mojotastic

So! It's been a whole week into January but I never post anything on time anyway! I wanted to do a top movies or top TV show of 2010 picspam but I got lazy. Plus TV shows are hard since they run September to September and frankly I'm not sure I can even think of ten movies from this year I liked all that much. (The list would be Inception! Inception! INCEPTION!)

Instead I did my Top 15 Albums of 2010. I did a Top 10 of 2009 last year and it's really fun to look back on. I decided to expand the field this year because there were a lot of albums that I really liked (without being crazy in love with like with Florence or Metric last year). Also apparently I am terrible about talking about what I like about music? I would be a really terrific music reviewer apparently. "THIS MAKES ME HAPPY! THIS SOUNDS REAL NICE! I LIKE THE PART THAT IS PRETTY!"



15. White Hinterland- Kairos

The way I found White Hinterland is pretty hilariously random. I went to a fashion week show back in September (it was for some brand called Leifsdottir) and they were playing Icarus while the models walked down the runway. And I remember thinking "Wow this is a great song!" and then promptly got buzzed on free booze and forgot about it. Then I heard the song again on a commercial and was like "HOW DO I KNOW THIS SONG?" and looked it up and promptly downloaded the whole album. This band is so wonderful. When I first listened to the whole album I really liked it but wasn't completely won over, but upon a few more listens I've just fallen in love. Her sound is so interesting and just really, really different. The music is very ethereal and just sort of breezy and sweet but with this great eastern edge to it. I'm not describing it very well but it's a fantastic album.

MP3: Icarus
Why must I always see the ending at the beginning?

14. Laura Marling- I Speak Because I Can

I didn't really start listening to Laura Marling until maybe the last month or so. But there's just something just really great about her voice. It seems to have so much maturity and sadness and character to it. She's very folky, which can be very hit and miss with me, but I love her regardless. The composition in some of her songs (like Blackberry Stone) are so pretty.

MP3: Hope in the Air
I can't give up that quick, my life is a candle and a wick, you can put it out, but you can't break it down, in the end we are waiting to be lit



13. School of Seven Bells- Disconnect From Desire

I had School of Seven Bells on my top list last year and they made it on my list this year even though I don't love their new album as much as their first one. They are seriously great though, regardless of the fact that Disconnect didn't hit quiet the same highs as Alpinisms. Also pulling in their favor is that the free show of theirs I went to in a weird basement not-frat in Princeton last year was one of my favorite concert experiences. Camarilla is a fantastic song though and one I've had on repeat for months. Their whole album continues with that same sort of gypsy sound they have while also being really light. They sort of remind me of summertime.

MP3: Camarilla
She carries a heart of sand, Her words are the surge of the ocean


12. Sia- We Are Born

SIA! I've loved Sia for awhile now but I haven't loveloveLOVED any of her albums as much as Colour the Small One. But this one is just fantastic. I listened to it I believe when it first came out but it didn't really catch me and so I moved on. Then a few months ago I started listening to it again and I was like "THIS IS FANTASTIC". I like that it's so cheery and uptempo. Songs like "Huring Me Now" and "You've Changed" are so much fun. I seriously adore I'm in Here, both the version on the album and the stunning acoustic version they had on Gossip Girl. Sia is flawless. (Also her song on the Eclipse album is so beautiful it makes me want to cry sometimes.)

MP3: I'm in Here
Can't you hear my call? Are you coming to get me now? I've been waiting for, You to come rescue me


11. Scanners- Submarine

I should thank Gossip Girl for helping me discover this band. They played Salvation last season and I've been OBSESSED with the song since. I wouldn't be surprised if it's one of the top played songs on my iPod. I find it really hard to describe their sound. Sometimes I'll be listening to one of their songs and I'll just be thinking "eh" and then they'll do something really interesting and I'll just fall in love. This is why I'll never be a music critic! But I'd urge everyone to give them a try.

MP3:Salvation
Dark eyes become divine, I need the love I crave, You’re hands they burn like mine, I’ll take you to my grave

10. The National- High Violet

I've always liked The National but there was always something that was sort of holding me back from completely loving them. Like I would fall in love with one of their songs (I was totally obsessed with the Soho Riots song) and then I would download an album or another few songs and they would just fall flat for me. I think it's something with the decidedly slow pacing on a lot of their songs. But this album sort of remedied everything I never connected with in their earlier albums while keeping everything that's fantastic about them. The lead singer's voice is so great and interesting. I can always tell a National song just by his voice. I feel like this album just has so SO many strong, interesting songs on it. And how often are you going to find a truly amazingly great song with the lyrics "I was afraid I'd eat your brains"? AN AWESOME SONG ABOUT ZOMBIES? YES PLEASE. (Another hat tip to Gossip Girl for playing them this season and convincing me to download the album and give it a try. Say what you want about GG's nonsensical-ness but it still has fantastic music.)

MP3:Afraid of Everyone
Venom radio and venom television, I'm afraid of everyone, I'm afraid of everyone

09. Sufjan Stevens- The Age of Adz

Sufjan Stevens was another person where I had liked a few songs of his but had never really gotten into him. Then this album came out and it was so interesting and weird and ambitious and I fell in love. I love music that really works at bringing something new to the table and doing something different, even if it doesn't land all the time. I love this album, even though there are a few songs on it I don't love 100%. But the songs on it that I do more than make up for it. I could pretty much listen to Vesuvius anytime of the day or night. It's a really fantastic album.

MP3:Vesuvius
Vesuvius, Are you a ghost, Or the symbols of light, Or a fantasy host?


08. Vampire Weekend- Contra

At this point I feel like every description is going to start with me saying "Ok I never really got the appeal of this band UNTIL NOW". But...in this case it's also true! I kept hearing "Vampire Weekend! Vampire Weekend!" everywhere and I was like UGH. I listened to their first album and I honestly didn't think it was anything all that special. Sure Oxford Comma is pretty great but by the end of the album they were giving me a summertime sugar coma. There's something about this album though that really works for me. You'd think that with their sound there would be only so many places they could really go with it, but this album really proves that they've started to really expand and mature into it. I fell in love with Horchata when cilly put it on one of her ~quality music~ mixes. And this summer I found myself humming California English more often than not. In fact, this entire album reminds me of day trips to the beach, sitting in my bathing suit with the windows down. Which, considering how cold and disgusting it is right now, is a mental picture I'd like to live in.

MP3: Horchata
In December drinking horchata, I'd look psychotic in a balaclava, Winter's cold, it's too much to handle, Pincher crabs that pinch at your sandals

07. Ellie Goulding- Lights

She's so amazing, everyone just download her album now. I had a few songs of hers lying around my iPod in various playlists and I realized I was just skipping all the other songs on the playlist and listening to all the Ellie Goulding. Because she's that amazing. There literally aren't even words for how much I love Starry Eyed. THAT'S HOW AMAZING IT IS. She's just flawless. Her music is just the best dance/electro pop ever and I adore her voice. Her songs are so catchy and wonderful that I was constantly listening to every single one of them over and over again.

MP3: Under the Sheets
You left your blood stain on the floor, You set your sights on him, You left a hand print on the door, Like all the boys before, like all the boys before

06. Kanye West- My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

OH KANYE WEST. IMMA LET YOU FINISH BUT KANYE WEST IS THE MOST HILARIOUS PERSON OF ALL TIME. OF ALL TIME. His twitter enriches my life in so, so many ways. If it weren't for his twitter I wouldn't know how hard it is to sleep on fur pillows or that Kanye West does all his best thinking in bike stores. IMPORTANT INFORMATION.

But enough about Kanye West, my favorite person ever. (NO SERIOUSLY LOOK AT THE PICTURE OF HIM WEARING THE GIANT EGYPTIAN CHAIN. WHAT IS THAT EVEN?) The thing I legit love about Kanye West is that his creativity is the real deal. You always feel like he's putting 110% percent into everything he does. This album is just so furiously, unapologetically creative. I'm not usually much of a rap person but I always make an exception for Kanye. I really love everything this album chooses to be. I feel like it's harder to get better than Power and Runaway, which I was already obsessed with before the album came out and then OMG MONSTER. He's also fantastic at picking out interesting, awesome people to collaborate with. Rihanna was fantastic and I can't even talk about the Bon Iver song. I LOVE IT THAT MUCH. If there's one song you download out of all of the songs I put up make it the Kanye/Bon Iver collaboration. It's beautiful while also having a hard edge and I love it so.

MP3:Lost in the World
I'm lost in the world, I'm down on my life, I'm new in the city, and I'm down for the night

05. She & Him- Volume 2

I love She & Him. I'm not afraid to admit it. I've seen them a bunch of times in concert and I think they are wonderful. I think Zooey Deschanel might be one of the cutest people alive on the entire planet. She could probably bring about world peace with her cuteness. I loved Volume 1 but there were still some songs I didn't connect with as much. But Volume 2 just felt like it took everything great about their sound and just pushed it further. I really love their music. It sounds so classic and folky, like you just took down your parents favorite record and popped it on a turn table. There's just something really vintage and fantastic about their sound I really love. Zooey's voice is so amazing and just fits the music to perfection. UGH. LOVE THEM.

MP3: Thieves
And I know, and you know too, that love like ours is terrible news, but that won't stop me crying, no that won't stop me crying over you

04. Broken Social Scene- Forgiveness Rock Record

This is actually the first Broken Social Scene record I've heard. It definitely makes me want to hurry up and download their other stuff. I honestly can't believe it took me so long to look them up considering my undying love for Stars and Metric. I really, REALLY love how creative this album is though. There's so much tonal difference in a lot of the songs and yet they all still fit together on the same album. I love albums that give you a lot of different kinds of songs and this is definitely that kind of album. I really can't say enough about how fantastic this album is. While the song I posted All to All is just amazing I also want to shout out Chase Scene and Texico Bitches and Sweetest Kill.

MP3: All to All
It's like the all to all, all to all ultimatum

03. Janelle Monae- The ArchAndroid

Could Janelle Monae be anymore perfect? I think this might actually be a real question, because she's that flawless. I remember listening to her album for the first time and when I got to the end my first thought was "Well that's going to be one of my albums of the year." I'm just really amazed by the album she put together. Like Broken Social Scene the songs have a lot of divergence in their sound but they all hang together on the album beautifully. If you listened to say, Sir Greendown and then Tight Rope you'd be like "Those are on the same album?!" and yet it works so well. She is seriously one of the most creative, talented people out there making music right now. I know everyone loves her and this album and THERE IS A REASON. That is because it's amazing. I still can't get over the range of music she covers in this one album. Oh and did I mention that the entire album is actually a story about an android falling in love with a human in a futuristic world? BECAUSE THAT'S HOW AWESOME THIS ALBUM IS. I'm STILL obsessed with 57821 but I'd also recommend everyone downloading Tight Rope, which is amazing and also Cold War which is one of my absolute favorites.

MP3:57821
Early each morning he searched for her, Til his feet become bloody and tired, Her hologram photo stayed near to him, Buried deep in the pits of his heart

02. Stars- The Five Ghosts

I might be a bit biased here because I love Stars the most, forever and always. Also apparently I am one of their "super fans" despite not knowing that I was talking to their drummer. I got to be very ~VIP~ at a few of their shows this summer because I was on the street team and it was so fun, even though it mostly consisted of trying to find posters and then put them up in five minutes. They are amazing live though.

Thankfully, the album itself turned out to be wonderful. I heard the album (twice) live before I heard the recorded versions and I absolutely love it. Like I said, Star is like my ultimate favorite so I don't even think I can be coherent when talking about them. I love Amy and Torq's voices and I love when they sing together on songs like "We Don't Want Your Body". There are seriously so many excellent songs on this album I had a hard time even deciding what song to put up for download. But Dead Hearts won out because it's so haunting and lovely (and honestly because I listened to it nonstop while I was reading the Lymond Chronicles and sobbing internally). There are so many fantastic ones on the album though like Five Ghosts and Fixed which I listened to about 30 times when it first came out and Opinions Versus The Sun. All so great. I can listen to this album whenever.

MP3: Dead Hearts
I can say it, but you won't you believe me. You say you do, but you don't deceive me. Dead hearts are everywhere!

01. Marina and the Diamonds- The Family Jewels

I don't even know what I can say about Marina and the Diamonds. She is like my Florence and the Machine of 2010. I listened to her album and fell in love with it immediately, the first time through and then had to force myself to take a break from listening to it because I was listening to it nonstop, every day. She has such a great sound and an amazing voice and I love the things she does with all her songs. They're all so distinctive and yet all amazing. Like I don't even have the proper words for her flawlessness. I just love her so much and I love this album to itty bitty pieces. Calling something my Florence is pretty much the highest honor I could possibly bestow. I know I'll be listening to this album (over and over) way, way into the future. It's far and away my favorite from this whole year. I changed the order on a lot of the albums in this list (and actually had to stop myself from moving things around while even writing this post) but Marina was, forever and always, my number one. No questions. There are so many great songs of hers that you should look up, immediately, right now. Like Hollywood, which was the first song of hers I heard and loved. And I Am Not A Robot which I've been wanting to make a BSG mix around because LOL and Obsessions and Mowgli's Road and Guilty. THEY'RE ALL AMAZING. Honestly if there's one album on this list that you look up, do yourself a favor and have it be this one. She's that great.

MP3: Rootless
Running with my roots pulled up, Caught me cold so they could cut, What there was left of love, I'm rootless, I'm rootless

All songs here: ZIP IT GOOD