The best goddamn albums of 2010

Let's get this out of the way. The Hold Steady are dead to me. Heaven is Whenever is an abomination. I'm bitter. They're not on this list. OK, onto the good stuff.

There's a lot of pop punk on this list. There's a little bit of indie. It's cold out.

10. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
9. Frightened Rabbits - The Winter of Mixed Drinks
8. The Extra Lens - Undercard
7. You, Me, and Everyone We Know - Some Things Don't Wash Out
6. Motion City Soundtrack - My Dinosaur Life
5. Titus Andronicus - The Monitor
4. Bad Books - Bad Books
3. The Tallest Man On Earth - The Wild Hunt
2. Bomb The Music Industry! - Adults!!!... Smart!!! Shithammered!!! And Excited By Nothing!!!!!!!
1. The Wonder Years - The Upsides

Other blogsz

Haha, I haven't listened to that Damien Marley/Nas CD since May.

I finished the Britney's Spear CD, which I alluded to ever so briefly in one of the other entries here. They'll eventually say how to get it at myspace.com/britneysspear.

In the meantime, I'm making a record again and I have decided to make a new blog about that and use what I think is blogger's most ridiculous template. That can be found at http://sistercityband.blogspot.com.

Will I update this blog again in another four months? Anything could happen?

First Listen: Nas & Damien Marley - Distant Relatives

My hip-hop credentials are pretty solid, I feel like, so I'm just going to go right into this. Nas and Damien "Jr. Gong" Marley made a record together called Distant Relatives. It's been getting near perfect reviews from a bunch of hip-hop websites; I'm not so sure it's perfect, but it is one of the only decent hip-hop albums to come out in a long time. The record is thematically centered around Africa, past and present, and the common ancestry of the human race (like KevDev's Brothers Blood kinda sorta. Probably the first and last time Kevin Devine and Nas will ever appear in the same paragraph). When the record sticks to those themes, it's very good.

Honestly, I have almost no idea what Damien Marley is saying most of the time, but the meaning still comes through. Tracks like "Tribes at War" and "Africa Must Wake Up" are pretty self explanatory; there are a lot of didactic songs on the album, but the album manages to stay away from sounding kitschy or corny. Nas gives a consistent performance across the thirteen tracks, mostly rapping about the general theme of the song. Despite the occasional dig at his unfaithful milkshake-having ex-wife and the child support system ("Strong Will Continue"), Distant Relatives is a mostly positive group of songs. Unity features prominently: The first track, "As We Enter" features both Marley and Nas in a fast paced call and response, showcasing the best of both their abilities. "In His Own Words" is a vow of solidarity despite different religions, and "My Generation," (featuring both a kids choir and Lil' Wayne!) is a call to arms for change.

Distant Relatives is best when it's thematically in line. The songs with the best production are the ones with aspects of all three backgrounds: hip-hop, reggae, and traditional African music). The straight reggae songs are a little too reggae for my tastes, but there aren't too many of them. The record clocks in at thirteen songs in just about an hour. That's a lot of music, but thankfully they've got a lot to say. It's a lyrically and musically sound collection of songs, and it's hard to argue with their intentions. Maybe there's hope for non-trap music hip-hop after all?

Rating: Prittay, prittay good.

Fight dat Entropy

And so the mixing begins in earnest today.

SO FRE'

It is sometimes important to cleanse and to detox and to wipe your C: drive and to put a shiny new operating system on your shiny old machine. Today I underwent one such rebirth and for compatibility's sake I thought I'd make sure Cubase still played nice with that album thing I'm working on. It does, and so I mixed for a bit and came up with this:

Sister City - 20 (Mix 1) - http://www.box.net/shared/joqnyhu5dp



REBIRTH MOTHAFUCKA

Types of songs..

First song in a month and a half, reminding me I can still write songs, song.

1 vs 7 Billion

Inspired by my friend Greg, who released an EP today (on the off chance you are reading this and don't also read Greg's blog, download the EP here: gregburton.bandcamp.com), I decided I would record some stuff today. Here is a song called "1 vs 7 Billion." It's going to be on the (Person) (Noun) record. It's a little quiet. Deal with it.

http://soundcloud.com/fivekidsdown429/1-vs-7-billion

I'm sorry for the dying puppies
I'm sorry for the dying kittens
I'm sorry for the dying humans
That I found out about on a commercial break
Right before the million dollar question

And confetti rained down from the ceiling
And someone had to sweep that shit up
At least we're creating jobs
Man sweep that shit up
Man sweep that shit up

And if the highway signs don't make you think of genocide
I fear you're blind, you're blind
And if the starless sky doesn't bring to mind a lack of poetry
You've died, you've died inside

I'm sorry for the starving children
I'm sorry for the unskilled workers
I'm sorry for the third world countries
I can't find on a map
And I'm sorry for the spoiled college students
Who would chastise me for that

And how big can you talk?
Man shut up the fuck up
That's not the way to solve a problem
Man shut the fuck up

And if the highway signs don't make you think of genocide
I fear you're blind, you're blind
And if the starless sky doesn't bring to mind a lack of poetry
You've died, you've died inside

I turn my frustration and my guilt into self-loathing
And I turn my self-loathing into song
In turn I just feel empty
Because my singing isn't helping anyone
It's a paralyzing cycle
Acceptance to denial
Disgust to denigration into song
In turn I just feel hopeless
Because my singing isn't helping anyone

There's tons of good that won't come out of this
But in a superficial way I think we're better off
If we don't think of circumstances
It will be easier to fall asleep at night