I've been writing and publishing “Best/Favorite Of…” lists for music sites and/or blogs for several years, and while it's never all that easy, I found this year to be particularly tough.
As I mentioned in my very first 3hree Things column, my favorite releases in the month of May alone (The Black Keys, The National, Broken Social Scene, Band Of Horses, Sleigh Bells, Deftones) were almost enough to make me feel like I could have filled out most of my less than halfway through the year.
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Usually, I take the easy way out and include a “in no particular
order” disclaimer at the top of my lists because, a) I am a pretty
noncommittal wuss (especially when picking my “favorite” things, and b)
I've never really been able to find a comfortable criteria for ranking
albums. If I were forced to rewrite this list in a month, the albums
might be the same, but the rankings might be pretty different. Perhaps
few of my favorites that didn't make this list; Frightened Rabbit's The Winter Of Mixed Drinks, Aloha's Home Acres, Periphery's Periphery (Instrumental Version), The Dig's Electric Toys, The National's High Violet, and Kyle Kinane's standup comedy album Death Of The Party might find a way to sneak their way on the list.
the next three weeks, I'll attempt to list my 9 Favorite Albums of
2010, knowing full well that as I post Volumes 2 and 3 in the coming
weeks, that I'll probably wish I could rearrange the previous week's
orders. Oh well. I tried to base my rankings on the current number of
total plays and potential replay value. (A criteria I'm still not fully
comfortable with. This is me being noncommittal again.)
and I think their success is a byproduct of that, naysayers be damned.
Favorite Track: “The Motion Makes Me Last”
This album was featured in October's “3hree Things: Essential Rainy Day Albums“, and rather than totally rehash what I wrote back then, I'll just reiterate that since its release in February, it's been in heavy rotation regardless of the weather. While some might not consider Similies Matthew Cooper's best work (2004's Lambent Material seems to be regarded as such) it's still an undeniably powerful collection of ambient pieces of music. The piano line in the track above is a testament to the power and beauty of simplicity, and the album is teeming with moments like it; emotive, fairly simple compositions that can either be uplifting or have the power to reduce me to tears, depending on my mood.
