2010 Music Awards
5. PARADOXX: Contamination: Paradoxx Remixed
2006?, Industrial, Christian thematic
Purchased from an Amazon third party for $12.97
Amazon.com sales rank: 1,239,166 (No longer available)
MP3 tracks at Amazon? No
Available at iTunes? No
Remixes of songs from Paradoxx’s first two albums, New Devotion and Atomika. I got the album in 2009, but it didn’t gel with me right away -- the remixes were not the way I would have remixed the songs. But in 2010, when funds were limited, I started digging for under-utilized albums, and found that once I got used to the remixes being different than I was expecting, I liked the album after all. Two tracks I really liked from the first listen: the remixes of “Submission” and the Anita Blake Nightmare remix of “Vampyr.”
Read more to see why I like it so much...
4. TARA VANFLOWER: My Little Fire-Filled Heart
2007, Darkwave / Experimental, Christian worldview & thematic
Purchased used from an Amazon third party for $8.99
Amazon.com sales rank: 540,385
MP3 tracks at Amazon? Yes
Available at iTunes? No, but her first album is (This Womb Like Liquid Honey)
A very different album. The mood is dark and mysterious. The focus is Tara’s vocals, multilayered, along with sound effects; the use of instruments playing music is minimal. There is a lot of reverb, giving it a dungeon-like feel. The most striking tracks to me are the overtly Christian ones -- in “Naked King,” the whipping and ridicule of Jesus is vivid; “A Rusted Nail Through The Wrist” connects rejection of Christ as crucifying him; “A Conversation With Death” explicitly points out the eternal effect of rejecting God.
Read more to see why I like it so much...
2. ASOBI SEKSU: Hush
2009, Alternative / Shoegazer, Secular
Purchased new from the record label (via Amazon) for $11.97
Amazon.com sales rank: 129,635
MP3 tracks at Amazon? Yes
Available at iTunes? Yes
Asobi Seksu’s last album, Citrus, was #2 on my 2006 Music Awards. This is another album of beautiful sounds perfect for hot summer days. As with their last album, some songs have flavors of My Bloody Valentine in them, but on this album they have reduced the layers of guitars. The mood remains at times dreamy; other times it becomes decidedly cheerful.
Read more to see why I like it so much...
3. APT.CORE: Rhythms Of Remembrance
2001, Chill, Christian thematic
Purchased used from Amazon third party for $2.99
Amazon.com sales rank: 337,136
MP3 tracks at Amazon? Yes
Available at iTunes? Yes
I knew of the existence of this album when it first came out, but didn’t think I would like it--and actually, back then, I may not have. But in 2010, “chill” music was one of my top genres, so this fit right in. This album has downtempo dance beats with spoken words from the Bible, the liturgy, the Lord’s Prayer, etc., which also makes it a nice break lyrically from praise & worship lyrics.
Read more to see why I like it so much...
-
1.MY BLOODY VALENTINE: Loveless
1991, Alternative / Shoegazer, Secular
Purchased used from Amazon 3rd party for $4.70
Amazon.com sales rank: 2,521
MP3 at Amazon? Yes
Available at iTunes? Yes
This is a landmark album that created and defined an entire genre. It’s used as a reference to so many other groups’ albums--”Sounds like My Bloody Valentine.” Notice how even though it’s 20 years old, it’s still ranked 2,521 in sales at Amazon! Way fuzzed out guitars, dreamy or blurry mood, female or male vocals, but all vocals are drowned out by the wall of guitar sound. This is the kind of music I like to listen to on hot, summer days.
Read more to see why I like it so much...
Music Central is a sub-website of J Lee Harshbarger’s personal website. To visit other sub-websites, click the links below.
Note: Please see the web page “Annual Music Awards” for a complete description of the way the awards are chosen (qualifications to be on the list, criteria for ranking) and for what the various data here mean (i.e. lyrical theme categories, Amazon.com rankings, etc.). The list below contains only a brief synopsis of each album. For my full review of the album, click on the album cover picture. This page’s Amazon rankings are as of July 17, 2011.
ABOUT THE 2010 AWARDS
2010 was another year in the poor house, still with no full-time job, so music purchases were limited. it was even worse than 2009, because unlike 2009, I didn’t get any gift certificates as birthday or Christmas gifts, so funds for music purchases were extremely limited. As a result, this is a very short list. I only acquired 15 albums the whole year, which is fewer than what I have on some of my other best of the year lists!
It was a long, hot summer in 2010, so summer music dominated my listening, and the top two albums on my list consist of hot summer music. The remaining summer music was from albums I’ve enjoyed in summer for the past decade. My second most frequently-listened-to music was chill, but I have so many different chill albums (mostly from my days of freebies from Borders) that none dominated the list, other than #3 by Apt.Core. In 2009, I bought a few other Christian chill albums from around 2000 that I listened to, but they didn’t appeal to me enough to make the list.
NOTE: THE FULL REVIEW IS ONLY DONE FOR #1 & #3, so the other “Read more” links won’t work.
