List of the Day: Top 10 Songs of 2010

In 2010 my music habits moved from reactionary to anticipatory. In other-words I stopped trying to play catch-up as much and even managed to pick up a few records on the day they were released, it was like I had a whole new series of holidays to celebrate. I know my days of catch-up are far from over and I'll probably be discovering great albums that were released in 2010 for the rest of my life. But I'd like to think I was at least a little more in touch with cool music that I have been before. So here is some of that cool music presented below in list form. As with my Top Songs of 2009 list there is a one-song-per-band limit.

Top 10 Songs of 2010

10) "Shutterbug" (Big Boi)
Big Boi assembled an all-start cast of southern hip-hop greats for his long-awaited solo debut. If he would have put out that record in a year that Kanye West didn't release an album, Sir Lucious Left Foot might have been the only album indie kids listened to in 2010 instead.

9) "Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Prophet John" (Belle and Sebastian)
Despite having one of the ugliest song titles of the year, this cut off of Belle and Sebastian's latest is a thing of beauty. Norah Jones dueting with Stuart Murdock also somehow makes a ton of sense after hearing it here.

8) "What's My Name" (Rihanna)
If you're toggling through radio stations, you can't take a ten minute drive without hearing Rihanna's voice, and honestly, she's pretty much the only thing making Top 40 radio tolerable right now. I never thought that I would miss snap-rap so much, or at all.

7) "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)" (Arcade Fire)
So many bands have tried to replace a lack of meaningful lyrics with vague and abstract ones, Arcade Fire totally bucks that trend and instead is brutally honest and relatable. This track is a perfect example of that almost awkward sentimentality and straightforwardness.

6) "Hurricane J" (The Hold Steady)
At some point I will write at length about how slept on The Hold Steady's 2010 album, Heaven is Whenever was, but in the mean time I'll simply reference this track, which good enough to hang with anything Craig Finn has written.

List of the Day: Best Belle and Sebastian Albums

Belle and Sebastian are an unwieldy sized (currently seven members) bunch of Scottish bookworms who have been turning out consistently endearing albums of indie-pop classics since 1996. After falling in love with their first record Tigermilk an embarrassingly short time ago, I shot through their other six proper full lengths, and was not once disappointed. While I could enjoy writing a sizable essay about each one of these records, I will present brief thoughts on each, and rank their excellence relative to their siblings.

7) The Boy With The Arab Strap
I don't dislike a single Belle and Sebastian album, and this is no exception, but after releasing two subdued masterpieces to begin their career (Tigermilk and If You're Feeling Sinister), a stylistic change was probably called for instead of a third record that examined the same ideas. After The Boy With The Arab Strap, the group did indeed change their sound by first turning darker, and then going for a popier sound.
Best Songs: "It Could Have Been a Brilliant Career," "A Summer Wasting," "The Boy With The Arab Strap"

6) Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant
I've read a handful of derisive things that have been written about this album and granted, it may hold a couple of the weakest songs the group has penned, but it also contains a good bunch of unmissable tunes that contain some of the most powerful lyrics I've heard on a Belle and Sebastian album, which is saying something.
Best Songs: "I Fought in a War," "The Chalet Lines," "Women's Realm"

5) The Life Pursuit
The most accessible material in the band's discography saw a bit of a variation from their established classic sound without taking away too much of what made that sound great.
Best Songs: "Another Sunny Day," "White Collar Boy," "For The Price of a Cup of Tea"

Album Review: James Blake: James Blake

In late 2008 Kanye West released his drastic side-step of an album, 808's & Heartbreak. He decision to sing instead of rap was a emotional necessity, following the disintegration of his engagement and  the death of his mother, rather than an example of genre experimentation. The world-conquering hip-hop he had mastered on Graduation wasn't something he could harness to convey what he was feeling, it wasn't emotionally fragile enough.

British singer and producer James Blake has made a similar decision with his debut album, James Blake. Continuing his progression away from the more devoutly dubstep sounds of his earlier work, Blake uses more traditional and soulful vocals to express emotions that dubstep alone is not capable of evoking. 808's & Heartbreak and Blake's album also explore the idea of a simultaneously artificial sounding and spiritually damaged persona. This is particularly evident on album highlight "The Wilhelm Scream." As the track reaches it's climax, the pulsing layered waves of artificial noise that have been slowly building are pierced as Blake's very human voice echos through.

List of the Day: Who Should Play the Superbowl Halftime Show

After a break from blogging to facilitate my midterm homework/exam rush, I have returned with another great List of the Day:

The Black Eyed Peas performance at the Super Bowl XLV halftime show was a disaster. Between Fergie's mic not working properly, the absurd costumes, an awful appearance by Usher, and the confusing presence of the two non-Fergie/will-i-am members who were little more than boring hype-men.

This performance got me thinking about all of the great bands that would be great to see out on the 50 yard line halfway through next year's game, but first I had to establish two rules:

1) Among average Americans, the artist needs to have some level of name-recognition. Not everyone needs to like the artist, but a good number of people should at least know about them.

2) The performer needs to be relatively inoffensive, so as popular as Eminem is, the Superbowl-music-halftime-show-selection-lowest-common-musical-denominator-committee-people who are still gun-shy from Janet Jackson's malfunction would probably not be okay with him being on stage.

3) The artist needs to not be retired or (if a band) needs to not be broken up.

Who Should Play the Superbowl Halftime Show:

5) Beastie Boys
The Beastie Boys could absolutely destroy the Superbowl stage, Licensed to Ill alone has enough hits to make an amazing setlist, and when you thrown in other classics like "Sabotage" and maybe a more recent cut like "Ch-Check It Out" plus some matching sweatsuits, you would be guaranteed a show you couldn't turn off.