What’s Next for Music in 2011?

So, 2010 has been and gone. Overall, it was a fairly unspectacular year for music, other than occasional glances of genius (Kanye West and Arcade Fire stand up please). Can 2011 do any better then?

Well, the New Year should see new releases from established artists such as Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, White Lies, R.E.M, Coldplay and Death Cab For Cutie. We will also see the return of Lady Gaga with her second album, Born This Way, which will no doubt see the eccentric pop star dominate the mainstream charts again. For Hip-Hop/Rap fans the joint album from Kanye West and Jay-Z, entitled Watch The Throne, and the third album from Lupe Fiasco, called Lasers, will both be making an appearance at some point during the year.

The Best of 2010 – Part 2: Best Albums Of The Year

15. Hot Chip – One Life Stand: The fourth album by British band Hot Chip really stood out as one of the best dance/electronic albums of 2010. The brilliant opener ‘Thieves In The Night’ sets the tone for the rest of the album. It is quickly followed by the sweeping, jittery piano-led ‘Hand Me Down Your Love’ and the euphoric synths of ‘I Feel Better’, which almost steals the album before it has really begun. The first single, ‘One Life Stand’, initially makes for fairly difficult listening through the electro distortation, that is, until the throbbing beat breaks into Alexis Taylor’s subtly anthemic chorus. One Life Stand is full of the consistently brilliant hooks which Hot Chip are known for, but vocally the album is much more mellower, as captured in the heartfelt ‘Brothers’ and softly, softly ‘Alley Cats’.

The Best Of 2010 - Part 1: Best Songs Of The Year

It would be pretty difficult to argue that 2010 was a great year for music. The mainstream charts were typically repetitive, terrible songs such as ‘This Ain’t A Love Song’ by Scouting For Girls, Owl City’s ‘Fireflies’ and ‘The Time (Dirty Bit)’ by Black Eyed Peas all managed to make it to number one, somehow. Yet, if you ignored the absurd, and quite frankly, boring mainstream charts, then you may have realized that there were actually some great songs knocking about. So, what songs stood out in 2010?

15. Darwin Deez – ‘Constellations’: Darwin Deez’s debut album is unmistakably from the school of The Strokes. However, it is full of catchy, summery tunes such as ‘Constellations’. The song is fairly straight-forward, yet it’s the very simplicity of the jerky guitar that makes the song so infectious.