Following lists the best rock songs to come out this year. These songs didn’t chart high but that’s been the story of 2010 and none of the top 3 songs have even been considered for a single!!! So, Read on, Download and Listen to the tracks and leave your top songs of this year in the comments section.
We have almost come to the end of an eventful year and as we embark upon the new decade, let’s see which Rock Records stood out and left a lasting impression on the listeners. 2010 just featured one Rock Artist “Train” with “Hey Soul Sister” in Billboard Top 10 so commercially it’s been one of the worst year for Rock Music but there were lot of good records making it difficult to select the Top 10.
Listed are the best rock albums to be released this year. (The period taken into consideration is 1 January 2010 to 12 December 2010).
#1 “The Suburbs” by Arcade Fire.
Must Have Tracks:Ready To Start, Suburban War, City With No Children.
#2 “High Violet” by The National
Must Have Tracks:Bloodbuzz Ohio, Runaway, England.
#3 “Brothers” by The Black Keys
Must Have Tracks: Everlasting Light, Tighten Up, These Days.
#4 “Contra” by Vampire Weekend
Must Have Tracks: I Think Ur A Contra, Giving Up The Gun, White Sky.
#5 “Sea of Cowards” by The Dead Weathers
Must Have Tracks: Hustle and Cuss, I’m Mad, I Can’t Hear You.
#6 “Go” by Jónsi
Must Have Tracks: Boy Lilikoi, Kolnidur, Sinking Friendships.
#7 “Plastic Beach” by Gorillaz
Must Have Tracks: Stylo, Sweepstakes, Some Kind of Nature.
#8 “Congratulations” by MGMT
Must Have Tracks: It’s Working, Brian Eno, Congratulations.
#9 “Infinite Arms” by Band of Horses
Must Have Tracks: Laredo, Infinite Arms, On My Way Back Home.
#10 “Band of Joy” by Robert Plant
Must Have Tracks: Angel Dance, I’m Falling in Love Again, Silver Rider.
Post in your top albums in the 'Comments' section.
Fame is a funny thing. People complained after the release of “Youth and Young Manhood” and “Aha Shake Heartbreak” that band like Kings of Leon should get their due credit. And when “Only By The Night” was a huge commercial success, these very people termed the band as sell outs. Two camps emerged, one slamming Kings for excessive commercialization and lower artistic value while the other still giving them same respect when they first emerged in NME and Spin pages.
Kings of Leon have released their best work previously in albums 'Aha Shake Heartbreak' and 'Because Of The Times' but they got their due recognition only after 'Sex on Fire' and 'Use Somebody' started topping the charts. Long time waiting. Anyone who has followed this band knows that sound dynamics has changed a lot after the initial albums. The grunge, garage-rock raw feel has paved way for a more conventional rock riffs and drums. Caleb's freaky "woo-hoos" have been replaced by proper words though at some point even they fail to make any sense with the context of the song.
Tennessee-bred champions of whiskey, women, and whomp-whomp guitars have churned out a very laid back record in 'Come Around Sundown'. The album begins with 'The End' (talk about irony, eh?) which like previous records builds up slowly but is a disappointment in relative context. "This could be the End...", well Caleb It just might be. Following it is 'Radioactive' with a catchy guitar riff and 'back-to-the-roots' theme songwriting. Chosen as the first single, the uncharacteristic music video camouflages some credibility of the song. 'Pyro', billed as the next single is just another instance of 'Notion' (song from Only By The Night) styled guitar playing but elevates to great heights at the end.
'Mary' is filled with cryptic, disturbing guitar distortions in the beginning and an atrocious cliché guitar solo in the latter half. The next track 'The Face' could easily be skipped and 'The Immortals' is filled with slowly reverberating guitar riffs and cymbal-heavy drum lines which ultimately succumbs to 'Use Somebody' type chorus. What follows next are two country tracks (Yes, KOL with country tracks !!!)... Does it work? In "Back Down South" it works perfectly fine and the boys nailed to it to the core whereas "Beach Side" is perhaps the most soulless song from them.
"No Money" gives us a reminiscent of old Kings of Leon with high tempo and lyrics like "I got no money but I want your souls"... Aah, Those were the days. They follow it up with a disaster. Sharp drums, twangy guitar and pleading vocals add up to a musically perplexing track that sounds like pop slash rockabilly slash blues a.k.a 'Pony Up'. "Birthday" (song about bloody revenge with gathering analogous to a Birthday) has it's moment but has an instant hate-it-or-like-it guitar riff. Well so does "Mi Amigo", skip it.
The end of this record features "Pick Up Truck", a MUST-HAVE track and definitely the highlight of this album. The tempo goes through different stages just like "With or Without You" by U2. (Yes, It’s that good). So If you don't want to purchase the record it is highly recommended that you download this track from iTunes or elsewhere. 'Come Around Sundown" by no means is their best album which even Caleb knows. "Everything I cherish is slowly dying or is gone", he declares in Pyro.
Kings of Leon have gone from 'Lynrd Syndrd' to a 'U2 aspirant'. The influences are clear as they opened for U2 for their American leg. While it pays off in some tracks it fails miserably in others. The record thus proves a mix bag for these talented and ambitious musicians who are trying to expand their horizons in every possible way.
Key Tracks:Pick Up Truck, Back Down South, No Money.
Track Listing:
1. The End (4:24)
2. Radioactive (3:26)
3. Pyro (4:10)
4. Mary (3:25)
5. The Face (3:28)
6. The Immortals (3:28)
7. Back Down South (4:01)
8. Beach Side (2:50)
9. No Money (3:05)
10. Pony (3:04)
11. Birthday (3:15)
12. Mi Amigo (4:06)
13. Pick Up Truck (4:44)
(P.S. It is highly recommended for everyone who just know Kings of Leon from ‘Sex on Fire’ or ‘Use Somebody’ to check their previous work in “Aha Shake Heartbreak” and “Because of The Times”.)
Note: All of the Screenshots provided below are extracted from my personal use and none from the internet.
Media organizing software is a must for music-geeks but finding the right one can be difficult at times. If you are one of those who still maintains a library in your ‘Windows Default Media Player’, God help you. After exploring multiple options it is quite safe to say that Industry giants ‘Apple’ and ‘Microsoft’ offer the best that there is. Open Source Community offering ‘Songbird’ or ‘Winamp’ also provides some solutions but land nowhere near what ‘iTunes’ or ‘Zune’ brings to the market.
iTunes was first introduced at 2001 Macworld Expo and soon took over the world by storm owing partially to an ‘iPod’ must software and majorly due to ‘pay-per-song’ download feature in iTunes Store. Still, People looking for a better alternative will now find a respite by media player introduced by Microsoft.
Microsoft launched ‘Zune’ (pocket player) to compete with its arch rival Apple’s ‘iPod’ and it failed miserably. It could not bring down the Apple market share but declined its own. But in this process Microsoft created excellent software for Zune – ‘Microsoft Zune’. Go figure.
Given below are the various aspects of comparison between iTunes and Zune.
Boot Speed ->
iTunes: 9-10 seconds. (P.S. If your processor is not updated you might want to make a sandwich while iTunes starts).
Zune: 2-3 seconds.
(Had a hard time getting this start up screenshot)
Interface->
[Welcome Screen]
iTunes: What welcome screen? You’re simply directed towards your library.
Zune: On opening, it provides you with Quickplay tab, which opens up a whole new world with ‘Pins’ (any media file in the library can be pinned for future reference), ‘New’ and ‘History’.
[Now Playing]
iTunes: It gives no interactive details to ‘Now Playing’ option but a visualizer is provided to amuse you.
Zune: It provides enormous graphic detail with a huge collage of albums in your library acting as a background to the ‘Now Playing’ screen.
(Offline Mode)
(Online it provides Artist’s screenshots as background)
[Mix View]
iTunes: A-Mix-a-what?
Zune: Mixview gives you easier access to ‘Artists influenced by’, ‘Related Albums’ or ‘Top Listeners’ tabs whilst your music plays.
[Mini Player]
iTunes: It does have a high point of equalizer display but provides no information about the next song in the playlist.
Zune: Although, no equalizer is provided, it gives sleek playlists details. One major drawback though, Volume Level can’t be monitored (How did the developers miss that!!!)
[Background Selection]
iTunes: No provision.
Zune: It offers choice to the user to apply one of the multiple available background options.
[Library]
iTunes: In this department, iTunes does not lag behind at all. The interface provided is much simplistic and detailed as Zune, if not better.
(Coverflow View)
(Genre View)
Similar view available for Albums, Artists and Composers.
Zune: Continuing with superb interactivity and visuals, the library is sorted in as many ways possible.
(Artist View)
(Genre View)
(Album View)
(Song View)
File Import->
iTunes: It requires constant addition of files and folders to your library manually.
Zune: It automatically add files to your library which is one placed in Managing folder (Long Live Metadata). No need to further manually import files in your library. Is that a relief or what??
Video Playback->
iTunes: It plays all the major video formats (don’t start comparing it with VLC). HD Videos are played without major hindrances.
(Screen shot of a HD Castle episode bought from iTunes Store)
Zune: It lacks a bit in this area as HD Videos fail to play in majority of the situations, although important video formats has no problem running.
Rating System->
iTunes: 1-5 stars to a song can be credited.
Zune: Rating is given by either a broken heart (for a dislike) or a heart (for a like). This rating is way too amateurish and lacks application.
Autofill->
iTunes: Supported. Autofill in all the fields is provided by iTunes.
Zune: No Support Provided. You need to type the whole thing.
Genius Mixes or Smart DJ ->
iTunes: ‘Genius Mix’ was introduced by iTunes to help user find similar songs in his/her library. It requires you to send entire library information to iTunes and based on that lists of analogous songs are merged with one another in the library. The process itself is very lengthy and tiresome although the results returned are satisfying.
Zune: Based on similar lines, Zune introduced ‘Smart DJ’ which is simpler to access and instead of song similarities it goes for similar artists. The results returned are not that accurate as iTunes but way faster.
Picture Display ->
iTunes: No support for Picture Display.
Zune: Integrates pictures in your library (again extracted by metadata) in form of slideshows with simultaneous playback of songs supported.
iTunes Store and Zune Marketplace ->
iTunes: iTunes store is way more diverse and holds like a million songs more than Zune. This is partially due to earlier establishment and heavier commercialization of ‘Download a Song’ concept introduced by Apple.
(iTunes Store)
(Purchased TV Show)
Zune: Zune marketplace has to go a long way to compete with iTunes Store. It has time but it’s heavily doubtful whether it will affect any market share.
Podcasts->
iTunes: Similar to the above pattern, iTunes has tons more podcasts than Zune.
Zune: Needs more exposure to bring increment in this sector.
(Podcasts in Collection)
(Podcasts in Marketplace)
Ping and Zune Social ->
iTunes: Ping was introduced under heavy anticipation but it has failed to succeed. News of Facebook integration was a fresh change but there seems to be a stand-off between the two franchises.
Zune: Zune Social (like Ping) is based on concept similar to last.fm but is more interactive and simplistic. You can see what your friends are listening to, make friends with like-minded people or even earn badges. Very few listeners are currently tuned in so it needs heavy exposure to come to forefront.
(Recently Played Songs)
(Top Artists)
(Badges Earned)
(Friend List)
At the end of the day, People who do not own an iPod nor use iTunes Store should immediately switch to Zune for a better musical experience. For people with iPod and frequent user of iTunes Store, iTunes becomes a pre-requisite but Zune can always be used for playing media files in your system.
Both software are free and provided below is the link to each:
