Some Things I Have Been Listening To In 2009

[theastronomymod]

A "top 10" list that tries not to be a "top 10 list"

Comments

[alexmacpherson]

Ha, lots of overlap!

The Black Meteoric Star became my default working-out album for a while.

Just reviewed the full 42-minute "Little Drummer Boy" for the Grau...

[theastronomymod]

I love that extended mix so much, in a way that has nothing to do with the Xmas carol at all. Well worth the added annoyance of having to order it off Rough Trade.

[beldilettante]

i will listen to all of these. I will admit that i've been finding it really hard to understand the vast hype around the xx.

i wish i spent more time listening to a broader range of music. I suppose this year i've been looking mostly backwards for my soundtrakcks. rather than at the present. there is my excuse. thank you for this anyway!

[beldilettante]

soundtracks. yes. not soundtrakcks.

[theastronomymod]

I guess I was lucky in that I encountered the actual music of the xx before I encountered any of the hype. Because, honestly, they are just *not* a hype-y sort of a band. They're all about being understated and minimal and that aesthetic and the whole shouty type thing are totally incompatible. I guess I just heard a bunch of my friends with really disparate tastes all agreed that they were good, so I was tempted. It took at least two or three listens before I kinda "got" it. There isn't really anything to "get" - it's just there, and quietly beautiful.

It's weird, most of the time I spent a huge amount of time looking backwards - this past year or so is the first time in a long time I've spent any time paying attention to concurrent things, and I think it's a good time to be doing so, no matter what the frankly awful music crits at the moment might say.