'tis the season for "best of" lists

It's that time of the year. "Best of" 2010 lists started showing up around Thanksgiving and they'll only start to smother us from now on. 

Janelle Monae's debut is an invigorating mix of R&B, hip-hop, pop, rock, and moreHere's just a few worthy rundowns that I've stumbled across so far:

Paste Magazine's Top 50 Albums of 2010: Very eclectic mix topped by LCD Soundsystem. I was pleased to see Janelle Monae's stupendous debut, "The ArchAndroid" at No. 2. 

Pitchfork Media's Top Music Videos of 2010: As with all things Pitchfork, you probably haven't heard of half the bands in question. Not saying that's a bad thing ... just saying.

NPR's "All Songs Considered" "The Albums We Missed in 2010": Although "All Songs" tends to be a bit too acoustic for me, I like lists like this that help you uncover stuff that's flown under the radar. 

The New York Times "100 Notable Books of 2010": These folks can be way too snooty, but this year's list has some worthy mainstream picks, including "The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest." 

I'll add more sources as I find them. 

Update on Friday, December 24, 2010 at 10:32 PM by Logan Molen

And a few more: 

• NPR's "All Songs Considered" listeners picks for Top 25 albums. This is a fantastic 2-hour podcast of great music. Great for a road trip. 
• Pitchfork's "Top 50 Albums"
• Amazon.com's picks for 100 Best albums of 2010 (separate links for CDs and MP3s, which is cool) and the 100 Best-SELLING Albums of 2010
• NPR's "Best Music of 2010: The Complete List," picks from key staff
• And, more from NPR's "All Songs": The quartet of critics deliver their fun "Year in Music" show. Not as invigorating as last year's show but still worth a listen. 
• And All Songs' "Five Best Cover Songs of 2010"

There are many more, but really, this is enough. 

Update on Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 9:28 PM by Logan Molen

Here's the list of all lists for 2010 froma  site called Fimoculous. It's an index of all kinds of crazy lists for pretty much everything you can imagine.

Great stuff.

Cassettes on the comeback?

I was catching up on some recent podcasts while taking a short vacation and enjoyed this "Soundcheck" episode on the alleged renaissance of cassette tapes among cool musicians.

First it was vinyl coming back, then a whisper of hope for 8-tracks, of all things. But cassettes, a ridiculous format prone to sound decay or the player chewing the tape itself? What's next, Hit Clips?

But I can actually see a little upside for this cassette trend, if there is one, as younger generations co-opt tape decks tossed aside by their parents or buy older cars that still play cassettes.

I for one am longing for a tape deck to play any of the dozens of mix tapes or punk albums I've still got stored in the garage. The deck in my '95 Explorer just died, so I'm unable to dig into lost treasures, many of which only exist for me in that format. They include this Urge Overkill classic, the last song that Explorer deck was able to play:

"The Social History of the mp3"

Pitchfork has a long take on the 10-year history of the mp3 and raises a thought-provoking question: Will music over the last decade be remembered more for the technology or the music?

I tend to agree with author Erik Harvey in that the technology was the story. Just think past a few short years and marvel at what the mp3 spawned:

• Streaming radio
• Podcasts
• The spread of free music through file-sharing networks like Napster (remember them) and BitTorrent.
• iTunes and the iPod
• Emphasis on singles rather than albums
• Immediate release of music, including tons of live shows, what would have been B-sides and rarities, etc.
• The deterioration of the record labels and the birth of self-sustaining bands.

And that's just music. We're not even touching the side effects that include YouTube, Flickr, etc.

Set aside the debate over the poor quality of mp3s (here's my take), and it's clear that we'll look back on these days at the technology, not Black Eyed Peas