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”

Well, now that I’m back from Australia, I suppose I should catch up and show you what I was listening to last month. Lots of Bruce Springsteen, natch. And I started going through all the Tom Waits albums I somehow have not listened to up to now. And then I got on a plane to Sydney, sans iPod, and discovered the only on-board music options worth listening to as I fell into a Tylenol PM coma were Coldplay and Lily Allen.

Enjoy!

1. Antony & the Johnsons – “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” (Dylan Mania)
2. Joker & Ginz – “Purple City” (Purple City / Re-Up)
3. Lori McKenna – “Witness to Your Life” (Unglamorous)
4. Drake – “Best I Ever Had” (Best I Ever Had)
5. Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros – “Home” (Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros)
6. Bruce Springsteen – “Atlantic City” (Live in New York City)
7. Tom Waits – “Big Joe and Phantom 309″ (Nighthawks at the Diner)
8. Bruce Springsteen – “Tenth Avenue Freezeout” (Live 1975-1985)
9. Hammock – “Mono No Aware” (Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow)
10. He Is Legend – “Don’t Touch That Dial” (It Hates You)
11. Kitty, Daisy & Lewis – “Going Up the Country” (Kitty, Daisy & Lewis)
12. Tom Waits – “Chocolate Jesus” (Mule Variations)
13. Bruce Springsteen – “Thunder Road” (Born to Run)
14. Plants & Animals – “Bye Bye Bye” (Parc Avenue)
15. The Dead Texan – “A Chronicle of Early Failures, part 2″ (The Dead Texan)
16. Sigur Rós – “Gong” (Takk…)
17. Lily Allen – “The Fear” (It’s Not Me, It’s You)
18. Coldplay – “Death and All His Friends” (Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends)

January was an interesting music month. Animal Collective’s new album slapped me in the face, and a lot of freak folk and experimental stuff I hadn’t cared much for before finally hit me (Bowerbirds, Gang Gang Dance, Fredrik).

I also met a few cool girls — Gayle Skidmore, Valeri Lopez and Soyu Sae — who played some very inspiring music at a coffee shop a few weeks ago. Two of their songs got stuck in my head like whoa and thus appear here. Hopefully I’ll be seeing a lot more of them in the future.

1. Eluvium – “New Animals From the Air” (Talk Amongst the Trees)
2. T.I. – “Whatever You Like” (Paper Trail)
3. Bowerbirds – “In Our Talons” (Hymns For a Dark Horse)
4. Hammock – “City in the Dust on My Window” (Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow)
5. Gang Gang Dance – “House Jam” (Saint Dymphna)
6. Fredrik – “Black Fur” (Na Na Ni)
7. 3oh!3 – “Punkbitch” (Want)
8. Jay-Z – “Threat” (The Black Album)
9. Jay-Z – “Moment of Clarity” (The Black Album)
10. Animal Collective – “My Girls” (Merriweather Post Pavilion)
11. Gayle Skidmore – “Crazy” (Cowley Road)
12. Valeri Lopez – “Just PB&J Thank You” (Eugene Lovely)
13. Bon Iver – “Woods” (Blood Bank)
14. Modeselektor – “The White Flash feat. Thom Yorke (Trentemøller remix)” (Happy Birthday! Remixed Pt. 1)
15. Animal Collective – “College” (Sung Tongs)
16. The Dead Texan – “A Chronicle of Early Failures, part 2″ (The Dead Texan)
17. Black Moth Super Rainbow – “Forever Heavy” (Dandelion Gum)
18. Lil’ Wayne – “Lollipop” (Tha Carter III)
19. Lil’ Wayne – “La La” (Tha Carter III)
20. Sigur Rós – “Gódan daginn” (með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust)

I like ambient music.

Correction: I love ambient music. I can’t get enough. It’s good to fall asleep to, it’s great to wake up to and it’s perfect, undistracting background noise when I’m working during the day. In fact, it’s 12:10 am right now and I’m listening to Eluvium’s Talk Amongst the Trees as I write this.

Ambient is “a musical genre in which sound is more important than notes. It is generally identifiable as being broadly atmospheric and environmental in nature.” (Thanks, Wikipedia.)

Some say ambient music began with Erik Satie’s experimental piano compositions in the early 20th century. Satie’s best-known work is simple piano parts that could loop for several hours. He coined the term “furniture music,” meaning that it was part of a room’s decor or ambiance (pun intended) rather than a focal point.

Others point to Brian Eno’s work in the 70s as when the genre began. Eno is best known as the producer of U2′s The Joshua Tree and other albums, as well as his part in the band Roxy Music. His groundbreaking album Ambient 1: Music for Airports is widely considered to be the first ambient album, and it is still looked to as a prime example of the genre today. There Eno took simple, looping pianos and single note tones and covered them in a wash of subtle noise. Loops would overlap on themselves, creating new tones and sounds as a result. The songs clock in between six and sixteen minutes.

Aside from enjoying ambient for its utilitarian aspects, I have a great respect for ambient artists for their skill. When dealing with quiet, repeating sounds that are hardly melodies, they walk a fine line between mundane and genius. The focus required to make the music effective rather than annoying or boring takes great finesse and an attention to details that would be unimportant in other forms of pop music.

Ambient music can be effective and enjoyable for everyone. It may take time to find the music you particularly enjoy but once you find that album or two, I’d bet it would be hard to ever give them up.

Here are a few ambient (or almost-ambient) albums that have done the trick for me:

• Brian Eno – Music for Airports
• Stars of the Lid – And Their Refinement of the Decline
• Hammock – Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow
• Eluvium – Talk Amongst the Trees
• William Basinski – Disintegration Loops I-IV
• This Will Destroy You – This Will Destroy You

Yep. Fall is here. Gone are the sunny pop songs of spring and summer. In come the introspective, calm-but-questioning sounds of autumn.

Change is afoot.

1. Jakob – “Pneumonic” (Solace)
2. The Velvet Underground – “Who Loves the Sun” (Loaded)
3. Radiohead – “There There” (Hail to the Thief)
4. M83 – “Lower Your Eyelids to Die With the Sun” (Before the Dawn Heals Us)
5. The New Pornographers – “These Are the Fables” (Twin Cinema)
6. Joshua James – “Today” (The Sun Is Always Brighter)
7. dan le sac vs. Scroobius Pip – “Letter from God to Man” (Angles)
8. Neko Case – “Look For Me (I’ll Be Around)” (Blacklisted)
9. Joshua James – “Winter Storm” (The Sun Is Always Brighter)
10. Neko Case – “I Wish I Was the Moon” (Blacklisted)
11. mewithoutYou – “Carousels” (Catch For Us the Foxes)
12. TV On the Radio – “Crying” (Dear Science)
13. Jay-Z – “Renegade” (The Blueprint)
14. Hammock – “We Will Say Goodbye to Everyone” (Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow)
15. Ingrid Michaelson – “The Way I Am” (Girls and Boys)
16. Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile – “The Farmer and the Duck” (Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile)

P.S. If you get a chance to, go see Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile live. I saw them last weekend in Irvine and was thoroughly impressed. It’s a beautiful thing to see modern legends collaborate so well with each other. And if you don’t get a chance, at least pick up a copy of the album.

June is here. It’s the busy time of year. Graduations, going-away parties, weddings, vacations. No time for posting on blogs that nobody reads anyway.

May went by in a blur, leaving me just enough time to reminisce about music I used to love (Killswitch Engage, The Used, Eels, Death Cab For Cutie) and wish for half a minute that I had good music taste during the 90s (Pavement, Oasis, The Magnetic Fields). Then I went with Matt down to Irvine last weekend to experience the face melting metal of Iron Maiden and Anthrax live. It’s impressive that old guys are still capable of tearing it up like that.

1. Jimmy Eat World – “Here It Goes” (Chase This Light)
2. Hammock – “City in the Dust on My Window” (Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow)
3. 16 Horsepower – “Splinters” (Live: March 2001)
4. Eels – “Railroad Man” (Blinking Lights and Other Revelations)
5. Eels – “The Other Shoe” (Blinking Lights and Other Revelations)
6. Killswitch Engage – “Take This Oath” (The End of Heartache)
7. The Used – “Let It Bleed” (In Love and Death)
8. Death Cab For Cutie – “Transatlanticism” (Transatlanticism)
9. Duffy – “Mercy” (Rockferry)
10. Moving Mountains – “Grow On, Grow Up, Grow Out” (Pneuma)
11. The Appleseed Cast – “The Clock and the Storm” (Peregrine)
12. Pavement – “Unfair” (Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain)
13. Oasis – “Champagne Supernova” (What’s The Story, Morning Glory?)
14. The Magnetic Fields – “Busby Berkeley Dreams” (69 Love Songs)
15. Bon Iver – “Skinny Love” (For Emma, Forever Ago)
16. Iron Maiden – “Run to the Hills” (Number of the Beast)
17. Anthrax – “Madhouse” (Spreading the Disease)

I’ve become a bootleg fiend as of late. I got a whole bunch of Coachella recordings, other random shows I was at and a few I wish I was at. Maybe I should start posting a few samples for your enjoyment. I’m at the brink of filling up my laptop’s hard drive. It’s about time for a new computer anyway.

You probably won’t hear much more from me this month (as if that were unusual). I’m road-tripping to Colorado to see the fam for a week, and then I’ll be start cleaning and packing to prepare to move into a new place that I just confirmed late last night. Exciting times. Peace.