Yeah, that’s a Britney Spears song tacked on the end there, sandwiched between Wilco and a Wu-Tang dubstep remix. Nobody ever said I was consistent.

Once again, I’ve made an attempt at mixing all these songs together in some sort of discernable and enjoyable way. Enjoy that.

1. Pedro The Lion – “Progress” (Control)
2. Nicki Minaj – “Roman’s Revenge (feat. Eminem)” (Pink Friday)
3. Mumford & Sons – “Sigh No More” (Sigh No More)
4. Flying Lotus – “Camel” (Los Angeles)
5. Killabits – “DSGSTNG” (DSGSTNG single)
6. Smith Westerns – “Still New” (Dye It Blonde)
7. Tom Waits – “Heartattack and Vine” (Heartattack and Vine)
8. Wanda Jackson – “Thunder on the Mountain” (The Party Ain’t Over)
9. Wu-Tang Clan – “Pencil/MyPiano/Firehouse (Soroka Remixes)” (Wu-Tang Meets the Indie Culture Vol. 2: Enter the Dubstep)
10. Kanye West – “Monster (feat. Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj and Bon Iver)” (My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy)
11. Wu-Tang Clan – “Alphabets (Dakimh instrumental remix)” (Wu-Tang Meets the Indie Culture Vol. 2: Enter the Dubstep)
12. Britney Spears – “Hold It Against Me” (Hold It Against Me single)
13. Wilco – “Reservations” (Yankee Hotel Foxtrot)

December saw me discovering witch house (Salem), wondering why I’d all but ignored LCD Soundsystem for the last five years and remembering how awesome Titus Andronicus’s last album was.

It also saw me getting a full version of Ableton Live, with which I hope to improve on my DJ/producer skills (of which I have almost none, but hey), so for that reason you can listen to little bits and pieces of all these songs as a DJ mix (with admittedly poor transitions at times; working on it).

1. LCD Soundsystem – “Disco Infiltrator” (LCD Soundsystem)
2. LCD Soundsystem – “Losing My Edge” (LCD Soundsystem)
3. Nosaj Thing – “Us (Jon Hopkins remix)” (Drift Remixed)
4. Teebs – “Moments” (Ardour)
5. Tranqill – “Payroll (Paul White’s clean dub)” (Mary Anne Hobbs: Wild Angels)
6. Monopoly – “Red and Yellow Toys” (Mary Anne Hobbs: Wild Angels)
7. Salem – “King Night” (King Night)
8. Salem – “Sick” (King Night)
9. Delorean – “Real Love” (Subiza)
10. Flying Lotus – “Clock Catcher” (Cosmogramma)
11. Salem – “Trapdoor” (King Night)
12. Titus Andronicus – “A More Perfect Union” (The Monitor)
13. Titus Andronicus – “Theme From ‘Cheers’” (The Monitor)

I’ve been looking through some “best albums of 2010″ lists over the past few weeks. It might just be me, but for every year the blogging community does this, the lists become more homogenous, slightly reordered versions of the same lists. We’re all listening to the same ten albums. Music critics are becoming a singularity, which goes against what it means to be a critic in the first place: pointing out unique gems and curating music for those who share similar preferences with the critic in question. Furthermore, it’s not helping support all those arguments about the internet being a home for individuality. But those are thoughts for another day.

So, instead of my favorite records of 2010, here are some records I loved that didn’t get the attention they deserved.

The Hold Steady: Heaven Is Whenever

They’ve been a mainstay among the fist-pumping classic rock lovers for a few years now but, aside from a decent amount of publicity right when it came out, this album seems to have fallen flat for a lot of people compared to past successes. Granted, Heaven Is Whenever was a stylistic departure from past albums. But after four releases of fairly straightforward American bar band rock and roll and heavy touring, a band with die-hard fans should be permitted a chance to try something new.

Sonic evolution aside, the writing on this album is some of the best Craig Finn and company have concocted thus far. Finn has consistently produced some of the most honest and soul-searching wordplay that’s seen the light of day in recent years.

Listen: The Hold Steady – “We Can Get Together”

Various Artists: Get Darker Presents: This Is Dubstep Vol. 2

Posting a compilation might be cheating, but considering my attraction to all things electronic this year, the Get Darker This Is Dubstep series — a who’s who in the UK dubstep scene — was both thrilling and educational for me. Get Darker pulled together a grab bag of club bangers, remixes and some of the darker, headier material most of America’s “bro-step” fans tend to overlook. Highlights include Caspa’s remix of TC’s “Where’s My Money?” and Chasing Shadows’ Weezy-sampling track “Ill.” To top it off, DJ Darkside then took all fourty (yes, fourty) tracks on this two-disc set and make continuous DJ mixes out of them. Start to finish it works great as energetic background working music or the soundtrack to a killer dance party.

Listen: Chasing Shadows – “Ill”

Four Tet: There Is Love In You

Minimal techno at its finest. Four Tet gained some attention for a few Radiohead remixes a while back, and his own material only continues to improve. “Love Cry” was one of my most-played songs of the year, and the album as a whole is a finely crafted work of art that is compelling, intricate, delicate and worthy of any introvert’s headphones.

Listen Four Tet – “Love Cry”

Flying Lotus: Cosmogramma

I never could get into jazz, but a blood relative of the Coltranes who collects off-kilter beats, Dilla-worthy hip-hop production, impressive collaborations and an Adult Swim sense of humor is hard to ignore. It has a Coltrane spirit to it in a very psychedelic, new age sort of way. Also, if you’re looking to kill some time, FlyLo is one of the most compelling producers to watch do his thing live.

Listen: Flying Lotus: “Clock Catcher”

Local Natives: Gorilla Manor

Like it or not, “indie” has a formula now. The big record labels know it sells and people making iPod commercials and films for twentysomethings take full advantage of the ubiquity of The Indie Band. Local Natives somehow fits this cookie cutter quite well, but simultaneously uses the stage in a pretty clever way. I couldn’t really tell you what makes this dance-friendly guitar pop different than your average indie band, but they manage to maintain a unique sound within that bubble. They also put on one hell of a show.

Listen: Local Natives – “Airplanes”

Gold Panda: Lucky Shiner

Some are calling it glitch or a fun take on the dubstep craze. I’m not sure what to call it, but Gold Panda does it well. His remixes are worthy of some attention, but Lucky Shiner, his debut LP full of jumpy beats and tweaked vocal samples, is better than all those remixes from start to finish.

Listen: Gold Panda – “You”

Max Richter: Infra

Richter spans the gap between modern minimalist classical and ambient. Infra is going to please anyone who likes that chunk of the musical spectrum. It’s of a type normally reserved for background music, but Richter manages to keep it interesting and yawn-free. Think of it as expanding on the territory where Philip Glass began.

Listen Max Richter – “Infra 1″

Infinite Body: Carve Out the Face of My God

Another entry in the ambient spectrum. This is more droney, using a lot of toothy synths and gritty pads that are clearly electronic but flirt with the edges of more guitar-based drone and sludge. Again, this is another one good for background music. But I would submit that such music is good for anyone doing knowledge work where long periods of focus are essential.

Listen Infinite Body – “Dive”

Freelance Whales: Weathervanes

It’s quaint, quirky, modern, relevant to a young twentysomething, merges folk and light electronics and is delightfully lighthearted. Shoot me in the face, right? Yeah, probably. But it’s good. And it’s entertaining. And repeated listens reinforce how damn good every song on the album actually is.

Listen Freelance Whales – “Hannah”

Junip: Fields

If I didn’t know better, I’d just call this José González’s next album. You might know him from his impressive solo work — which is mostly acoustic folk with some simple precussion — or his collaborations with semi-supergroup Zero 7 — who is mostly known for being a total snoozefest that causes me fall asleep. But Junip is great. It’s upbeat and folky all at once, and González’s vocals and lyrics are a gentle, yet driving, force of nature.

Listen Junip – “Sweet & Bitter”

Salem: King Night

I literally just found this one a couple weeks ago. Right in the nick of time. People are tossing it into this whole witch house genre, which is basically a bullshit way to pigeonhole people making electronic music that sounds evil, spooky and often a bit campy. However, I don’t particularly care what you call Salem as long as you call it good. It sounds like someone making a “chopped and screwed” hip hop remix album on even more quaaludes than a normal “chopped and screwed” remixer would be taking, then filtered through some toothy synths from your favorite Halloween sound effects record that got warped when you left it out in your mom’s hot garage.

Listen Salem – “Sick”

Hammock: Chasing After Shadows…Living with the Ghosts

They’re a Nashville favorite and they belong in that ever-growing ambient genre. This record came out days after my move to Nashville, which also happened to be mere days after a massive flood, which turned out to be a pretty good time for this record to come out. While not as strictly backgroundy as their last record, this one had a great, watery, 80s new wave/gothy vibe thatfelt dark and uplifting all at once. Also, I kind of like that a member of Hammock is also a member of The Choir, and they collaborated with a member of The Church on this record.

Now, if only we could get them to play a show in their own hometown.

Listen Hammock – “The Backward Step”

Songs that caught my attention in November. Mostly dance music, which is funny because I don’t dance. Must be the wannabe-DJ in me. Also, the new Kanye record is wicked good after a listen or two.

Sorry there’s no 8tracks playlist this time. They changed some of their rules so I can’t grab music from “the cloud” any more. I tried to link to tracks or YouTube videos where I could.

1. Jon Hopkins – “Small Memory (Tuung remix)” (Seven Gulps of Air)
2. Robyn – “Dancing On My Own” (Body Talk)
3. Born Ruffians – “I Need a Life (Four Tet remix)” (DJ KiCKS: Moderat)
4. The Tallest Man on Earth – “Love is All” (The Wild Hunt)
5. Joker – “Snake Eater” (The Big Pink: Tapes)
6. Tobacco – “Sweatmother (feat. Height)” (La Uti)
7. TC – “Where’s My Money (Caspa remix)” (Get Darker Presents: This Is Dubstep 2)
8. Barn Owl – “Ancestral Star” (Ancestral Star)
9. Kanye West – “POWER” (My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy)
10. Kanye West – “Monster (feat. Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj and Bon Iver)” (My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy)
11. Kanye West – “Runaway (feat. Pusha T)” (My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy)
12. Girl Unit – “Wut” (Wut)

October: a month in which a minor obsession with minimal techno flourishes. Hence Gold Panda (I listened to “You” at least once a day), The Field, more Flying Lotus collabs. Someone buy me the Ninja Tune XX comps please.

Sufjan’s new album is worth a listen or seven.

Brian McBride of Stars of the Lid is keeping the ambient torch lit.

And the rest is all new releases and old favorites. Make sure to check the streaming player below or on the 8tracks site.

1. Buke and Gass – “Revel in Contempt” (Riposte)
2. Young Money – “BedRock (feat. Lloyd)” (We Are Young Money)
3. Mumford & Sons – “Timshel” (Sigh No More)
4. Sleigh Bells – “Infinity Guitars” (Treats)
5. Junip – “Sweet & Bitter” (Fields)
6. Andreya Triana – “Lost Where I Belong (Flying Lotus remix)” (Ninja Tune XX: Volume 1)
7. Gold Panda – “You” (Lucky Shiner)
8. The Field – “The More That I Do” (Yesterday and Today)
9. Swans – “My Birth” (My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky)
10. Mount Kimbie – “Serged” (Chilled Deep Dubstep)
11. JFB – “Duck Jam” (Chilled Deep Dubstep)
12. Breakage – “Vial (feat. Burial)” (Chilled Deep Dubstep)
13. Brian McBride – “Mélodrames Télégraphiés (in B major 7th) Part 1″ (The Effective Disconnect)
14. Sufjan Stevens – “Too Much” (The Age of Adz)

A while back when I was bored I made a little tool that turns a Tumblr dashboard feed into an RSS feed that can be imported into Google Reader (or whatever other feed aggregator you might be using) for easier reading.

Using Yahoo! Pipes wasn’t an ideal solution, but an easy one to set up and share. It has lots of bugs and, after a month or two of eating my own dog food, I decided to try again, this time with a little bit more web nerdery in my back pocket.

So I created one that uses PHP and XSLT to make a very nice, pretty Tumblr dashboard RSS feed. Then I put it on Github using the best open source license I could find so that anyone who wants to play with it or download it can.

The only problem is you have to be nerdy enough to have a place to host this thing for yourself. I’d tell you where mine is, but it’s a secret.

Future plan: make one of these to aggregate Facebook notifications so I can stop going on Facebook too.

If this summary of last month’s listening habits isn’t an indication of my Jekyll-and-Hyde-esque music preferences, I don’t know what is. The obsession with Flying Lotus has returned, I discovered the crass d&b of Venetian Snares, I learned how to look past Neil Young’s nasal vocals — both on his new record and Harvest, an old classic — and enjoyed a new non-rock Lil Wayne record.

1. Dabrye – “Special (feat. Guilty Simpson and Paradime)” (Two / Three)
2. Deadmau5 – “Reward Is More Cheese” (Reward Is More Cheese)
3. Bobby Bare Jr. – “A Storm – a Tree – My Mother’s Head” (A Storm – a Tree – My Mother’s Head)
4. The Two Man Gentlemen Band – “There’s Something in My Trousers” (¡Dos Amigos, Una Fiesta!)
5. The Two Man Gentlemen Band – “Me, I Get High on Reefer” (¡Dos Amigos, Una Fiesta!)
6. Venetian Snares – “Posers and Camera Phones” (My So-Called Life)
7. Venetian Snares – “Ultraviolent Junglist” (My So-Called Life)
8. Broken Social Scene – “World Sick” (Forgiveness Rock Record)
9. Flying Lotus – “Camel” (Los Angeles)
10. bellflur – “Gasoline Heaven” (Asleep.Asleep.)
11. Neil Young – “Heart of Gold” (Harvest)
12. Neil Young – “Old Man” (Harvest)
13. Manchester Orchestra – “Shake It Out” (Mean Everything To Nothing)
14. Lil Wayne – “What’s Wrong With Them (feat. Nicki Minaj)” (I Am Not a Human Being)
15. Lil Wayne – “Gonerrhea (feat. Drake)” (I Am Not a Human Being)
16. Neil Young – “Hitchhiker” (Le Noise)

Listen up for a few of these songs here (or if you have Rhapsody, the whole thing is here):

August. Busiest month of my life. Aside from more surgery recovery, I DJed a wedding, saw Arcade Fire and started a new job. That said, not much downtime for listening to new stuff.

1. J Roddy Walston – “Full Growing Man” (J Roddy Walston and the Business)
2. Arcade Fire – “Rococo” (The Suburbs)
3. Kid Cudi – “Pursuit of Happiness (nightmare) (feat. MGMT and Ratatat)” (Man On the Moon: The End of Day)
4. Taio Cruz – “Break Your Heart (feat. Ludacris)” (Rokstarr)
5. Arcade Fire – “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)” (The Suburbs)
6. Smith Westerns – “Girl In Love” (Smith Westerns)

And here’s all the songs but one in a handy-dandy playlist, plus a few bonus ones for the heck of it.

The Hold Steady – Heaven is Whenever

Need any more proof that Craig Finn is a genius? Aside from writing a song essentially about the Catholic concept of heaven coming to earth every time we perform Mass (though his communion is over vinyl rather than bread and wine; no complaints here), check out the research done by some Hold Steady fans to uncover ten or fifteen references in four and a half minutes.

The way Finn weaves countless cultural, religious and personal reflections into a single song that means the world to a lot of people (well, at least two that I know of) is endlessly comforting.

I’m reminded of Scott Adams’s theory of God’s debris: that, as time moves forward, the world at large slowly converges back into a single consciousness that is the consciousness of God himself. Finn might be the patron saint of this idea, if for no other reason than to prove we’re getting better at massive consciousness in compact form. It’s a beautiful thing.

Let’s get this out of the way from the get-go: I have never seen the movie version based on About a Boy by Nick Hornby. And now, having read the book, I feel a minor tinge of disgust at the idea of Hugh Grant playing Will’s character.

It’s not so much that I have anything against Hugh Grant; he has a typecasted character and he plays it well. It’s just that I got an image of someone else in my head for this role. Someone manlier. Maybe Jason Statham with a little more slob and a little less “I’m going to shoot you in the face.”

Anyway. This was a pretty standard Nick Hornby book. That means it was full of well-written, self-loathing, quirky characters who all learned something from each other. And it means it was good.

I love Nick Hornby, precisely because it’s always a complex story, with no obvious endings, but no real twists either, and yet somehow it’s the easiest book in the world to fly through in a weekend. Case in point: I’d made it almost halfway through the book between getting to my gate at the airport and arriving at my destination a few hours later.

About a Boy is about a very boyish man becoming less boyish, with the help of a very mature twelve-year-old named Marcus. Marcus’s mom has some major issues, Will stumbles into it with all the irresponsibility of a trust fund kid and Marcus latches on. Hilarity, epiphany and growing up ensue (for both parties, of course).

It’s not a particularly deep book, nor is it one trying to make any particular point, but it feels realistic, and somewhere within it lessons are learned. Like I said, the beauty of Nick Hornby’s work is that it effortlessly slides life lessons at you. And I get the feeling even he doesn’t mean for them to happen.

I’ve heard that many authors end up discovering that the characters, plot lines and ideas write themselves, whether or not the author himself meant for things to go the direction they did. It’s an odd form of chaos that ends with everyone involved learning something from it, the author included — rather unlike some pithy morality tale where the theme is decided ahead of time.