Having spent most of this year reviewing music for CHUD's Special Edition column, I've listened to and written about somewhere in the vicinity of 400 2010 releases (and we're not done yet: among others, we've got Duffy, the Tron soundtrack, and Duran Duran still to come.).
Lest you think that makes it easy to select a Top Ten, I started thinking about it the other day, and realized that I was having difficulty narrowing down my ten favorite blues albums of 2010, much less ten albums overall.
So I'm not sure there's much hope for me on this; maybe I'll try for a Top Fifty.
Anyway, NPR has kindly provided a massive list of worthwhile 2010 albums for your consideration, which includes a goodly sample of stuff that I haven't heard myself yet.
I note, however, that, for all its staggering inclusiveness, it's missing several that I thought were among the very best of the year, including Balkan Beat Box's Blue-Eyed Black Boy, Buddy Guy's Living Proof, Keith Jarrett and Charlie Haden's Jasmine, Group Inerane's Guitars From Agadez Volume 3, and Alejandro Escovedo's Street Songs of Love, among others; I'd also say that this year's releases from the Soft Pack, Imelda May, Codeine Velvet Club, Southern Culture on the Skids, Swans, Kenny Burrell, The Unthanks, Tomasz Stanko, Steve Wynn, Tom Jones, Melissa Auf Der Maur, Calle 13, Dwight Twilley, TWO EP's from The Biters and THREE albums from Madlib, just to name a few, were, if not necessarily Top Ten material, then every bit as worthy of inclusion on such a comprehensive list as plenty of other stuff that is there. They even included Justin Bieber, for chrissakes.
But then, we already know that The Suburbs is going to win all these polls, anyway.
Lest you think that makes it easy to select a Top Ten, I started thinking about it the other day, and realized that I was having difficulty narrowing down my ten favorite blues albums of 2010, much less ten albums overall.
So I'm not sure there's much hope for me on this; maybe I'll try for a Top Fifty.
Anyway, NPR has kindly provided a massive list of worthwhile 2010 albums for your consideration, which includes a goodly sample of stuff that I haven't heard myself yet.
I note, however, that, for all its staggering inclusiveness, it's missing several that I thought were among the very best of the year, including Balkan Beat Box's Blue-Eyed Black Boy, Buddy Guy's Living Proof, Keith Jarrett and Charlie Haden's Jasmine, Group Inerane's Guitars From Agadez Volume 3, and Alejandro Escovedo's Street Songs of Love, among others; I'd also say that this year's releases from the Soft Pack, Imelda May, Codeine Velvet Club, Southern Culture on the Skids, Swans, Kenny Burrell, The Unthanks, Tomasz Stanko, Steve Wynn, Tom Jones, Melissa Auf Der Maur, Calle 13, Dwight Twilley, TWO EP's from The Biters and THREE albums from Madlib, just to name a few, were, if not necessarily Top Ten material, then every bit as worthy of inclusion on such a comprehensive list as plenty of other stuff that is there. They even included Justin Bieber, for chrissakes.
But then, we already know that The Suburbs is going to win all these polls, anyway.
