Now that the haze of a good New Year’s celebration has passed and resolutions officially underway (because all serious things must begin on a Monday) let us flashback into the not-so-distant past of 2010. Before we do though, I’d like to go even further and talk a bit about 2009, because in my opinion, last year didn’t have quite the same splash as did the rounding up of the first decade of the new millennium. Whether you’re more apt to believe in the alignment of the stars or the dictating forces of the economy, it’s difficult to deny that something happened musically in 2009. It saw Lilly Allen – the bubbly, British, pop singer – who basically dedicated an entire album to the moral edification of the general public. It welcomed Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, whose debut album Up From Below made even the most urbanized individuals want to trade in their coffees to-go, quit thinking about the future and relish instead in the stability of the past over a home-cooked meal. It also inaugurated the innovative, introverted XX, whose mesmerizing music is as subtle and layered as its band’s name suggests.
But if the past year didn’t have the over all bang that the previous one did, there still came out of it great, powerful albums. There was, after all, the great Kanye West who recently discovered what – when applied to music and music videos – an oxymoron can do for your career. Not that his techniques aren’t genius: while flirting with sophistication in “Runaway”, Kanye launches into a list of insults only Urban Dictionary would be able to distinguish. This way, Kanye attracts the attention of everyone including those who think ballet is the highest form of physical expression to those who think it's for sissies. There was also Vampire Weekend’s second album, Contra, surpassing its genre-shaking eponymous album of 2008, as well as many other bands and artists reminding you why you liked them in the first place (The Morning Benders and the Black Keys’ albums were personal favorites). So instead of giving you a list of the best albums of the year (there are much more qualified people to do so – many of whom voted My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy number one) the following is a list of songs that had only one criteria to fill: I played them on repeat at some point last year.
But if the past year didn’t have the over all bang that the previous one did, there still came out of it great, powerful albums. There was, after all, the great Kanye West who recently discovered what – when applied to music and music videos – an oxymoron can do for your career. Not that his techniques aren’t genius: while flirting with sophistication in “Runaway”, Kanye launches into a list of insults only Urban Dictionary would be able to distinguish. This way, Kanye attracts the attention of everyone including those who think ballet is the highest form of physical expression to those who think it's for sissies. There was also Vampire Weekend’s second album, Contra, surpassing its genre-shaking eponymous album of 2008, as well as many other bands and artists reminding you why you liked them in the first place (The Morning Benders and the Black Keys’ albums were personal favorites). So instead of giving you a list of the best albums of the year (there are much more qualified people to do so – many of whom voted My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy number one) the following is a list of songs that had only one criteria to fill: I played them on repeat at some point last year.
1. "Crave You" - Flight Facilities
2. "Pumped Up Kicks" - Foster The People
3.Psychic City (Clasixx Remix) - Yacht
4.Something Good Can Work - Two Door Cinema Club
5. "Psychotic Girl" - Black Keys
6."Excuses" - Morning Benders
7. "For Your Love" - The Yardbirds
8. "Colours" - Calvin Harris
9. "Something Is Not Right With Me" - Cold War Kids
10. "On My Balcony" - Flunk
Dear Blalala,
ReplyDeleteIn your section on Kanye West's new album, you wrote "Not that his techniques aren’t genius..." Now, I'm just as hyped about Mr. West's album as the next fella; he is the leading modern hip-hop artist and a fantastic performer (I've seen him live twice), but the term "genius" should be reserved to the likes of Hemingway, Welles...musical men such as MOZART.
Before I take a step further, I'd just like to ask you to expand on your motivations for using the term "genius."
Faithfully,
TT