What follows is a rambling, incoherent mess of music that I acquired in 2010. Some of the notes are interspersed with the list and some are at the end. It really just depended on how I was feeling about that particular batch of albums. Some random numbers for 2010: 1073 "songs", 3.1 "days" of music that takes up 8.17GB.
January
- Low vs Diamond - Low vs Diamond
Best song: Don’t Forget Sister - Manchester Orchestra - Mean Everything to Nothing
Best song: Shake It Out - Vampire Weekend - Contra
Best song: Giving Up The Gun - OK Go - Of the Blue Colour of the Sky
Best song: This Too Shall Pass
Contra is really a good album. It took a while to grow on me, but Giving Up The Gun was an instant hit. Low vs Diamond was fun at first, but it just doesn’t have any staying power. For that matter, neither did Manchester Orchestra. The OK Go album was really not what I was expecting. It takes a much mellower tone than their previous work and I guess I wasn’t ready for what they had to offer this time.
February
- Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (Remix Collection)
I’ve actually unchecked all these songs in iTunes so they don’t sync. I can’t really recommend this. - Yeasayer - Odd Blood
Best song: Ambling Alp - Matt & Kim - Grand
Best song: almost all of them, but Cutdown stands out with 5 stars - KMFDM - Krieg
Did I buy this just because it had a Pop Will Eat Itself remix? Yes. Enough said.
March
- Flogging Molly - Live at the Greek Theatre
They bring it live. - Gorillaz - Plastic Beach
Best song: On Melancholy Hill - Broken Bells - Broken Bells
Best song: October - The White Stripes - Elephant
Yeah, yeah…I know. It took me a while. - Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures
Looking back I’m not sure why I got this. - Codeine Velvet Club - Codeine Velvet Club
It was John Fratelli, so I got it. - The White Stripes - White Blood Cells
- Delphic - Acolyte
A gift from stilldavid, but it has no real staying power.
April
- MGMT - Congratulations
No staying power, will have to revisit later…if I remember. - The Heavy - The House That Dirt Built
Song you’ll know: How You Like Me Now from the sock puppet Kia Super Bowl commercial.
May
- The New Pornographers - Together
Best song: Moves or Crash Years - We Have Band - WHB
- Phantogram - Eyelid Movies
- The National - Boxer
- The National - High Violet | High Violet Expanded Edition
We Have Band and Phantogram were recommended based on Cut Copy. Neither are as good. I also finally got into The National and they skyrocketed up the play count chart.
June
- The National - Alligator
- The National - The National
- The Black Keys - Brothers
- The Xx - Xx
- The Chemical Brothers - Further
- Orbital - Don’t Stop Me/The Gun is Good
- Goldfrapp - Head First
I grabbed two more from The National and Alligator is just a phenomenal album. It’s more “rock” than a lot of their more recent stuff, so be warned if all you know is High Violet. The Chemical Brothers continue to put out the same album, and for some reason I continue to buy them. Orbital, just when I think they’ve retired for good they put out an amazing single. Goldfrapp has gone a bit soft, so if you really liked Black Cherry or Supernature, you might not dig this one.
July
- The Hives - Tarred and Feathered
- Sleigh Bells - Treats
- Harlowe and the Great North Woods - Harlowe
- How to Destroy Angels - How to Destroy Angels
Holy crap do I want a new Hives album to come out. The Black and White album came out in 2007. Sleigh Bells was a nice treat and it sounds like The Spice Girls teamed up with Ministry and rocked the hell out. Harlowe is nice and mellow and How to Destroy Angels is your typical Trent Reznor side project.
August
- Tokyo Police Club - Champ
- Wolf Parade - Expo 86
Best song: Cave-o-spaien - Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
- Underworld - iTunes Festival: London 2010
- The Love Language - Libraries
The Wolf Parade album is good, but not quite as good as Apologies to The Queen Mary and The Love Language reminds me a lot of Arcade Fire.
September
- James - The Morning After the Night Before
- Interpol - Interpol
- Underworld - Barking
- Brandon Flowers - Flamingo
- Weezer - Hurley
- Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross - The Social Network
I’m not sure why I don’t like James anymore, because they used to be one of my favorite bands. Nothing on this most recent album really grabs me. The Interpol album is okay, but not great. Underworld did a bang up job on Barking. Brandon Flowers really needs The Killers. Weezer is Weezer. In the Hall of the Mountain King from The Social Network soundtrack is great.
October
- Starfucker - Starfucker
- Starfucker - Jupiter
- Bonobo - Black Sands
- Reel Big Fish - The Best of Us for the Rest of Us
- Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run
Kat found Starfucker and these two albums are quite enjoyable.
November
Please get everything by Matt & Kim that you can, it’s great stuff. Yes, I bought the Kanye album…what?
December
- Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine [2010 Remaster]
- Daft Punk - Tron: Legacy
- Keane - Under the Iron Sea
- M.I.A. - Kala
- The Rolling Stones - Jump Back - The Best of the Rolling Stones, ‘71 - ‘93
- Yeasayer - Live at the Ancient Belgique
- The Limousines - Get Sharp
- Mark Ronson & The Business Intl - Record Collection
Pick of the bunch is The Limousines and you should really see their video for Internet Killed the Video Star