2010 may not have been a vintage year in the annals of popular music, but it generated a fair amount of music that I bought and enjoyed, and a few albums that I'm sure will have an enduring appeal for me.
Inevitably, there are many things I've not heard, but here's 2010 in music as it appears to me in January 2011:
1. Peter Gabriel - Scratch My Back
This was possibly my most played album of the year. Featuring understated Minimalist arrangements and beautifully measured vocal performances, familiar songs were given fresh and emotional makeovers.
The versions of The Boy In The Bubble (revealing the darkness inherent in the original lyric) and Listening Wind were as subtle and compelling as anything in the Gabriel catalogue.
2. Sufjan Stevens - The Age Of Adz
A restlessly inventive album from a man who proves that new combinations can still be made in the wondrous world of pop music.
3. The Portico Quartet - Isla
A lovely cinematic combination of Minimalist Classical, ECM Jazz and gamelan musics.
4. Durutti Column - A Paen To Wilson
For Tony rather than Steven, this was Vini Reilly in soulful form. In many ways, typically lyrical and typically Durutti, the use of Marvin Gaye samples and more prominent orchestral and rhythmic elements took this somewhere a little different.
5. Nik Bartsch's Ronin - Llyria
A more austere counterpart to The Portico Quartet, but no less worthy or memorable.
6. Steve Reich - Double Quartet / 2x5
Another fine Reich release. With its jittery rhythms and 1980s Rock band sound and dynamics, Bang On A Can's somewhat maligned 2x5 was one of of my most played pieces of the year.
7. Brian Eno - Small Craft On A Milk Sea
Like the Durutti Column album, this wasn't particularly fresh territory, but for me it was a successful and genuinely inspired variant on some of BEno's past approaches. The trio of Eno, Hopkins and Abrahams worked superbly as a unit and the shifting combination of Ambient, Electronica and dissonant Art Rock styles made for a consistently interesting experience.
8. David Sylvian - Sleepwalkers
A very nicely sequenced compilation of DS collaborations from the last decade, which made for a strong and coherent album in itself.
9. The Flaming Lips - Dark Side Of The Moon
An odd diversion for an odd band. Inventive and fun.
10. Joanna Newsome - Have One On Me
Another ambitious set of songs from one of the most distinctive and gifted songwriters of recent times.
11. Travis & Fripp - Live At Coventry Cathedral
An excellent live outing for two excellent musicians. Soundscapes and TravisLoops collided beautifully as always, but this was made extra special by the fact that RF's unique guitar solo voice was also to the fore.
12. Bryan Ferry - Olympian
Languorous funk and heartbreak ballads dominated a familiar, but worthy comeback for King Croonsome. The brooding and seductive Tender Is The Night and Me Oh My were two of the highlights.
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Elsewhere, I liked elements of the new albums by Robert Wyatt, Sun Kil Moon and These New Puritans.
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In terms of reissues and back catalogue, The Flaming Lips were the resounding winners purely in terms of plays amassed on my iPod this year.
In particular, The Soft Bulletin (1999) moved me in a way it hadn't done before. As with XTC's Apple Venus Volume 1 (2001) and Paddy MacAloon's I Trawl The Megahertz (2001), TSB was an album that took a few years for me to fully connect with, but once the connection was made, its emotional impact was strong.
Other old albums / reissues I've enjoyed this year:
Virginia Astley - From Gardens Where We Feel Secure (1983) Pete Atkin / Clive James - Driving Through Mythical America (1971) Mile Davis - Bitches Brew 40th Anniversary Edition (1970) The Cure - Disintegration (1989) Donovan - A Gift From A Flower To A Garden (1968) Efterklang - Parades (2007) Grateful Dead - Blues For Allah (1975) Grateful Dead - Terrapin Station (1977) Harmonia and Eno - Tracks And Traces (1976) Jethro Tull - Stand Up (1969) King Crimson - The 40th Anniversary Re-masters (particularly Islands, 1971, and Lizard, 1970) Joni Mitchell - Don Juan's Reckless Daughter (1977) Pink Floyd - The Division Bell (1994) Steely Dan - Gaucho (1980) Sebastien Tellier - La Ritournelle (2005) Van Der Graaf Generator - Pawn Hearts (1971) |