2010: The Year in Music. Or not. (Part 1)

To be honest, I wasn't sure there was any point putting together a mix-tape of 'current' music this year. 2010 has been decidedly 'meh' musically for me so I feel any compilation would be perfunctory rather than genuinely inspired. Know what I'm sayin'?

Also, I read the Pitchfork Top 50 Singles of the year and realised my music awareness is so far from 'current' that I wonder if I ever left 2004. I knew approximately 8 of the bands and of those bands had heard maybe 3 of the songs. It looked like a joke list. The words made no sense to me.

That said, here are some of the songs I loved this year (even if they originated from earlier).

Song: Anyone's Ghost

Artist: The National (High Violet, 2010)

"Anyone's Ghost" by the National @ Bell House

- Watch more Music Videos at Vodpod.

I was at this gig.

~sigh~

Anyhoo. My favourite song on the album would be Conversation 16 apart from the fact that every time I hear the chorus I think "Ugh! Why, National, why??". And that's what's stopped it from making The List this year. Anyone's Ghost is a terrifically poppy song with dark undertones (my favourite genre). Note esp. the cello that comes in to harmonise mid-way through. Unfortunately, at the Bell House gig there was no cellist and so you can't hear it in the above clip. What you can hear in the clip though, is how awesome Dessner #1's guitar is. The camera operator is right in front of him and must be capturing the foldback because it rises above the rest of the mix and lets you hear just how skillful he is (I, for one, won't be tackling that on Guitar Hero anytime soon*.)

Didn't want to be your ghost

Didn't want to be anyone's ghost

But I don't want anybody else

Song: Baby We'll be Fine

Artist: The National (Alligator, 2005)

I know there's no clip here but the only live performance I could find wasn't awesome and didn't do the song justice. After nearly 2 years rejecting Alligator, something clicked a few months ago and now I love it. This song is the standout. A diddy for anyone who has even been on the brink of f*cking something up royally.

Song: I Won't be Found

Artist: The Tallest Man on Earth (Shallow Grave, 2008)

First song on the first album. Wow, Katie, you've really explored this artist thoroughly. Typically, this album is his earlier one, Shallow Grave. I do have his 2010 album (The Wild Hunt) and am slowly getting to know it but keep getting drawn back to Shallow Grave. Sometimes you just want to listen to one man and one guitar (or banjo). A raw voice, compared to Bob Dylan for obvious reasons. This album is finger-pickin' gorgeous.

Song: You Must be Out of Your Mind

Artist: The Magnetic Fields (Realism, 2010)

Again, no clip (but a cello!) There's no point putting a song here if you can't hear it properly right? It was tough narrowing down with Mag Fields song to choose. They really have been THE band of the past couple of years. But this is my favourite from their 2010 album. The album is, to be honest, not their strongest but an experiment in acoustic music, a direct and deliberate inverse to their previous Distortion album. (The album on highest rotation on Podley would be I. So many great tracks on this album I want to download it and share it with the world).

Song: Stumble Then Rise on Some Awkward Morning

Artist: A Silver Mt Zion (He Has Left Us Alone but Shafts of Light Still Sometimes Grace the Corners of Our Rooms, 2008)

As if some post-rock wasn't going to slip into this list. This song is probably a tied favourite with Sit in the Middle of Three Galloping Dogs but then I saw this clip and it is so mesmerising I wanted to show it to you. This is from their 2008 album so I am not too far behind. Again, strings reign supreme with this band. Tragic, epic and beautiful. This band (and album) really are exquisite. This band is an offshoot of Godspeed You! Black Emperor who, after an 8 year hiatus have now reappeared in both my itunes playlist and, more significantly, on stages around Europe and America.

Song: O.N.E.

Artist: Yeasayer (Odd Blood, 2010)

And finally, some pure pop goodness. I can't embed their official clip for this song but that's okay. Sometimes I forget this is a Gen Y band and their clips are such silly odes to the 80s (a period time - and fashion - should hurry up and forget already) that I immediately felt sheepish for digging these guys. But this song has been on high rotation in our house this year (both on itunes and on vinyl) and a LOT of 80s dancing has ensued as a result. And for that, these guys make The List.

*Or indeed any song after last night's Guitar Hero disaster at Jon's place. Much harder than it looks, people

69 Reasons to Stay In Tonight

Look what arrived in the mail today!

6 x 10 inch remastered records

Lyrics

Photos

36 page interview with Stephin Merritt Esq.

and of course...

the music.

My heart's running round like a chicken with it's head cut off.

The Change (Or: We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto)

Music of 2010 will be next post. But while I'm compiling it please check out Jonathan's Best of The Year.

Some Thoughts in Anticipation of 2011 (Or: Bugger off 2010, No-one Liked You Anyway)

Once, if you asked me my age, my immediate response was: "24". This was not a lie. It's just that this is the age that made most sense to me. I liked being that age. Life was full of potential. It felt old enough to be taken seriously, young enough to be out dancing all night to The Strokes and Franz Ferdinand. I pretty much stayed 24 in my mind until I turned 30. Then to say "I'm 30" became instinctive. And this is because 30 was also an outstanding year.

The trouble is, I am actually 31. But if there is a more unexceptional and boring age than this one I am yet to meet it. The only thing it has going for it is the fact it is a prime number. It seems to have rested on that laurel and followed up with nothing. Not only that, but 31 went and unravelled everything 30 had gone and achieved. Darnit.

I do adore being in my 30s though. I don't mind that dancing all night is an annual rather than weekly occurrence. I prefer wine, music, good company and conversation to almost anything. My favourite sport is chess. I don't understand the way 24 year olds talk and I think they wear stupid clothes and listen to derivative music. I've been known to tune the car radio to 2WS FM and listen to Cheap Trick ad nauseum rather than have some Gen Y kid of FBI subject me to 2 hours of techno when I am driving home.

I wear my generation gap with pride.

But the 30s are about more than scoffing at the generation behind us. All around friends and family are going through The Change: that is, they are engaged, married and/or up the duff (some for the second time). Friends have dinner parties in houses they actually own. We now have a dedicated toy cupboard for when our (there-is-no) god children come round to play. This is a brave new world, my friends. Complete with Fischer Price garage and Swedish wooden building blocks.

The 30s bring you unavoidably face to face with The Change. And while I support it in the people I love, I am not ready to embrace it for myself just yet. There are just too many things left to accomplish so 2011 is the year I am going to try to make these happen...

1. Finish off NY.

I have a return flight and tickets to GY!BE. Both of which are only valid until March 2011.

2. Cut a feature film.

But this time

a) get remunerated for my work

b) work on one that gets seen by more than 5 people

3. Go to Africa.

This has now leaped to the top of our holiday destinations (with a side trip to Turkey for McNutty). Depending on how item 1 goes, this may get pushed to 2012. But got to be soon for The Change is a'comin and we want to see us some zebras before it gets here...

Now for a tune that covers two themes in this post...

I didn't know Zach Galifianakis was in Toto.