2010 in review

Radio YouTube Attractions in 2010

These are the most popular posts and my favourite albums in 2010.

1 Rumer Post November 2010; Live on Jools Dec 31st 2010 Aretha; 

2 Abaco (April 2010) April 2010 (my favourite post)

3 World Music of Africa July 2010

4 Let There Be Drums May 2010 (of course, and more to come)

5 Run (March 2010) March 2010

Six Favourite albums;

1. Vampire Weekend; Contra. They think I’m a Contra, well I am. I think Paul Simon’s best album is Rhythm of The Saints where he added a Latin, Brasilian sensibility to the African sounds of Gracelands. Vampire Weekend have achieved this in just two albums and Contra is much better than the very fine first album. Check my Vampire Weekend Mix on YouTube too, then take a Holiday; 

2 Tunng; And Then They Saw Land. Dunno, are they the new Incredible String Band or simply better than that? I bought this with a live DVD over the Web from Tunng and its sound mixes swirl together like the very best web mashes. Original and inevitable at the same time. Can this take folk Overground like TFL? Seductively brilliant; let them take over you ears before It Breaks; 

3 Field Music. Has a (Measure) of greatness to this double album. The xTc of the new Millenium  (Apple Venus is still seriously under-rated) or The Smiths meet alt.Americana? If they had four voices they’d be the new Beach Boys. Footloose and fancy-free Indie. This years Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix with a conscience; expect even more blistering working from them as they take on the new ConDem coalition. The Rest is Noise; 

4. Rumer; Seasons of the Soul. Came late and sounded deceptively light at first but…the gorgeous voice holds you in place and this seems to be the best of the late period works by Bacharach (check his anti-Bush album At This Time) Rumer is high and Aretha and beautifully Slow; 

5. Laura Marling; I Speak Because I Can. Laura Marling is jaw-droppingly good; play her back to back with Nick Drake and her wonderfully breathy voice and intelligent songs hold up as their styles complement each other. The album is one of those the record company got to on production I think, like Bryter Layter. Led Zep 3 meets Anthems in Eden anyone? Great artist on every level, let her Rest In Bed;

6. Kottarashky; Opa Hey! The Best Estern European album in some years, takes the Electric Gypsyland work of producers like Shantell and makes a coherent album; infectious. The surprise World Album of 2010 of Balkan music by a “digital master musician” and may remain the best of the year. This years Staff Benda Bilili, and they Want Sleep; 

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Fresher than ever.

Crunchy numbers

A helper monkey made this abstract painting, inspired by your stats.

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 3,000 times in 2010. That’s about 7 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 32 new posts, not bad for the first year!

The busiest day of the year was November 14th with 57 views. The most popular post that day was Rumer.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were healthfitnesstherapy.com, networkedblogs.com, cardonation.sex991.com, slashingtongue.com, and digg.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for radio youtube, radioyoutube, marseille, let there be drums, and world music radio congas.

Advertisement