Musical Zakuski: UnClub Selections

Your author, on the right, in pajamas...

Royksopp Happy Up Here
Camera Obscura French Navy
The Paper Cuts The Machine Will Tell Us So
Beach House Walk in the Park
Chairlift Planet Health
Julian Casablancas 11th Dimension
The Raveonettes Gone Forever
Maps Turning The Mind
Atlas Sound Walkabout
Plaza Musique Magazine
Small Black Despicable Dogs (Washed Out Remix)
Toro y Moi Human Nature (Michael Jackson cover)
Washed Out Belong

I've pretty much abandoned the album as a medium for my enjoyment of music - not because I'm staking out a principled stand against concept albums (carry on, Alan Wakeman), but mostly out of convenience... I listen to most of my music either at work or when I'm DJing - songs are the. You could argue I'm living on a diet of hors d'oeuvres and by-the-glass wine (like tapas or zakuski), but I like to think it keeps me spry, light on my feet. Because of that, I'm not really qualified to give a list of my top albums for 2010. And all the better, too, because I'm sure you're sick of reading about them and the albums I did pay attention to (Junior Boys, Royksopp, Sebastien Tellier, Beach House, Phoenix, a smattering of others) are accounted for on many, many other people's lists. One much-loved album that by all accounts I should have been slobbering over, given how much I love(d) The Knife, was the Fever Ray album, but truthfully, it bored me so much that I can barely recall what it sounds like, other than a bit dour and a line about walking a dog home from school or something. Oh well.

If you've paid any attention to this blog at all, my method of discovering music tends to be about as haphazard, scatter-brained and ADD as my tastes have become. So that's a lengthy pre-amble to some songs from 2009 that I like and have at hand. Some of them I've already posted about, the ones at the top are new, and most of them sound like Cass McCombs.