Sunday, December 05, 2010

Favorite Music of 2010



It's become a yearly ritual to sort through my favorite albums come the first week of December. Now, it's silly to sort and rank things—let's just get that out there. And you're probably sick of seeing these lists already. But if you care about something, like I care about music, it's a good way to wrap up the year and especially fun to look back on.

This year, two albums rose to the top: Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and Sufjan Stevens' The Age of Adz. Which is interesting, because the last time Sufjan released a monumental album (Illinois, in 2005), so did Kanye (Late Registration). That year, I was torn between the two. But this year, it isn't even close. It is ridiculous how much I love Kanye's new album. Not to mention G.O.O.D. Fridays. I'd say he is my favorite artist/musician of the moment. The man, the music—argue with me all you want. Ha!

So, you know my #1 and #2 spots. Here's where the music landed.

My TOP 10 11 Album picks*

  1. Kanye West
    – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

  2. Sufjan Stevens – The Age of Adz
  3. Gorillaz – Plastic Beach
  4. Marnie Stern – Marnie Stern
  5. Toro y Moi – Causers of This
  6. Robyn – Body Talk*
  7. Caribou – Swim
  8. Blackbird Blackbird – Summer Heart
  9. The Apples in Stereo – Travelers in Space and Time
  10. DeerhunterHalcyon Digest
  11. Chromeo – Business Casual

*Edit: After listening to Robyn's new album, it definitely should've made the final cut. But I didn't think it fair to bump anyone out, so I now have 11 albums.

Because it's always hard to cut it off at 10 11, here are some other good ones from this year:

Best CoastCrazy For You
Candy ClawsHidden Lands
(for these guys, check out In the Dream of the Sea Life from 2009—better, imo)
RatatatLP4
LCD Soundsystem – This Is Happening
Vampire Weekend – Contra
The New Pornographers – Together

And some albums that are newly growing on me:

RobynBody Talk (bumped up to the list!)
The Arcade Fire – The Suburbs

As always, I'm curious what everyone else is listening to, so PLEASE leave your favorites in the comments.


If you think you share some of my musical tastes, look me up on last.fm (bobjinxmusic)

Here are my lists from previous years (2009, 2008, 2007, 2006)

and FINALLY, here's the censored version (for Walmart):

7 comments:

Mike Rauch said...

Looks like a good list. I've been light on my music listening this year, so this list will be good to catch me up on some things I've missed!

Reinaldo Dimon said...

Hey bob, for me:
Robyn: Body Talk
The Arcade Fire: The Suburbs
Kelis: Fleshtone

I think kayne amazing but not this album, great list man!

chris said...

Guster: Easy Wonderful

Bob Flynn said...

Thanks for chiming in, guys.

Reinaldo:

I've only played Robyn's "Body Talk" a few times now (because it just came out), but I'm really liking it. I'm thinking it might have made it's way into my top picks if I gave myself more time to simmer on it. Very very good.

Anonymous said...

My top 7:

1. "Transference" by Spoon
2. "King of the Beach" by Wavves
3. "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" by Kanye West
4. "This Is Happening" by LCD Soundsystem
5. "The Suburbs" by Arcade Fire
6. "Halcyon Digest" by Deerhunter
7. "There Is Love In You" by Four Tet.

Great choices, by the way.

David Martingale said...

My fave is Field Music's "Measure." Can't stop listening to it!

blog said...

All these albums are sickeningly good, and I think you'll love em (everyone else I play them to does):

Janelle Monae: The Arch Android
The Roots(they're back): How I Got Over
Big Boi: Sir Luscious Left Foot The Son of Chico Dusty

And Best of All (and it's free!), the latest 'mixtape' from Das Racist: Sit Down Man
Check the Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/dasracist
Check their videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lLm0HYVrlg
Download that shit: http://www.djbooth.net/index/mixtapes/entry/das-racist-sit-down-man
It's what they want. Not to hype it up too much or anything...