'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.

Best music of 2010, so far

Listeners of NPR's "All Songs Considered" think The Gorillaz's latest is the best so far this yearLotsa lists are starting to pop up highlighting the best music from the first half of 2010. Here's a roundup of the podcasts and sites I frequent:

• The listeners get the spotlight at NPR's All Songs Considered, with a people-powered Top 50 led by The Gorillaz and The National. 
• Greg and Jim at Sound Opinions narrowed their lists to four apiece, with Greg really digging Janelle Monae and Jim slobbering all over Yeasayer.
• Crawdaddy's eclectic Top 40 includes Surfer Blood, The Besnard Lakes and Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings.
• Paste Magazine delivered six lists from top editors. Lots of names popping up on multiple lists, including Sleigh Bells, Phosphorescent, LCD Soundsystem, Janelle Monae, Titus Andronicus, Mumford and Sons, and Frightened Rabbit. 

As for me? I've been spending lots of my time listening to older CDs I've been buying from Not Lame Records, which is going out of business and is in the process of an extended fire sale. But as for new stuff, I'm really liking the Janelle Monae tour de force, which is one of the best debuts I've heard in a long time; The Chop Tops; The Besnard Lakes; Alejandro Escovedo; and The New Pornographers.

What about you?

Paste's Top 50 Albums of the Decade

Music geeks are suckers for lists, and Paste Magazine has another good one as we close in on the end of the first decade of the 21st Century.

Paste's Top 50 albums of the decade makes for some great discussion, as well as a holiday shopping list for stuff I need to discover. And also some discs I already own that I need to re-examine.

Let's cut to the top: I was overjoyed to read that Paste ranks Sufjan Stevens' "Illinois" as its top pick of the decade. Bravo. If I had to put together a Desert Island Discs list, "Illinois" would be on that Top 10. It's  brilliant top to bottom. It's both eclectic and inviting, appealing to music fans of all ages and genres. (Here's a more detailed Paste look at "Illinois").

Sufjan Stevens' "Illinois" (aka "Illinoise") is well worth your money I already own 19 of the Paste 50:

• No. 1. Sufjan Stevens: Illinois
• No. 2. Wilco: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
• No. 4. Radiohead: Kid A
• No. 6. The White Stripes: Elephant
• No. 9. The Avett Brothers: I and Love and You
• No. 12. Spoon: Kill the Moonlight
• No. 14. The Strokes: Is This It
• No. 18. Amy Winehouse: Back To Black
• No. 20. The National: Boxer
• No. 28: Paul Westerberg: Folker
• No. 32. The Flaming Lips: Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
• No. 33. Coldplay: A Rush Of Blood To The Head
• No. 34. Various artists: O Brother Where Art Thou?
• No. 39. Arcade Fire: Neon Bible
• No. 40. TV on the Radio: Return to Cookie Mountain
• No. 45. Radiohead: In Rainbows
• No. 47. Arctic Monkeys: Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not
• No. 48. Loretta Lynn: Van Lear Rose
• No. 49. Libertines: Up the Bracket

But it's interesting how many of those are not in my regular rotation. "Kid A" remains almost unlistenable to me, but I'll go back and give it a few more tries in light of this Paste ranking (I much prefer the more accessible "In Rainbows"). And I like Wilco, but "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot isn't that good. "The Avett Brothers disc, which just came out, is ballad heavy but great. And I pull out Arctic Monkeys or Amy Winehouse every few months to jumpstart my energy, but most of those others on the list get played once or twice a year.

I'll have to think about discs I think should have been on that Top 50. Give ma a few days and I'll post an update.

In the meantime, feel free to share your lists or take advantage of the lala players Paste has embedded with each listing and try out this great music yourself.