2010年 12月 28日 火曜日 19:26

Some comments, first:

1) It's a short list. I bought only a few full-length cds this year; part of that was due to tight money, but–gratefully–part was due to a combination of the generosity of friends and the proliferation of free (and legal) online music. So, in addition to actual titles of albums, I've made a list of groups that I either became aware of for the first time or, as in the case of Drive-By Truckers, actively began listening to.

Corollary: I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting some folks that merit being here. But that's the way it goes.

2) No music from Africa or Brazil this year, as has usually been the case with my end-of-year lists. I'm as surprised as you are. This year's obsession, though, appears to be a genre that, for lack of a better term, I will call "alt-folk"–that genre dominates the "Artists" list below.

Here are the two lists, in alphabetical order (again reminding the reader of the title for this post):

Artists and albums:

Bettye LaVette, Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook
Loscil, Endless Falls
Ana Moura, Para Além Da Saudade
Old Californio, Westering Again
Gretchen Parlato, In a Dream
The Picturesque Episodes, Constellations
Max Richter, Infra
Esperanza Spalding, Junjo
Sun Kil Moon, April
Steve Tibbetts, Natural Causes

New (and new-to-me) artists I especially enjoyed this year:

Bonnie "Prince" Billy
Alela Diane
Drive-By Truckers
The Hush Now
Willem Maker
J. Tillman
Laura Veirs

If you've read this far, you may be interested in seeing some further comments and links for these choices. If so, here you go