Album Of The Year?

It was not my intention, but I can understand why some people misinterpreted my positive review of Sharon Van Etten's recent performance at The Earl as a negative review of Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond). I didn't mean to imply anything negative about Worden, it's just that I had gotten her confused with Van Etten. To show that there's no hard feelings, I'm posting a song below of her backing Sarah Kirkland Snider (Sarah, Shara, Sharon - how will I manage to keep them all straight?), which was also posted as Today's Top Tune over at the KCRW web site.

Speaking of Van Etten (I'll avoid first names altogether if that's alright), I was pleased to see that her new album epic was included in NPR's list of 50 Favorite Albums of 2010. Reviewing the album, Robin Hilton wrote, "While many singer-songwriters dole out painfully obvious details about their own heartache, Sharon Van Etten writes and sings about the world she inhabits with beautiful and uncertain curiosity. Her songs are heartfelt without seeming overly earnest, her poetry is plainspoken but not overt, and her voice is elegant but wrapped in enough rasp and sorrow to keep from sounding too pure or confident. I'll be reaching for epic to give my cold black heart a jolt for years to come." Other old friends who made NPR's list include Owen Pallett and Atlanta's Deerhunter.

It's that time of year, when people who like to compile lists start naming their picks for the best music of 2010. Although they're doling their list out slowly at 10 songs a day and haven't yet gotten to their top 10, so far our old Swedish friends jj have made FACT Magazine's 40 Best Albums of 2010. NME, another British magazine, included Deerhunter among their 75 Best Albums of the Year. And although their (However Many) Albums of the Year list hasn't been released yet, Pitchfork included the efforts of our old friends Massive Attack and The Morning Benders in their list of The Top Music Videos of 2010.

StereoGum hasn't released its Best Albums list yet either, but back in September they included our old friends Twin Sister in their list of 40 Best New Bands of 2010. Twin Sister also made the Albums of 2010 list along with Deerhunter at Gorilla Vs. Bear (which coincidentally also ran a feature on jj today).

Atlanta's Deerhunter appears to have made many lists, and good for them. They've had a good year (and coincidentally are appearing on Conan tonight). There's a web site called besteveralbums.com that keeps a running tally of the consensus critical picks for albums of the year for every year going back to 1938 (best album of the year? Benny Goodman's Carnegie Hall Concert). Anyway, their statistics for best albums of 2010 so far include, in addition to Deerhunter, our old friends Spoon, Broken Bells (who also got nominated for a Grammy last night for Best Alternative Music Album), Shearwater, and Massive Attack.

For what it's worth, my pick for best album of 2010? The albums that have spent the most time in rotation on my iPod and CD player have been Local Natives' Gorilla Manor and Damian Jurado's Saint Bartlett, which although they didn't make anyone else's list, are among my picks for Best Albums of 2010.