Top (and Bottom) Five Albums of 2010

Alright, I'm a little late this year. I guess that makes up for being early last year? Well here they are, the best and worst of 2010!

5. Los Campesinos - Romance is Boring
It was actually a really close race between fourth and fifth place this year. The reason why Romance is Boring comes in last is because, well, I stopped listening to it. After that review, I listened to it a handful of times and then it sort of lost it's appeal. I had gotten everything out of it I wanted to. Not that it's a bad album by any means, but it lost my attention after a while. After so many listens through, it never gained any momentum. All in all, it's still a great album...versatile and catchy. It was also a refreshing alternate route on the annual road of pop wonders like Ke$ha, Lady Gaga, and Flo Rida.

"A Heat Rash in the Shape of the of the Show Me State; or, Letters From Me to Charlotte"

4. Fourtet - There Is Love In You
There was really no pun intended on the ranking of this album, I swear. This album, surprisingly enough, gets the Best Trip Hop Album of the Year Award from me. That's some shocking stuff considering that Morcheeba reunited with Skye Edwards and released and album this year. It remained a really good starting point in a year of somewhat mediocre electronic music. I hope that Hebden really keeps on the track he's on now, which would be the Plastic People track. There's something about live music that changes, well, everything. You know what people like because you see them respond to it every day and that's priceless.

"Sing"


3. Jupiter One - Sunshower
This one gets the Best Purchase of the Year Award. Seriously, I got this album for $.01 plus $2.99 shipping and handling on Amazon and it was worth every penny (HAH!) plus quite a few more. This album has made it into pretty heavy rotation on my computer and I still thoroughly enjoy it. Actually, as I am typing this, I had to put this album on. Every time I listen to it, it gets a little bit better. Plus, they're super nice guys, which makes me like them even more. Shit, now I'm going to have "Volcano" stuck in my head for a week. That is the only drawback, if you can call it that, of this album. It's like crack for your ears.

"Lights Go Out"


2. OK Go - Of the Blue Colour of the Sky
Ok, so OK Go comes in at #2, but I would just like to let you know that this was another super close race. In fact, can't we just make both Jupiter One and OK Go numbers 2.5.? I think that would work for me, if that works for you. Actually, I don't care if it works for you. The only reason why OK Go came out higher is, well, they've had more practice. This album is polished to perfection and full of great music, to boot. This one's made it into a pretty heavy rotation as well.  This album was everywhere for a hot minute, too. There was some sort of commercial for a TV show or something that played "I Want You So Bad I Can't Breathe", which is pretty cool. Good job, OK Go!

"I Want You So Bad I Can't Breathe"


1. Girl Talk - All Day
And the #1 album of the year is!!!!....Girl Talk's All Day. This album is absolutely fucking phenomenal and it just gets better and better. Now that I've been able to spend some serious quality time with this album and a good pair of headphones, I appreciate it more and more. What's also pretty cool, is the fact that everyone loves the shit out of Girl Talk now. PA represent, man. And shit, there's a Gregg Gillis Day. I still think that we should all drink mojitos in his honor next December 7th. Well, I guess, technically, a couple hundred artists just won Album of the Year on That Girl With A Blog so...congratulations!...all of you?

"Oh No"


And now for the fun! Ladies and gentlemen, the worst albums of 2010!

5. 30 Seconds to Mars - This is War
So this album wasn't really bad, per se, but it wasn't really that great, either, and it CERTAINLY wasn't what I expected. That really isn't good or bad either way. That's the thing about this album: it's not great, it's not bad, it's lukewarm all the way around. Any album that gets a resounding "meh" can't be all that good. In fact, I think after the original review, I never listened to this album again. All I could stand were the 6 or 7 times I listened to it. Hey, at least they're at the top of the list of worst albums, right? This might also be partially because of my huge, girly crush on Jared Leto.

"Kings and Queens"


4. Ke$ha - Cannibal
This one's for you, JY. Okay, so let's face it, this album is terrible. I love this album because I love shitty pop music. Especially when I'm drunk. Me and Ke$ha are BFFF (just so you know, that means Best Friends For Fucking Ever) when I'm wasted. She really is the poor, dirty, drunk girl's Lady Gaga. Honestly, though, musically, this album is straight up garbage. It's terrible. She would have nothing if not for the invention of the vocorder/autotune. This isn't going to stop me from listening to it, but for anyone with reasonable taste in good music, well, it would probably make their ears bleed. It might also cause you to lose all faith in music, if you haven't already. Soul crushing bad-ness. That's what's happening here.

"Grow A Pear"


3. Sade - Soldier of Love
This album certainly gets the Most Boring Album of the Year Award. If you need music to play in your elevator, this would be it. Ten songs that sound just like "Smooth Operator", that's what this album is. I won't be mean to them, as people, like I will on the next two, but this album is simply bad. They aren't bad people. I'm sure they tried, but they failed miserably. You get an A for effort, Sade, but a great, big, fat F when it comes to making music. And seriously? I still can't get over the fact that there's a song called "Babyfather" on this album. In fact, here it is:

"Babyfather"


2.  She & Him - Volume 2
Oh, sweet little baby Jeebus, do I hate Zooey Deschanel. Just typing her name makes me furious. She should take 1,000,000,000 pictures of M. Ward so he snaps and kills her. How the hell is her older sister so awesome? How did they even come out of the same vagina? Who knows. Man, Emily should have beat up Zooey on a regular basis when they were kids. Maybe it would have made her better. I don't know, but what I do know is that this album sucks, and so do Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward. Everything about this album is one giant suckfest. Seriously, I'm a little angry just talking about it. In fact, I'm making angry faces under my home-made Daft Punk mask, right now. Grr.

"In the Sun" God! I hate her face!


1. Vampire Weekend - Contra
Congratulations to you, Vampire Weekend, for being the worst band, musically and personally, to ever grace the pages of That Girl With A Blog. Seriously. How does it feel to come in LOWER THAN KE$HA on a random blogger's list from 2010? I hope you feel terrible about yourselves. This album is so, so terrible, and the fact that Vampire Weekend is comprised of essentially terrible people doesn't make their case any better. Still can't get over that "UR A Contra" situation. Or the shrieking. Or the trust funds. I seriously couldn't even listen to this album all the way through ONE TIME. Obviously, I like shitty music (see: Ke$ha) and I STILL think that this band sucks. I think I lost brain cells listening to this album.

"I Think UR A Contra"


Well, that's it folks! The best and worst of 2010! Enjoy! Or don't! Half of this list sucks anyway! Have a great weekend.

30 Seconds to Mars – This Is War

Thanks to John for this recommendation.

30 Seconds to Mars has released their third studio album, This Is War. Very late and after royally pissing off Virgin.

It’s funny to think about it now, but I saw these guys live many, many moons ago before ever really realizing who they were. I still have picture  I mean, I knew it was Jared Leto, and I think I was just still a little creeped out over Requiem For A Dream. Like, was he going to jump off of stage and steal my TV? I do give them props for not using the Leto name. In fact, Leto will refuse to play a show if the venue had used his name to promote. I actually still have pics of them, back in the good old days when Metropol was still open in Pittsburgh. Where we youngsters would always go because it was rarely over 21 and you could smoke.
I’ll admit I went out and bought their first album. It’s wasn’t bad. Much like a lot of the music that was coming out around then. Somehow 30 Seconds to Mars got intertwined with all these seemingly unrelated bands. They were touring with bands like Chimera and American Headcharge and all these seriously heavy bands. Then you have all like, 5’2″ of Jared Leto with his blond hair and eyeliner. It’s kind of the same thing that Orgy went through, I guess. They just were something else entirely, but they got lumped in with all these metal bands.

30 Seconds to Mars I appreciated for their vintage synth sound and that little…edge. I don’t know what the hell it was. Maybe just Leto’s charisma. I’ll admit that I totally missed their sophomore album, A Beautiful Lie, and now that I’m listening to the new album, I have to wonder what the fuck that album was because This Is War sounds NOTHING like their self-titled. I mean, the self-titled was released in ’98, but damn.
I honestly don’t know how I feel about this album. I kind of like it. It’s a little screamo for me, but I’m a huge fucking emo kid so it kinda makes sense. While it doesn’t sounds like the 30 Seconds to Mars that I know, it sounds like this is what they should have been making the entire time. Like the title track, “This Is War”, it’s heavy with a killer chorus and a raw, screaming Jared Leto. It’s kinda hot, I’m not going to lie. But while there’s tracks like that, there’s also tracks like “Closer to the Edge”, “100 Suns”, and “Escape” which are really just awkward. The end of the album seems to veer into a weird emo place and you really lose the momentum.

Reading the band’s own thoughts on the album and what they were going for, I really don’t get it. “Rock opera”? “Concept album”? Not so much. Where they’re coming up with this shit, I’m really not sure.
It’s a decent album. It involves Jared Leto yelling a lot and some semi-decent music. Currently, I’m feeling kind of…indifferent about this album. If you’re into 30 Seconds to Mars already, I’d say check it out. If you’re not, I doubt that this will be the album to make you a fan. C

30 Seconds to Mars’ Site