Each & Everyday -- Best Coast
In a year where lo-fi took over, there wasn't really a bigger lo-fi band than Best Coast. A throwback to '60s pop, except recorded in someone's garage on a crappy 4-track, Best Coast hit all the highs, sunshine, and simple, heartfelt lyrics of '60s pop, but replacing some of the gorgeous harmonies with crunchy guitars and reverb.
There are a handful of songs that didn't quite make my top ten, but I felt deserved some recognition. I guess, maybe, I felt that if somehow I didn't list them, they'd get made fun of by the other songs and eventually end up in a dead end job, living the life of a loner, handing out pamphlets about heaven and hell outside of major sporting events.
To avoid that happening, here are a few songs:
Little Lovin' -- Lissie
This song caught my ear on a commercial for the FX show Justified. It's one of those infectious folk-pop songs where it's an above average song combined with an unreal voice so that it just sticks in your head all day and you end up walking around singing it. It is too bad so many good singers are saddled with horrible songs. When you get a good singer and a good song, it's just unstoppable.
Architects & Engineers -- Guster
As Guster continue their maturation from indie-pop band to full on folk-rock, they've left behind a bit of the, well, fun. Their earlier albums, as simple as they might have been from a musical perspective, were just full of energy. Their last couple of albums have come off a bit mopier. Still good, but just lacking in a bit of enthusiasm. Their newest album, Easy Wonderful is as close to power pop as Guster gets these days, all hooks, harmonies, handclaps, and shiny guitars. It's a sound that fits them really well, and I hope they find their way back to it more frequently.
Crash Years -- The New Pornographers
Every time The New Pornographers put out an album, it finds a way onto my list of favorite music. This year is no different. It's just another great album from a band that finds a way to put out fantastic albums every few years. Neko Case's (and Kathryn Calder's) vocals combined with the pop melodies that AC Newman writes are really just hard to top.
This year they topped it with whistling.
I Don't Believe You -- The Thermals
If you just read through the lyrics on a Thermals album, you'd be pretty sure that it'd be a depressing, melancholy, angry album.
Then you hear it.
The last few years, I've done a recap of my favorite music of that year.
Here's the start of 2009's list.
Here's 2008.
And here's 2007.
The basic rules are as follows:
Those rules cause a couple of problems. First, I tend to let the world filter my hip-hop for me, meaning that I'm usually 6-9 months late on good rap. So, there's no Kanye, no Das Racist, and no Drake. (I don't think Drake would make it anyway ... )
Second, I'm breaking my one song per artist rule, but for a good reason. You'll see that later.
Lastly, I bought a lot more music in the front half of the year than in the second half, and my list shows that. I'm guessing something off of Sufjan Stevens' new album would have made it with more time, but I've just had a really hard time getting into it. Same goes for Deerhunter.
So, this is what I've got. Over the next, well, ten days or so, you'll get a peek into what I listed to this year. Hopefully you'll like some of it. If not, well, I don't really care. But feel free to give me feedback on Twitter.
I didn't see quite as many movies in 2010 as I normally would have liked, but I saw a bunch of good ones. Here, in rough order, are my top movies of 2010.
(I should note that there are a bunch of new movies that have come out recently -- Black Swan, 127 Hours, The Fighter -- that I haven't seen yet.)
Toy Story 3 -- Surprisingly, my favorite movie of the year. If you're a sap like me, and remotely like the the Toy Story series, you'll enjoy the movie. It pretty much hits every note it needed to, and addresses the topic of growing up/moving on/leaving things behind with more grace and depth than I think you'd expect from an animated movie. If there was justice in the world, Toy Story 3 would get a Best Picture nomination.
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World -- Comics, indie rock, video games, nerds. If you were trying to put together a movie that would pretty much hit my sweet spot, you would put together Scott Pilgrim.
The Social Network -- Given its subject matter, a surprisingly tense, well-paced movie. Unsurprisingly, given its writer and director, a well-written, well-shot movie. If you know much about the Facebook story, you need to come into this looking at it as historical fiction. It's a story -- a really good one -- based on some truth.
Inception -- Visually stunning, incredibly inventive idea, that gets bogged down by one sub-plot too many, and one locale that is just a huge let down after 90 minutes of mind blowing special effects. Chop 15 minutes off of this movie and it would probably move up the list.
Those are the only ones I would call out as being outstanding. I'm guessing over the next few months I'll add a few more movies to this list. If British mini-series qualify in your mind, add Luther and Sherlock (which you should go out of your way to see) to the list.
Thanks to a good number and Jason's phenomenal choice of a Yankee Swap gift, this is what my office now looks like:
I don't know that I'll ever actually do work again.
(Not pictured: Rock 'em, Sock 'em Robots, Rubik's Cube)