Awards Lists - the season of....

You might imagine that I'm going to tell you about the headline ones, but I'm not.  It is easy to forget just what an important part in popular music Scandinavian artists have played.  If you are thinking simply of Abba and A-Ha you are in a 1970s - 1990s buy-in that however remains perennially popular and that is fine - and without doubt Scandinavia has produced some of the most successful and, importantly widely accessible, pop for about forty years now.  That does not even include the influence of the Scandinavian writers who, without fail, wrote hit after hit for the likes of Britney Spears and many, many others...


Scandinavia should not, and has chosen not to, rest on its laurels: on the other hand do you remember either of these albums?

 The former was released in 2008, the latter in 2007  and both are well worth a listen.

If the answer is no then you could simply argue that my point is irrelevant. On the other hand could you name a Scandinavian artist, or better still three, that made an impact on UK, European or - to make it harder still - US music in 2010?


Neither of the above albums are eligible, as it is for 2010 releases, so they do not prejudice my opinion.

That is why the 2011 sees the first ever Nordic Music Prize and here is the list of nominations:
• Dungen - Skit i allt
• Paleface Helsinki - Shangri-La
• Frisk Frugt - Dansktoppen møder Burkina Faso i det himmelblå rum hvor solen bor, suite
• Susanne Sundfør - The Brothel
• Robyn - Bodytalk
• Jónsi - Go Do
• Efterklang - Magic Chairs
• Serena Maneesh - S-M 2: Abyss in B Minor
• The Radio Dept. -  Clinging to a Scheme
• Ólöf Arnalds - Innundir Skinni
• Kvelertak - Kvelertak
• First Aid Kit - The Big Black and The Blue
  
I'll tell you something straight away - I haven't heard half of these, even in part. I like that; and I like the fact that between those that I have heard I would be hard pressed to decide.
    
Equally invalid in the above reckoning, as it has yet to be released, is the second album from Swedish female five-piece 'Those Dancing Days'. They have thoroughly deconstructed the, somewhat Pipettes-reminiscent but arguably rather more endearingly retro, sound of their 2008 début offering. Their second album  promises something rather different and the track on offer (see link below) features vocalist Linnea Jönsson apparently now in the mindset of a polar bear on a fast-melting floe. No longer is logic or reasoning a realistic option.
http://www.thosedancingdays.com

The Tabloid press says despair... I say music!

The tabloid press, backed by some cod-act psycho-babble experts, say that the second Monday in January is the low psychological point of the year.  Yes it is, arguably, not the best for many and today the gloomy wet weather has not helped too much either.
The remedies that they espouse (often rather costly sinecures, which is odd as at least a large part of the malaise is deemed to be of a financial nature) amaze me.

My solution is simple, certainly very cost effective and at least in part can easily be shared.  Go home, get warm and enjoy some cheap, simple and easy home-made comfort food.  This is an entirely positive, guiltless trip - for it eschews any excess of Christmas past.
The music is something of an issue, for the faux jollity of seasonal tunes has likely worn thin, and who wants to revisit the ex- in X-factor just yet?  This is where we might end up at odds.
It has got to be good music, in the sense of accomplished and that which has stood the test of time, but it must possess a healthy measure of another attribute.  By healthy I mean that it must be so utterly downbeat that it can only possibly make one realise that the second Monday in January could actually be worse... indeed very much worse.
That there is something very English about this is quite inevitable. There is one album that works perfectly for me in this capacity. It even prefigures the Monday morning issue by finishing with the track 'Hated Sunday' and yet ultimately subverts the issue as a whole.  It is perverse, lyrically fearless, but by never exceeding its self-imposed dimension shows itself to be a masterful piece of writing, editing and recording. This is it:

 Black Box Recorder - England Made Me (1998)

It is sometimes said that the late 199os was a sterile phase in UK music, something that is certainly not true now.  If that were indeed true this was one glorious exception.  I'm not convinced that it contains even one truly optimistic song but also, in Uptown Top Ranking, there is a totally twisted cover of the single originally written and recorded by Althea and Donna (1978).

New Music 2011 - Part 7 - Emily Barker & The Red Clay Halo

OK, I was planning on doing more on new music this weekend.  It would certainly have been tomorrow, rather than just now, were it not for this.  In all probability you have already heard at least a snippet or two of the work of this artist even if you were quite unaware of it...

It is released (in the UK) on February 7, 2011 and Almanac is their third album.

This is the track list for Almanac:

• Billowing Sea
• Reckless
• Ropes (which was in the live set at EOTR 2009)
• Little Deaths (also in the live set at EOTR 2009)
• Dancers
• Pause
• Openings
• Calendar
• Light
• Witch of Pittenween
• Bones

Further posts on New Music 2011:
Part 1  ---  Esben and The Witch

Part 2  ---  Yuck

Part 3  ---  Duke Spirit

Part 4  ---  Low Anthem
Part 5  ---  Go!Team

Part 6  ---  Rhosyn
Part 8  ---  Those Dancing Days
Part 9  ---  Some things I am looking forward to.
Part 10  ---  More things I am looking forward to.
Part 11  ---  New Heads On Old Shoulders?
Part 12  ---  Snowglobe - Jesca Hoop
Part 13  ---  Queen of the Minor Key

A good album or a great album? What matters most?

This is something of a philosophical question but I would argue that, as such, it is one well suited to 'Thoughts on Music'.  That this topic, or versions of it, has surfaced in a number of different guises and situations in the last six weeks or so made me curious (simply as to why at first) but subsequently to think about it more seriously.

There were discussions with both friends and strangers that touched on such things, even if only tangentially; the inevitable lists, both of 2010 acts and those of whom great things are expected in 2011, and the reality of the fact that indeed all such choices are ultimately personal ones. As such they cannot, indeed should not, be dispassionate as that would defeat the whole point and so the selection will over the years change with the passage of time but, equally importantly but rather differently, also from week to week and even day to day.
Some say that 'great' albums simply grow on you with time while those merely 'good', perhaps as a result of timing that could simply be the result of personal circumstance and/or part of a current trend that appeals and that one wishes to espouse, are more immediate but ultimately ephemeral in comparison.

My inclination, born in part of experience, is to think that this thesis is a gross simplification.  To believe that it is not reduces the entire appeal of music to the level that, were it indeed true, in its widest form which includes dance (the activity, not just the music) it could never have achieved its broad cross-cultural eminence.
The would-be-global music industry might have wished that it were not so;  notwithstanding the fact that while, as individuals and nations we may not understand and fully appreciate the music and dance of other cultures, the human condition seems to be that fundamentally it matters:  In fact it matters more than almost anything - music, and in particular rhythm, is more universally recognizable than language.

So what does this all mean for me?  Three things come to mind as pointers:

• Great albums have lasting appeal - not every day but over the course of several years. They may have specific mood or memory issues, or indeed other associations, but I will tend to return to them.
• They may not be generally well known and lauded - probably slightly more than half of those that I consider great albums are in this category.
• I can adopt albums in this category in almost any way. I have discovered them from new (and not tired of them), I grow into others with time and I can add old albums that either I have never heard before or just occasionally ones that I grew out of and, often very much later, back in to.

I have, quite deliberately, not mentioned any from the various categories here.  That is important and not least because I am still thinking my way through this realization.
They may be indicative, up to a point, but what they certainly all do is point back in time.  Whatever relevance it might have to appreciation of  music in the future is probably perfunctory - possibly that, the sheer unpredictability, is something that actually matters the most.  I should, perhaps, post a suggestion as to what I mean.


It is always going to be dangerous to do it but I'm going to do it anyway. Nothing could match the feat that I'm about to mention. If one album from the first decade of the twenty-first century deserves an accolade this is it and it wasn't an attempt to grab attention by a little-known act.  It came several years after a potential career-suicide-moment by a major act and just as it had accomplished something that few if any, let alone an all female act, had ever achieved before. It did something else too - potential self-destruction on a scale that few could have imagined but for once it was not drugs - it was politics and that made it all the more important in the new millennium and it happened live, and in London. 
I rate the album 'Taking The Long Way' by Dixie Chicks as a truly great album of the last decade.  It defined change and, in time, that really matters.

Real - Martha Tilston live at The Union Chapel

Now I realise that I made an error of judgement here.  I mentioned in the side-bar, back in December, an album that I regard as the live affirmation of the folk-influence in new music, both in the UK and also in the Americas.  I never expected that it would become so sought after...

That it has done so fully justifies it being the subject of my first blog post of the second decade of the 21st century - and the most common key words that led people here in the last 36 hours!  It's awesome and I thank you.
It is available to buy from the link below - and being 'Real' you need it in a physical format so SQRCD06 is available, direct from the artist:
http://www.marthatilston.co.uk/shop.html


This is the track list:

• Red
• Duvet
• Space
• Winter flowers
• Artificial
• Seagull
• Who are you
• Golden
• Corporations
• Good world

Direct artist-to-listener sales is a trend that I can see making much headway in 2011, whether that be via download, CD or vinyl.

Lyrics again - Arlington Way (English version)

Again just because someone asked and I really like doing this when I can...


Arlington Way
Arlington Way whose idea was it anyway to stay the night out of sight out of mind?
Once in a lifetime a dream must come true I'd be heading there with you
with a spring in the step and a lightness of being and we'd be walking in the door
Arlington way go down to the place do it if you want to - I don't need to know your business
no plan of attack no turning back nobody did it quite as good as you
  
A coin falls to the dance floor it shines in the bright light
uncertain what I wish for heads, you know that tails, I want you back

Once in a lifetime a dream must come true I'd be standing there with you
with a beat in the heart and a mind on the good times and you'd be holding out for more

Nobody said it would be easy nobody said it couldn't come true
nobody said it could feel so natural I don't need to know your business
no plan of attack no turning back nobody did it quite as good as you

You came, you saw you offered me more than I could take  oh I've changed
I won't make the same mistake again but this ain't time for the heavy..


For the Welsh lyric to this song, and the rest of the album, see here:
Paid Edrych Y Lawr

Cover Versions 2010: Jolene

I have mentioned a number of cover versions, both heard live and recorded, that have impressed me in 2010.  Thank you to whoever asked about this one just a couple of hours ago for it falls into that category. It is a cover of 'Jolene', written and originally recorded by Dolly Parton, performed live by Laura Marling and Mumford and Sons at Cecil Sharp House for BBC Radio 1 in November 2010.

Here is the lyric specific to that performance:

Jolene (Mumford & Sons with Laura Marling)

Your beauty is beyond compare
With flaming locks of auburn hair
With ivory skin and eyes of emerald green
Your smile is like a breath of spring
Your voice is soft like summer rain
And I cannot compete with you, Jolene

He talks about you in his sleep
There's nothing I can do to keep
From crying when he calls your name, Jolene
And I can easily understand
How you could easily take my man
But you don't know what he means to me, Jolene

Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
I'm begging of you please don't take my man
Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
Please don't take him just because you can

You could have your choice of men
But I could never love again
He's the only one for me, Jolene

I had to have this talk with you
My happiness depends on you
And whatever you decide to do, Jolene

Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
I'm begging of you please don't take my man
Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
Please don't take him even though you can

Your beauty is beyond compare
With flaming locks of auburn hair
With ivory skin and eyes of emerald green
Your smile is like a breath of spring
Your voice is soft like summer rain
And I cannot compete with you, Jolene

Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
I'm begging of you please don't take my man
Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
Please don't take him just because you can
Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
I'm begging of you please don't take my man

One thing that I cannot do, however, is supply a translation in Spanish!

New Music 2011 - Part 6 - Rhosyn

Huw Stephens has just played Rhosyn on BBC Radio 1 this evening.  Result!

Welcome to new music and, as one act that I have mentioned before, this is an early welcome to 2011. I'm not planning to apologize for doing so; it is just too good for that.

Previous posts on New Music 2011:
Part 1  ---  Esben and The Witch

Part 2  ---  Yuck

Part 3  ---  Duke Spirit

Part 4  ---  Low Anthem
Part 5  ---  Go!Team

Part 7  ---  Emily Barker and The Red Clay Halo
Part 8  ---  Those Dancing Days
Part 9  ---  Some things I am looking forward to.
Part 10  ---  More things I am looking forward to.
Part 11  ---  New Heads On Old Shoulders?
Part 12  ---  Snowglobe - Jesca Hoop
Part 13  ---  Queen of the Minor Key

New Music - Part 5 - The Go!Team - Rolling Blackouts

I bought the first album 'Thunder, Lightning, Strike' out of curiosity and was not in the least disappointed. Then, after the release of their second album 'Proof Of Youth' in late 2007, I saw them live at Latitude 2008.

There were many, even then, that marvelled at their longevity and indeed their virtuosity. The doubters are indeed wrong for, in early 2011, Go!Team are back with their third full length album - Rolling Blackouts.

The first song to be released from it is "Buy Nothing Day" and, to say the least, they have teamed up with one of the artists of 2010 indie for this: the vocals are provided by Bethany Cosentino of 'Best Coast' - so it is where and when South Coast (UK) meets West Coast (US) - and it works far beyond any reasonable expectation.

I'd love to see 'The Go!Team' live once again; I'd love to see 'Best Coast' live for the first time...  so  add both to my 2011 festival 'wish list'.

"Buy Nothing Day" is released on 24 January, by Memphis Industries, and will be available on 7" vinyl too.

Further posts on New Music 2011:
Part 1  ---  Esben and The Witch
Part 2  ---  Yuck
Part 3  ---  Duke Spirit

Part 4  ---  Low Anthem
Part 6  ---  Rhosyn

Part 7  ---  Emily Barker and The Red Clay Halo

Part 8  ---  Those Dancing Days

Part 9  ---  Some things I am looking forward to.

Part 10  ---  More things I am looking forward to.
Part 11  ---  New Heads On Old Shoulders?
Part 12  ---  Snowglobe - Jesca Hoop
Part 13  ---  Queen of the Minor Key

Live and Local - Ben Waller & The Telltale Signs

Yesterday evening was the Christmas 2010 edition of Acoustic+, which I have mentioned in posts before.  It was a cornucopia of local acts and artists, each performing just a very few songs.  It was all interesting but, for me at least, one act stood out and here it is.

Ben Waller & The Telltale Signs, live in Frome, December 17.

They performed three songs of which this was the first - and it really was acoustic in this case.  It was one of those revelations that ranks amongst the best of those that I experienced at festivals during the summer.  They could have been on one of the stages at EOTR 2010 and would not have been remotely out of place and neither would the instruments.  Five-string banjo, fiddle and a rather wonderful Hohner 26-key (two octave) piano accordion and one of some vintage I suspect. 

While 2010 seems to have become the year in which banjo finally became acceptable once again on this side of the Atlantic, for it never went away in US country music, at the very least any band with a piano accordion will catch my attention.

You might think three tracks could offer little variation - but that is not so.
 

On the second song that piano accordion had been put back in its case to be replaced by this - a very new-looking autoharp; the first that I have seen at Acoustic+ and only the second that I have seen live - First Aid Kit at EOTR 2009 being responsible for the only other.

On the final song of their set Tina didn't play anything but did a tap dance routine to the song instead - something that The Unthanks also do - and now you can see why this was the most compelling set of the evening.

No lyric, no track list, no future?

This apparently rather depressing resumé of the 2009 trilogy by James Leyland Kirby should not put you off the 3-CD set (or indeed the 12 sides of 12" vinyl if you can find it). There are no lyrics at all and, what perhaps I did not mention before, there is no track list either.

In fact it is not obvious what the three instalments are called...  certainly not on the CD version from which the above artwork is taken.  They are, however, thus:

• When We Parted My Heart Wanted To Die
• Sadly The Future Is No Longer What It Was
• Memories Live Longer Than Dreams

Thanks to whosoever asked about this just now.  I don't actually find this at all depressing and it opened my ears and consciousness to a whole genre of music that hitherto I would most probably have simply ignored. What was the catalyst? I don't really know, just curiosity I suppose.

It is not easy music for sharing but, given the luxury of two-and-a-half  hours of uninterrupted listening, it is magnificent in its entirety. It looks like being a cold, cold weekend and the thought of curling up in front of a coal fire and doing exactly this seems very appealing indeed. Music matters.

2010 in Music - EPs & mini-albums

Last year I started with this category, deeming it the easiest to solve.  This year, as will be noticeable, the inter-relation between items in all these lists and artists that I have seen live at one time or another has become much more apparent.  I find that an interesting paradigm but it does make keeping the lists distinct, let alone self-contained, much more difficult.  An extension of this, that I mentioned in my previous post, is that it is also interwoven with my thoughts on new music in 2011.
  
Ask Simon Cowell and Nick Clegg about why your votes don't always count like you thought they should have, if you will. This is not a list, nor is it a manifesto commitment; it is an exposition and therefore the rules governing lists and voting do not apply to it.
It is in reverse-date order and thus starts with the band with which I finished yesterday's post.

It is a bit of a triple-whammy, for it relates to three CD EPs by the same act:

• Lungs Quicken (not in the image above)
• The Starlight EP
• Misfortunes and Minor Victories EP

These three EPs comprise eleven tracks in total and amount to about forty minutes of music and  Lanterns On The Lake is to be filed under New Music 2011 even before the release of their first album...

...and just before the power failure during the opening chords of 'I Love You, Sleepyhead'.

The next, Esben and The Witch, has featured here before and is now also included in the fifteen-strong long-list of acts nominated for BBC 'Sound of 2011'.

This is the the 12" vinyl EP 'Marching Song'. The album is 'Violet Cries' (January 2011).

The next one is no great surprise I suppose, given my lists of  2010 albums already posted, but perhaps the most controversial.
 

She is not really enamoured with this, her first release, and when you listen to 'Own Side Now' it is perhaps possible to understand why.  I still rate it highly, which is why it is here, and I believe that I will eventually be forgiven. 

End Of The Road Festival 2011

With my tickets  for Latitude 2011 and End Of The Road 2011 already booked, only yesterday was I thinking which artists I currently anticipate (or would like to see) populating the stages at them. In due course I will post my thoughts...
In the case of EOTR 2011 I can go a bit further than that for today the first tranche of confirmed acts was announced and here it is:

• Bo Ningen 
• Bob Log III
• The Deadly Syndrome 
• Doug Paisley 
• Dry The River
• The Fall
• Gordon Gano and the Ryans
• John Grant
• Jolie Holland
• Josh T Pearson
• La Sera
• Lanterns on The Lake
• Lightning Dust
• Micah P Hinson
• Midlake
• Mountain Man
• Treefight for Sunlight
• Twin Shadow
• Wild Beasts
• Woods
• Young Man
• The Walkmen
• Willy Mason

Tickets are on sale from www.endoftheroadfestival.com/tickets and if you purchase before the end of 2010 you save £5 due to the impending increase in VAT.

It is too soon to really digest the above list, let alone expound even my first thoughts on it, but two that would have been on my 'want to see in 2011 list' without a doubt are these.
 'Lightning Dust'I have never seen but shares Amber Webber and Joshua Wells with 'Black Mountain', which I saw at both Latitude and EOTR in 2010.
The return of 'Lanterns on the Lake' is fantastically well deserved and verges on or into New Music 2011 territory in any case. One of my revelations of EOTR was this six-piece, in the Tipi Tent on Saturday evening: it was more than a misfortune when their final song of the set, the wonderful 'I Love You, Sleepyhead', was cut short after only seconds by a total power failure.  Not only are they returning to EOTR the band announced yesterday, on its website, that it is now signed to Bella Union Records.  Regular readers will know that is a huge thumbs-up in my book.

2010 in Music - Albums - Part 2

***[In progress  ---  further links and comment to follow in the next few days]***

Following on from what I wrote yesterday this is the second instalment of my lists of 2010.  I decided to tackle the albums in two tranches, for the reasons I outlined earlier.

These are not necessarily any less worthwhile (and this is of course subjective) than those that will appeared  in '2010 in Music - Albums - Part 1', which is one reason I did not choose this format in 2009...

To imagine that compiling this list must be in some way easier than doing so for the former would be a major misunderstanding.  It is shorter than the previous part but had I gone beyond ten, and I tried, it became a matter of simply sticking pins in an, admittedly rather pleasant,  map of music. The problem I had was that there was so much worth choosing...

• Anaïs Mitchell - Hadestown [link1]
• Beach House - Teen Dream
• Best Coast - Crazy For You
• Black Mountain - Wilderness Heart
• Blood Red Shoes - Fire Like This
• First Aid Kit - The Big Black and The Blue
• Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me [link1]
• Lauren Pritchard - Wasted In Jackson
• Nicole Fermie - Babel In Three [link1]
• Trash Kit - Trash Kit [link1]

There is also an honorary inclusion:

•  Jessica Lea Mayfield - With Blasphemy So Heartfelt [link1]

This is actually a 2009 release but, in the UK at least, might as well not have existed until 2010. It could equally well have been included in my first list for that matter.  It is an album that illustrates very well an issue to which I will return soon.

Some will, can and should question why there are what many would see as blindingly obvious omissions in my listings. That is how it should be but, equally, I don't think I want a list that is just the same as any or every other.  If that were the case then it would be more than a bit boring.

Please feel free to comment, argue and suggest additions/deletions by comment or e-mail. I will add links and further comments as and when I get the time through December.

Artists highlighted in green are those that I have seen live in 2010 or, if in orange, those from before but also mentioned in 2010. Items/artists highlighted in red are those on which I have commented in 2010.

Now over to you and please feel free to comment.  I'm not scary, I'm merely curious to know what you think!

Without further comment... Latitude 2011

See you there?

www.seetickets.com

2010 in Music - Albums - Part 1

***[In progress  ---  further links and comment to follow in the next few days]***

Following on from what I wrote yesterday this is the first instalment of my lists of 2010.  I decided to tackle the albums in two tranches, for the reasons I outlined.

These are not necessarily any better (and this is of course subjective) than those that will appear in '2010 in Music - Albums - Part 2, which is one reason I did not choose this format in 2009...

• Arcade Fire - Suburbs
• Avi Buffalo - Avi Buffalo [link1]
• Besnard Lakes - Are The Roaring Night
• Caitlin Rose - Own Side Now [link1] [link 2] [link 3]
• Corinne Bailey Rae - The Sea
• Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles II 
• Ellie Goulding - Lights
• Laura Marling - I Speak Because I Can [link 1]
• Lissie - Catching A Tiger
• School of Seven Bells - Disconnect From Desire [link 1]
• Smoke Fairies - Through Low Light and Trees [link 1] [link 2] [link 3]
• Warpaint - The Fool [link1] [link2]

The above however define the contours that have sculpted my musical landscape in 2010.  I could easily exchange several items between this list and the forthcoming one but ultimately I had to make a final decision. Albums released in December 2010 are clearly eligible for addition too, as are a few that I have recently acquired but have not, as yet, listened to sufficiently to form a stable opinion.

There are no images in this post because I don't want to prejudice anything. On the other hand I have already mentioned many of these artists in 2010... if you want to see what I wrote then please use the search facility in the side-bar.

Please feel free to comment, argue and suggest additions/deletions by comment or e-mail. I will add links and further comments as and when I get the time through December.

Artists highlighted in green are those that I have seen live in 2010 or, if in orange, those from before but also mentioned in 2010. Items/artists highlighted in red are those on which I have commented in 2010.

Now over to you!

2010 in Music: Thoughts of a Willing Victim

Now it is December I think it is no longer premature to publish my own versions of 'Best of 2010 in Music' lists.  This post is not one of them but that is not to say that I have not been thinking about them for a long while now!  I plan to roll the project out between now (Wednesday evening) and the end of the coming weekend and I might well add content to some of the posts (and particularly links within them) after first posting them so please bear with me if a post seems a little threadbare when you first see it.
On the other hand I have made the decision to launch with the list of albums this time around by I may revert to my 2008 format of doing so in two sections. I am as yet still undecided but there are two reasons in favour of this.

• About ten days ago and out of the blue, as the result of a comment on their part about a certain album that I mentioned was one of my favourites, a stranger asked me what my others might be. This was a face-to-face chat, in a real record store, so I had to decide on the hoof.  I surprised myself, and also my interlocutor, with the result.  I can't remember exactly how many I reeled off, another eight or so, but I can pretty much remember what they were as I wrote most of them down when I got home.  This was a far better outcome than trying to self-consciously compare each contender with every other and generally over-think the whole process. It makes sense too, as music is very much a subconscious thing: It is sometimes immediate, while sometimes things take time to grow on me, but this encounter made me realise just which albums inveigled me in 2010.
• The second reason became obvious at an early stage of my consideration. My choices are influenced by the music and artists that I have heard live, whether in 2010 or not, like never before.  That is, in part, just a reflection of the fact that I have now heard so much more live music than I had when I wrote my first such list in 2007. 

I will continue with the policy of listing items in any list alphabetically. I can't rank them as that would change daily depending on my mood. I can change my mind for other reasons too...  This post was, until just now, going to have a rather prosaic title:

Thoughts on 2010 - in lists, albums, live, songs, singles, &c.
  
The one it now has is a more honest and accurate reflection of the way I feel about music.