It has been a while since I have decided to grace this blog’s vapid internets-y presence with my impeccable, typo-free load of bullshit. This has been unfortunate, but even worse is this: I must say, I haven’t had the time to dedicate to 2010 what I did dedicate to 2009 musically. Both in my listening and playing duties, I have fallen short of any reasonable mark I would normally have presented as apt for achievement. And thusly, I cannot project any authority onto a “top anything” list short of its being a complete and thorough alignment of what I feel 2010 has done right. I don’t want to say it actually provides the list of the best of 2010 so much as I’d rather (more humbly) say it puts some structure on my thoughts of what was (most confidently) good music produced in 2010. If that doesn’t make any sense, then allow me to provide the following paraphrase:
Tl;dr: Just skip to the actual list, it’s not worth it.
If you’re entirely too noble and refrain from laziness at all costs, you are probably still reading this. That’s really great.
Some general points:
First, this year really fell short of 2009 in terms of pure, unadulterated excellence. (And so does every other year, I think.) From as disinterested a standpoint as I can humanly muster, I think anyone with a taste for the stuff I like, including hardcore, metal, and everything else, will agree that having Between the Buried and Me, Converge, The Red Chord, The Black Dahlia Murder, Thrice, Baroness, and Mastodon all release LPs in 2009 makes it quite an exciting, if not a musically brilliant year. Not only that, they were all good. No disappointments, or at least none too palpable.
However, 2010 was destined to be equally outrageous and sexually enthralling. Pig Destroyer and Necrophagist were scheduled, if I am not mistaken, to release new LPs in 2010, neither of which surfaced, other than some articles and reports of recording progress (in the former case) and mere rumors (in the latter case). Darkthrone’s Circle the Wagons is, I must admit, a joke (although I won’t deny that making myself listen to it forty-seven times for the hilarity of it has caused me to actually like it). No new Genghis Tron. The newest Whitechapel is decent, if not just bad. The Sword’s release is good by my lights; however, you won’t find it on my list. Unfortunately, Deathwish is not even totally innocent. Both 108’s 18:61 and Killing the Dream’s Lucky Me are good, but not quite list worthy. (Deathwish is redeemed in the end however…)
But of course, what makes something list-worthy or not depends entirely on what one already feels belongs in the list; and then only by comparison with the proto-list, one can say whether something is good enough for the list. This is precisely what makes “listing” inherently silly and contrived. In order to make a good list, it seems I have to have a list. When it comes down to it then, most of what ends up in my top 20 lists is those albums I truly loved from that year. The rest is stuff I felt matched up in quality and musicality to what already made the list during its construction.
Top 20 of 2010
1. Circa Survive – Blue Sky Noise
2. Ion Dissonance – Cursed
3. Nails – Unsilent Death
4. Lantlôs – .Neon
5. Integrity – The Blackest Curse
6. Glassjaw – Our Color Green EP
7. End of a Year – You Are Beneath Me
8. Intronaut – Valley of Smoke
9. Decrepit Birth – Polarity
10. Alcest - Écailles de Lune
11. Rosetta – A Determinism of Morality
12. Clinging to the Trees of a Forest Fire – Songs of Ill Hope and Desperation
13. Deftones – Diamond Eyes
14. The Dillinger Escape Plan – Option Paralysis
15. Melvins – The Bride Screamed Murder
16. Minus the Bear – OMNI
17. Nachtmystium – Addicts: Black Meddle, Pt. II
18. Watain – Lawless Darkness
19. Harvey Milk – A Small Turn of Human Kindness
20. Ceremony – Rohnert Park
I have gotten the request to just get this list out there by a friend of mine. Normally it would be polished, with a lot of mini-reviews and justifications for why these albums belong where they do. But for now, just check them out; as I am still going through stuff from 2010 (as I am now also discovering the beginning juicinesses of 2011), I may come back to this, and do for realz. Thank you, reader.
