January 2011
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My 100 Favourite Albums of 2010
#1 LCD Soundsystem - This is Happening
It’s not innovative (even within the context of his own work), but it’s still by far my favourite record of this year. James Murphy still has it. What this says about the state of music in 2010, I’m not sure.
December 2010
15 posts
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My 100 Favourite Albums of 2010
#2 Robyn - Body Talk
I have to admit, I’m not sure if this album is as good as Robyn, but frankly, that’s a pretty high benchmark. This album (or three albums, depending on how you look at it) is a fantastic collection of eccentric pop. Robyn has a remarkable ability to craft really clever, original melodies that sound like no one else (c.f. the Diplo-produced ‘Dancehall...
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My 100 Favourite Albums of 2010
#3 Wavves - King of the Beach
This is probably mu biggest surprise of the year. I’m generally skeptical of the whole
‘lo-fi’ thing, and Wavves always seemed like one of the more egregious examples - excessive (crazy excessive!), ugly digital distortion hiding a complete lack of memorable songs.
As it turns out, however, he can write songs. Dumb songs, I’ll grant, but...
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My 100 Favourite Albums of 2010
#4 Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Yeah, it’s really good. Obviously. Honestly though, as good as it is, I don’t think I could reasonably classify it as my favourite of the year - at the very least, it simply has not been out long enough.
The thing that stands out about this album for me is the incredible production. Yes it’s bombastic, even by Kanye’s...
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My 100 Favourite Albums of 2010
#5 Janelle Monaé - Suites II and III: The Archandroid
I admit that I was really skeptical of Monaé at first - the whole idea of an r’n’b concept album based on Metropolis seemed to be pretty questionable in my mind, and her initial EP didn’t really do much to dissuade this notion. My natural aversion to anything musical theatre-ish kicked in big time when listening to this...
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My 100 Favourite Albums of 2010
#6 Tame Impala - Innerspeaker
Congratulations by MGMT = bad, bad neo-psychedelic rock, unfortunately conflating hookless meandering with depth
Innerspeaker by Tame Impala = great neo-psychedelic rock, mixing catchy songs with genuinely interesting textures; be sure to listen with headphones
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My 100 Favourite Albums of 2010
#7 Big Boi - Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty
As someone who was always quite adamant that Speakerboxxx, a brilliantly eclectic, bizarre album that lived up faithfully to the legacy of Stankonia, was far superior to the collection of reheated Prince leftovers that was The Love Below, it’s hardly surprising that I immediately liked Big Boi’s first solo album. In a...
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“It’s a testament to [R. Kelly’s] ingenuity as a singer and...”
– Jonah Weiner, providing an impressively disgusting allusion to the artist’s alleged past indiscretions.
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My 100 Favourite Albums of 2010
#8 Best Coast - Crazy for You
Basically, this sounds like what we’d get if the dude from Wavves’ girlfriend decided to release her own album of reverb-drenched surf rock. Oh right, that is what happened [quality writing - I know]. Whilst I still think it pales in comparison to King of the Beach, it is, in its own right, a rather excellent album.
As with that aforementioned album,...
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My 100 Favourite Albums of 2010
#9 Sleigh Bells - Treats
Admittedly, I was a bit sceptical of this album at first - it seemed little more than a gimmick. I have, however, grown to really love it. The sheer propulsive musical force is something that was lacking in most other music this year, and the whole cheerleader theme is amusingly perverse. Most importantly from my perspective, is that the songs are genuinely memorable....
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My 100 Favourite Albums of 2010
#10 Free Energy - Stuck on Nothing
Possibly my most surprising musical discovery of this year (with the likely exception of Wavves), Free Energy play pretty standard ’70s-style power pop of the Big Star variety. Nothing at all original, but so much fun. ‘Bang Pop’ gets stuck in my head like little else.
I guess I’m a little surprised that James Murphy (of LCD...
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“If you’re going to play it out of tune, then play it out of tune properly.”
– Mark E. Smith
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My 100 Favourite Albums of 2010 - #100-11
#11 Los Campesinos! - Romance is Boring
#12 No Age - Everything in Between
#13 Tokyo Police Club - Champ
#14 Gorillaz - Plastic Beach
#15 Cee-Lo - The Lady Killer
#16 Angus and Julia Stone - Down the Way
#17 Hot Chip - One Life Stand
#18 Vampire Weekend - Contra
#19 The National - High Violet
#20 Titus Andronicus - The Monitor
#21 Sia - We Are Born
#22 Deerhunter - Halycon Digest
#23...
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What is Popjustice’s obsession with Nicole Scherzinger’s ‘Poison’ all about? I don’t get it at all.
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November 2010
22 posts
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My 125 Favourite ’90s Hip-Hop Albums
#110 Black Eyed Peas - Behind the Front
“Let your body collide to the rhythm provided / By the mindstate affairs classified and make your / Heat up and flare I swear / A serenade, a soul, and so beware / And what’s happening here, seek one to help you / Feeling a piece of mind, let your spine unwind / Maybe in time you can stop this crime / But until then, yo, I’m-a rock a...
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1. Kanye’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy gets a 10.0 rating from Pitchfork. It now joins such noteworthy releases as 12 Rods’ Gay? and Robert Pollard’s Relaxation of the Asshole in receiving such a rare honour.
2. In all seriousness, it is a very good album.
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“There’s a real need for an intelligent but aggressive group in London. All the...”
– Nick Cave, NME, 1981
jagenmesh asked: Thank you for the follow. I raided your tumblr accordingly.
The music here is impeccable
The music here is impeccable
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“I tried but I could not find a way / Looking back all I did was look away / Next...”
– Roxy Music - ‘Re-make/Re-model’
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It’s weird to think that there are people interested in The Beatles who don’t own all their stuff already.
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My 125 Favourite ’90s Hip-Hop Albums
#111 Jedi Mind Tricks - The Psycho-Social, Chemical, Biological & Electro-Magnetic Manipulation of Human Consciousness
“As I decay, demons prey above me like a vulture / Ability to endure contradiction is a high sign of culture / Verbal sculptures, self defacing / It is not God or lunacy that I am facing / But the erasing of the purity and passion of my words / The herds of cattle...
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My 125 Favourite ’90s Hip-Hop Albums
#112 DMX - It’s Dark and Hell is Hot
“What makes you think you wasn’t able to stand / I got shit that’ll disable a man with the wave of a hand / The days are longer and it seems like I’m wasting time / I’ve got a lot of dreams but I’m not really chasing mine”
This guy is all about diminishing returns. This is a great album - dark, gritty,...
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My 82 Favourite Punk Rock Singles ‘77-‘79
The complete list (extremely belated, I know)
I’ve been meaning to compile a full list of all my punk single reviews forever, but kept forgetting. Anyway, here it is.
As a bonus, you can find at the bottom a list of honourable mentions/obvious picks that I forgot about.
#1 Buzzcocks - ‘Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve)’
#2 Richard Hell and the Voidoids - ‘Blank...
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“We used to rub Burt Bacharach albums on our crotches.”
– Billy MacKenzie, the lead singer of the brilliant, unjustly forgotten (for the most part) Scottish post-punk band The Associates. He sadly killed himself in ‘97.
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My 125 Favourite ’90s Hip-Hop Albums
#113 Lootpack - Soundpieces: Da Antidote!
“Down with the Liks / Jump straight from the bass onto the kicks / Non-freestyling MCs fall straight down in the pits / My name be Jack, spontaneous freestylist when I catch wreck / Brothers bite me so hard saying my rhymes I ain’t even wrote yet / So I take it to the max, take out fake-funkin’ Jacks / Get to the point as I rock...
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1. Kanye’s ‘Power’ is one of the best singles of the year - absolutely brilliant. Somehow, he manages to musically match his hubris with powerful production. Clattering drums, driving bass, Greg Lake sample - I love it.
2. “Everybody we rollin’ / With some light skinned girls, and some Kelly Rowlands” is, however, a painfully shitty line.
3. ‘Hard in...
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“I can’t talk about punk sociologically, only subjectively—I just wanted to...”
– Jah Wobble
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My 125 Favourite ’90s Hip-Hop Albums
#114 House of Pain - Same As It Ever Was
“Bustin’, flippin’, skippin’ / Just like a stone on a river / You know I’m gonna give her / Whole lot of flavour / Criminal behaviour / Used to be how I made it / But that shit’s overrated / Now I rock rhymes over funky beats / I fuck fine hookers between satin sheets / They say money changes people / But I...
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“It’s very interesting, to me, to be reminded of that, that there was a...”
– Brian Eno interviewed by Pitchfork today
October 2010
38 posts
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My 125 Favourite ’90s Hip-Hop Albums
#115 2Pac - Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z.
“Pump your fists like this / Holla if ya hear me - pump! pump! - if you’re pissed / To the sell-outs, living it up / One way or another you’ll be giving it up / I guess because I’m black born / I’m supposed to say peace, sing songs, and get capped on / But it’s time for a new plan / I’ll be swinging like a one...
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NME: The Eagles' Joe Walsh offers drugs advice to... →
Okay, I guess, as long as you’re barred from giving advice on music.
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“This is a failure. The tunes make (Lennon-McCartney’s) “Across the...”
– Robert Christgau on Bowie’s soul excursion Young Americans.
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My 125 Favourite ’90s Hip-Hop Albums
#116 Timbaland and Magoo - Welcome to Our World
“Timbaland, understand / Kickin’ the fly beats for all my fly fans / Not Peter Piper, but Peter Pan / Beat guaranteed to make you dance / People wanna know where I where I get my rhythm / Rhythm comes from the thing called wisdom / Wisdom is the thing that comes from the dome / When the clock strikes twelve, it’s on”
...
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“Like being gored to death by a sexy bear.”
– Anthony Easton from the Singles Jukebox on ‘Year of the Ox’ by Fucked Up.
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“Money can’t buy you happiness, but it can buy you a yacht big enough to...”
– David Lee Roth