The Best Records of 2010

Thought I would get this out of the way.

As we approach another end of the year, the best of lists will be coming out little by little next month and of course I'm sure we will get to see the usual suspects or critic's favorites. I'm sure The Arcade Fire or The National will get to be on some of the more authoritative critics out there or the hip youngsters who dig the new Kanye West or think that Katy Perry's latest was her best. And good for them but as I get older and more selective, I really see no need to review rap artists since they are not my type of "music" to listen to. Bad poetry to beat box or processed tunes and, God forbid Autotuner, most of the music on the radio is a mockery of what used to be. At this point of life I don't need to conform to the next big thing out there. I think I have heard enough to know what I like.

Let's face it, new music isn't what it used to be. There's too much music out there and it's hard to forge a bond with the new unlike the old days of no internet and the thing to do was go over to my friend's house and play the new KISS or even better go to Jeff's house and invade his brother's LP collection and jam out to Led Zeppelin or Rolling Stones. Unfortunate for today's youth that the major labels focus only on the flavor of the week, and sadly the music is forgotten a week later. But this year, even the old established acts have found that their new album is released, all that work and effort to find out that the highest chart position is the week after it's released and then it goes south and off the charts. Soundscan doesn't do shit for anybody anymore. Used to be an album had to work its way to the top of the chart but not anymore.

New albums just doesn't have the staying power and besides, the radio conglomerate out there don't support the new music. Look at the classic rock stations, their playlist is outdated and even if Eric Clapton or the Doobie Brothers put a new record out, they would not play it. Nor would top 40. And they both did and both albums charted high and then fell off the charts. Funny how Eric Clapton's latest is here today, and gone the next month without much airplay. Can't complete against I Shot The Sheriff or Black Water. So the music lover is caught in the damnation we all call FM radio and who decides what should be the hit singles gets played to death for months and months on end. Such is the case of Train's dreaded Hey Soul Sister, a song so GD hideous and catchy that KDAT has granted it endless playing, just like they did with Mr. Mister's Broken Wings, or Sheryl Crow's All I Want To Do. So the majority of folks have to scramble to the internet for 30 second song snippets and decide if it's worth buying the album, or just paying 1.99 or 99 cents or whatever the fuck ITunes or Amazon charges. The wave of the future, the download that you can't hold in your hand or read liner notes.

I'm not sure how many albums I have bought and reviewed this year, I didn't bother to keep count. What I liked I held on, what I thought was tolerable or worse sucked got sold at the pawnshop for pennies. The biggest headache was the GD digital pack with the packaging looking like one of those awful Sure-paks that was the rage of the 70s vinyl albums. Some albums I didn't buy due to them being digipaks, I ended up buying the vinyl instead. Some I waited till I found them used and even in the Arizona trip did buy some cds that I wouldn't have bought full price. Crowded House was one of them and I didn't like it much. To the majors, music is no longer meaningful, they're looking for hits and for the best indication of that, try any of the That's What I Call Music Series and suffer. It shouldn't have to be that big news of the year is The Beatles now on Itunes, just like last year when the big news was the Beatles remastered albums on CD. There's no new Beatles or Led Zeppelin or Metallica on the horizon, just whining rappers full of autotuner on processed beats or American Idol rejects over-singing Desmond Child written cliche garbage. But that's the younger generation problem. I'm sure something will come out of the internet and there will be next made star. The best music of the past wasn't always done right and full of bad computer voice overs. The beauty of the music of the past was a missed beat or a flubbed guitar number. Or trying to figure out how Neil Peart played that drum part on La Villa Strangelo Or hearing the chaos that was The Who's My Generation from Live At Leeds. This is why the youth of today go into their dad's collection, because the new music they cannot relate to.

Anyway, the ten best albums of this year are in no running order but in the way that I remember them. Whether or not it means anything, this top ten is based of the bands that I was familiar with. And I'm sure one or two will make the grade of the other best of lists that will appear, mine will be the alternative to what they're putting out. I thought about putting out a turds of the year but all that implies that I just didn't get into the hype of those other so called bands.

So here it is, in rough form. The best of 2010.

1. Jason & The Scorchers-Halcyon Times (self released) In order to get this album you had to order directly to the band themselves and they would send you a copy. Basically Warner and Jason cuts out the middle man and the major labels to deliver what might be their hardest rocking album since Lost & Found a good 25 plus years ago. Dan Baird helps co writes and Perry Baggs, retired from drumming but still lends a hand in the harmony vocals. There wasn't nothing wrong with the Mammoth recordings of the 90s but Halcyon Times goes more in the cow punk past and gets the dirty job done right. I don't think this will make any of the big shot critics and the big shot music magazines out there but that's all right. This is music of I remembered Jason & company and I'm sure it will hold up 30 years from now like Lost & Found still holds up 27 years after the fact. And when you buy directly from the band, your money goes to the band and not EMI nor Universal. Support your favorite band or else.

2. Delta Moon-Hell Bound Train (Red Parlor) Tom Gray amazes me. 30 years ago he was playing new wave keyboards for The Brains and scoring a hit with Money Changes Everything (a even bigger hit for Cyndi Lauper) and in the demise of that band, reinvents himself by switching over to National Steel Guitar and sorting though the old delta blues of such folk as Mississippi Fred McDowell. This is their fifth album and all of them showcase some of that old Southern Delta Blues that nobody plays much anymore. The second straight album Tom Gray has gone without a female counterpoint and he does just fine. The interplay between Gray and Mark Johnson as dueling slide guitars is a rarity in these troubled days and times and the title track proves that you don't need auto tuner or fake computer beats to make excellent music. And the delta blues rock has been that way for over 50 years and then some. Delta Moon continues to keep that tradition alive.

3. Peter Wolf-Midnight Souvenirs (Verve) His Reprise, Mercury and Artmenis albums were good but I thought were a bit overrated. Certainly I missed Wolf's spontaneity and his showmanship when he was fronting the J.Geils Band but his solo stuff were hit and miss. This time out Wolf finally gets it right, with a right combination of rock and blues and R and B. And of course he has guest appearances and I think I perfer Shelby Lynne over Neko Case in the bizarre Green Fields Of Summer and of course Wolf shows his jive side on Overnight Lows. He does outrock The Black Crowes on I Don't Wanna Know and even the Merle Haggard cameo on the final It's Too Late For Me showcase nice Americana. He may have tried too hard on Sleepless or Long Line but on Midnight Souvenirs, he finally gets it right.

4. Los Lobos-Tin Can Trust (Shout! Factory) If anything Los Lobos has been delivering the goods for the past 25 years although the last time I really got involved with them was 1990's The Neighborhood. Cesar Rosas, who always been the harder rocker of this group contributes a couple of Mexican number which are nice but the pairing of Susan Tedeschi on Burn It Down rocks and their version of the Grateful Dead's West LA Fadeaway is a keeper to the point that Public Radio here has been keeping it in rotation. And On Main Street gives you a feeling of walking on down their side of Los Angeles. They had been coasting a bit on their Disney years but Tin Can Trust returns them a more conventional rocking way of sorts.

5. Devo-Something For Everybody (WB) Or Oh No It's Devo part two and I mean that in a good way. Oh No was the spudboys last decent record and Shout was a turd and their Enigma albums were just that. This time out the humor is back and although it's not Are We Not Men? it does make you want to get up and dance. I do get a chuckle out of Don't Shoot Me (I'm A Man) with the line "don't taze me bro".

6. Alejandro Escovedo-Street Songs Of Love (Fantasy) The former Rank & File and True Believer has been carving out a very good solo career. This actually rocks harder than Real Animal, Tony Visconti produces again and AE gets musical help from Bruce Springsteen and Ian Hunter. And of course Chuck Prophet who helps out co writing like he did on Real Animal. I'm in love with love he sings and I tend to believe him. I also tend to think more of him in the Ian Hunter vein rather than the Boss but that's just me.

7. Tom Jones-Praise & Blame (Island/Lost Highway/Seconds Out) Perhaps the surprise of the year. No longer the big sex symbol of the late 60's early 70's, Tom Jones has gone more toward the sound that T Bone Burnett got out of Robert Plant a couple years ago but went instead with Ethan Johns who's the MVP on this album. Jones sings the religious and songs of redemption and covering the old gospel blues along the lines of Blind Willie Johnson and Pops Staples, and covers a lesser known Bob Dylan number. Johns strips the music down to bare wires and bare bones, with guitar, bass and drums and on occasion backing vocals that don't oversing, which was why the Elton/Leon album didn't appeal to me. Nevertheless Tom Jone may have made his most definite statement and best album of his career. And that's saying a lot.

8. Paul Collins-The King Of Power Pop (Alive) Once upon a time children, Paul Collins was part of a punk band called The Nerves which featured Peter Case (Plimsouls) and Jack Lee, and once they disbanded formed The Beat (no realtion to The English Beat) and made two damn good albums for Columbia before disappearing and becoming a solo artist. This is the first album that Collins has done in the style of The Beat and for over a half hour we get the followup to The Kids Are The Same. Nothing fancy here, three chords, sing along chorus and move on to the next song. The voice is rougher but the fun is there, you just gotta hear it in the song.

9. Eli "Paperboy" Reed-Come And Get It! (Capitol) Perhaps the last gasp of EMI, I was surprised to hear of this dude who had a genuine love of the Stax/Volt sounds and Bobby Blue Bland. I basically gave up on the American Idol wannabes that had no clue on what soul really was. And this was one of the mercy buys, you know you find in the bargain bins and just want to listen to for a laugh and then leave it in the donation pile at Goodwill but this kid is the real deal. Sure he sounds white but he does know a hook when he sings it, on Name Calling, a song once you hear you'll never get out of your head. On Explosion, the final track, Reed reminds me of Roy Head when he announces there's going to be a explosion baby and you'd better believe it. I'm sure he had James Brown in mind but either way, I'm sure nobody in American Idol would attempt such a song like this.

10. Len Price 3-Pictures (Wicked Cool) Brit Punks who still idolize The Kinks and The Who 1965 and not afraid to show it although there's a bit of update in their tunes with a bit of Green Day in the title track. Of course they're also not afraid to add a bit of Small Faces or The Creation too on certain tracks (Guess which ones). I'm sure this will be the last we'll ever hear of The Len Price 3, Wicked Cool Records is no longer associated with Best Buy or FYE for that matter and if we do hear from them it will be strictly import only. But The Len Price 3 does something that none of the bands hogging up the radio will ever do, and that is speak to us via three chords and an English punk whomp that is lacking in the US. Three chords and rock and roll, it spoke to me back then and still speaks to me nowadays if done right. And Pictures is rock goodness.

The runner ups of note.

11. Peter Frampton-Thank You Mister Churchill (A & M/New Door)
12. Widespread Panic-Dirty Side Down (ATO)
13. Robert Randolph & The Family Band-We Walk This Road (WB)
14. Neil Young-Le Noise (Reprise)
15. Asia-Omega (Frontiers)
16. Doobie Brothers-World Gone Crazy (HOR)
17. Belle & Sebastian Write About Love (Matador)
18. Robert Plant-Band Of Joy (Rounder)
19. Bachman & Turner (RBE-Fontana)
20. Gin Blossoms-No Chocolate Cake (429/Savoy)


Reissues of note:

Bob Dylan-The Wittmark Demos 1962-1964 (Columbia)
Long time ago, he was a starving artist trying to get his foot in the door. But even back then, the rough drafts were a lot better than most out there on the radio. Bob Dylan as personal as he gets.

Bob Dylan-The Best Of The Mono Recordings (Columbia)

There are those who perfer the stereo recordings but I remember them better when they were played on the radio and in mono.

The Jayhawks aka The Bunkhouse album (Lost Highway)

1986 long out of print album got the reissue treatment and shows a more Bakersfield side to Gary Louris and Mark Olson. Bakersfield via Minneapolis.

The Blasters reissues via Wounded Bird.

Took the damn major label to finally reissue these but these L.A punks owe more to Eddie Cochran, Elvis and they did to The Gits or Fear or whatever Slash was putting out at that time. However, Non Fiction and Hard Line proved that Dave Alvin replaced John Fogerty as the best damn songwriter of that time.

The Apple Remasters (EMI/Apple)

And finally, the big news wasn't The Beatles finally releasing their music through ITunes but rather EMI's decision of reissuing the Apple albums that The Beatles didn't make. The prize remains James Taylor's S/T and of course Badfinger and for the first time we finally get a US release of their final Apple LP Ass. Which wasn't as good as No Dice or Straight Up. I certainly don't think that it's worth replacing a jewel case version for the new Digipaks but that's up the buyer out there. A good overview would be the Come And Get It Best Of Apple Records which introduce for the first time Chris Hodge's 1972 hit We're On Our Way and Ronnie Spector's Try Some Buy Some and of course Trash's Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight. For the adventurous and rich folk, there's the 17 disc Best Of Apple Records but it's not complete and the biggest complaint is that the packaging is shotty, just like the single disc Apple reissues. For something that's going to cost 250 dollars, the consumer deserves much better.

So ends our 2010 retrospective, review and best of. I think we have done the best we can given the situation that was presented. If not, you're free to do you own best of 2010.