Love and Mathematics – Other Favorite Albums of 2010

I need a list of 20 to keep track of all my other favorites of 2010 …

1. The Besnard Lakes, Are the Roaring Night
2. No Age, Everything In Between
3. Fucked Up, Couple Tracks: Singles 2002 – 2009
4. Deerhunter, Halcyon Digest
5. Abe Vigoda, Crush
6. Oneohtrix Point Never, Returnal
7. Emeralds, Does It Looks Like I’m Here?
8. Thomas Hammann and Gerd Janson, Live at Robert Johnson
9. Weekend, Sports
10. Warpaint, The Fool
11. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Before Today
12. Four Tet, There is Love in You
13. LCD Soundsystem, This is Happening
14. Mount Kimbie, Crooks & Lovers
15. The Knife, Tomorrow in a Year
16. Broken Social Scene, Forgiveness Rock Record
17. Avi Buffalo, Avi Buffalo
18. Shrag, Life! Death! Prizes!
19. Best Coast, Crazy for You
20. Pantha Du Prince, Black Noise

Love and Mathematics – Favorite Local Albums of 2010

My favorite local records from this past year — another great one for Boston rock …

1. Young Adults, Black Hole
2. Gabe Goodman, Conundrummer
3. Ghost Box Orchestra, The Only Light On
4. 28 Degrees Taurus, All the Stars in Your Eyes
5. Magic Shoppe, Reverberation
6. Whitehaus Family Record, Family Record
7. Andre Obin, Front Runner
8. Day Sleeper, Wonderland Kid
9. Guillermo Sexo, Vivid Nights
10. Kelsey Jarboe, Among Your Kind

Clogs – Cocodrillo

Clogs: “These are the creatures of Lady Walton’s garden.”

Mount Kimbie – Crooks & Lovers

This lp by Mount Kimbie has been simmering on low for me ever since it came out this past summer. And it keeps sounding better and better, each time I come back to it. Dubstep, with more than a little R&B thrown in; hazy and warm; and, somehow, almost pastoral.

The Besnard Lakes – Albatross

The Clash – Sandinista

“Sandinista” came out in the UK on December 12, 1980. Needless to say, I immediately bought the import, and maybe for that reason always associate the album with this time of year. Still love it 30 years later; and I bet I still will, 30 years from today.

Young Adults – Black Hole

This new release by Young Adults was the one I had been looking forward to more than any other this year. In terms of local music, that’s a designation that usually gets reserved for one of my old favorites, like Mission of Burma. But based on the strength of the band’s five-song demo, released earlier in 2010, I couldn’t wait to hear more.

The full-length “Black Hole” combines those five outstanding tracks from before with six others, no less excellent, plus two short instrumental compositions. The songwriting remains strong throughout. And the energy level, as high as it was on the demo, seems to get ratcheted higher still on the lp. Maybe that’s because the sound benefits from additional production. Or maybe just because I liked the album so much I kept turning up the volume.

As I’m sure you will too. Check out a brilliant live performance of “Rip it Up,” below. Or the entire album, streaming here. Because Young Adults are a band that has arrived. And hopefully come to stay.

Rene Hell – Porcelain Opera

Rene Hell is Jeff Witscher, with an new album out called “Porcelain Opera.”

Six tracks drift by in just over 30 minutes, like a dream journey that’s over all too soon. “Blown soundscapes,” as Thurston Moore once said. Or, as the Type Records webpage aptly puts it

“Porcelain Opera” is an album made by a consummate music obsessive, and Witscher is just as obsessive about his composition as he is his influences. The album’s tracks seep into each other like viscous lava, decomposing and reforming as the track markers fade and re-appear. This is pure electronic music — songs created with analogue circuits and half-baked patch cables, dusty cassette tapes and greased-up potentiometers. And despite his noise roots, there is something distinctly sparkling about this collection of tracks. “Prize Mischief Hold” fizzes and cascades from the speakers like a box of illicit Chinese fireworks, and the album’s glorious centrepiece “L.Minx” thunders through an electrical storm to reveal glorious, warming harmony.

My own favorite, “IV 18:54,” appears below.

TV Girl – If You Want It

Maybe you heard this one on “Kick Out the James” a couple weeks ago, or on Lucy’s wonderful show this am?

An old friend put it up on Soundcloud:

Proof that great minds think alike, I guess.

And the four-song ep is available from the band.