Top 10 Songs of 2010

For the sake of balance I limited myself to one song per artist/album for my top 10 tunes of 2010. That meant like all my other lists I couldn't make a full ten from this year's releases - but what the heck.

Interestingly the top 2 are not videos OF the best songs, they ARE the best songs i.e. live performances that I never would have come across but for the glowing piece of wonderfulness that is Youtube. (To make the page load quicker I've made the non-videos small). Here goes -

1) This Too Shall Pass (Marching Band Version) - OK Go

No other song has lifted my heart this year as much as this. Thanks to Ok Go making it available for free download from their website. I've sometimes listened to this track 6 or 7 times in a row. Get it here - This Too Shall Pass (Marching Band Version)

2) Tightrope (Live On The David Letterman Show) - Janelle Monae

Not only is this preferable to the album version 'cos we lose the lame Big Boi rap, but look at the band. LOOK at the band! Every member is playing as if their lives depended on it. Ever member is playing as if they are taking sole responsibilty for how the song goes down. Check out the guitarist carrying on even when his amp falls off the speaker. Truly awesome.

3) Revolutionary Died - Sho Baraka

This was a tough choice. I could have picked another 4 or 5 great tracks from the awesome Lions & Liars album not to mention Sho's incenduary track Chaos on DJ Official's Entermission CD. But the power, passion & poetry all come together on this track...

4) 40 Deep - Lecrae (ft. Tedashii & Trip Lee)

'Crae, T-dot and Trip bulldoze your house to the ground and then give you a gospel tract. Git saved sucka!

5) Streets Of NY - DJ Official (ft. J.A.Z. & Magellan)

Great track perfectly matching the simmering tension in the lyrics

6) Treats - Sleigh Bells

Proof you can sound totally baddass with just a guitar and a laptop.

7) Taxi Cab - Vampire Weekend
I love how the african vibe soaks through this track without needing to make it explicit. It sounds like the british abroad

8) Azwaw 2 - Cheb Mami (1999)

Algerian Rai music mixed with a loping 12/8 beat, bagpipes and fiddle. Funky and foreign.

9) Mr Fancy Pants - Jonathan Coulton (2006)

Another example of Coulton's ability to inject pathos into a supremely silly song. The fact that the word 'pants' means underpants in the UK is just icing on the cake.

10) The Village Green Preservation Society - The Kinks (1968)

This song has been stuck in my head since it's appearance in Hot Fuzz. Awesome stream of conciousness lyrics, funky in an old school way and gloriously British.

 
Related Posts: Top 10 Other Stuff

My latest song: You Spoke The Stars
Other free songs by Matt Blick


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Top 10 Albums Of 2010

The conviction that the album is dead has been growing in me and 2010 did nothing to dispel that. Despite trawling several best of lists (thanks Steve!) I found one album that I love released in 2010 (thank you Reach Records) several very good ones, and as usual a couple I love from previous years/decades/millennia.

Without further ado here they are


1) Lions & Liars - Sho Baraka

The best album by a mile. Genre jumping, serious, humorous, intelligent gospel rap. I've been raving about it for most of the year. Check out My Life (Nice Aim), Liars Anthem, Oh Well, Revolutionary Died.


2) Rehab - Lecrae

Lecrae shines on every single track but is let down by lame hooks from guest vocalists. However the disc is more than redeemed by tracks like High, 40 Deep, Used To Do It Too. Read my review here

3) Contra - Vampire Weekend

I was completely underwhelmed by the first album and now I can't understand why. Perhaps it was the sucky name (pun intended). Contra is the son of Graceland & Rhythm of the Saints, right down to the wistful, bemused innocent abroad viewpoint. A band wearing the third world on it's sleeve and not having to try too hard to prove it. Check Cousins, I Think UR A Contra, Taxi Cab.

4) Treats - Sleigh Bells

If The White Stripes had been born in the 22nd century and got all misty eyed for all that retro 21st c. technology, this is what they would have sounded like. A guy, a girl, a guitar, a laptop and a dustbin full of digital distortion. Check out Treats, Riot Rhythm, Straight A's

5) Have One On Me - Joanna Newsom

Joanna was an Appalachian girl, cryogenically frozen in 1926, thawed out in 2001, then locked in a room with only a harp, Kate Bush's first 4 albums and Sufjan Steven's Illinois for company. No wonder she turned out like this. A sprawling 3 disc set of wondrous weirdness that I'm still getting my head round. Start with Easy, Have One On Me, Ribbon Bows


And the Top 5 (non 2010) Albums I heard for the first time this year.


1) Magical Mystery Tour - The Beatles

It may have been a failure as a movie, but as a CD it's filled with awesomeness. From The Fool On The Hill to I Am The Walrus, plus Strawberry Fields & Penny Lane...

2) Whisper House - Duncan Sheik

The soundtrack to a Broadway show that never was, Sheik's music blends memorable & original melodies and concepts with a total lack of concern at using a blindingly obvious and corny rhymes. Oddly compelling. Listen to I Don't Believe In You, Oh You've Really Gone And Done It Now & The Tale Of Solomon Snell

3) Meli Meli - Cheb Mali

True World music from an Algerian Rai star. French hip hop, folk fiddle and bagpipes, dub reggae and Latino guitar sprinkled on top of an Arabic base to make a wonderfully spicy musical pizza. Check out Azwaw 2, Bledi, Meli Meli

4) Trill It Like It Was - The Templeton Twins With Teddy Turner & His Bunsen Burners

This album by a fake 1920's cover band has to be heard to be believed. Sad that you won't be able to as it's been out of print forever. Read my post here. Check out Something, OOH OOH Guru, By The Time I Get To Phoenix  

5) Saltbreakers - Laura Veirs

No one can sing out of tune at the bottom of their range and make it sound good like Laura Veirs can. Not a concept album as such, but the reoccurring ocean imagery tie the songs together in a fantastic way. Check out Pink Light, Drink Deep, Don't Lose Yourself 

honourable mention

Beauty Will Rise - Steven Curtis Chapman

Simply because it would have made last years list had I not bought it the last few days of 2009. Heart-wrenching honesty distilled into a beautifully melodic album. Listen to Beauty Will Rise, February 20th, Our God Is In Control



Related Posts: Other top 10 lists

My latest song: You Spoke The Stars
Other free songs by Matt Blick

Top 10 Films of 2010

This is not a film blog, but I am a complete film nut so indulge me once a year. As with my book list most of the films weren't released in 2010 because I don't get out that much (having kids is my excuse).

1) Inception

2010 was the year that Christopher Nolan released a film that cured cancer, plugged the hole in the ozone layer and ended the global recession. Or at least you would think so from all the hype. What he actually did was release a special effect laden big budget film that was intelligent & well acted. Sad to say that's a rare thing. But it was a brilliant film with a slightly lazy ending.

2) In Bruges

What starts off as a shot 'em up with a terminally dumb protagonist and industrial amounts of swearing evolves into a touching & laugh out loud funny exploration of guilt and redemption. Colin Farrell & Brendan Gleason shine.

3) The Prestige

Whereas Inception really didn't wrong foot anyone if they stayed awake and kept their wits about them, Nolan's Prestige pulled the rug from under you at least twice during it's running time. (Memento did it every ten minutes, but that's another story). A beguiling story.

4) Moon

Great films that are essentially two handers are rare but they do come along every now and again. But a film where the same actor seamlessly plays both 'hands' is a miracle. Sam Rockwell does the impossible, making it believable, and even managing to distinguish between the two roles even though the two characters are the same person. Has to be seem to be believed. He even has a fight with himself for goodness sake!


5) Unstoppable

I'd happily pay money to see Denzel Washington paint a fence. Thankfully this is more exciting than that. Tony Scott does a great job of keeping an essentially predictable disaster unpredictable. After all the runaway train is going to go down the tracks...

6) Erin Brockovich

Julia Roberts plays the role of a lifetime as a real life outrageously sassy heroine taking on an evil corporation . Steven Soderbergh directs the ultimate underdog story.

7) Zombieland

What made this stand out in a world of teenage Zom-coms was the interplay between Woody Harrelson's Rambo survival nut and "I can't believe it's not Michael Sera"'s teenage geek nerd. I.C.B.I.N.M.S. has his rules for Zombie survival, Woody just want to find the last twinkie on earth.

8) Despicable Me

Yep. I hate to say it but IMHO someone else made a better animated film than Pixar this year. Expect this to happen more often as Pixar continue to make films with numbers in the title.

9) Kick-Ass

Wasn't great, but it was funny. Nicholas Cage seems born to play a deranged Dad who buys knives for his daughter. And what can you say about the line "with no power comes no responsibility"?

10) Star Trek XI

J.J. Abrams achieved the impossible. Kick started a dead franchise, won a new audience, pleased the drooling fan boys and made 1960's lycra tops somehow blend with 21st century CG effects. The film was fun.


Honourable Mention

District 9 was awesome (unless you happen to be Nigerian) and definitely would have made the list. It's just that I watched it about 2 hours before 2010 started. Sorry guys!

And my favourite non-movie DVD was My Name Is Earl Season 4. A real return to form (not that it ever dipped that much) and meant the series went out on a high point.

Related Posts: Top 10 books of 2010

My latest song: You Spoke The Stars
Other free songs by Matt Blick


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Top 10 Books of 2010

The title is something of a misnomer as I'm always playing catch up. Two books were published last year, one was published in 1851, the rest ... somewhere in between.

These are the best books I read in 2010.

1) Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties

A erudite, witty & iconoclastic analysis of every song the Beatles recorded. Read my review here.

2) The Complete Beatles Chronicle: The Definitive Day-By-Day Guide to the Beatles' Entire Career

Provides the context of the greatest pop music ever recorded in a story that is almost beyond belief. Parts of the story of Beatlemania resemble nothing so much as the great awakening and from the 62-66 they definitely earned the title of hardest working men in show business.

3) Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age

Who killed the music business? Steve Knopper takes us on a rollercoaster ride of epic proportions. Read my review here.

4) The Runaway Jury

Don't judge me.

5) This Sceptred Isle : 55BC-1901

2010 was the year I finally learnt something about the country I've lived in all my life. Christopher Lee (not that one) made it as painless and entertaining as possible, despite his prejudice against the puritans, Cromwell and Disraeli (?!)

6) Moby Dick

Thanks to this monster of a book I now know more about whales and whaling than I ever wanted. An epic in every sense of the word, Melville takes you on a trip, sometimes so bizarre it feels more like an acid trip.

7) Mortal Engines

Reeves spins an utterly original children's yarn of a dystopian future where the great cities are mobile and survive by devouring smaller cities. Peter Jackson has the film rights, so expect a movie sometime around 2050.

8) The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life

Never thought I'd enjoy a book by a choreographer, but Tharp is so widely versed in all art forms that her illustrations make everyone feel included. Full of great ideas for artists in any field.

9) Futurehit.DNA

Jay Frank examines how previous waves of technology have shaped songwriting before turning the spotlight on the digital age. Thought provoking insights on every other page.

10) Love Me Do! 

One of the earliest books on the Beatles means that this is entirely free from the airbrushing and Paul vs John agendas that mar recent books. The raw honesty is breathtaking, and the verbatim comments from press conferences are hilarious. 

Postscript

I did read some Christian books this year but non of them grabbed me sufficiently to make the list. For most of the last 20 years I've read almost exclusively Christian non fiction titles because that's what interested me the most, but it was probably to my detriment if for no other reason than I found myself judging Christians who 'wasted their lives' reading fiction. I hope I'm becoming a little more balanced in my old age.

What's been some of your best reads this year?

My latest song: You Spoke The Stars
Other free songs by Matt Blick