Wednesday, December 22, 2010



BEST ALBUMS

10 // Ellie Goulding Bright Lights
The original release of this which was called ''Lights'' was enjoyable enough, but the re-release gave it a bit more life and replay value.

09 // Daft Punk Tron Legacy [Original Soundtrack]
The mix of orchestral and electronic production creates an epic and moody score. Even cooler when seen on screen with the futuristic visuals of the film. My favourite score of the year.

08 // Linkin Park A Thousand Suns
Doing an experimental album and branching out their sound was the perfect move for Linkin Park. A Thousand Suns Proves they have more in them than you'd expect.

07 // The Pretty Reckless Light Me Up
They remind me a lot of 90s rock bands i used to listen to. The UK iTunes edition comes with some great bonus songs.

06 // Kyu Kyu
While i wait for the new Bjork album, this will fill in that space nicely.

05 // M.I.A. MAYA [Deluxe Edition]
Fans were split down the middle with this album. Personally, i think it's her best record yet.

04 // Nicki Minaj Pink Friday [Deluxe Edition]
It's very ecclectic musically and surprisingly more personal than you'd expect. The lack of old skool ghetto Nicki may bore some people, but she still gives us some great club bangers while also showing the world who she really is and what type of varied artist she wants to be.

03 // Rihanna Loud
She goes from strength to strength with each album she releases. My favourite pop album of the year.

02// Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
You'll get some surprisingly honest writing on this album, with some really amazing production sampling on some of the songs. It's easily his best record.

01 // Janelle Monae The Archandroid
What gets Janelle the #1 spot is how ambitious this album was for a debut. It's very concept heavy, and the production on the songs are very rich and cinematic.


Honorable mentions:

Ciara Basic Instinct

Crystal Castles Crystal Castles II

Goldfrapp Head First

Auf Der Maur Out of Our Minds

Hurts Happiness

How To Destroy Angels Self Titled

Robyn Body Talk Part 2

UNKLE Where Did The Night Fall

Erykah Badu New Amerykah Part 2

Jessica Mauboy Get Em' Girls

WORST ALBUMS

The Black Eyed Peas The Beginning
A tired, uninspired, and boring album. It's like they collected every b-side from their previous album and threw it into a generic Euro dance blender. Lazy and shit.

Cheryl Cole Messy Little Raindrops
Her first album was a decent enough debut, but this follow up is just so dull in every way. Where are the hooks? did she honestly enjoy making this record? doesn't bloody sound like it.

MGMT
Congratulations
Their first album is one of my all time favourites, not sure what went wrong with album #2 though. It's possibly one of the most boring records i've ever heard in my life.

Hole
Nobody's Daughter
A by the numbers re-hash of their previous [and much better] albums. Their sound is beyond tired at this point, and Courtney's endless screaming and whaling bores me. Time to hang it up guys, it's not 1994 anymore.


BEST SONGS
They're all on YouTube, so just give them a search if you want to hear them...


20 // One [Know Your Name] Swedish House Mafia ft. Pharrell
With so much dance/house filling radio this year, this was the only one that left any sort of lasting impression on me.

19
// Dreaming Goldfrapp
Their new album got a mixed reception, but i liked it. This is my favourite from the record.

18 // Oh My God Usher ft. will.i.am
So many urban acts are jumping ship into dance music this year. I won't lie, it annoys me, but out of all of them, Usher came up with the best product.

17 // Take It Off Ke$ha
There's always room for some sleazy pop on my end of year list.

16 // The Flood Katie Melua
I find her rather boring usually, but this song is so beautifully produced.

15 // Ride Ciara ft. Ludacris
It deserved to be a bigger hit.

14 // Devotion Hurts
The build up to the end section of the song is gorgeous.

13 // Clap Your Hands Sia
I find it hard to not listen to it a few times in a row when playing it. Great chorus.

12 // Dance The Way I Feel Ou Es Le Swimming Pool
Shame the singer commited suicide this year.

11 // Cold War Janelle Monae
If i want people to hear her album, this is what i play them. Epic production.

10 // Monster Kanye West ft. Jay Z, Rick Ross and Nicki Minaj
It's like Clash of the Titans on this song, with Nicki Minaj surprising everyone and owning the track with her crazy verse.

09 // The Space In Between How To Destroy Angels
Trent Reznor does Massive Attack.

08 // In The Dark JoJo
Not what i'd typically expect form Jojo. Guess they all gotta grow up.

07 // What's My Name Rihanna ft. Drake
I could have added the song, Skin, from her new album here since it was my personal favourite, but What's My Name comes in at a very close second and it's definitely the best pop song on 2010.

06 // Waiting For The End Linkin Park
I've always loved Chester's voice, the hook in the chorus to this is perfect.

05 // Hypnotize U N.E.R.D.
Sexy!.

04 // Do It Like A Dude Jessie J
I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot of her in 2011. This song is a great start.

03 // Roman's Revenge Nicki Minaj ft. Eminem
Best collaboration of 2010.

02 // Whip My Hair Willow Smith
It's easy to forget she's only 10. Unlike Justin Bieber, her music isn't corny and shit. It reminds me a lot of old skool TLC.

01 // T iamamiwhoami
After a whole bunch of individual songs were released on iTunes, this one stuck out the most for me. I love it.


WORST SONGS

I Like It Enrique Iglesias
People loved this shit, i have no idea why. It's so obnoxious sounding.

The Time [Dirty Bit] The Black Eyed Peas
I've said it once and i'll say it again, will.i.am uses samples in the worst ways.

Nothing On You B.O.B.
God he's so fucking boring.

Vanity Christina Aguilera
Want to know how to make yourself sound like a complete fucking tool. Listen to this song. Worst. Lyrics. Ever.
BEST MUSIC VIDEO

How To Destroy Angels The Space In Between
Trent Reznor's love of David Lynch has never been more obvious than in this video.



Honorable mention:
Janealle Monae Cold War
The simplicity of this video is what makes it work so well. Janealle has such an interesting face.




WORST MUSIC VIDEO

Keri Hilson The Way You Love Me
What i assume is supposed to be a sexy and dirty display of female sexual power, turns out to be one of the most unsexy and hilarious displays of music video sluttery i have ever seen. Stick to Christina's "Dirrty" video to see this pulled off a little better.



Dishonorable mention:
Jessica Mauboy Get Em Girls
Budget restrictions are a big player in why this video looks so cheap, but that still doesn't excuse the obvious lack of a stylist and the unflattering lighting and camera angles that flood nearly every shot of this cheap wreak of a music video. Believe it or not, this video was shot by the very talented Hype Williams, whos given us some great videos over the years. The only decent video he turned out this year was Nicki Minaj's "Massive Attack", both "Get Em Girls" by Jessica and Kesha's "We R Who We R" seem to be displaying some sort of new hideous style Hype is presenting to us all where he purposely goes out of his way to create ugly and high school student level music video production. Weird.





BEST MOVIES

10 // A Single Man
The cinematography and direction is perfect. Colin Firth puts in a great performance.

09 // Tron Legacy
Anyone who doesn't want to visit The Grid after seeing this movie has something wrong with them. Give me a damn Light Cycle!.

08 // Splice
People either love this or hate it. It's an odd film that explores some.....uh....questionable themes, but i guess that's why i liked it.

07 // Scott Pilgrim vs The World
If you have Epilepsy, don't see this movie! If you love comics, video games and general geek epicness, you'll love this. It's like an orgasm for the eyes.

06 // The Kids Are All Right
What i liked most about this movie was that it didn't glorify the reality of gay families. Annette Benning was great in this.

05 // The Social Network
Who would have guessed a Facebook movie would be so tense? This had the best script of the year for me.

04 // The Runaways
Kristen Stewart peeing on guitars, Dakota Fanning passing out on drugs, what's not to love?


03 // Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Some people may feel like this lacked some action, but i thought it had more than enough. It was the emotional journey of the characters that made this my favourite Potter movie so far.

02 // Tangled
Toy Story 3 may be everyones favourite animated film of the year, but this was mine. The mix of comedy and action was perfect. The songs were great too, surprisingly.

01 // Kick Ass
A super hero movie like no other!. The over the top violence and unapologetic use of a 10 year old girl as an Assassin made it all the more better.


Honorable mentions:

Inception


Triangle

Twilight: Eclipse

Easy A

Toy Story 3

Paranormal Activity 2

The Loved Ones

Tomorrow When The War Began

Let Me In


WORST MOVIES

Sex and the City 2
What was once a well written TV series with a likeable cast, has now turned into an unintentional comedy about the most narcassistic women on Earth. I loved the series, i loved the first movie, and i gave S&C 2 a fair review after my initial viewing of the film. During my second vieweing though, the cracks looked a lot bigger, and although this has some funny moments, it also well and truly run itself off the tracks. If you love this movie or can relate to it in any way, i'm sorry to tell you, but you're a dumb bitch.

Law Abiding Citizen
It's a stupid over blown by the numbers thriller with nothing going for it except Gerard Butler being naked for a scene. Law Abiding Shitizen.

Prince of Persia
Not a Persion in sight, they're all American or British, which is a bit odd considering....you know....it's set in Persia. There's also a few other things missing..........like a good script, good set design, and a good story. It's like a made for TV piece of crap, and will someone please stop Joel Schmuck...i mean Jole Shumacker [no, i can't fucking spell it] from producing films, they always blow chunks.

Legion
Theres a reason why this was so under the radar when it came out, because everyone knew it wasn't worth the time or the money to see. The fate of the humanity is apparently at stake in this, and we are told to expect a war between Angels and Demons.........we got none of that oddly enough. What we did get though, was a whole bunch of annoying people stuck in a diner for 90 minutes and an open ended finale leaving room for a sequel. Why anyone making that film assumed people would want to actually see a sequal is hilarious.

Person of the Year

Nicki Minaj
She's been around in the underground hip hop scene for a few good years now. I didn't get my first taste of her until recently though when she released her single Massive Attack earlier this year, and since then, it's been one long Minaj love affair. Forget the Lil Kim comparisons, beyond the Barbie image, Nicki is her own creation. She fused together hip hop and pop and gave us one of the most versatile rap albums of the year, while also making endless amounts of memorable cameos on other peoples songs for the last 12 months. She was stealing scene after scene on nearly everything she was popping up on, Diddy's "Hello, Good Morning", Trey'z 'Bottoms Up" and of course, Kanye's "Monster".

Don't think Nicki is only just a rapper though, she's not. She brings an interesting mix of creativity to everything she does, whether it's writing her own raps on EVERY song she puts out [no ghost writers thankyouverymuch], dabbling in some singing on her debut album, and setting out to not only be a musician, but creating a Barbie Empire that will showcase every side of her very multi-dimensional personality.

Not only has she finally set up her own career in the music bizz, but she's also opened the doors for other female rappers to come forward once again and make a mark on the music charts. Nicki had the first #1 rap single with 'Your Love' earlier this year, a female rapper hasn't accomplished that for the last 7 years. Her debut album, 'Pink Friday' also had the second highest selling first week sales for a female rapper in the history of rap music, coming in second to Lauryn Hill's classic album, 'The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill'.


Nicki has been spreading her seed all over the place this year, and 2010 has only been the beginning!..............2011 will no doubt be the year that Nicki sets up her entire future with even more record breaking acheivements and more obsessed fans who follow her every move.

Nicki does things HER way, she isn't anyones puppet and she's crafting the career for herself SHE wants. Long gone are the days when Female MC's are catering to their male creators and doing what everyone expects of them.

Nicki stands on her own two feet, she's her own boss. IT'S BARBIE, BITCH.








Until next year :)