We had a really successful year of music acquistion in this house; keeping in mind that I am the daughter of a man who tells stories about deciding to spend his extremely limited finances on music OR food in college (he was 140 lbs when he got married in 1965, so you might guess which one won out in that dilemma most often) it's important to note that we also had a relatively restrained year at iTunes. 25 EPs or full-length albums might not seem like restraint, but...
Anyway.
I say successful, but Matt really hates G. Love (rolling eyes) and I don't think that Strokes album is by any means as good as their older stuff (Matt rolling eyes at me). He doesn't fully get why I fell in love with The Asteroids Galaxy Tour within the first 15 seconds of hearing them on Wyoming Morning Music (but Bridget does—we regularly have dance parties to this EP while her sisters are at school) and we both kind of have resigned ourselves to Laurie Berkner. [insert big, long siiiiiiiiigh. You're fine, Laurie, it's just that we had to listen to Victor Vito approximately 981 times between Gracie's 2nd and 4th year, so, you know... siiiiiiiiiiigh]
But that's minor stuff. Truly, it was a good year. Here's a list of what's in the collage from left to right:
Edgar Meyer, Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan and Chris Thile The Goat Rodeo Sessions
Black Keys El Camino
Maps & Atlases Perch Patchwork
The Asteroids Galaxy Tour The Golden Age EP
The Wood Brothers Up Above My Head
Dan Zanes and Friends Little Nut Tree
Carolina Chocolate Drops & Luminescent Orchestrii EP
The Wood Brothers Smoke Ring Halo
Laurie Berkner Rocketship Run
Trampled By Turtles Palomino
The Avett Brothers Carolina Jubilee
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals eponymous
CAKE Showroom of Compassion
Ben Sollee Inclusions
Beastie Boys Hot Sauce Committee Part Two
Pokey LaFarge and the South City Three Riverboat Soul
G. Love and The Avett Brothers Fixin' To Die
Ron Sexsmith Long Player Late Bloomer
Foo Fighters Wasting Light
Prince Sign 'O' the Times
The Strokes Angles
R.E.M. Collapse Into Now
The Avett Brothers Mignonette
Eliza Doolittle eponymous
Black Crowes Croweology
We also collected a huge amount of stray singles—Matt is extremely good about making sure to check in on the free iTunes downloads of the week, and my dad frequently picks up Starbucks downloads of the week for us. The best single by far: The Black Keys' Ohio!
A few other music observations:
+ We only purchased ONE of Paste's Top 50 Albums of the Year this year. (Huh.)(#22, El Camino from The Black Keys)
+ Charles Bradley was mentioned (#21) on that list, though, and one of his songs is in the stray singles list... I do believe that Matt is documented somewhere on this blog pointing out how good he is.
+ Oh, how I love a good Appalachian murder/you done me wrong song. I don't know why I come by this affinity, but there you have it. I Killed Sally's Lover on Carolina Jubilee by The Avett Brothers is one of my favorite new (to me) songs of the year. Seeing them perform it live at Red Rocks = AWESOME.
+ I am still in mourning about R.E.M.
+ The Wood Brothers are slowly but surely creeping into my top ten bands of all time. I know. That's something.
+ Ron Sexsmith songs mostly sound alike to us, but we love them anyway.
+ Eliza Doolittle is a little out in left field in this collection, we know.
+ Have you watched the Pokey LaFarge Tiny Desk concert yet? I am STILL in awe thinking of the moment he opens his mouth to sing. Wait for it... wait for it... OH. MY. GOSH.
*Chinese New Year is January 23, so as far as I am concerned, it's still The Year of the Rabbit. Plenty of time to wrap up 2011 over the next few days : )
