Favourite albums of 2010

Here's a list of my 20 favourite albums of 2010. Note my continued use of the word "favourite" as opposed to "best", as one of the greatest things about music is its ability to speak to different people in different ways. These are the albums that contained music and words that spoke to me most over the past year.

While I could go on about the reasons why I found each of these albums to be particularly appealing or interesting, I will instead encourage you to download the mixes I've posted on this blog throughout the year so that you can check out songs from each of them on your own.

And now, the list...

1. LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening

2. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

3. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

4. Gorillaz - Plastic Beach

5. !!! - Strange Weather, Isn't It?

6. Beach House - Teen Dream

7. Delorean - Subiza

8. Foals - Total Life Forever

9. Tame Impala - Innerspeaker

10. The National - High Violet

11. Vampire Weekend - Contra

12. Hot Chip - One Life Stand

13. Black Keys - Brothers

14. The Drums - s/t

15. Broken Bells - s/t

16. Sufjan Stevens - The Age Of Adz

17. Jonsi - Go

18. Avi Buffalo - s/t

19. Oneohtrix Point Never - Returnal

20. Moonface - Dreamland

There are inevitably always going to be a bunch of other albums that I really loved which narrowly missed inclusion on the list. You'll also find songs from each of these on the aforementioned mixes though, and here they are in no particular order...

Liars - Sisterworld

Two Door Cinema Club - Tourist History

Spoon - Transference

Gigi - Maintenant

The English Premership - Affects

MGMT - Congratulations

The Walkmen - Lisbon

jj - No. 3

Surfer Blood - Astro Coast

Twin Shadow - Forget

Sleigh Bells - Treats

The Morning Benders - Big Echo

Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest

Brian Eno - Small Craft On A Milk Sea

Stars - The Five Ghosts

Sun Kil Moon - Admiral Fell Promises

Casiokids - Top Stemning Pa Lokal Bar

Apparatjik - We Are Here

Yeasayer - Odd Blood

Klaxons - Surfing The Void

Wolf Parade - Expo 86

Shearwater - The Golden Archipelago

ceo - White Magic

Support the artists by purchasing the albums you love most, or by seeing them live in concert. And never stop discovering great new music!

Missed Best New Albums from 2010

Here's one last short mix to download for 2010...

http://www.mediafire.com/?6o8tsq1r0qbmsbw

It contains songs from albums that I didn't get into until some time after they had been released, as well as some stuff that I didn't think fit very well with the quarterly mixes (eg. "weird" electronic stuff). Upon listening to all 5 of the mixes I've posted this year, you should have a pretty good impression of the albums I thought were particularly good over the course of 2010. But I'll also post my "official" favourite albums list soon.

Best New Albums: October-December 2010

Here's a link to download my final BNA mix for 2010...

http://www.mediafire.com/?mrnt3xr1332fh30

There are 19 great tracks on this one, including music from Sufjan Stevens, Kanye West, Hot Chip, Belle & Sebastian, Wolf Parade, The National, Ryan Adams, Cut Copy, and more.

I'll also soon be posting a list of my favourite albums of 2010. Songs from most of the albums that will be on it can be found on the quarterly mixes I've posted this year. Here are the links to those again for you...

Jan-Mar 2010: http://www.mediafire.com/?ozdd5znm2y2

Apr-Jun 2010: http://www.mediafire.com/?zjnemozinkw

Jul-Sep 2010: http://www.mediafire.com/?vtx5mc752mmkrf6

Stay tuned for my next mix of great new tunes. It will be posted here in early April 2011.

Best New Albums: July-September 2010

Here's the link to download a mix of songs from my favourite albums released in the third quarter of 2010...

http://www.mediafire.com/?vtx5mc752mmkrf6

This time around there are 16 songs, once again in MP3 format so they'll work with your media player of choice. You'll find lots of great stuff on here from artists such as Arcade Fire, Deerhunter, The Walkmen, Chromeo, Stars, !!!, Klaxons, and more.

Anyway, enjoy the tunes, support the artists, and drop me a line to let me know what you think of this and/or the two previous mixes that I've posted from this year.

Best New Albums: April-June 2010

Here's a link to download a mix of songs from my favourite albums released in the second quarter of this year...

http://www.mediafire.com/?zjnemozinkw

There are 20 songs, all in MP3 format, including new music from artists such as The National, LCD Soundsystem, The Black Keys, Foals, Delorean, The Drums, Wolf Parade, and more.

Hope you enjoy it!

Best New Albums: January-March 2010

It's been a while since I've posted anything on here, but I can assure you that I'm still DJing and still checking out lots of new music; probably even a bit too much. (Some things will never change).

A quick update for 2010 so far... The London Underground has been going strong since January at a couple of relatively new (and great) downtown venues - one Saturday a month at The Morrissey House and one Thursday a month at Nite Owl. Both nights still feature danceable rock n' roll - from the best new indie rock and electro, to post-punk, new wave, Brit pop, and everything in between.

On the topic of good new music... back in early April I put together a mix of songs from my favourite albums of the first quarter of 2010 (January-March). I've given it to a few friends on CD over the past couple months, but I've now also uploaded it here for you to download and check out...

http://www.mediafire.com/?ozdd5znm2y2

As you'll hear, it's not just a bunch of songs randomly thrown together. I've tried to create some semblance of a good "mixtape" with a coherent track order, within the confines of including only the best songs from my favourite albums. Sometimes my musical tastes can seem a bit schizophrenic, but DJ sets and mixes like this give me a good chance to tie it all back together. And these mixes in particular let me share some of the music that I love, but wouldn't normally play at a live DJ night.

Going forward, I'll most likely put together another mix like this for each subsequent quarter of the year. In fact, I already have a lot of the songs picked for the April to June mix. I'll just need to see what good music comes out in June and then put it all together. Expect to see a download link for that posted here sometime in early July.