2010 A Year in Music

I haven't kept up with new releases as much as I would like and I'm not the best at reviewing anything. With that said, I think I'm going to try and compile my 5 favorite releases this year...in list form.


5) School of Seven Bells - Disconnect From Desire. There was a stretch of a few weeks this Autumn where I listened to this album every morning without fail. The vocals are soothing, the guitars are swirling and the drumming is non offensive. This is shoegaze with hooks, it's not just dream pop.

Standout Track- Windstorm




4) Torche - Songs For Singles. Torche play a brand of sludge metal that is so catchy it has drawn comparisons to Foo Fighters. With songs clocking in at an average of about 2 minutes, this album says a lot in a short span of time.

Standout Track- Arrowhead


3) The Damned Things - Ironiclast. Take members of Fall Out Boy, Every Time I Die and Anthrax. Sounds a bit...different and it is. The band takes the metalcore tinged blues rock of Every Time I Die and tempers it with all the catchiness you'd expect two members of Fall Out Boy to provide. This album is FUN, as are the next 2 coming up.

Standout Track(s)- Black Heart, We've Got a Situation Here, Bad Blood, Little Darling. (The whole album is amazing, do yourself a favor and pick it up)



2) My Chemical Romance - Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys.
Killjoys make some noise. This isn't just an introduction, it's a rallying cry. This album is infectious, it's loud, it's fun and it's colorful. MCR really have created a fun ROCK album. The term "emo" should be purged from your vocabulary. Ian MacKaye hated it when Fugazi was called emo and I can't help but cringe when the term gets thrown around haphazardly. MCR was never an emo band, they've always been more of an arena rock band with a few punk tendencies. Really, I'm not sure what emo even means. Anyway, small rant aside, this album has really connected with me. I really hope it wins over some people for the band, but with the way most people feel about them I doubt it'll happen. Regardless, this album is gold, Jerry. GOLD!

Standout Tracks: SING; Planetary (GO!); Party Poison; Save Yourself, I'll Hold Them Back. (Just like The Damned Things, the whole album is amazing. You're doing yourself a disservice by avoiding this one.)



1) DEVO- SOMETHING FOR EVERYBODY


Devo is an odd creature. They created one of the first music videos and became pop culture idols in a seeming instant. Unfortunately their unique image ("flowerpots", biohazard suits, overwhelming nerdiness) distracted people from the infectious synth AND guitar driven music they were pumping out. Mark Mothersbaugh and company may be in their 60's (or close to it), but they've released an album that shames bands a third their age, and they've done it 40 years into their career. This album truly has something for everybody. SFE features guitar-driven, anthemic tracks like Fresh, it has 8-bit sounds reminiscent of Crystal Castles (Mind Games), it has 50's sounding "whoaa oh oh ohhhs" (Please Baby Please), it even has a piano ballad (No Place Like Home). Take all these tracks, throw in some pop culture awareness and the Devo quirk factor("cheeseburger, cheeseburger, pumping gas" manages to be catchy and an accurate portrayal of American life) and it produces something special.

Stand Out Tracks- Fresh, Please Baby Please, Mind Games, Human Rocket, No Place Like Home, What We Do, Don't Shoot (I'm a Man), March On, Later is Now. The whole album is standout aside from Cameo, which admittedly fell a bit flat for me.