The Five Best Albums of 2010 So Far

June is seeing Eyewear celebrate good things that come in 5s. So - the best indie/ pop / dance albums of 2010? It's been a very impressive year. Notable new albums from many have appeared, including many of the critics darlings, like: Yeasayer, Vampire Weekend, The National, The Black Keys, The Drums, The Dead Weather, The Avett Brothers, Teenage Fanclub, Stornoway, Plan B, Paul Weller, MGMT, Massive Attack, Laura Marling, Kos, Kelis, Keane, Kate Nash, Hot Chip, Hole, Gorillaz, Goldfrapp, Gil Scott-Heron, Foals, Four Tet, Delphic, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Broken Social Scene, Broken Bells, Black Francis, Beach House and Band of Horses - to name 33. My pick will of course be personal - and can only be guided by the albums I have returned to, again and again.

I think the best, so far, are, in no order:

Paul Weller, Wake Up The Nation;
Broken Bells, eponymous;
Beach House, Teen Dream;
The Soft Pack; eponymous;
Massive Attack, Heligoland

My top ten would likely include Charlotte Gainsbourg, Hot Chip, Foals, The National, and Kate Nash, too. - and may do so end of year - but there is far more to come, including the new Scissors Sisters - and Bionic may grow on me.

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I have enjoyed particular tracks from other artists, often as guilty pleasures, especially 'I Am Not a Robot' by Marina and the Diamonds, Ke$ha's 'TiK ToK' and Gabriella Cilmi's 'Hearts Don't Lie'.

I have been slightly underwhelmed by Delphic, Midlake, Gorillaz, and Vampire Weekend - though they were well received, generally. I need to give Laura Marling more time.

IQ AND THE POETS - ARE YOU SMART?

When you open your mouth to speak, are you smart? A funny question from a great song, but also, a good one, when it comes to poets, and poetry. We tend to have a very ambiguous view of intelligence in poetry, one that I'd say is dysfunctional. Basically, it goes like this: once you are safely dead, it no longer matters how smart you were. For instance, Auden was smarter than Yeats , but most would still say Yeats is the finer poet; Eliot is clearly highly intelligent, but how much of Larkin 's work required a high IQ? Meanwhile, poets while alive tend to be celebrated if they are deemed intelligent: Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill , and Jorie Graham , are all, clearly, very intelligent people, aside from their work as poets. But who reads Marianne Moore now, or Robert Lowell , smart poets? Or, Pound ? How smart could Pound be with his madcap views? Less intelligent poets are often more popular. John Betjeman was not a very smart poet, per se. What do I mean by smart?

"I have crossed oceans of time to find you..."

In terms of great films about, and of, love, we have Vertigo, In The Mood for Love , and Casablanca , Doctor Zhivago , An Officer and a Gentleman , at the apex; as well as odder, more troubling versions, such as Sophie's Choice and Silence of the Lambs . I think my favourite remains Bram Stoker's Dracula , with the great immortal line "I have crossed oceans of time to find you...".

THE SWIFT REPORT 2023

I am writing this post without much enthusiasm, but with a sense of duty. This blog will be 20 years old soon, and though I rarely post here anymore, I owe it some attention. Of course in 2023, "Swift" now means one thing only, Taylor Swift, the billionaire musician. Gone are the days when I was asked if I was related to Jonathan Swift. The pre-eminent cultural Swift is now alive and TIME PERSON OF THE YEAR. There is no point in belabouring the obvious with delay: 2023 was a low-point in the low annals of human history - war, invasion, murder, in too many nations. Hate, division, the collapse of what truth is, exacerbated by advances in AI that may or may not prove apocalyptic, while global warming still seems to threaten the near-future safety of humanity. It's been deeply depressing. The world lost some wonderful poets, actors, musicians, and writers this year, as it often does. Two people I knew and admired greatly, Ian Ferrier and Kevin Higgins, poets and organise

E Y E W E A R, THE BLOG - FREEDOM MEANS BEING UNAFRAID TO WRITE WHAT YOU THINK

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