I don't usually write about music because, despite the fact tat I love music and it was my first love before movies, I don't really know anything about it insomuch as that I don't know how to talk about it in the intelligent kind of informed manner that I try to talk about movies. I take more of a 'I like what I like attitude' towards music. Regardless, Alex at Boycotting Trends, a blog that, if you don't already, you should be reading, did a music list and since I'm still working out the last few slots on my movie list (if the Academy has until February, I can take at least another week), here's a list of my favourite albums of 2010:
6) The Pretty Reckless - Light Me Up: Say what you will about Taylor Momsen, sure she was in one Gus Van Sant flick, but being a Gossip Girl star doesn't do much for her teen rebel cred, but she and her backing band sure know how to kick out some catchy jams. At a brisk 35 minutes, Momsen and crew crank out 10 short, catchy, punchy tracks that are a little bit The Runaways and a lot of pop rock attitude, with not a single dud in the bunch. It's unfortunate that we live in society that thrives on tabloid exploits, where Momsen usually finds herself front an centre, because, just looking at the music, this kid has a pretty bright future.
5) Mike Patton - Mondo Cane: Named after the 70s Italian exploitation documentary, Mondo Cane is singer Mike Patton's foray into Italian opera music and one more notch on his belt to prove that he can sing just about anything and get away with it. This time he uses his silky pop voice to croon out melodies that sit atop lovely orchestral compositions.
4) Avenged Sevenfold - Nightmare: Apparently AX7's newest disc started as a political concept album before the untimely death of their drummer Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan, at which point that scrapped that idea and wrote their darkest album in years. Giving up the poppy experimentation of their self-titled masterpiece, AX7 this time provide a tighter, darker and more thoughtful album than anything in their back catalogue. Still catchy as hell, the album benefits from having ex-Dream Theatre drum wizard Mike Portnoy behind the kit. There's one too many ballads towards the end but this is still AX7 at their most open and personal as they explore concepts of life and how easily it can be taken away.
3) HIM - Screamworks: Despite that fact that HIM more or less stick to a tried and true formula from album to album they still always manage to provide something fresh on each new outing. Here, moving away from the darker or more progressive tone of Venus Doom, HIM find themselves as poppy and infectious as ever, mixing 80s synth pop with their trademark goth romance style to create something that is both infectious and head bobbing. With newly found sobriety, frontman and mastermind Ville Valo seems to now be focusing on smaller details to bring songs to their maximum potential. Tighter and more vibrant than they have ever been, this is a career highlight for one of pop-metal's most consistent bands.
2) Far - At Night We Live: Far have always been the underdogs at what they do. Maybe it's because they do it just about better than anyone else around them. Back in the 90s, after getting away from sounding like a Pearl Jam cover band, Far perfected the style of "post-hardcore" (whatever that means), released two genre defining albums and then broke up all before the likes of Thursday, Boy Sets Fire and Thrice showed up to bring the genre closer to the mainstream. Now back, some will complain that the sounds of At Night we Live are too streamlined compared to their dirtier, heavier early albums, but what they have delivered here is their most focused, catchy and emotional album to date. From the almost Nu-Metalish rumblings of opener "Deafening" to the beautiful title track (dedicated to Deftones bassist Chi Cheng who is still in a coma after a car accident several years ago) Far are still doing it better than anyone else and not getting the respect they deserve.
1) Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy - The reason Richard Pryor was the best stand-up comedian who ever lived was because, despite being hilarious, he was never afraid to put every bit of himself up on stage. He looked at the hurts, turmoils and tragedies of his life and managed to laugh at them and thus himself. From his health problems to run-ins with the law, personal problems and even his drug addiction that almost resulted in his death, nothing was off limits for Pryor, all great art, after all, does come from great suffering. Therefore Pryor was able to pull off an act that few ever achieve: he made comedy that was both meaningful and yet hilarious. It fulfilled the most basic fundamentals we expect from comedy and yet still left us with something to go home with and think about.
Kanye West's newest album succeeds for all of the same reasons. Kanye is the kind of man who begs you at hate him from strange Twitter messages, award show interruptions, talk show outbursts, political statements on live television, naked pictures sent to fans and general cockiness. And yet, unlike other mainstream rappers, West feels like he is the one who most desperately needs to work to stay relevant. Fame may have been handed to him but, unlike his contemporaries, he needs to constantly struggle to stay relevant and his boasting about himself and general air of self-importance thus seems sometimes less like arrogance and more like insecurity: he needs to tell himself he's good just as much as he needs to tell the world.
From all of this is born one of the best, most original, creative, indulgent and brilliant rap albums to ever come from a mainstream recording artist. Every track is fried off like a statement as Kayne takes all of his pains, trails and tribulations and throws them atop 70 minutes worth of starkly creative beats and rhymes. This is the album of a man who has nothing to prove but everything to lose. And like Pryor, he also manages to make something that is catchy, mainstream and enjoyable as a rap album. But this is more than that: it's a battle cry, a cocky strut, an apology and a revelation that all borders on transcendence as West proves to be in equal measures his own best friend ("Power") and his own worst enemy ("Runaway"). That an album this daring and original comes from a mainstream artist in a culture in which every other song on the radio sounds like it was created from top to bottom by a robot and where talent is a luxury not a necessity, is just proof of how important personality is in music. The bar has been set. Who dares try and cross it?
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