2011年 Feb 7日 Monday, 23:27

The Best and Worst of 2010

Ah, 2010. What a year you have been. It pains me to see your demise as a new year is born and is extolled. Let us pay our respects by remembering what you’ve given us during the year. Yes, there were some ups and downs, but you came through and delivered some astonishing, wonderful albums during your time. For that, I applaud and commend you. However, as with every year, there were some disappointing and unimpressive acts and releases that weren’t so great or groundbreaking. I shall take into account both the best and worst of 2010, beginning with the best!

The Best:

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Soundtrack of the Year: Inception - Hans Zimmer. Filled with wonderful intricacies, delightful, rhythmic orchestration and a fantastic ode to Edith Piaf, The Inception OST proved to be a groundbreaking success that mirrored the movie’s central theme that left many of us astonished. Dream is Collapsing has to be one of the finest compositions I’ve ever heard in my life. Possessing surreal-like qualities that imbue a sense of reality and the human subconscious, Dream is Collapsing fills the gap between reality and the dream-state by invoking a state in which you are about to awake–yet aware of the fact that you’re dreaming, thus breaking that barrier between the real world and the dream–resulting in the destruction of the dream and arriving at the precise moment of awakening, grasping the reality around you. Other songs such as Time and Paradox are very surreal, ambient and stunning. Hans Zimmer, throughout the years, has been providing film scores for various movies and has garnered several Oscar nominations for his wonderful scores. But it’s the Inception OST that really encapsulates the essence of what we all experience thoroughly every night for the rest of our lives–our dreams.
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Album of the Year: Majesty and Decay - Immolation. Touching on the darker side of humanity, Immolation’s Majesty and Decay exposes the decadent, societal values that have become social norms–hypocrisy, genocide, religious oppression and arousing fear in order to garner support for a rather radical idea. It’s amazing how desensitized we are to these issues that when we hear about it from a second party we‘re shocked by how unpleasant these facts are to us. The album did just that–shock me. Immolation have been around for more than two decades, and with the release of their latest effort, further demonstrates their staying power.
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Breakthrough Album of the Year: What Lies Beneath - Tarja. After her forced departure from Nightwish and the release of her less-than-stellar sophomore album, My Winter Storm, many, especially myself, began to think that she had lost touch with the ‘magic’ that stemmed from being front woman of Symphonic Metal act Nightwish. With the release of her third album, What Lies Beneath, Tarja marks her presence within the Metal community, re-enters a territory she once owned and dukes it out to reclaim her throne as the coveted Queen of Metal. Songs such as I Feel Immortal and Falling Awake gives us insight into what Tarja has kept hidden deep within herself these last, few tumultuous years. Falling Awake delivers a personal account of Tarja’s struggle with redeeming herself after the Nightwish debacle and how she continues to pursue her dream. Whereas "I Feel Immortal” is a personal confession of how she is immortal and not afraid in her dreams. Both Dark Star and Little Lies provide a very vivid portrayal of Tuomas Holopainen, composer of Nightwish, and how their falling apart aroused a rather bleak relationship. “Where are you now? Are you proud of the life you wasted, wearing the crown of illusions you created?” What Lies Beneath also possesses a surreal quality to it that is quite similar to my previous critique of Hans Zimmer’s Inception OST. My personal dream team of 2010.

The Worst:

Worst Album of the Year: ReVamp - ReVamp Among the myriad definitions of ‘revamp’ are ’improvement,’ ’make over’ and ‘overhaul,’ but none of these definitions come to mind when one listens to Floor Jansen’s (ex-vocalist of After Forever) first album, ReVamp, with new band ReVamp. Formerly of After Forever, Floor Jansen sought to find a new band–a new sound–to accompany her with new music. The band itself does not echo After Forever, nor does it even dare to venture the same sound, despite having two former members of After Forever. Many songs, such as Honey for the Damned, Head up High and Sweet Curse sound out of place and aren’t as compelling or remotely intriguing as the songs from After Forever. However, on Floor’s part, her vocals are as impressive as ever and have more of a rock-feel to it than her previous classical-singing voice. It seems history is repeating itself, only this time Floor Jansen is the victim and not the aforementioned Tarja Turunen who made this year’s top list.