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10 favorite albums of 2010 - #10: Mines by Menomena

An old college acquaintance recently sent me a link to his blog over facebook, and his most recent post was his Top 5 Albums of 2010. This inspired me to create my own list, but while thinking it through, I could not bear to limit it to 5 albums. Beginning with #10, here are my top picks for 2010:




I cannot emphasize enough how difficult it was to settle on #10. In fact, I started writing this post for a different album, but I didn't feel right about it. Menomena just managed to make it into my top 10, inching past LCD Soundsystem. 


From their track, "Tithe:"


Beneath the door frame, 
waiting for earthquakes,
after the rapture comes and goes,
the saints went marching, 

the trumpets salving, 
the chosen ones are phoning home.

And nothing sounds appealing.



Kansas City has been pretty icy these last few days. Sometimes when I'm driving, I can feel my truck loose traction. I'm still heading the same direction (usually and for the most part), but I know that I'm no longer master of my ship (the good ship TurtleTop); in those moments, the only thing separating me from disaster is the whimsy of a combination of many many factors beyond my control.


This is what it feels like to listen to Menomena. The music is threatening all the time to skid off the road and erupt into a fireball of drums, saxophones, and keyboard.


Dig the sax riff on "Five Little Rooms," which begins with the line, "This is a play that takes place in a freezer." The song is indeed chilling:


Hung on a pole right next to a McDonald's,
in a suburban shopping mall,
at half mast again,
between shootings.

All this could be yours, someday...

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