April's album of the month will be up soon.
May's could take a little longer. Great music has been coming out every week this month. Band of Horses and Black Keys to look forward to this Tuesday. Damien Jurado the next. The National's High Violet is making a case for album of the year. The Hold Steady and Broken Social Scene albums are well worth their time. The New Pornographers successfully ruffled some uptight feathers, reinforced unfortunate stereotypes about people in Utah and put out some harmless, beautiful pop music. All in all, none of this month's hotly anticipated releases have been big letdowns. May has proven to be as incredible has hyped.
Which raises the question: Where would your money go, in a May vs. the field (other 11 months) bet on the month 2010's Album of the Year was released?
It's a tough call. But, before you make your decision you may want to consider the following bit of good news from Arcade Fire's website:
No date yet, but it's coming. Sometime this year.
Which is a very compelling argument for betting on the field.
Thats a toughie. i have to say.... it may be hard to beat the National for me. Boxer was my album of the year the year it came out. i just love them. So my vote is for May.
ReplyDeleteUnless of course Enrique, or Jesse McCartney come out with a stellar album and then I may have to side with the field.
Gotta go with "the field" too much potential good music out there. A new Arcade Fire seals the deal.
ReplyDeleteps. Scott & Grant say hi. they decided to get beehive tatoos to represent the cool peeps they met at the show in SLC.
May.
ReplyDeleteJohnny, how are you going to have a May discussion without Flying Lotus and LCD Soundsystem?
ReplyDeleteRitter - like, but not totally in love with.
National - pretty darn good, but mostly feels like a distillation of what they've done in the past.
The Hold Steady - you know these guys better than I do, but this feels like a transition record to me.
Broken Social Scene - too. freaking. long. I'm just not going to listen to a 63 minute album enough times for it to become a favorite.
New Pornographers - never been a huge fan, this record hasn't made me one.
Band of Horses - only listened to it once so far, but strikes me as the least satisfying of their three albums
The Blacks Keys - total beast of a record. tons of swagger and soul. only complaint is that I think they could have cut out 2-3 songs just to streamline the album a bit more.
Flying Lotus - a total mind warp of a record. takes IDM, techno, dub, hip-hop, free jazz, etc. and spins them into something wholly original and uncategorizable.
LCD Soundsystem - really like, but again, at over an hour long, I'm just not going to listen to it enough to fall in love with (blame it on adult ADD). That said, Dance Yrself Clean and Home are two of my favorite songs of the year.
I guess that leaves me with the field, since the field already has my favorite album of the year in Plastic Beach (though I will say The Blacks Keys album is closing the gap), but no month is even going to come close to May in terms of overall quality output (and I still haven't even listened to The Dead Weather and Holy F*** records yet...sheesh!).
With Arcade Fire on the horizon, the (slight) possibility of a Radiohead record, Fleet Foxes, Panda Bear and the already released Gorillaz album, I'm sticking with the field.