Last Year in music

So I was thinking that a ton of good music was made this past year. I did a little research and found that while quite a few of my favorite artists put new records out - it wasn't as many as I had originally thought.

Here's a list of some of the albums that were released this year by some of my favorite artists in no particular order.

The Killers - Day and Age: I did not like Human at all the first few times I heard it, but then I saw their performance of that song on some MTV award show and was blown away. After that I bought the record and have enjoyed it thoroughly. Their songs are interesting and fun to listen to.

Snow Patrol - A Hundred Million Suns: I really enjoy listening to this album, but it's not as good as their previous two offerings. For me, SP doesn't get any better than Final Straw.

Keane - Perfect Symmetry: Most of the songs on this record are a total departure from typical Keane. Which is cool - they did it without losing their identity. Oh, and the song Better than This... David Bowie called, he wants his sound back.

Coldplay - Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends: It's a terrible album title, but who really cares. This was probably my most anticipated album this year. I downloaded it one morning, got on a plane and listened to it for the whole flight. For that reason I now associate it with Zuma (a really fun iPod game). It delivers the goods. I'm glad my first impression of this record was NOT their most recent SNL appearance - Chris Martin was so creepy and so over-excited.

Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs: This was my second most anticipated album of the year. I don't love their first single from the album, I will Possess Your Heart. I'm not sure how they pick a single and I'm not sure there is another "radio" single on that record, but I haven't learned about new music on the radio since... I can't remember. I do like this album, but it is not Plans and that's okay.

R.E.M. - Accellerate: This was totally unexpected to me. I used to be a huge R.E.M. fan, GREEN was my first cassette (Not sure why it needs ALL CAPS). I stopped being fan sometime after Monster mostly because it seems like Michael Stipe wasn't singing with the passion and feeling that I was accustumed to (Eddie Vedder lost me for the same reasons after Vitology). He's back. He's singing and screaming. They sound like a cross between Monster and Life's Rich Pageant. It's a good thing.