This is a list of albums that I listened to a lot and liked a lot in 2010:
Str8 Killa, Freddie Gibbs
Freddie Gibbs is GI's finest and also I think the world's finest. I remember when this album came out it was one of those things where I was kind of apprehensive because I'd listened to his mixtapes and esteemed him as the best rapper rapping since I don't know who I don't want to make a judgment like that but I mean, you know, the best. And I wondered if the new album would mark a commercialization and therefore most likely a reduction in quality of his songs and style etc. Instead, when I heard this album it was like: Shit mane, this guy's got it! Gibbs stock going up in 2k11/all eyez on Gibbs.
Causers of This, Toro y Moi
This one's kind of an of course. I loved this album like early in the year, and then into the summer; then I bought this record and listened to it pretty much all August and *fell in love again*. It's kind of a classic I guess. I got pretty frustrated looking at the related artists on Last.fm and not finding anybody as good that I didn't already know about.
Le Podium #1, La Femme
This album blew me away. It's like, the album starts and the sound is really rad and rock-n-roll and I'm like, Wow, this is enjoyable. And then that girl's French voice starts in--a French girl! And I'm like, omg omg sooooooooooooooo good oh. I'm telling you, this album really blew me
away.
Young, Summer Camp
Fun music. Just going to be honest: kind of a filler on this list. But I like this album a lot and I have listened to it a lot and I expect a lot of good things from this band, including cool album covers like this one's.
Color Your Life, Twin Sister
Another classic kind of; another artist whose Last.fm I looked up and became bummed because there weren't no damn anybody else that sounded half as good. It's so dreamy.
Sound that Speaks Volumes 2010, Plastician
This album I guess is just a mix that Plastician did but it encompasses all the good dubstep and grime that I cared about this year, and I listened to it almost exclusively for many weeks. How about that! Many weeks, I'm sayin! It's great you should
download it.
Be So True, Millionyoung
The sound of this album is, I dare say, incomparable. I know that probably sounds ridiculous because, you know:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chillwave. But I don't know, Millionyoung sounds different and better and smoover.
Crazy for You, Best Coast
Fun and stuff, too. Also kind of filler but it's on the list because I listened to it so damn much and let's be honest it was a huge part of all our summers and it made driving around or even walking or bicycling around a lot funner, didn't it? It's got a unique sound, a little like that rock-n-roll/surfer stuff of La Femme, but more stoned, almost lazier and more casual. It makes me think of like wearing shorts and no shirt and smoking a bowl and drinking a beer when it's so fucking sunny out.
One Life Stand, Hot Chip
Don't have much to say about this album but I just get the vague impression, from the depths of my music savvy, that this is a good quality album and is important, etc.
Ooooo, Ooooo
I think it would be appropriate in more than one way to call the witch house thing this year sort of vaporous, ephemeral--how about ghostly. At first I was hesitant to get into the witch house thing but those triangles and crosses got me into it; it was kind of like a conversion. And Ooooo I think is the best--it seems like it best exemplifies the combination of skill and lean that characterizes the subsubgenre.
Dirty South Dance 2, A-Trak
This album is really good 2 dance 2. "A-trak does it again." Hope y'all dance a lot in 2011.
Overall I guess this list is pretty mainstream, but I mean w/e. Happy New Year y'all!
Chicago-based Closed Sessions has thankfully provided all of us stuck scavenging for tracks off Full Metal Jack-It with some new Freddie Gibbs. "Something New" has that Isaac Hayes sample that maybe some of you remember from that Dr. Dre song from like a decade ago, and the beat's not as bangin as that old Dre song but Gibbs of course blows it up on his verse and the thing about that is he was probably just fucking around.