2010 Will Be the Greatest Year in Music for The Decade

[Lumenskir]

Now, I probably know what you're thinking. "Lummy, I hate to break it to ya, but 1) the decade just started and 2) this year isn't even half-done, so stop making stupid prognostications, stupid."

To you I say, "There are only two things that a man can be absolutely sure of in this life: 1) the proper way to shorten my name is 'Lumenskir' and 2) if there is a way for 2011-2019 to surpass 2010's musical output in awesomeness, I fear that it would probably tip some sort of cosmic scale over and doom us all to a blissed life of musical perfection, because right now it appears that 2010 is straddling the line of how much good music you can morally and ethically release in one year."

Don't believe me? Just look at Wiki's page for albums released this year (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_albums_released_in_2010). Broken Social Scene put out a record that's tied for either their first or second best, The National put out either their best or tied for first record, ane great outputs from (partial list because these are just my personal highlights so far) LCD Soundsystem, Besnard Lakes, Band of Horses, Hold Steady, Gorillaz, She & Him, MGMT, Owen Pallet (nee Final Fantasy), and the Magnetic Fields. Plus, Sleigh Bells and Fang Island (and Fang Island isn't even on the Wiki-list, which makes me wonder what else they're missing) put out absolutely stunning debuts, and even Top 40 radio is somewhat bearable, provided you hit a string of songs lite on the Black Eyed Peas and loaded with Ke$ha.

And guys, that's just the first 5 months. Look at that list of soon-to-be-released albums. Sure, some will suffer delays that might preclude them from being released this year, but still: Coldplay! Portishead AND Radiohead! Arcade Fire!! Interpol! Lupe Fiasco! Fleet Foxes, Panda Bear, and Beastie Boys, ohmy! Guys, there's so much more but I'm hitting the upper limit on exclamation points!!!

So yeah, this is a thread for talking about what you've like so far this year, and what you are looking forward to in this, the greatest musical year of the decade.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Wot no grizzly bear?!?

[Lumenskir]

Wot no grizzly bear?!?
Veckatimest was released 2009, and if released this year might have contributed to the GreatMusic-okolypse I alluded to.

[krogothwolf]

Sorry, 2010 was ruined when Ke$ha released an album. Killed everything.

[Carade]

Don't know much about music. But I enjoyed the hell out of the new LCD Soundsystem album.

[Hanuman]

I'm looking forward to the chemical bros album and might hit up the crystal castles, but all the other ones I haven't heard of or haven't liked for the last 5 years.

I'm seriously just waiting for the day educational music comes out.
Then we will be playing Yantra Hero on our nintendo somethingorothers.

[Lumenskir]

Sorry, 2010 was ruined when Ke$ha released an album.
After listening to her, I've come to the epiphany that Ke$ha is the I Want To Be The Guy of faux-girrl pop music.

On both of their surfaces each of them seems like a horrendous idea: IWTBTG is just an amalgamation of memes and the most bullshit elements of every platformer, while Ke$ha is a blatantly banal singer singing about stereotypical bullshit expected of the dance-girrl genre.

And yet...both work, even succeed wildly, by appealing to the same two core elements. The first is their presentation: Both are baldfaced about their core concepts. In IWTBTG this is presented in everything within the game trying and succeeding in killing you over and over again, often in the most intentionally player-hating ways possible. For Ke$ha, its the complete and joyous lack of subtlety to her lyrics; I remember hearing my female friends being surprised at how outre Lady GaGa* was being by referring to a penis as a 'Disco Stick', but Ke$ha comes along with 'Blah Blah Blah' and literally commands a guy to "stop being a little bitch...and show [her] where his dick is at" which is just...amazingly refreshing compared to the strained metaphors and workarounds that most of the other acts on the radio offer up.

*Even though Lady GaGa is much more popular and probably more critically admired than Ke$ha, I still hate her most of all for acting like her entire being is some sort of breakthrough. Crap like the Kermit the Frog and flaming bras just scream of empty spectacle, a "terrible din attempting to mask a horrific void" if I can paraphrase an assessment of turn of the century theater reviewers.** Also, 'Alejandro' doesn't make a lot of sense, even graded on the diminished curve of pop music.

**And speaking of which, god bless Ke$ha in this regard as well. I love how she's gone from performances that showcased the utter artificiality of the pop music machine (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBKEKTXu-g8) to her recent SNL "We are all the aliens" breakdown (which to me works great as a demonstration of how utterly inane Lady GaGa's profound 'statements' really are). Having said that, she really is a truly terrible live performer.

However, it is the second aspect that both share that's probably the most important: They are compulsively fun, if approached correctly. IWTBTG isn't a collection of bullshit constant death if you like the challenge it offers, and the combination of Ke$ha's (Dr. Luke created) beats and the blissful mindlessness of her lyrics are pure pop empty calories, delicious without the annoying aspirations (Read as: delusions) of nutrition.

tl;dr - Ke$ha, along with things like IWTBTG, create great pieces of entertainment not by the careful whittling away of their respective genre's shameful aspects. Rather, they shove your face into them so hard they somehow cease being tiresome and exist as amazing pieces of ephemera.
Don't know much about music. But I enjoyed the hell out of the new LCD Soundsystem album.
I know!! The first time I listened to 'Dance Yrself Clean' and it got to the explosive section I was immediately hooked. And have you seen the awesome video for Drunk Girls (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdRaf3-OEh4)? It's a great (greatest?) example of the "Just do shit in front of a camera for the length of the song" genre of music video.

[Mr.Bookworm]

This thread needs more Josh (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/So_Runs_the_World_Away) Ritter (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYLBoBtszDg).

[Mondt]

Sorry, 2010 was ruined when Ke$ha released an album. Killed everything.YEAH TOTALLY ITS LIKE SHE JUST RUINED ALL TEH OTHER MUSZKCS

No, really, like, that wasn't even funny. Kesha is awful but its no different than any other stupid teen fad pop bullshit. Pointless hateful post towards people who might enjoy her music on top of just not making sense.

Contribute something. :dance:

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Kamelot haven't released their newest album yet. The decade doesn't get awesome until they do.

[Seil]

I like BSS as much as the next guy, but Forgiveness Rock Record is pretty terrible. Better off it and on The New Pornographers.

[Lumenskir]

YEAH TOTALLY ITS LIKE SHE JUST RUINED ALL TEH OTHER MUSZKCS

No, really, like, that wasn't even funny. Kesha is awful but its no different than any other stupid teen fad pop bullshit. Pointless hateful post towards people who might enjoy her music on top of just not making sense.

Contribute something.
While I agree with the sentiment, I can't help but notice that you're not following your own advice. What are you listening to?
I like BSS as much as the next guy, but Forgiveness Rock Record is pretty terrible. Better off it and on The New Pornographers.
I'll respectfully disagree. Not that the New Pornographers aren't good, but for me personally I never really get the sense that they're rising above their individual contributions and creating something greater than the parts. I always feel like I'm getting B-Sides from the latest Destroyer, A.C. Newman, Neko Case, etc. album, rather than a proper set of New Pornographer songs. Of course, I only really started to feel this way after listening to the lackluster Challengers, and I hear Together is more of a return to form, so I'll probably check it out.

BSS, however, remains my favorite band for bringing the disparate elements of the singular bands together into something...well, BSS-y. There's a common bond in Kevin Drew's lyrical style (which, reliant as it is on words like fuck and bitch and simple sentiments expressed without much flourish, is a joy for me) but the songs feel like they could only be made by having the right mixture of elements.

Is there a particular song(s) that you don't like, or is it just the 'tone' of the entire album?

[Seil]

It's not that I dun like BSS' sound (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceGD6JBKiFc), or the individual artists, but it....

Wait.

Is the form comprised of indie nerds? 'Cause I know that most of us like indie bands, and those that don't have not spoken up yet. So is this an indie forum?

That being said, I was at the above linked performance. It was really crowded because it was free, but it was pretty rad. I just dislike their new album.

---

That being said, I have to say that I don't actively dislike Kesha - I refuse to spell a name with a "$," thank you very much. She's not the worst thing in the world, but at the same time some of her stuff I just plain dislike. I'm not commenting here on the fact that she's terrible, but that she's bringing down music as a whole. (http://caloriecount.about.com/kesha-music-ft165602) I've seen a lot of people saying that Kesha is the worst thing to happen to music since the last worst artist.

I'm defending her because she is an acquired taste. All music is. You dislike it, some other people do. She's not the best artist in the world, but she doesn't deserve to be slanted that way. No one does.

---

Minus The Bear is pretty rad and deserves a listen. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36XnnyWMI5w)

[Hanuman]

Who's Ke$ha?
*googles some music*
Oh, oh god.

Ok, ok, guys.
Seriously...

:ohdear:







:(

[The Sevenshot Kid]

This is so going to get me laughed at, but I'm really excited for that new album that My Chemical Romance is going to be releasing this year.

[Lumenskir]

Minus The Bear is pretty rad and deserves a listen.
I liked MtB's first (three/four?) albums, but I just can not get into this year's Omni. The songs just aren't doing anything for me, and usually repeated listening will reveal that I've just been an idiot (as seen with my first forays into Clipse and Antlers), but everytime an Omni song comes up on random I instinctually just fast-forward. I'll need to make another attempt, or just listen to Planet of Ice again.
Who's Ke$ha?
*googles some music*
Oh, oh god.

Ok, ok, guys.
Seriously...
Seriously...what? So far, I'm the only one that's offered up something like a defense, while others have just offered probably the best and truest advice in music fandom: Don't assume that there is a definite 'good' taste in music. There are opinions you agree with, disagree with, understand, whatever, but there's nothing approaching canonically, I dunno, correct about the entire process of finding something enjoyable.

I've also just read over what defense I've written, and while I agree with everything, I do want to point out that Ke$ha (it's part of her name, Seil, at least be respectful) isn't a genius or some amazing version of satire on her genre. While I am personally amazed by the actual music (which again, credit almighty to Dr. Luke's genius) and un-subtlety of the lyrics, I'm pretty sure that if I saw her in a club and attempted to explain that I find her songs refreshingly direct she would stop me about three words in, take a swig from a whiskey bottle, puke on the floor, and then attempt to make out with the nearest shoe.*

But, I am a firm believer in the equation which states that the square of idiocy is 'savant'. After reading her interview in Rolling Stone (which I believe, but I'm not entirely sure, signals a return to some sort of pop music narrative factory) and seeing a few sitdowns, I'm starting to think that she started out wanting to be a country singer, ingrained the core ethos of lyrical literalness from that genre, and was then shoehorned by various producers into becoming a pop maker without weaning off her previous . So, when she was told to write a pop song for the club scene, she either didn't conceive of the ability to surround the core message (dance until you fuck) in metaphors, or she didn't care to. Thus we get the breakdown to TiK ToK in which Ke$ha tells the DJ that he is...breaking her down and making her heart pound until she is motivated to throw her hands up. It's like someone asked her to fill out the MadLibs of girl-pop lyrics and she instead just sang-talk "Adjective" and "Noun", which I find hilarious.

TL;DR - Ke$ha is retarded, but retarded like a fox.


Also, in actually good music news, I can not parse out what James Murphy is saying as concerns LCD Soundsystem is this interview (http://www.avclub.com/articles/james-murphy-of-lcd-soundsystem,41691/). Is the LCD chocolate factory being closed but delicious Wonka Bars will still mysteriously get shipped out or...?

*For those monolingual, this is Ke$hanese for "I have to vomit and want to make out with a shoe."

[Seil]

Seriously...what? So far, I'm the only one that's offered up something like a defense,

...Ahem.

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u59/Poetisch/kesha.jpg

[Lumenskir]

Seil you need to dig into her discography some more, you are missing out by just sticking with the singles. In particular, Mr. Watson (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KElm4EVSp9M) might just be the best inverted Police song ever with its depiction of a girl with the hots for a teacher (and the fact that it outright says as much without shrouding the true intentions of the song [deliberate calling out of the creepy stalker vibes in like half of all Police songs] *cough* [/deliberate calling out of the creepy stalker vibes in like half of all Police songs, specifically Every Breath You Take and Don't Stand So Close to Me]).

So, universal question for the thread, what's the primary way you guys first listen to new music? Just rely on reviews/word of mouth and buy the damn thing, youtube leaked tracked, radio? I ask because I think I'm close to Grooveshark (isten.grooveshark.com) abuse.

[Hanuman]

Seil you need to dig into her discography some more, you are missing out by just sticking with the singles.
Pop music (a term that originally derives from an abbreviation of "popular") is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented towards a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short and simple love songs and utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.
a focus on the individual song or singles, rather than on extended works or albums
an aim of appealing to a general audience, rather than to a particular sub-culture or ideology
an emphasis on craftsmanship rather than formal "artistic" qualities
an emphasis on recording, production, and technology, over live performance
a tendency to reflect existing trends rather than progressive developments


Pop is designed for singles, it's kind of like telling someone that a death metal band has music that's warm and fuzzy but then getting after them for avoiding delving into the band when it's designed for hate.