A Challenging Assignment

I was recently tasked with a fun little assignment by my cousins. There was wine involved so maybe no one took it that seriously but I sure as hell did. You can't ask a music nerd their top 10 albums of the past decade AND the top albums of the past year and expect them to blow it off. It immediately went on my list of things to do, I made a mental list of friends I would need to consult and most importantly, time to think it over. It took me over a week and now that it has been sent to all parties involved, I will share it.

I will state a caveat: these are MY top albums. I picked each one because of the value I have placed on them - in my memories and in sheer volume of listening hours. Also, I didn't want to narrow it to a specific number nor did I want to rank them - my rules.

So while I ponder how to spend the +$200 that Lala is giving me to spend in iTunes (because of the amount of money I spent on web albums) - enjoy!

Top Albums of the past 10 years

Ryan Adams - Love Is Hell

Radiohead - In Rainbows

Kings of Leon - Only By The Night & Because Of The Times

Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (came out in 2009)

Coldplay - A Rush of Blood to the Head

The Strokes - Room On Fire

The Veils - Sun Gangs

White Stripes - Get Behind My Satan

Kanye West - The College Dropout

Dave Matthews Band - Crash

Florence & The Machine - Lungs (came out in 2009)

Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

Lady Gaga - The Fame

Romeo & Juliet Soundtrack - Baz Luhrman directed

Jay-Z - The Black Album

My Morning Jacket - Okonokos (Live Album)

The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots

The National - Boxer

Maroon 5 - Songs About Jane (I was an early adopter of them)

Counting Crows - This Desert Life (barely made it in there but it has memories tied to it)

Last Year Loved Albums

Florence & The Machine (see above)

Phoenix (see above)

Passion Pit - Manners

Beach House - Teen Dream

Local Natives - Gorilla Manor

Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More

LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz!

Julian Casablancas - Phrazes For the Young

Miike Snow - Miike Snow

The Antlers - Hospice

The XX - XX

Avett Brothers - I And Love And You

Alberta Cross - Broken Side Of Time (the album from 2008 is great too)

The Black Keys - Brothers

A last minute addition would be Surfer Blood - Astro Coast. What validated this was my membership with the UK's Rough Trade album of the month and it just arrived. Last month was Free Energy - Stuck On Nothing, very solid as well.

Foresighting The XX and Family of the Year as two bands that will get BIG

I am calling it now - The UK band The XX and LA/Silverlake band Family of the Year are going to be big and popular by the end of the year. Both don't have that much information out about them and are newcomers but the buzz has been hitting me wave after wave and I am continuing the trend. I will have official confirmation of how good both bands are when I see them back to back on October 20th and October 21st when they come to New York.

Right now The XX are killing all over Europe, playing some of the dates with Florence & The Machine, which is another band I have really been into. The band is comprised of two boys and two girls from South London, they are only twenty but have producing abilities well beyond their years. Their sound is kind of like Massive Attack, Thievery Corporation or Hot Chip but more lyrical and they have that distant, slightly creepy, spacey sound down perfectly. It is perfect music to play while you are chilling with friends, bumping around the house doing little tasks or while getting some action (which makes sense since the tracks are chockablock full of sexual references). Their influences clearly come from R&B; they garnered a wave of buzz from covering Aaliyah's Hot Like Fire. These are the influences they list on their MySpace page: Aaliyah to CocoRosie, Rihanna to The Cure, Missy Elliott to Chromatics, The Kills to Ginuwine, Pixies to Mariah Carey and Justin Timberlake to Tracy + the plastics. Check out The XX album in the playlist on the right side of the screen - Intro, Basic Space, and Heart Skipped a Beat are my favorites. Also, look them up on MySpace for more tracks and other cities they are playing in November and December - http://www.myspace.com/thexx.

Family of the Year is a brand new find. I was told about them by their manager that lives in New York this past week. They are about to self-release their EP Where's The Sun on September 22nd, which is pretty incredible given that they have had such a huge response to their music even though they don't have an official album out yet. Ben Folds just asked Family of the Year to open for him on a few upcoming dates. The band is comprised of four guys and two girls; they describe their sound as 'post-teen spirit' and claim such influences as Chumbawumba, Barenaked Ladies, and System of a Down. They aren't on itunes or lala.com yet but you can hear several tracks on their MySpace page - http://www.myspace.com/familyoftheyear. They only have a few gigs in New York and LA up on their page but stay tuned, it is about to be packed with appearances. You will all have your chance to see them in a small venue the first time around and I suggest you take it. We all have stories about liking a band and not seeing them the first time around and the next opportunity you have is a big venue full of more late to the party teeny boppers than you can stomach.

Check out these other newcomers to my rotation:

Fitz and The Tantrums - good old soul with a modern twist a la Amy Winehouse or Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears. Their album title is genius Songs for a Breakup Volume 1.

YACHT - like The XX but a bit more pop, get up and dance.

The Antlers - a darker Explosions in the Sky at some points, a dash of Radiohead and pinch of Yeasayer.

Ramona Falls - Menomena side project. Good, creepy rock.