According to Last.FM (at which I am Ravenari) my top ten bands of 2010 were:
1. Brand New
2. The New Amsterdams
3. Sigur Ros
4. Nada Surf
5. Peter Gabriel
6. The Get Up Kids (Matt Pryor, represent!)
7. Joe Hisaishi
8. Voxtrot (this is impressive, considering it’s like…one album and two EPs going up against the phenomenal amount of output from the above).
9. The National
10. *cough*Jimmy Eat World*cough*
And my top 10 songs of 2010 were:
1. Voxtrot – Every Day (Okay, there’s a reason for this aside from the fact that it’s an awesome song; it was essentially the anthem for Every Day Awake, the novel I conceptualised and finished the first draft of in 2010. I listened to it a lot, to get in the mood to write that book. I swear, if it ever gets published, I’ll be thanking Voxtrot in the liner notes).
2. The Postal Service – Such Great Heights
3. The Temper Trap – Sweet Disposition
4. Frou Frou – Let Go
5. Matt & Kim – Daylight
6. Voxtrot – Ghost
7. Anberlin – Enjoy the Silence
8. Secret Machines – Marconi’s Radio
9. Nada Surf – Enjoy the Silence
10. Sigur Ros – Samskeyti (I loved this song even more after I watched Mysterious Skin; and as I was writing a book where all three of the main characters had varying forms of sexual assault in their childhoods, it was an appropriate song. Much like ‘Every Day’ by Voxtrot, this song was played a lot to get me in the mood to write certain scenes from the novel).
This year, I’m hoping that The New Amsterdams can top out Brand New, and I can get Jimmy Eat World out of the listing. Honestly, it’s not that I don’t like them, it’s just that bands like The National, or Harlem Shakes, or Bat For Lashes deserve it more (imho and ymmv and all those other acronyms that mean it might be different for you).
I art more to TV than I do to music, and I write more to music than I do to TV. But I did art to some of this. I find Nada Surf really excellent arting music, along with The National (oh god, High Violet was such a great album) and Sigur Ros.
Ravenari's Art and Writing 