My 2010 CD

Throughout the year I think of artists that I want on my next CD. I keep a list of those artists on my phone. The method that I use to narrow down tracks is to listen through an album quickly, usually the first 30 seconds of each song, and then I will skip around that song to make sure I'm remembering all of the significant parts. From that, I can usually get an album down to 2-4 tracks that I scrutinize very closely. This year was more difficult. My first pass through some of these albums only eliminated two to four songs. Stupid redbook (CD audio) allows only 80 minutes of audio (I wish DVD-Audio had caught on a decade ago). So I had a lot of work to do this year. Once I have a tracklist that fits on a standard CD, I then sort the songs so they "flow". We can't have Godsmack right after Russian Red for instance. That step only takes a few minutes, after which I listen to the entire mix one last time.

It's really a fun process. I try to include songs that I love and songs that I think you will love. Sometimes I will drop a song that I really like because I don't think the intended audience will like it. Other times I will keep those songs in the hope that you people will grow. You're welcome. Sometimes I omit an artist or album because it was released to close to the end of the year, and my mix doesn't have room for them. The new Azure Ray and Blonde Redhead albums fell into this category this year.

Here is a breakdown of the tracks, with my track #, the artist, original album name, original album track #, and song title:

01 - Blonde Redhead - 23 - 01 - 23
I Found Kazu Makino this year from a list of the hottest female musicians. And isn't that the reason we listen to music? OK, even the manliest parts of my personality has to make sure you know that I don't listen to music because I find the singer attractive. It's all about the voice and overall composition, which this album does perfectly.
02 - Blonde Redhead - 23 - 03 - The Dress
The lyrics for this song drew me to it. It's not often that a song with this tone reveals that the singer is not in love.
03 - Blonde Redhead - 23 - 06 - Silently
Either "The Dress" or this track count as my favorite songs on this album.
04 - Blonde Redhead - 23 - 07 - Publisher
Every track that I cut from this CD was painful, but I wanted to include both Kazu and the brothers singing.
05 - Blonde Redhead - 23 - 08 - Heroine
Blonde Redhead has a new album out that I will include on next years CD. I cannot recommend Blonde Redhead highly enough. If you don't purchase this album, I hate you. HATE!

06 - Russian Red - I Love Your Glasses - 01 - Cigarettes
Thanks KaRyn! I love Lourdes Hernández' voice.
07 - Russian Red - I Love Your Glasses - 07 - Kiss My Elbow
The emotion she conveys here is why it beat out other tracks on the album. That is one thing that a good musician can do, no matter what the genre, to win me over. This is why I enjoy "Azure Ray" as much as "Bury Your Dead".
08 - Russian Red - I Love Your Glasses - 09 - Walls Are Tired
This album is very similar to Mazzy Star (sorry KaRyn), in that it's easy to listen to and perfect to put on as I wind down for bed.

09 - The Raveonettes - In And Out Of Control - 03 - Last Dance
The album us about 80% perfect, with only 1 real "miss". I won't hate you if you don't buy it, but I will think less of you. Loser.
10 - The Raveonettes - In And Out Of Control - 05 - Heart Of Stone
I discovered this band when I stumbled on the awesome video for "Heart Of Stone". It's an animated steampunk story that's fun to watch. Look it up.

11 - Stars - The Five Ghosts - 03 - I Died So I Could Haunt You
Thanks Marianne! I wanted to add about 3 more songs from this album, but added them late, and no longer had room. Plus, I suspected that she or Clayton may have those tracks on their CD.

12 - Stone Sour - Audio Secrecy - 10 - Miracles
Thanks Ryan! Ryan highly requested that I buy this, and I'm glad that I complied. This album was another that took a lot of time to decide what to cut. It too was added late, so no room was left for a proper representation.

13 - Blue October - Foiled - 08 - Overweight
Thanks Lisa! Yeah I'm about 4 years late with this album. At about 3:30 he goes into a verse of gratitude that I love.
14 - Blue October - Foiled - 09 - X-Amount Of Words
This track had a great beat, like a good club track.
15 - Blue October - Foiled - 10 - Drilled A Wire Through My Cheek
You may like or hate this song, I love it. The beat during each verse is methodical and interesting, while the chorus is powerful and loud. The lyrics may be confusing at first, but it's not as nefarious as it may first seem to be.

16 - Godsmack - The Oracle - 05 - What If
I've only had this for a few days, so I'm not yet familiar enough with it to write much. Godsmack made many appearances on my workout mix (something I should post later on), so they kinda had to be on here.

17 - Rush - Caravan - 02 - BU2B
You all know I love Rush. This is one of the singles from the EP for their next album that I am eagerly awaiting.

18 - The Beatles - The Beatles (White Album) - 02 - Dear Prudence
"The sun is out, the sky is blue, it's beautiful, and so are you." Lines like that are one of the reasons The Beatles are the first masters of Rock and Roll.
19 - The Beatles - The Beatles (White Album) - 07 - While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Hands down my favorite Beatles song. Although there are many close behind.

If you've been watching the music scene for the last year or so, you may have seen some of the hype about re-releasing classic records in monaural. The Beatles are a perfect example of the mono mastering being superior to the stereo. The band would put a lot of time into the mono mastering, but would rarely assist with the stereo mastering because they didn't like the sound. And a lot of albums that came out in the 60's are done very poorly. Some examples have 100% stereo separation of individual instruments! But the kids liked hearing different sounds coming from each speaker, so it sold well due to the novelty. It's the equivalent of modern day DRC (dynamic range compression) found on many 90's and later CD's. Because of this, I've included two of my favorite mono tracks. These are ripped from the monaural CD's taken from the original mono master (not down-mixed stereo), ripped with EAC to FLAC, and then from FLAC to redbook (CD audio). Put on a good set of headphones and see if you can notice the difference.