It's especially nice to see others who appreciate Joanna Newsom. She's such an under appreciated talent. :)

I was able to convince my friend to perform a jazz rendition of "The Sprout and the Bean" at one of her shows...it was fantastic ;)

As of right now, I'm on a Chromeo and Yeasayer kick. Still think the Kanye album is amazing. I also went on an intense 90s rock downloading spree last night...so much Toad the Wet Sprocket and Gin Blossoms hah.

I somewhat agree, but "boring" as a texture is part of the actual concept of the album. I didn't love the album the way many critics did - it's not in my top 10, and the only standout track is "Sprawl II" - but I wouldn't hold "boring" against it.

Disagree completely - again, though, "giving up"/the actual arc of the album is part of the concept, so it might just be a difference in how we view it/what we were listening for/interpretation.

That it may be the third-best LCD album speaks only to the strength of the first two, though, and I feel like a lot of people held that against the album (not necessarily you).

Seriously? We're usually fairly in step on these things, but I thought this was excellent - on par with the last two, and exceeding it in parts.

I'll have to give this another listen, because upon first listen I thought it was just awful. Seriously just flat, boring, failed experimentation - I greatly preferred Emeralds or Oneohtrix, for example, and both were in the "eehhh like not love" category for me.

Now this I agree with completely - it's actually exactly how I feel about High Violet.

Definitely going to need an explanation on this one. I think it is probably a touch overrated (it's basically easy-listening masquerading as modern pop) but "horrific" seems well away from what i got out of it.

Beach House is boring as fuck, although I'm not a shoegaze/drone/any-such-derivative guy, so anything with those trappings is an automatic turn-off to me.

I feel weird saying this because they're dating, but I loved Wavves but really just can't get into Best Coast and don't get the acclaim she gets. It might be strictly a "personality" thing (Wavves is a douche but he plays his part admirably - sort of like Girls in that way), or I might just not have the vibe for it.

Warpaint doesn't do anything for me, but that's strictly preference - I get why people love them. Again, I'll have to give it another listen, but I just think it's probably not my thing.

Thanks for the list though, it's always good for some great discussion.

... and so I don't come across as overly negative - here's a couple of my favorite 2010 tracks by people who haven't been named yet (still working on a top-10 list):

How to Dress Well - "Decisions" ("haunting" is overused in music critique, but ...)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxLY9l5Fmmc

Jai Paul - "BTSTU" (an absolute weirdo, but this song is unreal)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zphhx5KZZ_c

The-Dream - "Yamaha" (as he says in another track, "she like 'this one's mine'/ hmmm, I doubt it")
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP8oGRmi0iE

Ted Leo & Rx - "Bottled in Cork" (great video, too)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w248uwpAX14

Das Racist - "All Tan Everything" (kind of like rap noise pop)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhIz8_-XbzQ

The Hood Internet - "Decalogue"
http://www.thehoodinternet.com/2010/...-vs-2000s.html

Ariel Pink - "Round and Round" (probably my favorite 2010 track)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiLqAu4s-_s

In truth, I probably didn't give it the fair shot it deserved. Seeing Arcade Fire was an amazing experience (actually saw them with the next band below). I've come to expect moments of something epic in their sound and felt that it was lacking here. I can understand how what I called boring was part of the concept, and I can appreciate that I suppose, but it doesn't mean I like it (I certainly didn't get it until you pointed it out. Ultimately I would hear the album end to end and there was just nothing at all remarkable about it and I was left feeling bored.

I don't really hold it against the other two as I understand how incredible they truly were. My problem with this effort of James' stems from two key places. One, this is his farewell under the LCD moniker and I really expected something that would live up to the storytelling of each of his other two albums. I'm not comparing quality here, but rather style. This leads me to my next point which is that each of the tracks on this album seem to simply want to be club-bangers rather the sort of songs that we are used to. We had seen this with the song "Yeah" previously which was fine to be the mindless clubbanger that it was, but virtually all of the songs seem to revolve around similar simple and trite phrases like "Pow" and "Drunk Girls". Admittedly I am a lyrics guy, and when James was so drunk he couldn't finish "Losing My Edge" but was able to drone on about Drunk Girls, it was like he was completely phoning in any attempt to write and that the words were only there to sit on top of the beats rather than to add anything to them.

Girl Talks mixing was fantastic for the most part, but the juxtapositions were less interesting and a lot of the hip-hop choices were a less danceable than previously. I imagine myself back at one of his shows again and one of the keys to those shows were a mix of a little more popular songs (i.e. Nobody but Girl Talk could make me sing along to Kelly Clarkson) and minimal elements of songs where he'd give you just enough of a taste to know the song then move on (i.e. the veruca salt scream or the neutral milk hotel "1,2,1,2,3,4"), but with this effort it seems like it's always just one track over another kind of mashup rather than mixing in a lot of elements. It sounds good still, but it's just not the kind of arrangements he is capable of and sounds more like a Party Ben kind of Mashup rather than a Girl Talk arrangement.

When the cover art was released, I was expecting the guys to go even more electronic and didn't believe it when I got the promo copy, I couldn't believe my ears and thought it was a joke. The first listen I was just trying to get over my shock. The second listen I gained appreciation. The third listen I took it for what it was and just really enjoyed it.

Not much needs to be said about that then ... ;)

I loved the first record. It told great stories and I could imagine who these guys were, the girls they were dating, the times being had. I literally cannot understand what half of the Contra songs are even about. Cousins sounds ok, but what is it talking about? I'm both creeped out and confused. That goes for multiple songs on it, and I probably should give this one another listen for all the acclaim it's gotten.

Beach House is my Vampire Weekend in a way. It's my kind of summer music. It's funny you'd hate shoegaze but like Wavves and How to Dress Well...just all kind of similar

You're not alone...most of my friends despise Best Coast, but I really like the bubblegum kind of stuff, which is why I like bands like Saturday Looks Good to Me, Jens, Pelle, Crabs, Go Sailor, Cub, etc.

The EP is really great, and I feel like I hear a nod to Nirvana in "Undertow". I like the drone and noise they put together. It doesn't hurt that the bassist/singer brunette is really attractive. ha But seriously, give it a listen, specifically "Beetles" from the EP

Also, if you're a fan of Passion Pit, send me a dm and I can send you The Pass. A really good dance rock band that I anticipate really big things for. They're more accessible than Passion Pit and not really derivative, but in a similar vein. Here is my brief review & photos I posted of their sell-out New Years show which was incredible (LINK)

Also, as much as I wanted to...I just cannot convince myself to like the new Ted Leo and I LOVE Ted Leo. Here's a photo of my friend boxing with Ted at the Forecastle Festival.

That's totally fair too - that's sort of a fatal concept album flaw anyway: pushing the concept too far detracts from the actual songs, and individually, I agree that the songs just aren't as strong as something like "Rebellion (Lies)".

Ah, I see - that makes sense, again I think songs like "I Can Change" and even "Dance Yourself Clean" still fit what you're looking for ... but yeah, I do feel you. I'm definitely a Murphy apologist of the highest order, and I think the album gains a LOT when viewed through the lens of his divorce and etc., but I'm certainly biased.

I actually felt kind of the opposite - I felt like I was actually at his shows much more so than "Night Ripper", even though the cuts were slightly "deeper" (in a catalog sense) ... I guess, though, that works in opposition to my feeling that this one is sort of an homage to music nerds. Putting "Down for the Count" over the coda to "Layla", for example, is brilliant.

Will definitely give it another spin, then.

It definitely lacks ... for lack of a better term, any sort of facile nature that the first album had. For example, "Diplomat's Son" is pretty obtuse, even though it's my favorite track on the album I'm not sure exactly what to do with it.

However, it seems almost like it's more rewarding to peel it apart - "California English" is probably the best example here, the entire take-down of do-well subculture (here, vegan/natural foods) using toothpaste as an example of where it can all go wrong. ("Cousins", in my opinion, attacks privilege and entitlement, both in a holistic sense and also in contrast to people who hated on their work and appropriation of other cultures)

That's a great point, and I make no bones about my own internal inconsistencies, haha.


Definitely will do.