Twitter Updates for 2011-01-02
02 Jan 2011- Happy New Years! Just practicing. We had an ice luge. My New Years > your New Years #
- Proof. http://twitpic.com/3lvl1e #
- @truthaboutmike We are doing Spanish New Years. Amazing. in reply to truthaboutmike #
- @truthaboutmike Hot chicks ice luging > pajamas. in reply to truthaboutmike #
- Getting ready to play my first basketball of 2011. Here's to not sucking. #
Twitter Updates for 2011-01-01
01 Jan 2011- And now, it's complete. The #1 song(s) just went up on my blog. #
- Top 10 Songs of 2010: #1 (Tie) Ready To Start/Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) -- Arcade Fire http://bit.ly/gnMkZO #
- A handy link to the full top 10: http://www.ryantoohil.com/category/top10-2010 #
Top Songs of 2010: #1 (Tie) Ready To Start/Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) -- Arcade Fire
31 Dec 2010Ready To Start -- Arcade Fire
Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) -- Arcade Fire
Well, I cheated. Arcade Fire put out one of the best albums of the year, and they did so the same way they released their first full-length: with a sneaky good record that, upon first listen, sounds pretty good, but not earth shattering. Each listen, however, reveals a bit more depth, a bit more story, an instrument you hadn't heard before. Maybe you catch them live, or on Saturday Night Live, or just happen to catch a glimpse of a concert video and you pick up on another layer of that song.
It's the cheap and easy way out to pick two songs as a tie for #1, but I'm lazy, and I think it's the best way to illustrate what this band did. "Ready To Start" is a driving, angry song. If you were going to compare it to something from Arcade Fire's past, it's maybe "Intervention" off of Neon Bible, but much more personal.
And, in one of the just outright greatest things you'll ever see, Regine beats the hell out of the drums on this one.
Watching Regine give the drums an asskicking, makes the second half of this top pick all the better. "Sprawl II" is a 70s pop song, or maybe an 80s New Wave song. Jittery guitars, some synths, and Regine's breathy, almost European (by way of Haiti and Canada) vocals floating along making a nice bookend to the anger of "Ready To Start". Though, don't be mistaken, this is an angry song, too. It's just a much prettier angry song, and is such a complete 180 from "Ready To Start" that it's hard to imagine the same band made them both.
In the end, the best part of both songs is that the first time you hear them, you will say "I liked some songs earlier in your list a lot better." It's inevitable. I don't think there's a single song on The Suburbs that hits immediately. They slowly worm their way into your brain, until you find yourself repeating lyrics, or dancing around to the lilting rhythm of "Sprawl II" (and believe me, you will), wondering how the hell Arcade Fire continue to put out the best music on the planet.
Twitter Updates for 2010-12-31
31 Dec 2010- Top Songs of 2010: #2 Turn Off This Song and Go Outside -- The Lonely Forest http://bit.ly/fGR2f0 #
- Horrible call in the KState/Syracuse game that costs KState a chance at a tie. This is why college football sucks sometimes. #
- @MatthewBerryTMR That call was your belated holiday gift for doing good fantasy work this year. I assume KState fans were naughty. in reply to MatthewBerryTMR #
Top Songs of 2010: #2 Turn Off This Song and Go Outside -- The Lonely Forest
30 Dec 2010Turn Off This Song and Go Outside -- The Lonely Forest
The first (and only) band signed to Death Cab for Cutie member Chris Walla's label, this song snuck up on me. I'd heard another of their tracks ("I Don't Want to Live There") on KEXP's Music That Matters podcast, so I grabbed their EP on iTunes because it was super cheap. This is the first track, and it's just supremely awesome. If you're jaded and don't dig just awesome sugary sweet power pop, well, this isn't for you. But then, if that's the case, I hate you.
Twitter Updates for 2010-12-30
30 Dec 2010- @wintermatt It made it through three moves. The TV I'm replacing made it through *every* move I've ever made since college. I'm nostalgic. in reply to wintermatt #
- Top Songs of 2010: #3 F*** You -- Cee-Lo Green http://www.ryantoohil.com/2010/12/top-songs-of-2010-3-fuck-you-cee-lo-green.php #
- @fraggle22 Can't wait to see the rainbow poo in reply to fraggle22 #
Top Songs of 2010: #3 Fuck You -- Cee-Lo Green
29 Dec 2010Fuck You -- Cee-Lo Green
I don't really have to comment on this, do I? Best YouTube video ever.
Twitter Updates for 2010-12-29
29 Dec 2010- Top Songs of 2010: #4 Echoes -- Klaxons http://www.ryantoohil.com/2010/12/top-songs-of-2010-4-echoes-klaxons.php #
Top Songs of 2010: #4 Echoes -- Klaxons
28 Dec 2010Echoes -- Klaxons
2010 saw Klaxons release their long-awaited second album, a harsher, more guitar driven album than their debut from a few years ago. It is still the same dense, hard to process, somewhere between-rave-and-rock sound, though this time around it's a bit more rock than rave.
The album also has one of the great album covers of all time:
Echoes is the best song that Muse never wrote. Given that Muse gets all the hype for creating "sci-fi rock", and rock stations spent about a thousand hours hyping Muse's rip-off of Blondie's "Call Me" (which was possibly the worst song of 2009), it's horrifically unfair that I've only heard Echoes played on the radio a handful of times (and it was on one of the XM indie rock stations at that).