CapecodONLINE.com Blog: The Year’s Best Music: CDs and Singles
Capcodonline.com By Ken Capobianco
Let’s cut to the chase here. The end of the year brings “best of” lists so here are my top ten CDs and singles of 2010. The list is going to differ from the many others out there because most notably absent from mine is Arcade Fire’s “The Suburbs,” which I thought was busy and overlong and offered nothing but a superficial gloss on the sterility and emotional paralysis of its title subject.
The songs gave the appearance of profundity and insight without actually delivering us any new lyrical or musical ideas. If you love it wear it out, but I’m not on the disc’s bandwagon.
John Mellencamp: “No Better Than This” (Rounder). Perhaps, no rock star has aged as gracefully and dealt with the difficulties of facing down the darkness of our existence as Mellencamp. This CD was recorded in mono at some historic places including Sun Studios. With T-Bone Burnett producing and a batch of his best, most reflective songs, Mellencamp has created a deeply introspective record lamenting the ephemeral nature of life while celebrating the small epiphanies that keep us going during our most vulnerable moments. A beautiful, soulful record.
Let’s cut to the chase here. The end of the year brings “best of” lists so here are my top ten CDs and singles of 2010. The list is going to differ from the many others out there because most notably absent from mine is Arcade Fire’s “The Suburbs,” which I thought was busy and overlong and offered nothing but a superficial gloss on the sterility and emotional paralysis of its title subject.
The songs gave the appearance of profundity and insight without actually delivering us any new lyrical or musical ideas. If you love it wear it out, but I’m not on the disc’s bandwagon.
John Mellencamp: “No Better Than This” (Rounder). Perhaps, no rock star has aged as gracefully and dealt with the difficulties of facing down the darkness of our existence as Mellencamp. This CD was recorded in mono at some historic places including Sun Studios. With T-Bone Burnett producing and a batch of his best, most reflective songs, Mellencamp has created a deeply introspective record lamenting the ephemeral nature of life while celebrating the small epiphanies that keep us going during our most vulnerable moments. A beautiful, soulful record.