Splendour in the Grass 2011 lineup finally released: Triple J’s Tom & Alex took their sweet time

Coldplay, Kanye West (only Australian show), Jane’s Addiction, The Hives, Pulp, The Living End, The Mars Volta, Regina Spektor (only show in 2011), Bliss N Eso, PNAU, Mogwai, DJ Shadow, Glasvegas, The Grates, Devendra Banhardt, Modest Mouse, The Middle East, Kaiser Chiefs, James Blake, Kele, The Vines, Elbow, Eskimo Joe, Noah and the Whale, Children Collide, Thievery Corporation, Cut Copy, Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan, Bluejuice, The Kills, Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears (featuring The Relatives), Architecture in Helsinki,  Foster the People, The Panics, Friendly Fires, Jebediah, The Vaccines, Gomez, Boy and Bear, Gotye, Does it Offend You, Yeah?, Cloud Control, Mona, Sparkadia, Warpaint, Muscles (Live), Fitz and the Tantrums, The Jezebels, Drapht, British Sea Power, Tim & Jean, Leader Cheetah, Grouplove, Seeker Lover Keeper, Yelle, Kimbra, Phrase, Oh Mercy, Dananananaykroyd, The Black Seeds, Marques Toliver, The Holidays, Ghoul, Liam Finn, The Herd, Young and Great, Guineafowl, Hungry Kids of Hungary, Jinja Safari, Wild Beasts, Illy, Cut Off Your Hands, Gareth Liddard, Alpine, World’s End, Press, Mosman Alder, Lanie Lane

Plus DJ sets all weekend from the likes of: Aston Shuffle, Flight Facilities, D-Cup, Ajax (Mega Jam set), Hoodrat & Dangerous, Dan Light Year, Hoops, Cassian, Wax Motif, Kato, Toni Toni Lee, Charlie Chux, Tranter.

I think it may take me a bit of time to warm to this one. No doubts, it’s another massive lineup, but I think I built myself up with hopes Robyn and Röyksopp would be there. Then again, the rumours of Kanye and James Blake happily did come true, and I’ll probably end up selling everything apart from my viola and a change of clothes just to head along and see them.

Airport: Best albums of 2010

Album of the year: Arcade Fire - The Suburbs (Merge)

There’s not a huge amount about this album that I, or someone else, hasn’t said already. Suffice it to say that it pushes all my musical buttons: it’s an ambitious concept album with a strong narrative; very well executed by a bunch of very talented musicians; and composed of a set of musically strong, catchy tracks— there isn’t one I don’t love. Every time I listen to it, I love it even more.

Runner-up: Beach House - Teen Dream (Sub Pop)

This is by far the album I listened to most this year. It’s one of the most emotive, gripping pieces of indie rock I’ve ever heard, and there’s really nothing that could improve it for me. Arcade Fire narrowly won out with sheer ambition, but Teen Dream has such depth of emotion, and such well-written and versed tracks, that it really was a very tough choice.

Best album that no-one listened to: Cerulean - Baths (Anticon)

The west-coast beat scene really came of age this year, with releases such as Flying Lotus’ Cosmogramma proving just how much the movement has to offer. But this album, produced by Flying Lotus’ mate Cerulean, topped them all for me. It’s both beautiful and wonderfully rough; at one moment the beat is so wobbly it feels like the whole track will collapse and implode at any second, but the next the focus is taken off the beats by the atmospheric beauty of a track such as Lovely Bloodflow. At times the two even fuse equally, such as on the the excellent ♥. Somehow, no-one really seemed to notice it, so if this is one that passed your radar this year, I can’t recommend it enough.

Best album everyone was hatin’ on: MGMT - Congratulations (Columbia)

I spent the best part of the year avoiding this album: the majority of reviews were mediocre at best, and the band themselves released a statement apologizing for the low quality of the album. I’m only just realising what a mistake that was, this mash of 60s psychedelic prog rock and cutting-edge indie electro is a trip you don’t want to miss.

Most surprisingly good album: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy - Kanye West (Roc-A-Fella / Def Jam)

Amidst all the hype, all the controversy, and after everyone had just about forgotten why he was famous, Kanye presented the world with this. I’m not saying it’s life changing, but Kanye managed to take all the above and use it to produce an album that might just justify his ego.

Best mix album: FabricLive 52: Zero T (Fabric)

2010 was a bumper year for quality mix albums, especially from Fabric. In many ways Shackleton’s Fabric 55 or dBridge & Instra:mental’s FabricLive 50 deserved this award much more, for pushing the boundaries of electronic music. Both were absolutely innovative and highly influential on multiple genres, even creating a new one in the case of the latter. But having said that, they just don’t share the sheer listenability of Zero T’s FabricLive 52, and although it doesn’t push any serious boundaries, it’s still a worthy winner.

Best Australian Album: Innerspeaker (Modular)

2010 was also a great year for Australian music, with many old faces releasing some great new albums, and many new bands releasing some stunning debuts. And although this was also a hard one to pick, I’d say Tame Impala’s Innerspeaker really topped the list. It’s an unashamed throwback to another era, but dare I say, it’s catchy psychedelic rock done better than anyone in the 70s managed.

Triple J Hottest 100 voting now open →

Voting is now open for the worlds biggest musical democracy! It took me a very, very long time to narrow this list down to ten, there were so many good tracks this year (my shortlist was something like 50 tracks). But after much deliberation, here is what I chose:

• Arcade Fire - Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)
• Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
• Beach House - Walk In The Park
• Darwin Deez - Constellations
• Delphic - Doubt
• Flight Facilities - Crave You {Ft. Giselle}
• Hot Chip - One Life Stand
• Kanye West - Lost In The World {Ft. Bon Iver}
• MGMT - Congratulations
• Tame Impala - It Is Not Meant To Be.

What did you guys vote for?

Okay, I’ve been working ALL THE TIME seeing as it’s almost christmas, so apologies again for lack of updates. But here’s one, and surprise, it’s about Kanye West! Some of you may be tempted to stop reading there, but before you do, just take a look at this short for the first single from the album, Power.

Now I know there is a hell of a lot of hype around this album. It’s like Pitchfork decided to help Kanye with his main job of self-promotion, and now they’re now putting him on god-tier too. His latest album won’t change your life. However, it is a damn good, dare I say groundbreaking hip hop album, and easily the best this year.

One of the things that makes it so is the musical and artistic exploration. Many tracks feature extended instrumentals, and some push ten minutes in duration. The production is really quite innovative, at times groundbreaking. And while he uses less sampling then he has previously, the ones he does use this time are really quite inspired, such as the use of Aphex Twin’s Avril 14th on Blame Game. It would appear that visual art played a big part in the album too, whether in its inception or its promotion I’m not sure.

But what makes the album really special for me is the way he manages to take the listener on a journey, both musically and lyrically. The lyrics are at times witty, egotistical, insecure, incisive and unnerving, and often all of those in one track. The album is a series of tracks that fit together to form a story, and the name of the album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy really rings true in this case. Which brings us to the second video.

Thought the video for Power was too short? Try this video, Runaway. It features some of most of the tracks on the album, including the video’s namesake Runaway (quite possibly the best track on the album). A music video pushing thirty-five minutes? It’s definitely egotistical, as is the video itself. But I guess in the end, it’s a question of if you think he’s deservedly egotistical. Which is probably the real reason why I like his album so much. It gave me a reason to think he may be.