Bobby Evers writesBobby Evers’ Best of 2010

Throughout December CHIRP Radio presents its members' top albums of 2010. The next list is from CHIRP Radio DJ Bobby Evers.
(Click here to get the complete list of CHIRP Radio members' picks.)

To be honest, my musical interest has become so fractured in my old age that this list needs a disclaimer. This is not a list of what I think is objectively the most interesting or best or groundbreaking or new or innovative releases of 2010.

I don't consume albums the way I used to do or would like to do, so this compilation is pretty cursory. Some I gave a few listens, some I only heard a few songs. This list is a list of releases that I personally liked this year because it sounded good to me. If something didn't make the list it was because for whatever reason I just didn't get into it or didn't get around to hearing it. I'M BUSY!!!

1. Joanna Newsom – Have One on Me (Drag City)
   BUY: Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   Aside from the sheer fact of its girth and its packaging (three discs, six songs each, three songs per side, amazing artwork / photography of Ms. Newsom) the album showed a new level of her songwriting lyrically, pushing out of the symbolic and into the intimate. On her two previous albums she would dress up what the songs were really saying in strange fantastical characters (a bear, a taxidermied dove), but on this one she would tell it to you straight: "It does not suffice to merely lie beside each other as those who love each other do."
   
   While this kind of confessional emo-ness is the norm for other songwriters, for Joanna Newsom it is, in a way, letting her guard down, letting the audience inside to see something truer. And the songs that seemed dense and evasive still also seemed like veiled metaphors for this same relationship and its ultimate demise. This was my favorite album of the year.
2. Ben Folds & Nick Hornby – Lonely Avenue (Nonesuch)
   BUY: Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   I will apparently never outgrow my love of Ben Folds. And this album is kind of a dream come true for me because I love a good amount of the novels of Nick Hornby. So for them to collaborate on songs is just something really special. And the songs are good! They're catchy, they're dirty, they're funny, and they got in my head so much that I had to listen over and over. The litmus test for me for a really good album is when my favorite song changes periodically. For a week it will be track 1, and then graudally track 10, and then track 2. Every track on this album was my favorite during a different three day period.
   
   Emphasis Track: "Levi Johnston's Blues" in which he tells the story of Mr. Johnston discovering his girlfriend, Bristol Palin is pregnant and that her mother is the Vice Presidential nominee. And he has been informed that they are getting married. I would even argue that this song doesn't make fun of Mr. Johnston more than Levi does himself. It's from the perspective of a kid in an impossible situation, with lyrics straight from Levi Johnston's myspace page: "I'm a fuckin' redneck I live to hang out with my boys, play some hockey and shoot some moose, do some chillin' I guess..."
3. Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (Def Jam)
   BUY: Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   I just got this like two days ago and have already listened to it something like ten times. I don't think it is AMAZING yet and it is probably a little overhyped already, but I find it to be more interesting and releavant than most things that came out this year. Kanye is a jackass, but what he does well is puts together some pretty epic compositions. (And I am loathe to use the word epic casually).
   
   What he is doing on this album is the exact thing that writing/music/art is for; taking the most negative aspects of his personality/soul and making it into something really cathartic and positive. I just keep finding that the songs are getting stuck in my head at odd moments while walking to the train or in conversation. And I keep returning to it. It's fast becoming one of those albums that is starting to haunt me. A feeling I just can't take, a record I can't seem to stop listening to.
4. The National – High Violet (4AD)
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   I actually don't have a lot to say about this album that hasn't already been said. I just liked it. The songs were good. It didn't affect me the way their previous album Boxer did but it was still totally great. It's one that the more you hear it creeps up on you; a dark horse contender. Bloodbuzz Ohio, England, Anyone's Ghost.
5. The Arcade Fire – The Suburbs (Merge)
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   This is another case of, I don't have a lot to say about it but I just liked the songs on it better than other album's songs. I see this record as a kind of comeback for Arcade Fire. I was so in love with Funeral that anything that wasn't Funeral wasn't good enough for them in my eyes. So when Neon Bible came out and had a pretty different sound and was doing something different, something I didn't much like, I was really disappointed and was pretty much unable to go back to it and listen to it for its merits. I see this album as kind of a return to form. I also really like the theme of suburbia, of sprawl, of rural areas, etc. It's another one that I feel like I need to listen to it more but haven't gotten around to yet.
6. The Tallest Man on Earth – The Wild Hunt (Dead Oceans)
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   This record has everything I like: a swedish folk singer writing songs in American traditions with a sparse production, acoustic guitar, and a raspy voice. OK, maybe that's a little too specific. But this is one that kept getting in my head constantly all summer and when I found out the dude was Swedish I was all, "What the what??" He sounds like some combination of Bob Dylan and the dude from Deer Tick. Emphasis: The Wild Hunt. WARNING: It will not leave your head if you listen to it more than twice.
7. Various Artists – Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (ABKCO)
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   What can I say? There is something fun / raw / catchy / garagey / adorable about these songs, many of which were pulled from the playlists Bryan Lee O'Malley lists in the back of the original comics this film is based on. Particularly the Plumtree and Metric songs, but also the tracks composed by Beck for the fictional band Sex Bob-omb are very good. Of all the albums released this year, I kept returning to this one. Emphasis track: Beachwood Sparks - "By Your Side."
8. Sufjan Stevens – All Delight People [EP] (Asthmatic Kitty)
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   I liked this short stack of songs better than his strange full lenth The Age of Adz. It is just more my taste, and there's less to digest with a shorter one like this. It's just sweet. Emphasis: Heirloom.
9. Björk + The Dirty Projectors – Mount Wittenberg Orca (Self-Released)
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   Yes, this. I liked this better than a lot of other things I heard this year, specifically the song "On and Ever Onward." A genius collaboration.
10. The Magnetic Fields – Realism (Nonesuch)
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    Honestly, a large part of my basis for putting this on here is how much I still love anything The Magnetic Fields do because of how good 69 Love Songs was/is. When a new record comes out by them they are still as good as they are on that record and it's like yet another disc to that neverending album has come out for us to enjoy. It's not doing anything new or exciting, it's just The Magnetic Fields doing what they do; sparsely composed songs about heartbreak featuring the tiniest instruments. Emphasis: "You Must Be Out Of Your Mind."

Honorable Mentions

Honorable mention to some tracks that stand out to me. I didn't hear the rest of the album but these songs were so good they made me want to:

1. Alicia Keys, "Empire State of Mind Part II Broken Down" (and, more prominently, by extension 2009's "Empire State of Mind" by Jay Z which I still can't get it out of my head.)
2. Avi Buffalo, "What's In It For?
3. The Black Keyes, "Tighten Up"
4. Deer Tick, "Twenty Miles"
5. Tender Trap, "Do You Want a Boyfriend?"
6. Kathryn Calder, "Follow Me Into the Hills"
7. Admiral Radley, "The Thread"
8. The New Pornographers, "The Crash Years"
9. Band of Horses, "Factory"
10. Robyn, "Don't Fucking Tell Me What To Do"
11. Rita J, "Body Rock"
12. The Herbaliser, "The Blend"
13. Walter Schreifels, "Arthur Lee's Lullaby"
14. Uffie, "Difficult"
15. The Vaselines, "Sex with an X"

Apologies to M.I.A, Erykah Badu, Best Coast, Beach House, Band of Horses, MGMT, Sleigh Bells, Belle and Sebastian, Of Montreal, The Books, Superchunk, New Porngraphers. You probably put out really great records this year, but since I didn't really hear much of it at all, I couldn't really put you on the top ten on principal. Sorry.

Patrick Masterson writesPatrick Masterson’s Best of 2010

Throughout December CHIRP Radio presents its members' top albums of 2010. The next list is from CHIRP Radio DJ and Assistant Music Director Patrick Masterson. (Click here to get the complete list of CHIRP Radio members' picks.)

It would be unfair to present a top ten list that wasn’t strictly comprised of Windy City artists when we had such a good year here, so here are my favorite new Chicago releases of 2010 to back that up.

1. Judson Claiborne – Time and Temperature (La Societe Expeditionnaire)
   BUY: Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   Chris Salveter and company’s second LP as Judson Claiborne appropriately mirrors the cover with a zebra in a deep forest of mist: Time and Temperature is a powerful, constantly shifting chiaroscuro where acoustic light breaks through the dark themes of the lyrics. Easily one of the best records of the year by any measure.
2. Disappears – Lux (Kranky)
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   This one’s for the record collectors. Probably my favorite Chicago live band, Disappears had some trouble getting this out; when Lux finally arrived, it felt as much like a sigh of relief as anything else. Good news followed a good year for the band: Follow-up LP Guider arrives in January 2011. Mark your calendars.
3. JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound – To Love Someone (That Don’t Love You) 7” (Addenda)
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   Nevermind that I helped package these (FYI, 50 is not the same as 40), “To Love Someone (That Don’t Love You)” is a supreme slice of retro-soul listening for those with even half an interest in the Daptone stable, generally regarded as the gold standard for this sort of thing. On the flip, “Everything Will Be Fine” is a Booker T-inspired b-side to match the best of Charles Bradley. Do not miss this.
4. Jason Adasiewicz – Sun Rooms (Delmark)
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   A fixture of Chicago’s jazz scene for the few years that I’ve actually been following it, Adasiewicz did something a little different with Sun Rooms by stripping down his typical sound (backed by the Rolldown quintet) to a trio with drums and bass. It could’ve sounded hollow and sparse, but the extra space only allowed his vibraphones to thrive. An incredibly rich listening experience and definitely my favorite jazz record of the year.
5. Cave – Pure Moods EP (Drag City)
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   Last year it was the twisty Psychic Summer, this year it was a three-track vinyl-only EP that rode the (hawk)winds of krautrock jamming and self-exploration that, though self-limiting at times, worked awfully well for late-night radio runs. “Brigitte’s Trip (White Light/White Jazz)” is almost as good of a title as the EP itself.
6. Male – German for Shark (Other Electricities)
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   It took me a little while to finally listen to Male’s sophomore album, but German for Shark sparks with more playful experimentation than last year’s more coherent All Are Welcome. Led by Jon Krohn and Ben Mjolsness, the sounds range from ambient nothingness to glitched-out remixes hitched to the back end of the album. I’m not sure I like it more than All Are Welcome, but its best moments caught my ear faster.
7. Exploding Star Orchestra – Stars Have Shapes (Delmark)
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   Stars have shapes? How about stars have exploding orchestras skronking out in one of the better free-form avant-everything monsters to hit the CHIRP airwaves this year? Led by Rob Mazurek and featuring a host of rotating cast members, ESO did what they pretty much always do as well as anyone this side of the equally polarizing Bird Show Band. Undulating and uncompromising, Stars Have Shapes is some gnarled top-shelf jazz.
8. Skooda Chose – TFM2 (Get Money Gang)
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   Excepting Freddie Gibbs, this mixtape by the K-town native is my favorite Chicago(-area) hip-hop release of the year. Signed by Twista a few years back, Skooda’s been pedaling his verses for awhile but this (TFM = Top Five Material) is the cream of the crop thanks to guest verses from The Cool Kids, David Banner and others. Also, and I have no way of confirming this, but dude has been shot ten times, which has to count for something.
9. Verma – Salted Earth (Self-Released)
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   If you scroll down on Verma’s MySpace page, you’ll see the image of two figures strolling along a dune in deep space. That’s pretty much what Verma embodies: psychedelic sandstorms on far-away planets. It was interesting to hear the live-take instrumental material of their self-titled debut in July, but Salted Earth, out this past month (featuring songs from their original three-song EP), is different and slightly more appealing.
10. Mavis Staples – You Are Not Alone (Anti)
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    A gospel n’ blues legend in her own right, Mavis Staples has also worked with Bob Dylan, Curtis Mayfield and Prince in the past, so what’s a Jeff Tweedy collaboration to her? But this is hardly tossed-off stuff. I mean, “I Belong to the Band” – did you hear this? The Tweedy originals? That weirdly defeatist Randy Newman cover? Mavis is still a must-listen after 60 years.

Clarence Ewing: The Million Year Trip writesClarence Ewing’s Best of 2010

Throughout December CHIRP Radio presents its members' top albums of 2010. The next list is from CHIRP Radio's Assistant Online Media Director Clarence Ewing. (Click here to get the complete list of CHIRP Radio members' picks.)

1. Sleigh Bells – Treats (Mom & Pop Music)
   BUY: Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   The debut album from duo Derek Miller and Alexis Krauss is a hail storm of big, visceral, static-and-feedback-soaked fun, both anchored and elevated by the sugar and spice of Miller’s catchy-as-hell hooks and Krauss’ assured, flirty vocals.
2. Delorean – Subiza (True Panther Sounds)
   BUY: Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   Waves of sunny, pastel happiness from the Spanish former punk-rockers. It’s been said that great music transports you to other places. Whenever I listen to this album I want to be somewhere in southern Europe dancing on a beach.
3. Laetitia Sadier – The Trip (Drag City)
   BUY: Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   This solo effort from Stereolab's lead singer is an expertly crafted, urbane, emotionally open Euro-pop that reflects the melancholy of life without ever becoming maudlin.
4. Avey Tare – Down There (Paw Tracks)
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   Music as (swamp) water. Listening to Animal Collective or one of its members, I usually get the feeling I'm hearing something intensely personal, expressed digitally. Avey Tare’s solo album is no exception, as is his relentlessly unique uses of rhythm and song structure.
5. The Depreciation Guild – Spirit Youth (Kanine)
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   Sweeping, romantic guitar-and-synth dream-pop peppered with old-school computer blips. "Dream About Me" was my favorite single from this past summer.
6. Reds and Blue – Son of the Stars (Addenda)
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   Hip and groovy dance floor post-punk with a distinctly New Wave pop feel, due in no small part to Ellen Bunch’s sharp, slinky vocals.
7. Azure Ray – Drawing Down the Moon (Saddle Creek)
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   Orenda Fink and Maria Taylor use electronics and acoustic guitars to weave graceful and passionately intimate confessions, with vocals that only occasionally rise above a whisper.
8. To Rococo Rot – Speculation (Domino)
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   The Berlin trio with the palindromic name conjures up an engrossing collage of deep beats and atmospheric grooves, continuing post-rock’s style of meditation and experimentation.
9. Various Artists – Tradi-Mods vs. Rockers: Alternative Takes on Congotronics (Crammed Discs)
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   Various Western World artists explore and interpret the urban tribal music of Kinshasa, Congo, and create a kaleidoscope of unique hybrids that never lose the spirit of the source material.
10. Blue Giant – Blue Giant (Vanguard)
    BUY: Amazon / Insound / iTunes
    A vibrant blend of contemporary pop-country and alternative folk that alternates between thoughtful ballads and driving, anthemic jams.

Honorable Mentions

• Korallreven – "The Truest Faith" + "Loved-Up" + "Honey Mine" + "A Dream (Mix Tape)" (Acephale)
  BUY: Amazon / Insound / iTunes
  To me, this Swedish duo’s hypnotic, celestial tracks don’t sound like the “Next Big Thing” as much as “The Next Step” in electronic music, where melodies, samples, effects and grooves all melt together until they become indistinguishable.

Some more outstanding singles from 2010...
Coltrane Motion, "I Forgot There Was a War On"
El Guincho, "Bombay" (including the [NSFW] video)
How to Dress Well, "Ready for the World"
The Radio Dept., "Heaven's On Fire"
Twin Shadow, "Savannah Howel" and "Slow"
Laura Veirs, "Sleeper in the Valley"
Warpaint, "Undertow"
Zola Jesus, "I Can't Stand"