SoundProof's Year-End Extravaganza 2010
By: Orlando da Silva, SoundProof Magazine
Well, that's another year, folks. And what a year it was. For music, anyway. Politically, economically and especially environmentally, we're fucked. If you happen to live in, say, Pakistan or Haiti or near the BP oil spill you may not give a shit that Arcade Fire had a really good year, and that's understandable.
For the rest of us though, it was kind of hard to ignore the sheer amount of amazing music we had every month of this year. Be it new voices like Diamond Rings, or returning greats we never thought we'd hear an LP from again like Big Boi, 2010 was a non-stop salvo of auditory goodness.
To help us bid adieu to this pretty standout year of music, SoundProof asked some particularly nerdy music-obsessed friends to tell us what their favourite album, live show, and video of 2010 are. The response from everyone was great, and we present you with this, our 22-member panel on the best of 2010!
While technically we didn't do a tally or anything, some names came up again and again in people's "best of" choices. Arcade Fire is easily the record most chosen for album of the year, and had quite a few mentions for best video as well. OK Go got the most mentions for best video for their reliably mind blowing work. The best live show category seemed to have the most variations, but Sheezer - Toronto's all-girl Weezer cover band - got two nods from contributors and I would have to agree that it was my favourite club show this year.
Sheezer would not have been my choice for live show of the year overall - that goes to Gorillaz' stunning performance at the ACC in Toronto, but I'm comparing apples and oranges. For favourite video, I agree with Lauralee Love that her band's video for "Hello My Dear" was probably the most memorable clip of the year. Close runner-ups would be MIA's "Born Free" and XX's "Islands". Also, I am a little surprised that my personal favourite album of the year, Joanna Newsom's Have One On Me was completely absent from this list. Make no mistake - it's album of the century as far as I'm concerned. It's a three disc LP of sheer brilliance. Go get it now.
So on with the list, but first let me introduce you to to our panel.
SP writers, past and present: David Ball, Adam Bunch, Sharon Burke, Jason Giamaria, Andrew Horan, Allison Janzen, David Lacalamita, Erin Letson, Jonathan Linds, Cody McGraw, Richard Trapunski, Bradley Turcotte, Kyle Whaley.
Musical Friends: Thomas D'Arcy of Small Sins, Gregory Pepper and Factor of Common Grackle, Mark Hamilton of Woodpigeon, Liam Jaeger of The Balconies, Lauralee Love of the Lovely Killbots,
Comedic Friends: Pat Dixon, Myq Kaplan, Kate Micucci, John F. O'Donnell
