Here it is (part 2)

5. Trampled By Turtles - Palomino

I guess it might be the nostalgia from seeing these guys live and the fact that these bastards are from Minnesota, but it's hard to dislike any track from this album. It is easy to say I dig folk when you're from Minnesota because you always have Bob Dylan on your side with that argument, but how do you argue that you dig an indie folk/bluegrass band like Trampled By Turtles? well ,you just man up and say you dig them and put them at number 5 for a top ten of 2010.

4. The National - High Violet

If I could give an award for biggest impact as far as bands go over 2010, The National would win first place without any sort of argument. I am somewhat embarrassed to say that I didn't discover The National until mid summer of 2010, but with that said I'm so glad that I managed to listen to them. It's very hard to put a label on them because they aren't quite pop and they aren't indie and they aren't alternative, but they are some sort of amalgamation of them. High Violet isn't as good as Boxer was, but how the fuck could any album stack against Boxer and come out on top? The answer is that it's almost impossible to pull that off and come out on top. This album is a bit more low key than Boxer and I guess it's all up to personal opinion as far as the rating goes. If you thought Boxer was a bit too intense and was lacking in the metaphor department, High Violet very well might be your album of the year... If not, it's the 3rd best album of the year and that's nothing to be ashamed of.

Here it is

Alright, alright I'm sorry guys about being a bad blogger and promising posts and never delivering. I'm doing this post to make up for that (just a little bit) and I'm going to post my top albums of 2010. I'm sure you're saying, "It's already mid-February, why is Stiche posting a best-of 2010?" Well I'm lazy that's why (and busy, don't forget about busy.)

So Without further adieu, her's my best albums of 2010.

10. Immolation - Majesty and Decay
Alright, I'm not going to lie, this is straight up brutal death metal in it's purest form so if you're not into that, don't click play. With that said, this is one of the most refreshing and straight up bad ass releases I've had the privilege to listen to in quite a while. The riffs are technical to the point of having to question if they actually came from a living, breathing human being and the drumming is out of this world. If you're able to enjoy death metal (and I know it's a hard thing to enjoy and I'm not going to look down on anybody who doesn't like it (because it's that hard to enjoy)), you owe it to yourself to listen to this album.


9. Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma
I already put this track on the blog a while ago and I still feel that it stand up to the test of time. This album manages to infuse the best of electonica with some solid acid jazz and god knows what the fuck it took to make this music video and somehow Flying Lotus created somewhat of a masterpiece in the genre. The whole album somehow manages to ebb and flow all around the listener, but it's always there and it makes such and impression that one has a hard time imagining what life would be like without such a soundtrack to their daily lives. Yeah, if you even casually watch adult swim you owe it to yourself to get this album because Flying Lotus has been doing the bumps for years.

8. The Dillinger Escape Plan - Option Paralysis
Yep, it's full of key changes and complete tempo fuck-ups, but that's what makes this release so damn enjoyable. It's mathcore (sort of), but it's also metalcore (the good kind of metalcore), but it's so technical (in a bad ass way), but it's just...... you get the idea. The entire album is all over the place and technical to a fault (but there isn't a fault!) which makes it a difficult listen. There are passages in the album that are so full of melody that it could make any casual Rise Against fan (I'm one of them) bob their head, but in the same breath, the album is so full of chaos and disorder that it's hard to enjoy in one sitting... My suggestion is to listen to this track (below) a few times and just soak it in... Is it soaked in yet??? No??? Alright, listen to it again until you dig it...

7. Deadmau5 - 4x4=12
What can I say about Deadmau5... It's hard to stick up for them after they've (he's??) broke into the mainstream after being one of the DJ's in DJ Hero 2. Fuck it, I'll do my best. Deadmau5 has always been known for having driving, throbbing, technical beats and were for a while known as the king of progressive house. It was in that capacity that I fell in love with Deadmau5. The tracks were ridiculous, bad ass, and they seemed to go on forever (in a good way... (I love minimal electronica) and Deadmau5 fit the bill. This is a whole new beast. 4x4=12 is full of dubstep and god knows what else, but for everything it has, the one thing it lacks is moments of boredom.

6. Kvelertak - Kvelertak
It belongs to a genre known as "black n' roll" so with that in mind, Kvelertak succeeds. The band is from Scandinavia and sings in black metal shrieks, but somehow has rock and roll sensibilities and flows from one genre to another as seamless as a leather jacket. Sure it might be a bit jarring (suck it up), but once you get past as the first sonic boom of awesomeness, it's time to take the songs in one at a time. One of the great things about this album is that the band chose not to (or was unable) to release the album in English so it's all in Norwegian. It adds to the mystery of the band. Are they singing about being a man in today's day and age and having feelings they can't openly express or are they singing about a dragon reigning down upon a helpless village? Who knows? This is the first album I've chose not to look into as far as lyrics go because I really don't care. The album rocks too hard for me to care. 'Nuff said.



Part 2 later...

My bad

I haven't given up on this bad boy yet, I've just been really really busy with my practicum and haven't had any "Stiche moments" to write about lately. I finish up my practicum on Tuesday so I'm planning on doing a top albums of 2010 list sometime later this week.

In short, the blog isn't dead, I'm just tired/lazy/struggling with ideas lately, but it'll get better.