Whiskey Pie's Top 10 Albums Of '10

10) MGMT- Congratulations: “Will I ever make my mind up about this album?” This was one of the questions that was plaguing me all year. I must've started writing rebuttals to my original four star review a half dozen times on both sides of the scale. I was always over-thinking this album and should have gone with my gut feeling originally, so I'm going to do that now: this is a ballsy, psychedelic funhouse of an album that not only lives up to its ridiculous cover but bests it at every turn. Sure, there's no singles as strong as Oracular's best, but the title track and 'Siberian Breaks' especially are all the proof I need that these guys are going to be on the side of serious artists and not just some hipster opportunists.

9) Sufjan Stevens- The Age Of Adz: Unless he really gets crazy, it's hard to imagine Stevens ever recording another album as divisive and different-from-his-previous-work than The Age Of Adz. Sure, it's not the kind of album I can make it all the way through every time I listen to it, but in this case that's not a bad thing. Whether this more experimental and extroverted/dancing-on-stage-unironically Stevens is here to stay or just a temporary phase a la David Bowie or Beck, I can't say for sure. I hope he sticks with it for at least one more album, though, because I have the feeling he could top this in the same way that Illinois topped Michigan.

8) Sun Kil Moon- Admiral Fell Promises: Ultimately, yes, all of my top ten albums of the year are my opinion. But Admiral Fell Promises is such a personal and specific sort of album that I don't foresee any music sites or magazines having it on their year-end lists. When it comes to an artist like Mark Kozelek, you're either all in or all out, and, well, I am definitely all in. Though the sound of this album was predicted by his recent solo acoustic live albums under his own name, Admiral takes his acoustic guitar mastery to an altogether higher level. Utilizing a hypnotic playing style that's half epic acoustic folk a la Roy Harper and half Latin flamenco guitar (as previewed on earlier tracks like 'Si Paloma' and Red House Painters' 'Cabezon'), this is a rich, dense album that demands your full attention but rewards your patience and, some would say, indulgence every step of the way.

7) Vampire Weekend- Contra: At this point Vampire Weekend have supplanted The Shins as my favorite indie pop band. Oh sure, they're labelled Afro-pop or synth pop or whatever, but at their core they're pure indie pop. By which I mean, catchy, melodic songs and deep hooks that never quite leave you even when you set the album aside for a few months. I had all but forgotten how good this album was until I was going back over 2010 releases to make my list, and damn if it didn't immediately re-earn this spot.

6) Flying Lotus- Cosmogramma: Yeah, OK, here's my token electronic album. Whatever. Cosmogramma straddles the line between glitchy, quixotic electro-whatever and instrumental, jazz influenced hip hop...and sounds way more natural and amazing than that awkward description implies. As the man behind Flying Lotus is related to John Coltrane, it only makes sense that Cosmogramma has a jazz player's flair for repeated motifs and improvisational open-ness. Yet it also shows the keen rhythms and ultra-modern sound/production of electronic music and hip hop to make it unique and its own genre entirely.

5) Frog Eyes- Paul's Tomb: A Triumph: I often wonder when the rest of the world will wake up to the fact that Carey Mercer is a genius. That may seem like strident hyperbole, but I truly mean it. No one in the world makes music like him, whether in Frog Eyes, solo as Blackout Beach, or as part of the 'supergroup' Swan Lake. Anyway, I seem to be amongst the few who prefer Paul's Tomb: A Triumph to their earlier albums, so what do I know, right? Well, I know this is a hell of an album, raging and passionate and dense and demanding. And it's an ass kicker of a guitar rock album. If nothing else, go download 'Flower In A Glove', turn it up just below the “lease breaker” volume level on your stereo, and prepare for greatness. And I'll say this: I never thought about making a Wikipedia page for something before, but it's criminal that Paul's Tomb lacks one. Criminal, I say!

4) Wolf Parade- Expo 86: We're a scattered minority, but there are those of us who think that this band just gets better with each album. Expo 86 was recorded live as a full band in the same room, just as Frog Eyes' Paul's Tomb was, and it somehow has an even more live and full bodied sound than that beast. To put it another way, this is as 'live' as it gets without an audience. The songs all go on for a minute too long, which is to say, they're perfectly played and maximalist in their force and interplay, and therefore also exactly long enough. Expo 86 is one of the best indie rock albums to drive to and leaves me wishing more bands would push their labels to record and release live albums.

3) The National- High Violet: High Violet was the reason I got into this band, and while I now hold both Alligator and Boxer near and dear to my music nerd heart, High Violet is an even more accomplished and enjoyable album. Its darker atmosphere led me to compare it to post-punk and/or trip hop bands, and it does lack levity, not to mention any fast paced or energetic material. Yet I can't hold that against it because High Violet is either the band's first masterpiece or yet another masterpiece, depending on if you've heard their last two albums or not.

2) Beach House- Teen Dream: For the majority of the year, I was certain this would be my top pick. While it didn't win out in the end, it is still an incredible album. As I put it in my review, “Teen Dream is the kind of album that a band builds a reputation on. Everything that is good about this band is at its utmost best here...” I don't imagine they could record a better album...yet I'm dying to hear them try. If it's half as good as Teen Dream, it'll make my list for whatever year it comes out, too.

1) The Walkmen- Lisbon: I'm reluctant to write too much about this choice because I feel like it's the sort of release that more and more people are going to discover as the years go by and curse themselves for not seeking it out sooner. The problem with a band like this is that their music is so disconnected from trends and hype that it's difficult to get other people excited about them without forcing them to sit still and listen a couple times through one of their albums. Still, The Walkmen are highly regarded by critics, fans, and their peers for good reason: Lisbon is a timeless masterpiece that could just as easily have been released in 1972 as it was 2010. Much as I have grown to love this band over the past few months and dig all of their stuff, nothing they've done before touches Lisbon. The band's “only use what is necessary” minimalist finesse and keen songwriting are at their apex here, and their always-just-under-the-surface-and-now-that-you-hear-it-more-prominently-on-Lisbon-you-can-go-back-and-hear-it-in-their-older-stuff surf rock fascination is in full swing. No, it isn't to say it's a surf rock album, as a majestic track like 'While I Shovel The Snow' and the Spoon-like rhythmic grooves of 'All My Great Designs' will attest. But I have no doubt if they did decide to go for a straight surf rock sound, they would knock it out of the park.

Lisbon is the only album this year that came close to Teen Dream, and not only came close but supplanted it. It gives me no end of pleasure to sit here disproving my comments in my review of Bows + Arrows: Lisbon has been showing up on the top slot of some other year end lists, and they did manage to top Bows + Arrows, too.

Whiskey Pie In 2010

Since Whiskey Pie has been around for a couple years, and it launched at the start of January of '08, I've been thinking a lot lately about what I want to do with this blog. So, I'm going to take this opportunity to lay out the changes I have in mind.

First of all, those 'Best Albums of 2009' videos are only the beginning of video content for Whiskey Pie. I bought an actual microphone this past weekend, so they'll at least sound good from now on. However, making videos takes at least three times as long as a typical written post, so this also means that I will be doing less posts per week. My initial plan is to do one written post and one video per week, but we'll see how this goes.

Furthermore, I won't be doing any more 'Album Of The Week' or music video posts. They just aren't necessary, especially with my one written/one video posting schedule. I'm not sure how many of the other special category posts I'll be doing--Your Or Your Memory and the like. Probably I'll adapt the old ones or create new ones that work better with videos.

I also want to try to do more posts on movies (and especially) videogames in 2010. I think I've gotten pretty good about consistently well written and interesting music reviews and posts, but I'm always trying to challenge myself with my writing, and trying more reviews, criticism, and features about other forms of entertainment is something I absolutely need to do.

I'm still learning my way through what I want to do with videos, especially as far as what is entertaining enough to watch/listen to with the kind of voice and style I have, so the format of the videos will likely vary a bit until I figure out what seems best. At the same time, I want to keep the quality of the writing and content as high as it's been. I don't want to do super short videos with dumbed down content. Sure, shorter videos are easier to make, but if I'm just showing a picture of the album cover, yelling "it sucks!", and then rolling credits, that's not very good. In fact, you might say it sucks.

OK, enough rambling. Look for written posts on Thursdays and videos on Tuesdays.

Video: Yeah Yeah Yeahs- Maps

Ten thoughts on 'Maps' and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs to celebrate the 2010 New Year's Eve:

1) The drummer looks like the son of Egon Spengler from Ghosbusters.
2) If the Yeah Yeah Yeahs had only stuck to EPs and noisier music, they might've been consistently great instead of only divisively and/or arguably great.
3) No, I don't know why she's wearing a bow (as in bow and arrows) on her arm.
4) This's one of the handful of songs from this decade that I never get tired of hearing, and had to listen to over and over after I heard it for the first time until I was satisfied. I rarely fixate on a single track at a time, but I had it bad for Maps back in '03. And still do now. Maybe someday I'll do a list of those songs...
5) "Yeah Yeah Yeahs" was one of the dumber examples of "good band, shitty name" to come out this decade, though "Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!" makes it look like a monument to self restraint.
6) It's still weird to hear Karen O. laughing and having fun while making animal noises on Embryonic by the Flaming Lips, if only because she comes off as one of those irritatingly confrontational, forcibly "artsy" dressing frontpeople.
7) For some reason I found it really hilarious when a co-worker pronounced their name in a mocking Brooklyn/Jersey mob hitman accent: "yea yea yeaaaaaa."
8) Fingerless gloves, especially leather ones, have never and will never look good on women.
9) I confess to not listening to their third album at all, but Show Your Bones left me with little impression no matter how many times I listened to it. I really ought to revisit it before I say this, but: that album wasn't even a daring failure. It was content sounding, and for something that took three years to record it was just kind of boring.
10) What was with all the bands without a bass player that got popular in the early part of the decade? The White Stripes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Black Keys...You don't even really notice the absence either, leading me to conclude that not all bands need a bassist though most of them have one seemingly just for the hell of it.

It's that kind of incisive commentary you can continue to expect from Whiskey Pie in 2010, not to mention more of my droning, nasally voice set to cleverly cut images I found on Google or Wikipedia. (Hopefully I'll get a proper microphone soon so it's a bit more, you hear, audible.)