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. 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 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? 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 Ritter.

[Mondt]

Originally Posted by krogothwolf

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.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

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