Gavin B.

Thanks for your kind words. Since my blog is a labor of love, compliments are better than money. Glad to see all of those Townes Van Zandt songs in your queue. Townes is one of the best songwriters of the previous century and deserves to be included in the same conversations about brilliant songwriters like Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen.

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Now onto a completely different subject... my long list of notable album releases of 2010.

Since my photogenic memory is a thing of the past, I keep an open computer file of notable album releases which I add to as the year progresses, so I don't leave out any of the good ones. About 20,000 new album releases come across my desk in of the course of the year & there's only time to listen to a select group of releases that make through my own highly selective screening process.

Usually by Thanksgiving, I have a pretty good idea of which albums will make my year end long list because December is a notoriously dead month for new releases. Christmas season is when the recording industry pushes those horrifying Christmas album releases, deluxe reissues of old albums, and expensive box set retrospectives of best selling artists. The only highly anticipated studio releases left in the year 2010 are Duffy's new album, Endlessly (due out on December 7th) and III/IV and double album set of additional songs recorded by Ryan Adams & the Cardinals during their six month marathon recording session at Electric Ladyland Studios NYC in 2007.

This year I was stunned to find that my "2010 notable releases" file contained over 250 albums. Don't listen to those chronic complainers who tell you that there wasn't any good music released this year, because I had to make some tough choices to winnow the list down to the 80 or so albums that make up my long list of notable albums. For better or worse here's my own personal A to Z long list of notable album release for 2010:

Gavin B.'s A to Z Portable List of Notable 2010 New Album Releases

#
The1900s- Return of the Century

A
Adrienne Pierce- Oh Dear
Against Me!- White Cross
Ariel Pink's Haunted Grafitti- Before Today*
Anais Mitchell- Hadestown
Armin Van Buuren- Mirage
Avi Buffalo- Avi Buffalo*

B
Band of Hourses- Infinite Arms*
Beach Fossils- Beach Fossils
Beach House- Teen Dream*
Belle & Sebastian- Write About Love*
Best Coast- Crazy For You
Blitzen Trapper- Destroyer of the Void
Broken Bells- Broken Bells

C
Carebears on Fire- Get Over It
Carolina Chocolate Drops- Genuine Negro Jig
Charles Lloyd- Mirror
Citay- Dream Get Together
Club 8- The People's Record*
Corrine Bailey Rae- The Sea
Crystal Castles- Crystal Castles (II)

D
Delorean- Subiza*
The Drums- The Drums*

E
Ed Harcourt- Lustre

F
Foals- Total Life Forever*
Freeway- Stimulus Package

G
Get Back Guinozzi!- Carpet Madness*
Gotan Project- Tango 3.0*

H
The Hepburns- How the Mighty Have Fallen
Horse Feathers- Thistled Song

I
Isobel Campbell- Hawk

J
Jamey Johnson- The Guitar Song
Janelle Monae- Archarachnoid*
Jesca Hoop- Hunting My Dress*
Jj- Jj No 3*
Jon Langford & Skull Orchard- Old Devils
Jukebox the Ghost- Under the Sun

K
Kula Shaker- Pilgrims Progress*

L
Laarks- An Exaltation of Laarks
Lightspeed Champion- Life is Sweet! Nice to Meet You
The Like- Release MeI
Lissie- Catching A Tiger
Little Boots- Hands
Local Natives- Gorilla Manor*
Love Is All- Two Thousand & Ten Injuries

M
Mackintosh Braun- Where We Are
Mary Gauthier- The Foundling
Massive Attack- Heligoland*
Matisyahu- Light
Merle Haggard- I Am What I Am*
Mountain Man- Made The Harbor*

N
The National- High Violet*

O
The Octopus Project- Hexadecagon
OK Go- Of the Blue Colour of the Sky

P
Phillip Selway- Familial
The Pipettes- Earth vs. the Pipettes*
Port O' Brien- Threadbare*

Q
Quantic Presenta Flowering Inferno- Dog with a Rope

R
The Radio Dept.- Clinging to A Scheme
Red Horse- Red Horse*
Reflection Eternal- Revolutions Per Minute

S
Samantha Crain- You (Understood)*
Sara Bareilles- Kaleidoscope Heart
Saravah Soul- Cultura Impura
Seal- 6: Commitment
The Secret Sisters- The Secret Sisters
Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings- I Learned the Hard Way*
Sharon Van Etten- Epic
Shrag- Life! Death! Prizes!
Sia- We Are Born
Ska Cubano- Mambo Ska*
Sleigh Bells- Treats
Stars- The Five Ghosts
Stereolab- Not Music
Surfer Blood- Astro Coast

T
Tallest Man on Earth- King of Spain
Tindersticks- Falling Down A Mountain
Toro Y Moi- Causers of This
Tracy Thorn- Love and It's Opposite*
Tunng- And The We Saw Land
Tricky- Mixed Race
Twin Shadow- Forget

U
No notable albums...Maybe Uncle Tupelo or the Undertones will do a reunion album in 2011.

V
Vampire Weekend- Contra*
Villagers- Becoming A Jackal*
The Volbeats- The Volbeats

W
Warpaint- The Fool*
Wildbirds & Peacedrums- Rivers*
Wild Nothing- Gemini*

X
No notable albums...I had the space reserved for XX's sophomore album but we'll have to wait until 2011 for that one.

Y
Yeasayer- Odd Blood*
YACHT- See Mystery Lights

Z
Zach Hll- Face Tat



A star (*) indicates a personal favorite of mine. Over the next four weeks I'll winnow the list down to 30 or so albums the represent the best of each respective musical genre & post it here.

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There are two types of music: the first type is the blues and the second type is all the other stuff.
Townes Van Zandt