B E S T A L B U M
John Roberts "Glass Eights" [Dial]
Sounds crystalline.
B E S T S I N G L E
Taio Cruz "Dynamite" [Universal/Island]
He speaks with a really polite accent as well so covers all his bases. I don't think he really wants to be a pop star, more like a business man but as long as he keeps the hooks coming, I don't really care.
B E S T S L O W B U R N E R
Enrique Iglesias feat . Nicole Scherzinger "Heartbeat" [Universal]
Such a killer jam, really breaks up the monotony of commercial pop radio. It's not as great as the German band H U R T S (capitalisation mine, but sort of necessary) breakthrough single "Wonderful Life", but I don't know whether me liking that is solely for the super serious way in which they are expressing their feelings or their really sharp european aesthetic. They are so morose in that video which is great, they also have a completely sincere Christmas single on their website, the main line is "All I want for Christmas is New Years Day" which, I am not going to lie, is a really crap sentiment. Anyway, Enrique had a pretty great year with that kind of shoddy hit with Pitbull, so the more sedate collab with the Pussycat Doll's Scherzinger, who sort of puts on an English accent (?) and while this song edges towards blisser anthem, it never really swells enough.
B E S T W I S T F U L E V O C A T I O N / C Y N I C A L M A N I P U L A T I O N O F A D O L E S C E N T L IF E B Y A N O L D ER R E C O R D I N G A R T I S T
Katy Perry "Teenage Dream" [EMI]
I have been waiting my entire life for this single. That build up before the chorus (!). I mean it lacks the artlessness of "Firework" which really should be my pick for her single of the year, because it is "amazing"; but my love of that single is based solely on that "boom boom boom shining brighter than the moon oh oh." And aside from the way that the video for "Teenage Dream" sort of just looks like a jeans advertisement and the song isn't as hard hitting as it is in my head after listening to it. Doesn't do anything to lessen my love for the song, also her topknot in the video? Pretty dreamy. Even though they are literally everywhere like what like that short cropped at the back haircut and then permed out on the top was for women in 1992. Still a killer signature look. Album is really not that great though, I thought Katy Perry had matured as a songwriter and had turned out some Aguilera "Beautiful" like sentiments, but turns out she leaves the "I Kissed A Girl" novelty pap for the filler, including a song called Peacock where she wants to see yr peacock and you shouldn't be a chicken just let that peacock out.
M O S T P L A Y E D S O N G
A.R. Kane "A Love From Out of Space" [Rough Trade]
Killer jam from like 1989, sounds like what music will sound like in five years. The two guys from A.R. Kane are now corporates, but its not a deal breaker. Especially with songs this good.
B E S T A L B U M B Y A B E V I G O D A
Abe Vigoda "Crush" [Bella Union]
(Sort of implies that I am a real big Abe Vigoda fan, where really this should be a best Bruce Springsteen rerelease because that Darkness on the Edge of Town Boxset was pretty impressive but like Darkness is a a great album and it was difficult revisting all these sort of happier tracks. N.B Taylor Swift's album, real disappointing apart from that December ballad and the first single "Mine" which was the real deal). This latest album from Los Angeles Latinos Abe Vigoda is real great, sounds like what Blink 182's career projectory should have run like: great first album, killer second, fourth incorporating broader eighties influences into this dense post tropical punk thing. Lead guy has developed this croon which is you know, real great. I think it could have been recorded by another band and some of the hooks could have been more apparent, but I don't know why this album didn't get more popularity?
B E S T O L D E E N G L I S H S P E L L I N G B E E A L B U M
Rangers "Suburban Tours" [OESB]
Liked this album, but not as much as I like Usher "DJ's Got Us Falling in Love", which is symptomatic of how American rnb has clutched onto european club music as its salvation but also just like a serious floor filler. I don't even know what "dance dance dance like its the last night of yr life" actually means, but I hope to find out.
B E S T O U T K A S T R E L A T E D A N D R O I D T HE M E D A L B U M
(Video Embeding Not Allowed, whats the deal Janelle? If it's good enough for Enrique)
Janelle Monae "Tightrope"
Everyone loves this song. Generally appeals to mass likeability are fraught with issues (see the career of Train/Maroon 5), but this is just all up undeniable in the same way that Cee Lo's "Fuck You" isn't, in that he sort of sounds like Sugar Ray if Sugar Ray had listened to more Stax records. I think I would have liked her album "The Arch Android" more if it had not been a concept album, like that Kanye album. It just ends up being unnecessary and skippable, like that Nicky Minaj faux english accented intro to the Kanye album and I mean Nicky Minaj does the best thing on that album in her verse on the song "Monster" and aside from that has a real killer track about heroin on her album in which she duets with Kanye and its pretty sick, "Blazin' " (Great title right?). As an album, The Arch Android is also like pretty dense and overlong, and I don't know whether that really is the best even though its like reflection of the death of the album. Whatever.
B E S T C O N C E R T
Luxury with Fabulous Diamonds
Two beautiful and elegant Arthur Russell songs by HSP king pin Shannon with Fraser on hypnogogic synth. Slayed Fabulous Diamonds, who were still pretty good.
B E S T F I L M
"White Material", sort of kept lingering like Madame Bovary. And you know, being a projectionist means you see a lot of films. The best film on general release was either "Dear John" (which was great, apart from the war scene which was like really bad made for television but obviously the budget was pretty low, but Tatum and Seyfried ( the pairing that Heigl and Duhamel should have been, and really, let's not lie, Gyllenthall and Hathaway) completely had that hallmark movie acting thing down like the film was almost as straight up as "Eight Below", like everything was tied up and it all worked really succinctly in a way that love stories really should and if it is judged solely on its merits in that the film went the distance, sort of makes me rejustify my affection for "Every Jack Has A Jill" which no-one agreed with me on) or "Animal Kingdom" which was also pretty great, real good use of Air Supply "I'm All Outta Love" with brooding synth underset.
B E S T T EL E V I S I ON
Mad Men [AMC]
Richard Marks was all like, "nah its sort of overrated" but he is wrong. About so many things.
B E S T G I RL F RI E N D
Ella, only lasted one month and a bit of fighting but she still came out on top. Probably her rap ability.
B E S T SI BL ING
Andrew, on the strength of his fourteen (and counting) photo albums from his European trip with the best flatmate ever Richard Flett. Sophie definitely earned more money than both of us, but clearly I am going to have a first quarter boost with international sales of the Aztecs.
B E S T S H O E P U R C H A S E
I would go with my soft black leather lace ups, but they were like difficult in the shop as I tried them on and they were fine but in reality I should have got a smaller size. Its a really difficult task buying shoes sometimes, not as hard as going for shirts but I mean with shirts you have a pretty fixed idea in your head of what you want (button down, no detailing, good fit, no synthetics). And I have basically destroyed the lac ups, two holes formed in the inadequate sole after about nine months of walking in them, although I did take them up a mountain which might not have been the best idea but was certainly "Best Road Trip" of the year, plus really great cheese up there. I thought when I bought my Clarks Desert Shoes that they would be the best purchase, but in a beige its a tough shoe to pull off in anything other than blue denim. Also, in other sadnesses of the year I lost my favourite pair of shoes and you can't really replace a favourite pair. All up, the year in shoes has been pretty abysmal. Even my Hush Puppy Desert shoes have seen better days, and I barely ever wear those. Real grim times for shoes in 2010.
B E S T W E E K E N D
Shea, Richard, Jon + Lori Watt/Salem Live on Youtube
