. I don't really know what to make of that, and it isn't really reflected here, but I thought it was interesting, at least.

Anyway, for the sixth year in a row, this is the list of the songs that I listened to the most for the entire year. Believe me when I say that this list is pretty damned accurate. Also, I've made comments on each song - what the song meant to me personally, where I found the song, where I listened to it the most, etc.

30. Dessa - Matches to Paper Dolls

The best beat of A Badly Broken Code paired with some of the better introspective lyrics on the album. The sped-up sample certainly didn’t hurt it at all. Still, I’m a little surprised I listened to this song this much.

29. Frightened Rabbit - Keep Yourself Warm

Embarrassingly enough, I have NBC's Chuck to thank for my 2010-long obsession with Frightened Rabbit. I sort of liked "A Modern Leper" in 2008, but for some reason, I never thought to give the rest of The Midnight Organ Fight a try. I heard this song on season two of Chuck, and finally checked it out. Even then, this particular song didn’t strike me the first time I heard it. Given a couple listens, though, and I was hooked. Once the song picks up steam around midway through, there’s no stopping it. If I had heard this one earlier in the year, it would be much further up the list.

28. The National – Sorrow

High Violet was my favorite CD this year – by far. How did it get only one song on this list (and so low on this list, at that)? The simple truth is that it was nearly impossible to listen to just one song off High Violet. Anytime I wanted to hear “Sorrow” (and why wouldn’t you? The “I don’t want to get over you” part gives me shivers every time I hear it), I had to start with “Terrible Love”. If I wanted to hear “Conversation 16” (easily my favorite off the CD), well… “England” was just after that, and that’s a great song, too. Positions 31-60 are littered with other songs off of High Violet.

27. Children 18:3 - Cover Your Eyes

I mostly played this song because it was the lead single to the new album, which I was rabidly anticipating. It’s not really even one of the 2 or 3 best songs on Rain’s a’ Comin’, it just benefited from being new music by a band I love.

26. Yeasayer - Ambling Alp

This is sort of the same situation described above, but I like this song more. I didn’t really care for All Hour Cymbals, so I greeted the news of a new Yeasayer CD with a pretty emphatic “meh”. Once I heard “Ambling Alp” (I actually heard it toward the end of 2009), that changed in a hurry. The lead single for Odd Blood did a great job of setting the stage for one of my favorite CDs of 2010.

25. Crystal Castles - Doe Deer

More advance single action here, with the added benefit that this particular song is a minute and a half long and goes great with just about every violent video game ever.

24. Memoryhouse - Sleep Patterns

I really like this song. It’s that perfect kind of half-awake dreamy sounding song that feels warm and familiar. Earlier in the year, this song was a lot higher on the chart, I just sort of forgot about it as the year went on. With winter bearing down, I’d really like to revisit warm sounding songs like this.

23. Titus Andronicus - A More Perfect Union

This one’s length kind of works against it, as does the fact that The Monitor was a lot like High Violet (albums best experienced all at once). My 20 minute commute didn’t allow me to get much more than 3 songs into the CD before I arrived at my destination.

22. The Hold Steady - Hurricane J

Yet another advance single, but this one is my favorite one of the bunch. At first, something about Craig’s vocals threw me a little. It wasn’t until Linds (my Hold Steady-hating wife) asked me “Is he actually trying to sing?” that I figured it out. Huh. Craig Finn actually (kind of) singing. Cool.

21. The Thermals - A Pillar of Salt

I adore the main riff to this song, as well as the lyrics. There were numerous times where I’m quite certain that I took a chunk out of my hearing range and my car’s speaker life to this song.

20. Children 18:3 - Lost So Long

Everything about Rain’s a’ Comin’ led up to this. It wisely stretches out the “Rain’s comin’!” part at the end, before coming to an abrupt, but perfect ending. The only complaint I have is that they decide to stick a meaningless piano instrumental track after it on the album (I usually excise the track – seriously, it adds nothing, why does it exist?).

19. Yeasayer - O.N.E.

For a while, I thought this was the best song off of Odd Blood. That’s not quite true, but it does have all the qualities that make up a good Yeasayer song: a heavily 80’s-borrowed vibe, a catchy as the plague hook, and a certain bit of weirdness that uniquifies everything. Few songs better nailed those three elements than “O.N.E.” this year.

18. Rosefield - Save a Bullet

Back in 2005, there was a band called Rosefield Rivals. They played a sort of Emo-Pop mixed with Power Pop. Usually I’d dislike such a band, but they wrote such hooky music (plus they played the local club 2 or 3 times, and put on a great live show) that I had no choice but to love them. Then they all got pissed at each other and broke up, as such bands tend to do. Most of the creative force behind Rosefield Rivals made a band called Rosefield, and they took the world by force and….. made a grand total of two songs before breaking up again long before pretty much anyone even recognized what had happened. This is one of those two songs (I don’t have “All That You Got”, though I’d love to remedy that if someone would be willing to help out).

17. Frightened Rabbit - The Twist

It would seem that Frightened Rabbit make music that I wouldn’t be able to identify with. I’m happily married, and just about everything FR does (especially on The Midnight Organ Fight) is centered around being profoundly unhappy with relationships. I don’t know how to explain the appeal, but even so, when Scott Hutchison sings “I need company, I need human heat…” it still resonates with me. Plus that breakdown that happens after the second chorus is just awesome.

16. Frightened Rabbit - Nothing Like You

“There is nothing quite like someone new, and this girl she was nothing like you…” I wish I’d had this song back when I, you know, actually had breakups. Instead, the song was merely a perfect piece of pop-rock music.

15. The Thermals - Here's Your Future

I’m not really sure why this song got played more than “A Pillar of Salt”. I certainly like “Pillar” more. I think the problem lies in the fact that I played “Pillar” pretty heavily right around August of last year, whereas “Here’s Your Future” started getting plays around February. Ah, well. No one ever said this list was perfect.

14. American Fangs - Le Kick

This one is kind of a weird outlier. I don’t generally like American Fangs brand of Hot Topic punk rock anymore, but the band kind of caught me off guard. I reviewed songs for the now (maybe?) defunct website c0nsensus. Basically, you had a lot of people who just wanted someone to hear their music, so you got a LOT of dross, with the occasional diamond (I plan on writing more on this at a later date). “Le Kick” sort of came out of nowhere. It found its way onto several playlists (“Music to Shoot Stuff To” and “Music to Evade The Fuzz To” the primary two). This might have inflated the song’s playcount, but it’s a kind of honest inflation (if that even makes sense). I played the song because even beyond the adrenaline kick (which I did enjoy), I just plain like the song. I finally broke down and bought the CD, which isn’t nearly as good as this one song, but I suppose they deserve a little credit and some spare money for “Le Kick”.

13. P.O.S. - Low Light Low Life

The best song of last year’s best album. Rocks twice as hard when seen live and with the full crew (since it is a full Doomtree crew song, unlike most of P.O.S.’ other solo work).

12. Arcade Fire - Ready to Start

That subtle little downshift at the beginning of the song threw me. I was expecting the chord progression to go in a different direction. The fact that it defied my expectation even in that seemingly tiny way set the mood for this song. I knew The Suburbs would be great after this one.

11. Julian Casblancas - 11th Dimension

The CD this song comes from sucks. I thought this song kind of sucked the first time I heard it… now it’s my ringtone.

10. Crystal Castles – Celestica

I can never understand the lyrics to Crystal Castles songs.

9. Japandroids - Younger Us

8. Washed Out - Feel It All Around

I played this one a ton in the early spring months. I love everything about the sound of this song.

7. The Hold Steady - The Weekenders

This is pretty much the quintessential Hold Steady song. It has all of the trappings – self-reference, an anthemic chorus, a lot of clever one-liners. On the album that sounded the least like a Hold Steady album, we get the song that sounds the most like a Hold Steady song.

6. Sleigh Bells - Infinity Guitars

I already gave this song quite a few listens when it and “Crown on the Ground” came seemingly out of nowhere toward the end of last year. Then, after Treats turned out to be completely awesome, it got a ton of plays on just about every list that needed an adrenaline boost. As an added bonus, this song’s coda sounded absolutely killer coming out of a good sound system.

5. Fuck Buttons – Olympians

How did I miss this one last year?? I paid so much attention to the obviously-epic “Surf Solar” that I sort of glossed over the best song on the CD. Then one night, after several drinks, I curled up in my recliner, put on my headphones and gave Tarot Sport another listen. I fell asleep pretty quickly, but by some miracle, managed to awaken into some sort of half-drunken trance right when “Olympians” switches things up about 4 or 5 minutes in. Right then, I could have sworn that “Olympians” was the greatest song ever made – I didn’t even know which song it was (I had to scramble to read from the iPod to figure it out). That night remains one of my favorite experiences with music. This song is over ten minutes long, and I still managed to play it more than almost any other song this year.

4. The xx - Intro
(number 8 on this list last year)

There's no particular reason I play this song so much; it's not the most substantive song on this list (in fact, it's probably the least substantive song on this list), it's just so mellow and easy to listen to. There's never a time when I don't want to hear it. It's what got me to give The XX album a second try last year, and I can't imagine that I'll stop listening to it anytime soon.

3. Frightened Rabbit - Swim Until You Can't See Land

I was actually kind of shocked that I had played this song that much… until I thought back. “Swim” is immersive – put in the right mood, it felt as though you were floating in the middle of a limitless sea. Certainly it got plenty of plays in the car, at my PC, etc… but laying back in the dark in my recliner listening to this song… there isn’t anything quite like it.

2. Sleigh Bells - Tell 'Em

One of my favorite parts about “Tell ‘Em” is how after about 20 seconds of it, you know whether you’ll love the artist that plays it, or despise them. Everyone I played this for this year loved it. I’ve heard people complain about the gimmickiness of the “Beyond in-the-red” style mastering, about the general lameness of the lyrics (the band has admitted as much), and any of fifty other supposed problems with Sleigh Bells. My favorite comment goes “I feel like I’m getting beat up when I listen to them”… in this case, that’s a good thing, right?

1. Yeasayer - Madder Red
(6th favorite song of 2010)

I still think this was the catchiest song of 2010. The towering hook, the “oohs” in the beginning, the great fade out at the end… no song this year was as easily replayable as this one. Number two was a long way off.

Top 20 Albums of 2010

I'm only make limited comments (trying for a one-sentence overview of my personal feelings on each album). Also, because I love you, a stream per album via grooveshark.

20. Salem - King Night

Dark, weird, haunting, and surprisingly heavy - plus they have the additional advantage of being a "witch-house" band whose song titles don't look like windows character map vomited them up.




Salem - King Night



19. Gorillaz - Plastic Beach

It's just as sprawling as their other albums. As a result, I didn't know what to think about it at first, but it grew on me with every listen.





Gorillaz - Superfast Jellyfish (feat. Gruff Rhys & De La Soul)



18. Jambo Reign - Blinded By the Bright Lights EP

It's only a three song EP, but all three of those songs are hooky pop-rock the likes of which doesn't get made often enough anymore. Shame they're so unknown that they have no US presence, so I can't get a physical copy of the CD.

No direct music link, hit their MySpace up for additional info.



17. The New Pornographers - Together

They're never going to beat Twin Cinema, but that's not really the point. The highs ("Crash Years", "Your Hands", etc) are higher than the highs on Challengers, and the lows aren't as low as the ones on that album. They might not ever make an album that's awesome front to back, but this one is pretty good.

The New Pornographers - Your Hands (Together)



16. Best Coast - Crazy For You

Yeah, her lyrics are juvenile and way overdependent on weed, boys, and talking cats (wait... what?), but this whole CD just feels like a ocean-view summer, and in the middle of a Minnesota winter, that's never a negative thing.



Best Coast - When I'm With You


15. Vampire Weekend - Contra

A lot of people hate this CD. I'm not entirely certain why. I mean, it's not as straight through solid as their first, but that would have been a tall order. Instead, they served up another great pop CD while branching out a little bit - can't fault them for their results. Forget the haters.


Vampire Weekend - Giving Up the Gun



14. Children 18:3 - Rain's 'a Comin'

Not quite the "stand up and pay attention" notice that their debut was, Rain's a Comin' nonetheless is pleasing from beginning to end. Plus, "Lost So Long" is just epic.




Children 18:3 - Lost So Long



13. Memoryhouse - The Years EP

So, this is "chillwave", then. I like it. Denise Nouvion has the perfect sort of dreamy (but never sleepy) voice that makes this type of music work. Plus the backing music is so hazy and lush that you wish that this could be the soundtrack to every daydream for the rest of your life.

Memoryhouse - Sleep Patterns



12. Spoon - Transference

It's a lot more stripped back than Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (but has a much better album title). It takes a little time to get used to the fact that there are songs ending mid-sentence, as well as sentences being seemingly randomly cut off. Once you get used to the album, though, it's got a lot to give.

Spoon - Who Makes Your Money


11. Dessa - A Badly Broken Code
Add this CD to the list of things I wish would get more popular. Dessa knows when to be vulnerable (as on "Into the Spin"), when to simmer ("Dixon's Girl"), and - most importantly - when to just lay all the cards on the table and be who she is (any of several songs). This girl sits in the underground, while Ke$ha make millions? Absurd.

Dessa - Dixon's Girl


10. Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles (II)

It's a lot more "tuneful" than their debut, while easing off the abrasion a bit. I don't think that's a bad thing, it might not have the thrill of newness that the first record had, but the songs are stronger.



Crystal Castles - Celestica



9. Jónsi - Go

Sigur Rós sort of toyed with more pop-music sounds at the end of their last CD, so it's not surprising that their lead singer went in that direction. What is surprising is how consistently great it is. It would have been so easy to make this a silly, saccharine album; instead, Jónsi gives the songs depth and life - while still making them undeniably Jónsi.

Jónsi - Animal Arithmetic


8. Titus Andronicus - The Monitor

I was lukewarm on Titus Andronicus' first CD. Patrick Stickles voice rubbed me the wrong way too often. In anything, on The Monitor his voice sounds even more abrasive. Yet through better (and certainly more focused) songwriting, this CD is miles past that one. This album contains all the pissed off anthems a malcontent could ever want.

Titus Andronicus - Four Score And Seven


7. Sleigh Bells - Treats

These folks aren't interested in things like subtlety or gentle foreplay... only bass thumping, guitar flashing, "put on some massive headphones and let's fuck shit up" jamming. Most albums quietly wait for you to unlock their secrets... this album kicks down your front door, downs an unmarked bottle of alcohol and starts setting your furniture on fire.

Sleigh Bells - Infinity Guitars


6. Yeasayer - Odd Blood
God, what awful cover art. I'm glad I hadn't seen it before I heard a stream of the album, or else I might have passed over one of the most enjoyable pop albums of the last couple of years. This album has somehow gotten a bad rep, but for the life of me I can't tell why. People hating catchy music these days?


Yeasayer - Ambling Alp



5. Frightened Rabbit - The Winter of Mixed Drinks
It's almost a little embarrassing that I hadn't really given this band a try until a lot of their music got featured on "Chuck". I'd been missing out on some great raw emotional rock. While this one is a little less raw and confessional than their last (no "Keep Yourself Warm" to be found here), it still has that lyrical edge like only Frightened Rabbit can.

Frightened Rabbit - Nothing Like You


4. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

The instant Kanye put "Power" up on his blog, everyone knew that this album was going to be epic. Then the hits kept coming (for free!): "Runaway", "Monster", etc... and the rest of the tracks on the album have no trouble living up to those expectations. The only question is: "How is he going to top this one?"

Kanye West - All of the Lights


3. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

The first time I listened to The Suburbs, I was disappointed. Here was an album that had neither the exuberance of Funeral, nor the bombast of Neon Bible. Needless to say, the disappointment didn't last long. The album picks up strength as it goes, and by the time "The Sprawl II" comes, the sound starts to feel very much like home.

Arcade Fire - We Used to Wait


2. The Hold Steady - Heaven is Whenever

Best cover art besides that awesome Klaxons album cover. Also, more great rock music by Craig Finn and company.





The Hold Steady - The Sweet Part of the City


1. The National - High Violet

This album is in equal parts depressing ("Sorrow"), creepy ("Conversation 16"), and defeated-sounding ("Bloodbuzz Ohio").

It's also by a wide margin the most affecting and re-listenable album I've heard all year - and it's not all that close a call. Every song on this album strikes me in some way. I don't remember the last time I could say that about a CD. This list is "My Favorite 20 Albums of the Year", not "The Best 20 Albums of the Year", because how could I really say something like that? I've heard a lot of music this year, but I couldn't possibly even scratch the surface of even the genres that I like. I will say this, though, while I can't say what the other nineteen of the twenty best albums of the year are, High Violet is the best album to come out in 2010.

It just is.

The National - Bloodbuzz Ohio

Top 20 Songs of 2010

No comments, because I'm dumb like that. However, because I love you, I've made a playlist out of these great songs and shared said playlist on Grooveshark. Go listen - these songs are worth it.

20. Caribou - Odessa

19. Children 18:3 - Lost So Long

18. Foals - Spanish Sahara

17. Yeasayer - O.N.E.

16. The Hold Steady - Hurricane J

15. Crystal Castles - Celestica

14. Cee-Lo - Fuck You!

13. Titus Andronicus - A More Perfect Union

12. Gorillaz - On Melancholy Hill

11. The National - Sorrow

10. Crystal Castles - Not in Love (feat. Robert Smith)

9. Sleigh Bells - Tell 'Em

8. Arcade Fire - The Sprawl II: Mountains Beyond Mountains

7. Frightened Rabbit - Swim Until You Can't See Land

6. Yeasayer - Madder Red

5. Japandroids - Younger Us

4. The National - Conversation 16

3. Arcade Fire - Ready to Start

2. Kanye West - Monster

1. The Hold Steady - The Weekenders

Top 20 Moments in Music: 2010

20. Sufjan Stevens - "I Want to Be Well"
Sufjan Stevens is not fucking around...

Sufjan Stevens is generally known for lush compositions and tender (some might even say "wussy"), frail singing. From here on out, he'll be known for not fucking around. The first time he said it, I couldn't tell if I had heard correctly. That anyone can still shock with profanity in this day and age is startling. That Sufjan is the one to be doing it is downright shocking.


19. Deerhunter - "Desire Lines"
Fade out

I sort of slept on this song (and CD, sadly). It's too bad, because this song is very reminiscent of my favorite Deerhunter song, "Nothing Ever Happened". It's got a downright catchy chorus, melody everywhere, and the 3 minute breakdown to carry out the song which hits just as you'd be expecting the hook again. This one doesn't have anything quite as rapturous as the synth lines in "Nothing Ever Happened", but it is the very definition of chill, and leaves you ready to play the song over and over again.

18. Brandon Flowers - "Crossfire"
"Lay your body down"

Mr. Flowers probably needs a break, as the last Killers album sucked, as does his new solo attempt. "Crossfire" is actually a pretty good song, though. The chorus is big in that classic Killers way, punctuated by Flowers begging the object of the song to "lay your body down". His voice sells it in a way that he hasn't been able to for at least 4 or 5 years now. Please, Brandon, take a break and come back to music when you're able to make an album with a little more of this, and a little less of... everything else you've been making lately.


17. James Blake - "Limit to Your Love"
That bass

This song is a Feist cover, Feist's fingerprints linger on the song, with the melody essentially unchanged, and a lot of the vocal inflections still exist in James Blake's version, as well. A lone piano backs Blake's soulful voice, and the whole thing feels very minimal - almost skeletal.

Then that bass hits. If you have the song turned up, it literally shakes you. At first listen, it almost seems tacked on and unnecessary. Each subsequent listen has you waiting on pins and needles for it.


16. Das Racist - "Rainbow in the Dark"
"...like everything plus everything that is not me"

One could be forgiven for thinking that the guys behind "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell" might not have very much in the way of a substantial music career ahead of them. Surprisingly enough, both (free) mixtapes they released this year proved them to be excellent wordsmiths and very clever lyricists. My favorite line happens about 3 minutes into Shut Up, Dude standout "Rainbow in the Dark".

"You, you are not me. Me, I am possibly everything plus everything that is not me."

I have no idea why this particular line is the one that stands out, but it does. The flow (which I wouldn't have even thought to give them credit for after Pizza Hut/Taco Bell) is just so right.


15. Sleigh Bells - "Tell 'Em"
Opening salvo

Toward the end of last year, I heard a couple of songs from a new band called Sleigh Bells. They lived in the red end of the EQ spectrum. They featured super-overdriven guitars, and were generally pretty fun to listen to. All the same, I wasn't breathlessly anticipating a full length album full of that particular sound. At least, I wasn't right up until I heard the first 15 seconds of the opening track. A wall of gloriously pumped up bass blasted from the speakers and let me know that, yes, the next thirty minutes were going to be a LOT of fun...


14. Los Campesinos! - "In Medias Res"
"Would this interest you at all?"

Los Campesinos! make their trade in being miserable. There are relatively few songs that are particularly cheerful, and most of those come from their first CD. Toward the end of the opening track of their new CD, the lead singer asks:

"If you were given the option
Of dying painlessly in peace at 45
With a lover at your side
After a full and happy life

Is this something that would interest you?
Would this interest you at all?"

It all becomes a little clearer. Conflict and angst is so ingrained into the lead singer's life that even if given the option to have a life without, he would balk at the opportunity. No wonder the CD is entitled Romance is Boring.


13. Dessa - "Alibi"
99 Problems...

Of course it's a reference to the Jay-Z song, but what really sells it is how she seems so exasperated and disgusted with the concept of the line that she can't even finish it.

"Sometimes it's the plain truth, 99 problem.... rrrrrgh..."


12. The Hold Steady - We Can Get Together
"Heaven is whenever"

"Heaven is whenever we can get together, sit on your floor, and listen to your records."

On the record that line seems decent, when The Hold Steady played this song live at First Avenue, it seemed almost spiritual.


11. Jambo Reign - "Radio Low"
"E-X-E-R-C-I-S-E some restraint"

I have a weakness for singers and rappers who spell things out. It seems lame in theory, and in practice, I'm sure it's not really all that much better, but I still like it. The almost completely unknown Jambo Reign's "Radio Low" seems like a normal entry into the "list of performers who randomly spell out words during songs", until the very end of the song, by which point lead singer is practically shouting the phrase. A great way to end a surprisingly good song.

10. The National - "Afraid of Everyone"
"You're the voices swallowing my soul"

I love The National and all, but they bring up a rather silly dilemma. You see, when a person puts a song quote up on Facebook, it's generally either:

a) a party anthem - i.e. "Got a couple bottles, but a couple ain't enough" or...
b) a horrific and depressing breakup anthem

However, if you were to put up "You're the voices swallowing my soul", you've immediately got some explaining to do (which is sad, because a lot more people should be listening to The National). It does no good to mention the unbelievable drumming that accompanies the line, or the fact that "Afraid of Everyone" evokes a feeling of paranoid despair better than any song in recent memory. Seriously, though... that drumming... Forget Facebook. This is too good for a mere status update, anyway.


9. Children 18:3 - "Lost So Long"
"Rain's comin'"

Children 18:3 goes epic. Who would have figured? They make the album title sound like a foreboding threat and a hopeful promise at the same time. And again, the voices of David and Lee Marie Hostetter blend together in that fantastic male/female harmony they do so well (but never better than they do in the coda of this song). They may never top this, and that wouldn't be a failure.


8. Arcade Fire - "Suburban War"
"All my old friends, they don't know me now"

The Suburbs has been described by the band as "neither a love letter to, nor an indictment of, the suburbs". Nowhere does that statement feel more true than the last minute of "Suburban War". A blast of noise (which reminded one of my good friends of a tornado drill siren) cuts the rest of the song off, then a driving drumbeat starts in as Win Butler sings "All my old friends - they don't know me now...". A sighing look back at the fact that things have changed, and they're not changing back, and it's time to move on.


7. Titus Andronicus - "A More Perfect Union"
"Tramps like us... baby, we were born to die"

Lead singer Patrick Stickles has a unique voice. It could be politely described as a "caterwaul". On the band's first album, his shouting occasionally came off as a little over the top. It still does, only now he's given it a purpose. Nowhere is that more evident than in the first verse of the opening track to the excellent The Monitor. The tension manages to build up the very first verse, until it all spills over with Stickles screaming "tramps like us... baby we were born to die!" as a huge squall of guitar and drums rushes over everything. The result is pure rock and roll awesomeness.


6. Salem - "King Night"
Wait... is that "O Holy Night"!?

The first time I heard this song, I was already creeped out by the slowed down and pitched "I love you" snippet in the beginning, and that was before the huge wave of bass cast its impressive shadow over everything. Most creepy, though, was that damned choir providing the backbone of the song. For a moment, it sounded like something familiar, but I couldn't quite place it. Then suddenly, it hit me. It was "O Holy Night". Salem made "O Holy Night" sound like the creepiest song ever. That's an accomplishment.


5. Yeasayer - "Madder Red"
"Please don't ask me why"

Really, most of this song could be included here. From the "Ooo-oo-ooo-oo-oooh"s in the beginning, to the awesome way the chorus comes in, everything is so spot on. The best part, though, is the ending, where the singer just sort of fades away while singing "please don't ask me why".


4. The Hold Steady - "The Weekenders"
"The theme of this party's the industrial age, and you came in dressed like a trainwreck"

This is the one-liner of the year, from the song of the year.


3. Kanye West - "Monster"
Nicky Minaj's verse

This is sort of an obvious choice, but before this verse I didn't understand what the big deal with Nicky Minaj was. Sure. she was weird, but I hadn't heard anything that made me pay any further attention to her. Then she outshowed Kanye West and Jay-Z in their own song - only she didn't just outshow them, she blew them out of the water. In retrospect, in feels kind of obvious that she's actually the forefront of the song (she gets about twice as much mic time as either Kanye or Jay-Z do), but that doesn't take anything away from her verse. It's an all-over-the-place pillar of "shut the fuck up and listen to me". It succeeds wildly.


2. The National - "Conversation 16"
"Cause I'm evil."

This entire song is ominous, with lines like "[i'll] tell you miserable things when you are asleep" and "you'd never believe the shitty thoughts I think". But things really come to a boil during the bridge: "I was afraid I'd eat your brains..." then "cause I-i-i'm eeeeevil". It doesn't like much on paper, but with the voice of Matt Berninger, and the drumming of Bryan Devendorf backing it up, it feels like something of a self-admission you could make to yourself. It soars even as it admits terrifying things.


1. Japandroids - "Younger Us"
"Remember that night you were already in bed"

For a song about wanting to be brought back to bygone days, "Younger Us" feels alive. It's all about feeling alive and vital like you did when you were younger, so I guess that makes sense. In the midst of the nostalgic mayhem, the lead singer shouts:

"Give me that night - you were already in bed. Said "fuck it" got up and drank with me instead."

The radio edit cuts this line. I can't fathom why they would even bother playing the song at all with the line removed. The song's life beats through the line; it's where the point lies. Namely - "live life to the fullest right now, because now is the time that you'll be reminiscing about later".

I'm Not Being Fair...

...I've barely blogged enough this year to push last year's year end music lists off the front page. I know this. We can't do anything about the past, let's move on.

This summer was taken up mostly with Spookymilk Survivor (I finished in third place out of 21, so woot for me!), and absurd pile of work, and various different outdoor endeavors. I know it's not an excuse, I watched a lot of Twins games, I suppose I could have been mentioning those (then again, most of my Twins discussion took place over at the WGoM). I'm not doing a very good job of justifying the continued existence of Nibbishment, but bear with me.

Putting all of that behind us, we're going to move forward. Starting December 26th, I'm putting forth my week-long "year end music list extravaganza", just like I've been doing for years now. I've put a helpful schedule beneath, so that you can pretend to care about this. I'll be doing full write-ups on everything, as always. So if nothing else, it's a good excuse to come and laugh at the fact that I'm not a very good music critic.

Dec 29 - Top 20 Moments in Music: 2010
Dec 30 - Top 20 Songs of the Year
Dec 31 - Top 20 Albums of the Year
Jan 1 - Top 30 Most Listened to Songs of 2010

Okay, so it's less "week long extravaganza", more "desperate bid for attention", but I hope you'll read it anyway. Especially Jester, if only so that he can mock me mercilessly when Lady Gaga inevitably shows up in my "Best Song About Vengeful Sex" category.