What this entry will cover are the songs of the year, "Best of the Rest" albums of the year and disappointments.
Songs of the Year
*The following are songs that are not found of my albums of the year (There will be 40 and anything in that post will not show up here). Disclaimer: I listen to an alternative station on my Sirius radio so that's why this list is so alternatively influenced. But I will throw a couple curve balls in there as well. And I know I will have most definitely forgotten some, but that happens.
In no particular order...
Metric - Black Sheep
A Silent Film - You Will Leave a Mark
Willow Smith - Whip My Hair
Young the Giant - My Body
Ra Ra Riot - Boy
Foster the People - Pumped Up Kicks
Eminem and Dr. Dre - I Need a Doctor
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Beat the Devil's Tattoo
Muse - Neutron Star Collision
Yeasayer - Madder Red
Usher - O.M.G.
The Dirty Heads - Lay Me Down
Travie McCoy feat Bruno Mars - Billionaire
Coldplay - Christmas Lights
Birdman feat Lil Wayne and Drake - Money to Blow
The Drums - Let's Go Surfing
The Constellations - Felicia
Fences - Girls With Accents
Civil Twilight - Teardrop (Massive Attack cover)
Hugo - 99 Problems
Train - Hey Soul Sister
Atomic Tom - Take Me Out
Freelance Whales - Hannah
Interpol - Barricade
Albums Left Off the Top Spots (Best of the Rest)
*The following are albums that at one point or another I acquired but just didn't get into as much as everybody else or as much as I thought I would. Who knows, maybe sometime next year I will pop them back in and add them to "Albums I should have spent more time with." I know I'm going to catch some grief for leaving some of these off, and for the sake of space will let this paragraph serve as reasons why.
(Song highlights are my favorite tracks; albums that don't contain one is just from not obtaining a favorite due to not enough time spent with it)
Once again in no particular order...
The Gaslight Anthem - American Slang (Song Highlight - Boxer)
John Legend and The Roots - Wake Up
Broken Bells - Broken Bells (Song Highlight - The Ghost Inside)
The Arcade Fire - The Suburbs (Song Highlight - Rococo)
Emarosa - Emarosa
Brandon Flowers - Flamingo (Song Highlight - Crossfire)
VersaEmerge - Fixed at Zero (Song Highlight - Fixed at Zero)
Maroon 5 - Hands all Over
Weezer - Hurley (Song Highlight - Where's My Sex?)
Angels and Airwaves - Love (Song Highlight - Epic Holiday)
Gorillaz - Plastic Beach (Song Highlight - Rhinestone Eyes)
Band of Horses - Infinite Arms
Big Boi - Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty
Also, I left the following off the Top Albums post because I wanted to keep it as straight studio albums. These are good live sets, mixtapes, compilations, etc
Punk Goes Classic Rock (Song Highlight - Free Fallin by The Almost)
The Black Keys - iTunes Session (Song Highlight - Next Girl)
Taking Back Sunday - Live from Orensanz (Song Highlight - Cute Without The 'E')
Girl Talk - All Day
B.o.B. - No Genre Mixtape (Song Highlight - Lost)
Vampire Weekend - iTunes Session (Song Highlight - Holiday)
Disappointing Albums
There really weren't that many disappointments from this year, even the ones above where just ones I didn't have time to get into. But since there are only a few, I will give a brief description of why.
The Devil Wears Prada - Zombie EP; I don't know why I thought this was going to be good. I can only really stand a few of their songs, but a concept EP based on the zombie invasion sounded like a good idea. Too bad it wasn't.
Travie McCoy - Lazarus; Though I have his song "Billionaire" at the top of the post, this album was extremely forgettable. I really like Gym Class Heroes and was anticipating what McCoy would bring to the table by himself but it turns out the band does make the man.
MGMT - Congratulations; I wouldn't even begin to do justice to why this album wasn't good, so I will transfer you over to Mike who did a good job of calling them out on his own blog.
And with that, I don't want to end this post on a ranting note. Here is the new music I'm looking forward to in 2011
Cage the Elephant
Manchester Orchestra
Lupe Fiasco
Bayside
Blink 182 (hopefully)
Red Hot Chili Peppers (hopefully)
Coldplay (I think this has a better shot than the above two, but still... hopefully)
Panic! at the Disco
Jay Z/Kanye West
And I know I'm forgetting some, but the biggest one I am looking forward to, without a doubt, is Taking Back Sunday. Get ready to see plenty of talk when that album drops.
