Website of the Year - xkcd
Because romance, sarcasm, math, and language have always made the best bedfellows.
Book of the Year - Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Angel's Game
Nobody writes a novel with the right mix of noir, mystery, fantasy, and macabre deaths like Zafon. TAG is no exception. This book contains the single worst death I have ever had the privilege (?) of reading. It made me laugh and it broke my heart; made me hope and despair; made me pray and curse; and most powerfully, it stuck with me for every minute that I spent between those times when I could sit down with it again.
In a preemptive honorable mention, I'm pretty sure that Brandon Sanderson is going to finish out the Wheel of Time saga very admirably, but I haven't gotten to The Gathering Storm yet. My reread is only halfway through Lord of Chaos right now. I started it back in September!
Sanderson is worth another mention for his own original works as well. The Mistborn trilogy was the cleverest thing that I've read in the fantasy genre in years.
Movie of the Year - Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen
Plot holes? Who cares? Did you see how much shit blew up?
$4 Artist (Discovery Artist) of the Year - Bell X1
These guys are just so damn clever. "I'll See Your Heart And Raise You Mine" is about a man's internal struggles with his conscience in the form of a love affair between the angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other. "West Of Her Spine" is the most unique ballad I have ever heard. I still haven't figured out what "Eve, The Apple of My Eye" is trying to say, but the juxtaposition just feels brilliant. Instrumentally, they're talented and creative Irish rock. Vocally, Paul Noonan's voice has a very pleasant timbre. Lyrically, they could wipe the floor with just about anyone alive today.
Honorable mentions abound. Amos Lee and David Ford are both vast improvements on the model of John Mayer. Margot and The Nuclear So-and-So's have turned out three remarkable albums, but have suffered an enormous turnover in personnel in the last few months, which will undoubtedly lead to a different sound in the future. Margot's The Dust of Retreat is nearly an all-time top 10 album, but "Paper Kitten Nightmare" destroys any semblance that the album has of being a gloriously melancholic affair. M. Ward has an acoustic sound that is all his own; Transfiguration of Vincent was made for relaxing with a glass of wine.
(Yes, I bought Music in Mouth for just under $4. What is it with $4 albums that makes them so damn amazing?)
Album of the Year - Starsailor's All The Plans
I approached this album with heavy trepidation. Although "On The Outside" was a great album in its own way, the Starsailor sound had moved quite far from their original sound. It was that original sound, the phenomenal sound of Love Is Here, that first catapulted the band into such high esteem in my eyes and ears. [Awesome side note: I got LIH brand-new on vinyl for Christmas. Listening party to follow.] The whole time that the band was in the studio, I wondered if they would continue on this new path or take aim at their roots again?They took the latter approach and created the one album this year that passes both the Album Flow Test and the 100% Good Songs Test. Alas, my poor faith screwed me; I didn't pre-order the album and so missed out on an exclusive EP of tracks which didn't make it onto the album because, as the lead singer James Walsh explains, "they didn't quite work with the flow." The flow? You, sir, are my hero.
Song of the Year - Doves' "10:03"
It's as if they were playing to my tastes just to win this category with "10:03". What a build! We've all played the air guitar before, but this may be the first time I've ever air-drummed. The entire album is sublime, especially when you're listening to it with headphones, but this track takes the cake and eats it too.
HMA Fun Fact: Doves is the first band to take two Song of the Year awards. The other was in 2005 for "One of These Days."
"Hey, What About THAT Album?"
---The Veils' Sun Gangs
What a bipolar mess. Fantastic tracks, but no sense of direction whatsoever.
---The Decemberists' The Hazards of Love
It's great...but it's kind of one long song. It defies classification. Shara Worden makes the album. If I hadn't disqualified it based on its overall oddness, it probably would have placed 7th or 8th on the year.
---Lisa Hannigan's Sea Sew
Mellow, pleasant, but only applies to a very particular mood.
---Norah Jones' The Fall
See above.
---Third Eye Blind's Ursa Major
To be honest, I haven't listened to it very many times. Those few listens didn't leave me with any strong impressions one way or the other except for the track "One in Ten" (very good, and different for 3EB).
---Travis' Ode to J. Smith
Oh, Travis. Let me introduce you to a new concept: production.
---The Killers' Day & Age
Phucket, (he) Singapore. "Goodnight, Travel Well" saves the album from being a disaster.
---Keane's Perfect Symmetry
I don't listen to you guys for this happy crap. One of you needs another depressing drug habit.
Playlist of the Year
In addition to the tracks mentioned above, here are some suggested ways to burn up those remaining iTunes credits:
The River - Anathallo
Dark Lights - Bell Orchestre
Bad Skin Day - Bell X1
Squirm - Dave Matthews Band
Go To Hell - David Ford
Pity Dance - DM Stith
Lifelines - Doves
Sun Vines - Holler, Wild Rose!
Black Burning Heart - Keane
Street Corner Preacher - Amos Lee
Actions Are Actions - Low vs. Diamond
A Sea Chanty of Sorts - Margot
Talking in Code - Margot
You Never Get What You Deserve - Starsailor
Don't Take Your Love Away From Me - VAST
Larkspur - The Veils
A Last.fm Snapshot
This is almost misleading to the point of being inaccurate, but it's interesting. Note that this only captures the music played off of this computer; I listened to at least 3 CDs a day every day that I drove to school. The top 15 artists as captured by last.fm:
Andrew Bird 110 Plays
Margot & the Nuclear So and So's 99 Plays
Doves 84 Plays
Amos Lee 69 Plays
M. Ward 67 Plays
Yann Tiersen 65 Plays
Muse 50 Plays
Pale Young Gentlemen 44 Plays
Kent 44 Plays
Nick Drake 41 Plays
Sea Wolf 37 Plays
Okkervil River 31 Plays
Anathallo 30 Plays
Radiohead 28 Plays
Better Than Ezra 27 Plays
Looking Ahead: 2010
Only Tom McRae has a firm release date set for 2010, and even that has changed at least once. His next album, The Alphabet of Hurricanes, will be out in February. The scattered remnants of Oasis may put out some new material, but that's all speculation right now. In books, the Shadowmarch series sees its third installment published in March and the fourth and final installment sometime later in the year. Towers of Midnight, Creator willing, will see the light of day before Christmas of 2010. Sounds like a year for discovery artists if I've ever heard one...
Happy New Year, readers. May you always find water and shade.
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