Saturday, January 1, 2011

Top 10s of 2010

My goal with this thing has always been to produce substantive content, or to keep my mouth shut; an exercise in restraining my own narcissism. Thus the lack of posts in the past few months. I've been back in the United States and, despite a few blips in the flat line, not a whole lot has been going on. If there has been any constant over the past few months, however (aside from boredom), it would be the consumption of media.


So, as I have done on other occasions, the following are my favorite things from over the past year:



Albums

This was an incredible year for music, so this list was difficult to put together, and a separate Honorable Mentions list would be almost as good. 'Brothers' and 'The Suburbs' need to be on the list, but both are overshadowed by superior work in each band's previous releases. Plastic Beach, Crystal Castles, ArchAndroid, Wake Up!, Swim, The Bells Sketch EP, Age of Adz, Odd Blood, Everything in Between, Cosmogramma, Treats... the list goes on. They all deserve a spot.

My number one pick actually surprised me. It would have gone to Kanye, but 'Go' is such a beautiful thing, I think it will end up sticking with me longer than a monolithic pop opera like MBDTF. And I still haven't decided if Joanna Newsom is really the most compelling female vocalist in the game, or if I'm just in love with her (either way, she's in).

  1. Jonsi - Go
  2. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
  3. The National - High Violet
  4. LCD Soundsystem - This is Happening
  5. Big Boi - Sir Lucious Leftfoot: The Son of Chico Dusty
  6. The Tallest Man on Earth - Wild Hunt
  7. Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest
  8. Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me
  9. Spoon - Transference
  10. The Roots - How I Got Over


Songs

This was easy. It's pretty much just the top 10 most played on my [nerdy not-iTunes music player]. Culled of the embarrassing shit, of course. I swear I don't like Rhianna that much.

  1. Jonsi - Kolnidur
  2. Kanye West (ft. Jay-Z and Swizz Beatz) - Power (Remix)
  3. Kanye West (ft. Jay-Z, Rick Ross and Nikki Minaj) - Monster
  4. Janelle Monae - Cold War
  5. John Legend and The Roots - Hard Times
  6. Spoon - Written in Reverse
  7. LCD Soundsystem - Drunk Girls
  8. Cee Lo Green - Fuck You
  9. Yeasayer - O.N.E.
  10. The Arcade Fire - Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)


Movies

Not a great year for film. 'The Fighter' serves as a good example. It is an excellent film that will almost certainly start winning awards very shortly... and received ZERO help from the studio that produced it until after it started receiving critical acclaim. There's simply not a lot of money for serious, artistic movie-making - not while most Americans just want to watch Narnia and the next Fockers installment. Regardless, there were definitely some flicks worthy of everyone's time.

Two of these, I feel, didn't get the attention that they deserved upon release: Carlos - a 5 1/2 hour monster of a movie that is boring for exactly zero seconds, and Restrepo - a crushing documentary about an Army infantry unit in Afghanistan. See them.

  1. Carlos
  2. True Grit
  3. Winter's Bone
  4. Restrepo
  5. A Profit
  6. Toy Story 3
  7. The Social Network
  8. The American
  9. The Kids Are Alright
  10. 127 Hours