After some thought, here is my revised, annotated view of music I loved in 2010.



Another year in a series in which the perne in a gyre phenomenon enabled, distributed and fragmented my interests so randomly that there is no core to this list, no earth-shaking pop-culture watershed moments… the Market is overlord, consumer unit re-framing and digital tracking allow the fine-tuning of my aural amusements. I find more obscure and finely honed satisfactions, but perhaps finally (after 45 of these year-end exercises) the Church of Rock and Roll has gone out of business and bolted its doors of perception shut (although some metal peeks are on [and peaks in] my list for the first time in a long time). The Center does not hold; the disintegration of which leaves (left) bright specks that outline a profile of a spiritus mundi. One of the best years of music in a while for me, albeit tidbits of perfect construction, no large virus-resistant generational definitions. The artifice of eternity? Not life everlasting, just some brief and fading moments of life right now.

1. Nik Bartsch's Ronin – Llyria
They call it Zen funk. It is meditative and insistent Swiss jazz, that measures out syncopation in spoonfuls of post-African groove, with multiple time-signatures concurrently running. If you try to count it out, or track the arrangements with any compositional analysis you’ll appreciate the reasoned and evolved compilation and ordering of its musical ideas. A clockwork precision; they are Swiss after all. But that’s not it; it’s the melodic intensity and the insistent mystery of its driving rhythms that recall the moments before our corporeal conception. Just as the Rolling Stones gave back Muddy Waters in a new universe, Mr. Bartsch gives back A Love Supreme, without love, but with a cool and calculated empty dancing of the highest order. Yin gives up yang, order is the metric of chaos. Pass me the Heidegger.

2. The Alps – Le Voyage
Played more than anything else this year, some of it is embarrassingly pretty…to accompany credits rolling for a “quirky but quiet” RomSitCom circa 1973… it’s whole world is some Mendocino/Frankfurt universe of the early 70’s where we’re luxuriating in an herbal fog mit candles while the Baader Meinhoff Group do the heavy lifting. Wah wahs and sitars and drum circles. The music sounds like quiet un-released outtakes from Popol Vuh or Can… although they are really young musicians from trendy neighborhoods in SF. The fragments recall hippie poets from Chile living in the Marais and a montage of shopping on Portobello Road. Tea and sympathy restored to the throne of the post-Rock of the Obama era. A fuzz tone here, an acoustic jangle, the slow and deliberate drum break, the stretched out space still possible, drones of the highest order. Perhaps a simulation of lost innocence like this can only happen if there are no voices; and here are only instruments and their memory. The music is richly seasoned head food and palliative chill pill, reminiscent of a time when pulling things apart wasn’t entropic, but rather preparatory to some new and improved Production value. Maybe this music only opens up if the listener has lived something that no longer exists, or plays it hundreds of times in a row. It did, I did, I did. Pass me the lighter.

3. Four Tet – There is Love in You
A disco beat? No, really? But this trance-like invitation sounds both sophisticated (adult) and blameless (young). The “good for all ages and purposes” nature of the music did mean it stayed in the car CD player for six months. The arc of post-rock instrumentals have traveled now from party-soundtrack to jazzy compositions with electronic treatments and runway vocal scraps. Hey, maybe looking good is the greatest revenge after all. Every recorded sound bit, although often analog in origin, is placed in software-friendly loops, hips and hops. Kieran Hebdon has created rhythmic explorations that, for once, are not even remotely “soundtracks” or sound-dance-tracks, but rather are challenging and pleasing reminders that repetition can be incrementally powerful, that stops and starts can wake up the hearing, that insistence is often a kind of beauty, and that lucid sounds can throw light on the matter. Pass me the credit card, I’m flying to Milan.

4. Paul Motian – Lost in a Dream
In years past I didn’t include my jazz forays much in these lists unless it was hybrid jazz (Nils Pettar Molvaer). I didn’t think they were fair to measure against the rock power, and I didn’t always trust my own knowledge of the technical underpinning of the jazz. But for a long time I’ve listened to quasi-rock, ambient, electronic music in the same way as jazz. It’s uneven still (how could Charles Lloyd not be better than anything else in this top ten). But Motian’s compositions’ astonishing beauty and calm, serious resolve hold their place here. This is, after all, a supergroup. Chris Potters’ classic and noble sax, the inventive roadmap of Jason Moran’s piano, and the challenging and definitive drumming of Motian stir the heart effortlessly, just as they appeal to the intellect and the sense of history. In sounding absolutely mature and classic, this trio has made the most beautiful music of the year… and in this beauty there is a truth lost in the clamor of the day. Quiet is the new eternal. Pass the Original Consciousness.

5. Radio Dept – Clinging to a Scheme
The first half is a resurrection of indy economic design , earnest and melodic, with a dialogue between the vocals and guitars that are remindful of great Brit-Pop (sometimes Blue Nile, sometimes Prefab Sprout, always nasal white-eyed soul). Bittersweet but perky music to tap the steering wheel while stopped in traffic; mid-tempo reminders not to worry about traffic at all. The sweetness earned by that weird Scandinavian student-of-music-history in which the source is obscured and nailed in one guitar hook, or bridge, or snare drum tightness. It loses steam, even at less than 40 minutes of music. The pop moment may only last 90 seconds. But what a glorious reminder of what those 90 seconds can do. Pass me the guidebook to Mykonos.

6. Matthew Dear – Black City
So if most of my best-loved music this year is “calming” or retro-leaning post-rock, this is danceable and neurotic dark urban tenseness that seems right now, even if it is “intelligent” dance music. Proving that “tribal” can be as modern as a phone-app and as nerve-wracking as double espressos at midnight, and that snide grandeur can be relevant. And midnight is this music’s time signature, with just the occasional legato of pre-dawn after-hours chill room. Its requisite retro quotations are more Wire and Psycho Killer than Prince and the Cure. And the guy’s double-tracked voice slays me; part David Byrne and part club kid of the Bush the Second era. And so under it all is a healthy dose of David Bowie in all his Man Who Sold the World to Thin White Duke affects. Fashion could, provisionally, conceivably still be a tool of subversion. Jury’s still out, but this is good music until their pizza arrives and they return with a verdict. I defy your buttocks muscles not to keep time to some of these beats. But defiance is less the order of Dear’s day than narrative; the lyrics paint a nicely grim picture of Dead Dancers with a hunger to tell their story. I think one song is about a universal need for plastic surgery. Rope a dope humor and missed opportunities taken for granted. Pass me the bottled water, I think I’m getting dehydrated.

7. Sun Kil Moon – Admiral Fell Promises
When I made the first draft of this list l had this far down … around 50. But that was so unfair to Kozelek and my own penchant for “pretty” and mournful music. I listened to this so many times I took it for granted… as though it were Joni Mitchell’s Blue or Andres Segovia or salt. His songs are linearly challenging… and one often seems to run into another. Some are so heavily arranged (for only a voice and acoustic nylon-stringed guitar) that often what seems like three songs sees the original theme return and you realize you’ve been on a aural journey that is both simple acoustic folk singing, and a mysterious “chamber music” of some foggy San Francisco afternoon neighborhood walk. The flamenco, cocktail lounge guitar flourishes frame his inimitably stark and descriptive lyrics about places, experiences, disappointments and gratitude of bay-area life. Half Moon Bay was the only song of the year that made me cry. Pass me the Beatnik schmaltz.

8. The Black Angels – Phosphene Dream
Oddly, this is the only music in the top ten that probably could be dreamed up by scruffy kids in a garage (as opposed to laptops in the bedroom), so rock is on the critical list. They offer even some blues chord changes and simple two part-harmonies framed by a “yeah” here, and a “hey, hey, hey” there. Every now and then they seem ready to go into a droning extended workout, but the songs, true to their nuggets heritage stay around or even under three minutes long. And they are songs with starts and stops that have nothing to do with each other. Best of all there is an echo of the great southwest, and one song “Entrance Song” is the power-pop hit of the year… what a teenage delight to hear the rumble crank up and (no, really, Native American chants) propelling the drive… behind the wheel of a V8, these kids are probably more popular in West End London than either Austin or West L:A. I mean, music not just for driving, but music about driving. Pass the ketchup.

9. Twin Shadows – Forget
Exactly why morose crooning (ala Morrissey, Depeche Mode), delivered without an ounce of irony and humor, should be relatively authentic in 2010 is mysterious. It is a tribute that programmed 80’s drums and washes of synths and Cure-ish guitar figures are not all the same, that from some a strong pop song can produce yearning in any year, despite Sheila E dance moves and fey hair-producted club boy ennui. I think the answer to the mystery is the romantic hunger at the base of the guy’s writing and singing. Eternal pubescent insecurity and discomfort. It feels like the gym’s decorated for the prom-still-in-our-lungs, lights low, a few girls dancing with each other, the punch bowls on the tables, the drugs not yet kicking in… none of us fit in, the future is still as dark as yesterday, we struggle for breath, …well, it is 2010 after all then. Pass the calendar.

10. Brian Eno – Small Craft on a Milk Sea
At first I was disappointed… in part because of high expectations of the Progenitor of the kind of music I listen to most. Also it seemed like the soundtrack-improvisations in parts were too thin, and the rhythmic louder segments were noisy by contrast, not a counterpoint to the morphine drips and drifts of the rest. But slowly the parts sunk in, and I heard the thread connecting it all. Even in his later years the great composer still touches the depths of the psyche by keeping these sonic fragments seamlessly superficial. Although his musical foundation is Satie, ultimately his tunes are Jungian; and are arranged and treated with an elegance not known nor understood by his Progeny. Pass the neurotransmitters


11. The Barn Owls – Ancestral Star
Continuing their laudable experiments with drones and simple and primal textures.
12. Lower Dens – Twin Hand Movement
Also a fine jangle and drone with Baltimore’s best female vocalist doing a Robert Smith treatment to its full song.
13. Junip - Fields
Another Scandinavian student of music, albeit with a Spanish guitar heritage. Atmospheric and insistent, if in a balanced and gentle Yo La Tengo way.
14. M. Ostermeier – Chance Reconstruction
Electronic and acoustic fragments building soundscapes of chilly beauty.
15. Emeralds – Does it Look Like I’m Here
Post rock instrumental jamming and tightly arranged etudes of what fits in today’s ambient light.
16. Ariel Pink – Haunted Graffiti
A messy closet of pop music, fully retro in its hide-and-seek “this is a hit” standards. Round and Round is the song of the year.
17. Christian Scott –Yesterday You Said Tomorrow
Moving jazz from something historical to something very future-oriented. The new wave of post-millennial cool and noisy jazz.
18. The Books – The Way Out
Self-help gurus, found sounds, social anthropology, and a smidge of electronic.
19. The Tallest Man on Earth – The Wild Hunt
The best Bob Dylan record since the 70’s and the best pure folk record of the decade by a Swedish political singer who has no sense of how funny it is he sounds exactly like Bob Dylan.
20. laan Kol – III
Shards of guitar feedback from the guitarist from Thuja.

21. LCD Soundsystem – This is Happening
22. I Am Not A Gun – Solace
23. Charles Lloyd -Mirror
24. Pantha du Prince – Black Noise
25. Kylesa – Spiral Shadow
26. Burkina Electric - Paspanga
27. The Drums – The Drums
28. Wild Night – Gemini
29. Ali Farka Toure & Toumani Diabete
30. Phantogram - Eyelid Movies
31. The National – High Violet
32. Paul Weller – Wake Up the Nation
33. Ketil Bjornstad – Remembrance
34. Retribution Gospel Choir - II
35. Gonjasufi – A Sufi and a Killer
36. Caribou – Swim
37. Johan Johannsson - & In the Endless Pause Came the Sound of Bees
38. Loscil – Endless Falls
39. Tomas Stanko – Dark Eyes
40. David Hidalgo/Louie Perez – The Long Goodbye
41. Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
42. Tame Impala – Innerspeaker
43. Manu Katche – Third Round
44. Deerhunter – Halcyon Digest
45. Mount Kimbie – Crooks and Liars
46. Titus Andronicus – The Monitorand
47. Seu Jorge and Almaz
48. The Black Keys – Brothers
49. Olafur Arnalds - & They Have Escaped the Weight of Darkness
50. Los Lobos – Tin Can Trust
51. Crocodiles – Sleep Forever
52. Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
53. M. Ostermeier – Lakefront
54. Nathaniel Ratlieff – In Memory of Loss
55. Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma
56. Warpaint – The Fool
57. Surfer Blood – Astrocoast
58. Voice of Seven Thunders – Voice of Seven Thunders
59. Cancha Via Circuito – Rio Arriba
60. Retribution Gospel Choir - 2
61. Beach House – Dream House
62. Shining - Blackjazz
63. Neil Young – Le Noise
64. Bilial – Airtight’s Revenge
65. Love Remains – How to Dress Well
66. Kylesa – The Sprial Shadow
67. Besnard Lakes – Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night
68. The Black Keys - Brothers
69. Spoon - Transference
70. No Age – Everything in Between
71. Liars - Sisterworld
72. Erykah Badu - New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh)
73. Broken Social Scene – Forgiveness Rock Record
74. Jason Moran - Ten
75. Agalloch – Marrow of the Spirit
76. Sade – Soldier of Love (deal with it bitches)
77. Vampire Weekend - Contra
78. Lali Puna – Out Inventions
79. The Hold Steady – Heaven is Whenever
80. Gil Scott Heron – I’m New Here
81. Local Natives – Gorilla Manor
82. Big Boi – Sir Luscious Left Foot
83. The Red River – Little Songs about the Big Picture
84. Broken Bells – Broken Bells
85. Jamie Johnson – The Guitar Song
86. DJ Rupture - Solar Life Raft
87. Josh Ritter – So Runs the World Away
88. Sufjan Stevens – The Age of Adz
89. Alejandro Escovedo – Streetsongs of Love
90. Janelle Monae – The Archandroid
91. Tamikrest - Adagh
92. Jonsi – Go
93. Bostich and Fussible – Bulevar 2000
94. Hacienda – Big Red and Barbacoa
95. John Legend and the Roots – Wake Up
96. Pat Metheny – Orchestrion
97. Build an Ark – Love 2
98. High Dials – Anthems for Doomed Youth
99. Sleigh Bells – Treats
100. Shearwater – The Golden Archipelago

FYI, Black Keys is listed twice.

Always look forward to your bizarro list harr. Lots of stuff to check out.

Would be interested in you writing a snapshot of a few of your top 10. Or at least your #1.

As usual with you, eclectic is what comes to mind.

There's so much of this list I've never even heard OF...

The Tentative Harry killed @ Bumbershoot.

holy shit a top 100

I liked that Brian Eno too

Seriously. I may have actually heard 5% or so.

Night = Nothing

I've heard exactly 50 of these albums and like this list a lot.

I always discover a few new albums from you each year. Thanks.

also, I'd never admit to liking that new Sade but


I like some of it

I need to revisit the Matthew Dear, again.

The Alps will be in my Top 20. Can I take credit for turning you on to it?

I had gotten III in 2008 and liked it and probably would have made it to Le Voyage, but your reference to Popul Vuh sent me running - and then it played for months in my car. So yup thanks. Any recommendation from you I'll take quite seriously. The Matthew Dear may not wind up as #2 - but it keeps surrendering new things with every listen, months later. Serious metalic grooves for the melancholy smart alec.

i've only heard 5 of these -- Alejandro Escovedo which I like much more than you, Seu Jorge and Build An Ark which were two of my biggest disappointments of the year, Spoon and Jamey Johnson.

I still want to hear the Charles Lloyd, Ariel Pink and Sun Kil Moon albums.

If my memory serves, Matthew Dear starts strong and putters out towards the last 1/3 of the album. That first half is pretty great though.

Seems like you should be into all that Euro-jazz - but maybe too icy for you. Nik Bartsch's Ronin is a little cerebral but it gets into serious grooves that someone who likes world music would appreciate... albeit sometimes with 4 or 5 different time signatures running at the same time. They call it Zen Funk. I may tend to like my latin, southern hemisphere music warped more by Europe than you... but Mai Lingano's voice on Burkina Electric is epic... best "new" singer of the year to me. I don't have a clue what she's saying, but she breaks my heart.

Very interesting list.

I've heard nearly a dozen. I think the only one that i was not keen on was the Burkina Electric, which i didn't spend much time with, but It's not really my thing anyway. I was quite late to the Paul Motian but it is outstanding.

Definitely need to check out the Nik Bartsch's and look into a few others.

I've only heard one The Drums track (on the radio all the damn time), so annoying.

I'm surprised to not see Mark McGuire - Living With Yourself on this list considering how much you like Emeralds (he's their guitarist)

I don't know a lot of the jazz that seem to make your lists every year. I might indeed like it. I don't listen to a lot of new jazz releases in part because there are so many interesting jazz albums from the 50's, 60's and 70's that i've never heard that I've made a higher priority to get around to hearing instead of exploring current jazz. I love Charles Lloyd for example and even saw him perform most of mirror live. Yet I've stilll not picked up the album or explored Jason Moran whose playing I was impressed with. I hope to get around to hearing those and maybe checking out some of the other things you recommended. Thanks for the advice because without a where to start your lists are a little intimidating. I don't know when or if I'll get around to it though because I just don't have the time that I used to for new listening.

these will probably/maybe make my list.

some of the things on this list i would've never thought you'd listen to.

and yeah, re: matthew dear. i thought maybe the first 2 songs were ok, and then there's like 5 great songs in a row, then it kind of tapers off.

I dig the ones I recognize. That Junip I bought off your comments and its mesmerizing in a played down Calla way. I'm pretty sure that Drums will be in my top 10 or at least 15. I was surprised how much it dug in considering I shrugged them off as sort of campy early on. It got tons of play around the house this summer. I think it does for me what Ariel Pink seems to do to others but with less abstraction and more British.

Like?

agalloch, titus andronicus, sleigh bells.

I like some metal when it is interesting and far removed from Big Hair aesthetic. I like noisy music sometimes (Blackjazz was more abrasive than most metal I heard this year). I like punk and politics (Titus - and I like the guy's voice a lot). I really have no defence for sleigh bells which is, at times, unlistenable.

What's this all about?

Louie is often the forgotten Lobo, but has written some great songs. Hidalgo's voice is one of the monuments of American pop/roots music. This is a collection of songs the two have written over the years; production is very, very simple and uncluttered. "Take My Hand" may be my favorite song of the year.... just an acoustic guitar and Hidalgo's sweet and mournful East Los soul singing. I liked Tin Can Trust (West LA Fadeaway being one of the best covers of the year), but I like this in its earnest rooty simplicity even more.