What started off as a crazy Twitter experiment — total strangers meeting to listen to new albums — has turned into a wonderful monthly gathering of friends at Original Joe’s Varsity. After more than six months, I’m still amazed by the diversity, passion, intelligence and devotion of our group … heck, we started our own blog and there’s talk of organizing a few gigs in 2011. And yes, newcomers are more than welcome … there’s a core group of about 10 of us who meet on a regular basis, but we’re always happy to make new friends.
We’re opinionated but open-minded … and while we each have our own tastes, most of us seem to like Arcade Fire and The National, judging by our lists of favourite albums and songs of 2010. Here’s the first batch of bests:
Nicole Braseth
Albums:
Library Voices, Denim on Denim
The Provincial Archive, Maybe We Could Be Holy
Basia Bulat, Heart of My Own
Honorable mentions:
Freelance Whales, Weathervanes
Local Natives, Gorilla Manor
Frightened Rabbit, The Winter Of Mixed Drinks
Mimicking Birds, Mimicking Birds
Land of Talk, Cloak and Cipher
Ra Ra Riot, The Orchard
Josh Ritter, So Runs the World Away
Hannah Georgas, This is Good
Michael Senchuk
Songs:
Wavves, King of the Beach
Panda Bear, Slow Motion
Hollerado, Juliette
Metric, Stadium Love
Beach Fossils, Daydream
Suuns, Gaze
Arcade Fire, Month of May
Vampire Weekend, Vacation
Hot Panda, Evil Nature
Two Door Cinema Club, I Can Talk
Albums:
Admiral Radley, I Heart California
Film School, Fission
Best Coast, Crazy for You
Sleigh Bells, Treats
Vampire Weekend, Contra
Hot Panda, How Come I’m Dead
Arcade Fire, The Suburbs
The National, High Violet
Broken Bells, Broken Bells
Gaslight Anthem, American Slang
Aric Johnson
Songs:
Arcade Fire, Suburban War
The Black Keys, Tighten Up
LCD Soundsystem, I Can Change
Sleigh Bells, Rill Rill
The National, Bloodbuzz Ohio
Alexander, Truth
Best Coast/Kid Cudi/Rostam, All Summer
Cults, Oh My God
Tokyo Police Club, Boots of Danger
Cee-Lo Green, Fuck You
Albums:
Arcade Fire, The Suburbs
The Black Keys, Brothers
Kanye West, My Beautiful Dark Twisted
The National, High Violet
The Weakerthans, Live at the Burton Cummings Theatre
