The Best of the Year

2010 has become one of the best years for music.  Now I know most people are stuck in their ways, stating that the 60's, 70's, 80's, and 90's were the best of the musical time eras.  I'm not going to say that's false, because the music produced during the time was amazing.  However, I can't stand people who think that the music produced today isn't of any quality.  For every "Like a G6" there can be a brilliant song such as "Runaway" by Kanye West.  I'd like to highlight some of my favorite albums and favorite songs of the 2010, because it's getting to be the end of the year soon, and let's face it, these lists always tend to pop up.

Favorite Albums:

1. The Morning Of "The Way I Fell In"

This album is the definition of greatness if it's coming from a band whose first album was rather corny and over reaching in most areas.  Sure, I loved their debut, "The World As We Know It", because some of the songs were great by themselves.  But this new album demands that you listen to it straight through without interruptions. Some clear standouts include the first single, "The Ones That Fall Apart", "Tell Me I'm Wrong", "The Time It Takes to Grow", and "Like Yesterday".  The whole album feels like the band rejuvenated themselves and created a tighter knit sound that has maturity but at the same time freedom.


        2.  Eminem "Recovery"

Last year, in 2009, I had to put his "comeback" CD, "Relapse", on my list of worst CD's. My how things change in just a year. Honestly it was hard to be an Eminem fan when all he ever keeps doing is stupid horror core shock value songs that make fun of his mother, Kim, and other people that don't really need to be made fun of (Christopher Reeve jokes are SO last decade). Imagine my surprise when I popped in the "Recovery" CD in my car this summer and I couldn't stop listening to it.  Hell, it's still in my car.  Yes this CD is rap.  Yes, Eminem is vulgar.  But remind yourself this:  Eminem is one of the honest lyricists in the business and he will tell you like it is.  Which is never more present in "Talking To Myself", where he openly admits to being pathetic and depressed the last few years.  He needs to drop the accents ("Not Afraid"), admit his true feelings to Kim ("Going Through Changes"), and just have  a good time ("Cinderella Man").  This album showcases how clever Eminem can be through his lyrics and the punchlines just never stop coming (this time they're worth listening to).  It's not a perfect album, but damn it it's better than anything we've heard from him in the last decade or so.  And that really does amaze me.

          3. Jimmy Eat World "Invented"

Jimmy Eat World, for the most part, is able to craft amazing little albums.  I'm constantly saddened to hear people refer to them as the band that wrote "The Middle".  This band is SO much better than that, and it clearly shows on this album.  While "My Best Theory" is an alright single, it's songs such as "Movielike", "Higher Devotion", "Action Needs An Audience" that could easily be singles.  The lyrics seem to always hit a certain personal chord with me and the band can get inside your head with lyrics like "If you wanna hurt me baby, stop cause you have."  It's quick, honest, and direct, something that I love in bands.

          4. B.O.B. "B.o.B. Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray"

A rapper who can both rap well AND sing well?!  Forget about it.  Unless it's B.O.B. aka Bobby Ray.  This dude can carry a tune very well and then spit some deep and quick lyrics that sometimes feel like they come out of nowhere.  Sure, most of this album his based on his amazement that he's made it in the business (Eminem's on here, so congrats!) or it's about girls, but the dude can certainly can spit something fierce.  My personal favorites include: "Fame", "Lovelier Than You", "Magic", and of course "Airplanes Part 2".  Simply because Eminem makes that song amazing!  And let me not forget to mention that Weezer's frontman Rivers Cuomo takes the chorus in "Magic".  Who doesn't love when a rapper crosses genres like that?

        5. Kanye West "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy"

Notice which version of the album cover I used. ;)  This is Kanye's answer to Pink Floyd's artistic endeavors.  This album is Kanye's best album, but it's not perfect.  It's damn NEAR perfect.  In fact, to make this short and simple, the only wrong with this album is "Runaway"'s 9 minute running time.  It could've been shorted to around 6 minutes if Kanye didn't feel the need to repeat the whole song using a vocoder, which simply makes his voice sound like a guitar.  An inaudible guitar sound.  Luckily, the rest of the album is full of Kanye rapping about man's power struggles, living the life of a dochebag, and wanting the very best in what was promised to us long ago:  The American Dream.  It would've been perfect if only 3 minutes were shaved off of it. Oh, and "Monster" is just bloody fantastic!

Favorite Songs:

      1. "F**k" You" by Cee-Lo Green

I love the mo-town throwback to this song.  And Cee-Lo Green is just a vocal master in each and every song he's featured in.  His album I've heard, is just as amazing.

     2. "Stand Too Close" by Motion City Soundtrack

I didn't put their album "My Dinosaur Life" up on my favorite albums above (it is one of them regardless), but this is easily one of my favorite songs by them ever.  It's got some of my favorite lyrics by the band and it blends a great acoustic song with a hard rocking song toward the end.

     3. "Needing/Getting" by OK GO


Who knew OK GO would keep their musical structure intact after all those clever music videos?  I love the lyric "I've been hoping for months, hoping for years, hoping I might forget, Aw, but it don't get much dumber, it don't get much dumber, than trying to forget, a girl when you love her".  Perfect phrase right there!

    4. "I Should Have Known It" by Tom Petty


It's a new Tom Petty song with a new Tom Petty album.  And the album is called "Mojo".  What a pleasant surprise.  I have a challenge for you.  Find a bad Tom Petty song.  Good luck.  Cause even when he changes the style up to a more blues-type of rock song, he still nails it consistently.  It's getting hard out there for others to even compete with him.  Maybe that's because they can't.

     5. "Back to December" by Taylor Swift


I have a very soft spot for Taylor.  She's perfect in many people's eyes (however that's not true, just listen to "Mean" off her new album).  But this song speaks volumes to me personally and you can tell that Taylor feels sorry for what she's done to this poor boy.  And it's a first time that Taylor has actually said she's sorry in one of her songs, instead of blasting the poor boys to death.

Album Review: Weezer's Pinkerton Deluxe Edition

What makes Weezer so loved?  Well before you answer that, why don't you answer me why Weezer is so often hated now a days?  It could be because their last two albums were entitled "Hurley" and "Raditude". It could be because a newer song of theirs, "Can't Stop Partying", featured the likes of Lil Wayne rapping in between a verse and the chorus.  Or maybe the fact that for every CD the band tends to put out (what is it, 2 CDs every 6 months?) they still keep experimenting between sounds.  No matter how many songs they release they will always have a "Weezer-ish" sound going for them, but there had to be a reason why everyone loved them to begin with.

Weezer started their career in 1994 with their self-titled debut album, also known as "The Blue Album".  With their crazy style and grudge alt-rock sound, they shot up to the charts with songs like "Buddy Holly", "Undone the Sweater Song", and "Say It Ain't So".  After that the band quickly got back in the studio to begin work on what would surly be more of the same material, to continue a blue album-type formula for their entire career.

Or not.

There's plenty of back story to Pinkerton but I simply don't want to bore you with the details.  Of course if you're interested in purchasing the Deluxe Edition of this superior album, then I suppose you know a little bit of what you're getting yourself into.  Long story made short, Weezer's Rivers Cuomo went to Harvard after the success of "The Blue Album" and had a procedure done to his knee.  Turns out one knee was shorter than the other and hindered his ability to run and play his first love, soccer.  You can imagine Cuomo holed up in Harvard during the cold winter months of 1995, having crunches help him to classes when he needed them.

The worst part of going to Harvard, besides the fact that it's a rough school, was the fact that poor Rivers didn't get any recognition from any of the girls there.  I guess they never saw the amazing "Buddy Holly" music video or heard "Say It Ain't So" a thousand times on the radio that past summer.  Nobody cared about Rivers and he was to say the least, really freaken bummed.  What does depression and loneliness do to you?  It makes you write amazing deep, honest songs!

So in the spring of 1996, Rivers presented the songs he'd written to his band, to which they then prescribed him some Prozac and they all wrote "Island in the Sun" and became famous once again! Ok kidding, they wrote Pinkerton.  And this deluxe edition does not disappoint.  It's all here, the original album, re-mastered, from the first track "Tired of Sex" to the beautiful acoustic ending of "Butterfly".  Rivers and gang pours their hearts out on this album and it certainly shows.

"Getchoo" is probably my least favorite track on Pinkerton but that's just because the lyrics are slightly weak compared to the rest of the lyrical content here.  That might be because right after "Getchoo" is "No Other One" and "Why Bother?".  They're two quick and honest songs describing how Cuomo can't get over one particular person and yet he knows that at the end of all of this, he'll only get his heart broken by them.  "Maybe we can even get together, maybe you could break my heart next summer" is a fantastic line sung in "Why Bother?" that speaks volumes on how Cuomo feels towards relationships and the girls he picks.

The true highlight of the album and Weezer's career comes next, with "Across the Sea".  A Japanese fan letter reached Rivers in the late summer of 1995, requesting a song written for her.  Rivers was so touched by the nature of the letter and the fact that somebody actually knows him, that he writes a fantastic and kind of too-honest-to-be-shared song about her.  Lyrics like, "I wonder how you touch yourself at night" could of course freak people out, but the fact remains he's simply expressing his true feelings of frustration toward the opposite sex and how he can never seem to get love.  Whether it's because the girl lives in Japan or turns out to be a lesbian (as is the case in "Pink Triangle"), poor Rivers can't seem to catch a break in this album.

First single, "El Scorcho", is a standout track if only to let the listener realize how Rivers gets his feelings out on music.  "How stupid is it?  I can't talk about it.  I gotta sing about it, and make a record oh..." is some of my faovrite lyrics from Pinkerton.  He always seems to be self-aware of his situation and utitlizes that awareness to a great, honest, and poignant level. Just look at the last song on the record, "Butterfly" to see those qualities shine.  The second single, "The Good Life" (video below), was the only real catchy song that tried to show Rivers pain and frustration with some humor thrown in.



But enough about the original album, lets talk about the Deluxe Edition. Granted a lot of the orginal tracks have live versions from either reading festivals or radio performances, but they can be interesting some situations.  Personally, while I can't believe all of the editing used to create a "radio mix" of "The Good Life" or "El Scorcho", it's nice to have those versions in there for purists.  Still, if you do happen to listen to the 2 discs in order, you're going to hear some songs 5 times in different variations.  Which can certainly make you go a little crazy.

We get "You Won't Get With Me Tonight" to start off with.  This, like many of the B-sides, are from Cuomo's failed attempt at writing and releasing what would have been Weezer's 2nd album, Songs From the Black Hole.  It's a great little song that has the Jonas and Maria characters fully intact.  "Long Time Sunshine" was supposed to have closed the original album out but they opted for "Butterfly", which I think was a great choice, however "Sunshine" has enough steam and power to really sustain itself.  "Getting Up and Leaving" is really a lyrical powerhouse of talking about memories and getting back to what feels good.  It's just like Weezer's newest songs, "Memories"!  Yeah.......huge stretch eh?

But amoung all the extras we do get here, including a funny 90 second interview in which Rivers explains the differences between their 1st and 2nd albums, nothing compares to "Tragic Girl".  Without a doubt I am very pissed this track was recorded and then cast aside for 14 years.  What the hell was Weezer thinking?! I honestly believe this is the kind of song that could've easily fit and made Pinkerton an 11 track masterpiece (it already is, but hey, if you can add another track in there and not screw up the formula, more power to you).  I won't ruin the song for you, but lyrical content and the way Rivers sings is just the icing on the cake.  I simply adore this song and can't reccommend it any more.

Overall, this Deluxe version is for the fans.  The die hard fans that need a new Weezer song that doesn't just disappoint over and over will be thrilled for this release.  If you've never heard Pinkerton, this is a fantastic chance to get even more than you bargained for in a CD.  However I highly reccommend listening to the original album a few times before delving into the bonus tracks and alternative takes.  There's no reason not to get excited about one of the best albums of the 90's than to listen to it in all of it's glory, B-sides, interviews, and live tracks combined.