Listomania: Music Top 5 of 2010

It's fair to say that there have been plenty of blogworthy bits of news happening of late. The trouble is that the news at present is so utterly throw-yourself-in-front-of-a-train, kick-yourself-in-the-crotch insane/depressing that I actually can't summon the gumption to face a lot of it.

So until I re-grow my angry balls (no I don't know what I mean either) I'll do my traditional end of year self indulgent list making exercise. Starting with musics! As last year, I'm using my last.fm playing statistics as an indicator of how much I like things. Let's see if I agree with myself!

TOP ALBUMS RELEASED IN 2010

1) Kissy Sell Out - Youth

This essentially equates to a month in the middle of summer when the sun was shining, the new government hadn't made any god-awful decisions yet, and I was stuck either in my office or in bed with my laptop writing yet another draft of my literature review. And, without being particularly good within itself, DJ and producer Kissy Sell Out's debut album of arch electro-pop nonsense really cheered me up. In the cold, dark winter months, one or two songs have even continued to bring a smile to my face and form a part of the electro tangent in my DJ sets, so I guess it wasn't entirely context dependent. The album itself is 14-odd songs that all sound pretty much the same as one another, mainly about being shit at either getting or having a girlfriend. And I certainly know how that is. Anyway, this is apparently what I played more than anything else that was released this year. I think it may not have been a particularly vintage year.

2) Mumford and Sons - Sigh No More

The more I've had time to reflect on this slice of folk-infused whimsical pop fluff, the more I've realised how I should really be listening to Fleet Foxes instead. That's not to say that I don't like this album. Foot stomping anthems like The Cave and Little Lion Man will likely remain on reasonably heavy rotation at Angry Inc. HQ well into the next few years. But I guess it's the wave of people wearing waistcoats and dispensing with basic hygiene and doing that "I'm stamping slightly out of time and singing loud so the DJ can't really hear what's going on well enough to mix the next song in" that I have the real problem with. And the prevalence of a bajillion copycat bands who think that having as many instruments on the stage as possible with no regard for sonic textures or how they fit together doing supporting sets at gigs I've been to this year has stuck in my craw. But anyway, this was quite good, give it a listen if you haven't yet. And they were OK at Bestival.

3) Imelda May - Mayhem

Coming in at number 3, Dublin soul-jazz type stuff from Ms. May, and also the first entry on this list I have only positive things to say about. Essentially driven by excellent double-bass work, coupled with snappy lyrics and top-notch vocal performances make this a great fun romp of the kind the X Factor could really use but would inevitably fuck up. Not particularly deep, but then not all music has to have a meaning beyond making you want to bounce up and down like a loon or think that you've magically learned to swing dance between that last tequila shot and now. Excellent.

4) Chase & Status - More Than Alot

Hmm. So I had no idea I listened to this quite so much. As good fun as it was chewing my own face off and wildly flinging my arms around at Bestival to this, as an album it falls into the familiar commercial drum & bass album trap of having maybe 3 good songs on it (if you're lucky) accompanied by endless repetitive filler. The high points, however, far outweigh the low however (exceeding the mythical Roni Size ratio, whereby Brown Paper Bag was exactly awesome enough to balance out how boring the rest of Reprazent is on reflection). The filthy beginners guide to dubstep of Eastern Jam (best last.fm comment - It's not really Eastern though is it? Thumbs down), the cheeky deconstruction of the DnB genre of Music Club, but mostly the barnstorming vocal performance of Plan B on Pieces offer up proper, jaw-on-the-floor club classic moments. Will most likely disappear from our collective consciousness by February though, if not already.

5) Eliza Doolittle - Eliza Doolittle

Sometimes you just feel like some unashamed bubblegum pop from a slightly dumpy teenage girl. Even if she does ruin the best song on the album by doing a bird impression in the middle, which is every bit as infuriating as it sounds. The album is actually of a generally decent standard, with singles Pack Up and Moneybox ably supported by a decent supporting cast. And I guess I really didn't listen to very much contemporary music this year.

As it turns out, my actual favourite of the year, XX by The XX was actually released in 2009, which shows how on the pulse of music these days. Also, I spent most of the year listening to Florence + The Machine anyway. And 'discovering' old music on spotify. It appears I am approaching the cusp of not being allowed to like young people music, and this upsets me.

More lists to follow!