Blog

the fifth annual fall playlist:

1. Early Day Miners - Autumn Wake
2. Sleeping At Last - Chandeliers
3. Denison Witmer - Little Flowers
4. Pete Yorn - Paradise Cove
5. Derek Webb & Sandra McCracken - When The Summer's Gone
6. Andrew Peterson - Planting Trees
7. Gabe Dixon Band - All Will Be Well
8. David Gray - Flame Turns Blue
9. Matthew Ryan - Rain, Rain, Rain
10. Over the Rhine - Suitcase
11. Ron Sexsmith - Cold Hearted Wind
12. Nickel Creek - Doubting Thomas
13. Mindy Smith - Out Of Control
14. Travis - Afterglow
15. Joe Pug - Hymn #101
16. Jenny Lewis with The Watson Twins - The Big Guns
17. Fistful Of Mercy - 30 Bones
18. Gillian Welch - I Dream A Highway

Mountains on the Ocean Floor by Andrew Peterson

Before we get too deep into this new year, it's time for me to look back at the music that impressed me the most this past year. In terms of new albums, I felt that 2010 was a down year. Fortunately, several strong releases in the latter half of the year kept the year from being a complete washout. Additionally, the quality of the albums at the top of my list are about on par with the top albums from the last few years. Here's a look at my top albums from this past year:

HONORABLE MENTION:

While these albums fell short of my top 10 albums of the year, I felt they were of sufficient quality to earn a mention here.

Sleeping At Last - Yearbook – October, November, and December EPs
While this technically doesn't qualify as an “album”, I still want to mention what so far has been a very strong collection of little EPs that Sleeping at Last has been releasing monthly. The bands usual strengths of instrumentation and lyrics are once again at a high level throughout the project. …

So I don't listen to a lot of "new" music per se. When I discover an album, it may be new to me, but 2, 3, 4, 5, 10 years old to the rest of the world. So here is a small list of albums that I really enjoyed which were officially released in 2010.

Josh Rouse - El Turista
Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz
Josh Ritter - So Runs The World Away
The Silver Seas - Chateau Revenge
Jars Of Clay - The Shelter
Janelle Monáe - The ArchAndroid
Andrew Peterson - Counting Stars

Aside from these releases, I listened to a lot of Lifehouse, David Crowder Band, Joseph Arthur, etc. this year. I'll be interested to see my 12 month charts at the end of '10.

I now officially consider myself an old timer here on Last.fm. Compared to some of you young bucks (and does) running around, I've seen some things. Lots of late charts, lots of good recommendations, and some recent changes. After giving it all a chance I can now say I appreciate the new changes. Though the design doesn't grab me I like all the new additions and they outweigh the negative.

So in honor of my 3 years here, here are some musical lists.

Top 25 Artists (and where they've moved in the past year)

(up1) 1. Jack Johnson
(dn1) 2. Sufjan Stevens
(up3) 3. Wilco
( - ) 4. Jars Of Clay
(dn2) 5. Damien Rice
(dn1) 6. Shane & Shane
(up5) 7. Derek Webb
(up3) 8. Belle & Sebastian
(dn1) 9. David Gray
(dn3) 10. Caedmon's Call
(u14) 11. Coldplay
(up1) 12. David Crowder Band
(dn4) 13. Iron & Wine
(dn4) 14. Dave Matthews Band
(up1) 15. Tom Waits
(up1) 16. Guster
(u52) 17. Ryan Adams
(dn4) 18. Jamie Cullum
(dn4) 18. Teitur
(up6) 20. U2
(up3) 21. Amos Lee
…

First, make a list of your top-20 artists overall. Then, for each of these artists, add the 8 most similar artists to your list. Delete any duplicates, count up the number of entries on your list and this will give you some idea of how eclectic your listening habits are. A score of 9 represents an extremely unvaried musical taste while a 160 represents an extremely varied one (DO NOT count your top 20 artists, only the similar artists).

Rilo Kiley
Regina Spektor
Rosie Thomas
Thomas Newman
Coldplay
Aimee Mann
Feist
Sufjan Stevens
Kat Jones
Blonde Redhead
Mirah
The Blow
Bright Eyes
Jeff Buckley
Rich Mullins
U2
Damien Rice
Moby
Yann Tiersen
Tilly and the Wall

Sounds Like:
Jenny Lewis with The Watson Twins
Tilly and the Wall
Bright Eyes
The Decemberists
Stars
Death Cab for Cutie
The Shins
Tegan and Sara
8
Fiona Apple
Rilo Kiley
Feist
Cat Power
Sufjan Stevens
Joanna Newsom
Imogen Heap
15
Lijie
The Weepies
Anya Marina
Butterfly Boucher
The Innocence Mission
…