“My God, It’s Full Of Stars” AKA Paul’s Best of 2010

Toronto – 2010 was a pretty good year for music, yet many of my musical highlights involved music that was not new or at least new music by older artists.  It was a year that saw numerous  band reunions – I saw Thrush Hermit, Soundgarden, Swans, Suede and X Japan – as well as the return of bands who had been away long enough that it seemed like a reunion (Teenage Fanclub).  Still, although I spent much of my time looking back, there was a lot of new stuff to get excited about this year.  So here’s list of some stuff I liked.

Best Music

Titus Andronicus – The Monitor

Not only are they really good live, but these New Jersey-ites also met my need for noisy, scrappy punk rock with the added ambition of making it a concept album about the Civil War and bad relationships and how bad relationships are like the Civil War … or something like that.  Frontman Patrick Stickles is like a man possessed throughout, leading the band through songs about getting too drunk, always being a loser, and watching out for the enemy, who are apparently everywhere.

Titus Andronicus – Titus Andronicus Forever by mwjreynolds

The National – High Violet

Another great live band, I knew almost nothing about these guys before catching their Massey Hall show back in June.  After that show, I became a fan.  Moody, atmospheric, lush songs and Matt Berninger’s deep baritone make it easy to see why these guys have hit it big this year.

The Bird And The Bee – Interpreting The Masters Vol. 1

Yes, an album length tribute to the songs of Hall & Oates.  If you can’t go for this, you are immediately suspect in my books.  These are pure pop confections – the songs are all familiar to anyone with a knowledge of the ’80s soft rock/blue eyed soul duo and were pretty much all hits. Inara George and Greg Kurstin put their own stamp on these songs without radically reinterpreting them while also adding an original in the same style, “Heard It On The Radio.”  Smooth, very smooth.  Another noteworthy covers album this year was Mates of State’s Crushes (The Covers Mixtape), which featured solid covers of Fleetwood Mac, Belle and Sebastian and Daniel Johnston among others.  Together, these albums make for a good argument against writing new songs. 

The Bird and the Bee – Private Eyes (Hall & Oates Cover) by waveofsounds

The Soft Pack -The Soft Pack

Even though I am certain this album came out in 2009, the internets tell me it was released in 2010 so I’ll count it.  Coming out of San Diego, these guys make some of the most insanely catchy garage rock I heard all year.  They sound a bit like a cross between The Strokes and Hot Snakes and that is definitely a good thing. 

Young Rival – Young Rival

More garage rock-ish stuff, this time out of Hamilton.  A nice mix of ’60s influences with a modern indie rock feel.

Kylesa – Spiral Shadow

Psychedelic sludge metalers Kylesa reportedly took influence from Built To Spill while writing their latest album and the standout track, “Don’t Look Back” sounds a lot like a combination of The Pixies, Smashing Pumpkins and My Bloody Valentine, but with more shouting.  And they have two drummers.  You gotta love that.

Yeasayer – Odd Blood

After opening their album with the odd, lurching number “The Children,”  Yeasayer jump into some seriously catchy stuff on Odd Blood.  Pretty much every track on here is memorable in some way.  Poppy yet challenging and full of lots of ’80s synth references, this was definitely one of the more interesting albums to come out this year.

The Apples In Stereo – Travellers In Space And Time

Yes people, time travel is indeed possible.  Pioneers like Einstein and Hawking paved the way with their theories and time travellers have apparently been caught on film, but clearly, The Apples In Stereo have perfected the art of travelling in space and time.  And they have used their powers for good, travelling back to 1979 to study with the masters themselves – Jeff Lynne and ELO.  Of Montreal may get more cred, but to my ears these guys are the more interesting Elephant Six alumni to put out an album this year. 

Best Music Videos

Aside from actual music videos, some of my favourite TV shows blended music and imagery perfectly this year.  Whether it was the incongruous use of an all ABBA soundtrack to accompany a zombie outbreak in Community (which you should all be watching, even if it does get a bit too meta at times), or Spanish versions of Bob Seger songs making for the perfect accompaniment to Kenny Powers’ Mexican adventures in Eastbound and Down, these shows proved that Glee (which is frankly getting a bit tiresome and played out) doesn’t hold a monopoly on musical TV.

The best actual music video I saw this year has to be Goldfrapp’s “Alive.”  It’s like Xanadu meets black metal meets the 20 Minute Workout meets some sort of Satanic ritual murder.  With vampires, of course.  Somebody needs to make this video into a full length movie now. 

My other favourite videos also told bizarre stories each of which involved strangely moving stories about weird yet cute mutant creatures – MGMT’s “Congratulations” and Yeasayer’s “Madder Red.”  Some very sad puppets in these videos.

And of course there was Ted Leo’s “Bottled In Cork,” a brilliant piss take on all of those juke box musicals, especially American Idiot.  The fact that Leo prefaced this video by writing up a semi-serious explanation of why he was considering quitting the music business made it all that much funnier.

Best Song

And finally, the obvious choice for song of the year goes to Mr. Antoine Dodson for the ubiqitous “Bed Intruder Song.”  Who would have thought that this guy’s angry rant against the creepy dude who attacked his sister would be that catchy when given the autotune treatment?  But catchy it was and that damn song has been burned into many a brain this year.

And you can run and tell that, homeboy.