2010 was a fairly mediocre year in terms of new music that i personally would enjoy. this year was all about old music: re-issues, compilations, previously unreleased material. it was a great year for Jimi Hendrix fans - some excellent compilations, a killer boxed set and even a posthumous album. i was especially disappointed by most of the rap albums i had been looking forward to. most of them fell quite short of my expectations and were usually surpassed by unofficial mixtapes/bootlegs. also this was definitely the year black metal jumped the shark. enough with that stuff - you know who you are. cut it out.
my choice for album of the year is The Vaselines' "Sex With An X". it's amazing that a band can disappear for twenty-one years and come back with new songs every bit as brilliant and memorable as before. it's like they never left. this album is easily better than anything influenced by the legacy of the Vaselines (quite a lot in my estimation) to come out in the past ten years or so. very solid album, great songs the whole way through.
a similar trick was performed by Burzum, who has been in the hut since the 90's. he got out of jail last year and came out with one of the best, weirdest and most authentic black metal albums of 2010. speaking of prison, Gucci Mane released about ten million mixtapes this year plus an album.
good on ya mate. the final Afrirampo album is probably their best, a grand finale in every sense. much less experimental than their previous work and much more rock-oriented. they're going out on the top of their game.
i'll be posting a mixtape or two highlighting some of this music soon.
Best Albums:
Afrirampo - We Are Uchu No Ko
Burzum - Belus
Harvey Milk - A Small Turn Of Human Kindness
Jimi Hendrix - Valleys Of Neptune
The Vaselines - Sex With An X
Runners-Up:
Boston Spaceships - Our Cubehouse Still Rocks
The Fall - Our Future Your Clutter
Impaled Nazarene - Road To The Octagon
Killing Joke - Absolute Dissent
M.I.A. - /\/\ /\ Y /\
Moredhel - Satanik Endsieg
Roky Erickson with Okkervil River - True Love Cast Out All Evil
Roots Manuva Meets Wrongtom - Duppy Writer
White Hills - S/T
Wooden Shjips - Vol. 2
Zola Jesus - Stridulum II
Re-Issues / Old Stuff:
Bruce Haack - Farad The Electric Voice
Harvey Milk - S/T
Mary Hopkin - Post Card (Extended Version)
Modern Jazz Quartet - Under The Jasmin Tree & Space
Negative Approach - Friends Of No One
Spur - Spur Of The Moments
Essential Mixtapes:
Bun B - No Mixtape
Gucci Mane - Frost Bite
Ludacris - Atlanta Ambassador
Maluca - China Food
Natalie Storm - Federation + Prodigal Ent. Present Songs 2 F@#K And Fight 2
Wale - More About Nothing
Wu Tang Vs The Beatles - Enter The Magical Mystery Chambers
Essential Compilations:
Jimi Hendrix - West Coast Seattle Boy (4CD)
VA - Grind Madness At The BBC
VA - Matador At 21
VA - Ninja Tune XX
VA - Rap Nuggets (bootleg)
