I sit next to someone who responds to everything the professor says as if they’re having an intimate, one-on-one conversation and 80-some people aren’t there too. Now, it is perfectly normal to anticipate that some students will take part in the call-and-response that some professors hope to hear when they ask questions to the whole of the class, but you have to pick your spots. Not every single question; and especially not when the professor is having another student recite.

You are not the only person in class and, seeing as we’re all adults, perhaps it’s time to learn a little self-awareness. I don’t care if you sound like this guy, I and everyone else around me do not want to hear you intermittently throughout three hours of relatively difficult information. When I’m trying to wrap my head around Real Covenants and Equitable Servitudes, I don’t want to lose my focus to dreams of wrapping your head around something real and equitable — i.e. tables or chairs (Property quip #1).

Especially when the babble coming from your stupid mouth isn’t even correct. We were looking at the Tulk v. Moxhay case and there was some preliminary debate as to how to say Leicester. Of course, she had to repeat her version of the pronunciation over and over and over until she was finally acknowledged by the professor. Then she spat out this little gem to a neighboring student, who asked her a question that I could not hear, after which I determined to create this post:

“Yeah, Leicester. It’s named after a person.”

Now, it is perfectly understandable for an average American student not to know that Leicester is in fact a major city in England, but that is not the issue. She just flat-out lied to another student just to hear herself speak again. If you don’t know where a word comes from, you don’t answer the question. You say “I don’t know.” Period. You don’t respond with your best guess in the form of an actual fact.

It pushed the irritation level into the red, for me. Which doesn’t even describe how angry the student on the other side of me was about the whole thing:

“This is why there’s fighting in hockey.”

Well put, my friend.

Anyway, don’t be this person. If you have something to say in class, raise your crummy little hand and wait to be called on. Outside of that, keep it to yourself because we don’t want to hear it. Ever. No exceptions. I pay more than I care to share to be in this class and I want to hear the person who knows what they’re talking about — not you.

Anyone who remembers the old incarnation of the blog may have noticed that the only post I have retained from that period is the top albums post. This is mainly because it was the most (translate: only) mega-hit entry in this blog’s short, intermittent history. And though I’ve changed the theme (again) this is something I wanted to do again. Especially since I was able to listen to way more albums this year compared to last.

First off, some points to address:

These are MY opinions. Understand that they will clash with yours and understand that your favorite album may be missing because I either A) didn’t like it, or B) never even listening to it (refer to my comments on Bitte Orca in the 2009 post).

I felt about 2010 the way most people felt about 2008 — that it was a fairly mediocre year for music. Nothing really to elaborate, that’s just how I felt. I wouldn’t say anything blew me away but, at the same time, it wasn’t like I didn’t enjoy anything either.

I want to talk about Titus Andronicus’s The Monitor for a second. It was a very good album and would have made a top 7 list had I made it a top 7 list, but I want to talk about it in terms of the top album on my little list. Specifically, a “second-look” column posted on Stereogum that I had to disagree with. Now, I hate it when people debate differences in opinion because it’s a pointless argument; people are all different so what may be good for you may not be good for me, and we all come from different points of view as to what exactly makes a good album. That said, the writer brought up some legit reasons as to why The Suburbs was a mediocre album, but I felt like he kind of took that opinion based on the fact that he liked the Titus album more. I think that’s a bad way to rate an album. You should listen to them in a vacuum, separate from everything else. He felt that Titus’ was a better take on Springsteen but I don’t remember that being a prerequisite to listening to Arcade Fire. Additionally, he felt the lyrics were much better. Were they? Of course they were, but I’m not much for lyrics. I notice them if they’re either really bad or really good, never in between (btw, the lyrics on The Monitor are, indeed, very good but I still don’t think that makes or breaks an album).

Last interruption: I just want to point out how right I was about Best Coast. I had no idea, however, just HOW huge Bethany and her cat would become in 2010. So, kudos to all of them.

Ok, the list…

5. LCD Soundsystem This Is Happening

I’m eating crow by even putting this on my list at all because I have never really been much a fan of LCD Soundsystem. It’s not that I hated what they were doing, I mostly just didn’t have any opinion at all. I had always felt that if you pulled the more electronic sounds away you would be left with basically just some very generic songs. Fortunately, I can admit when I’m wrong and I sort of realized that when I finally made myself sit down and listen to this one. There is so much more going on and I would have realized that if I had ever really given them a chance. The layered sweet spots on this album would only sound so great the way they are; not because the song writing is mediocre — as I had originally thought — but because this is Murphy’s medium. I can’t really put my finger on it but this album just brought it all out for me. Too bad it’s their last. Gun to my head, “Dance Yourself Clean” is probably my favorite song of the year.

4. Deerhunter Halcyon Digest

I’m really glad that I liked this one as much as I did because I was worried about it. The biggest issue I have with Bradford Cox is that he doesn’t seem to have an edit button, and it makes for some pretty mediocre music bordering on pretentious. But I was taken back with just how streamlined (by Deerhunter standards, anyway) this record was. Not everyone is as happy to see the direction in which they’re moving but call me a fan. I like that they’re starting to phase out some of those really boring moments I had come to expect from them: where it’s clear the song has no where to go so they just seem to keep playing and playing and playing. Parts of the album are still kind of droning, but in a good way. I feel like they have the potential to make one of the best albums of this new decade and while this one isn’t it, in my mind, I like to imagine this as their build up to that imaginary success.

3. Beach House Teen Dream

This came out so long ago I had to check and make sure it was a 2010 album. I’m a sucker for simplicity and, boy, is this album simple. But, again, that’s why I like it so much. Even hearing it played in a Starbucks didn’t turn me off of it. I’m becoming worse and worse at dissecting albums and songs these days and I wish I had the ability to successfully portray what happens on this record but my mind is zapped from school. Just listen to “Zebra” and you know everything you need to know about Teen Dream. Their sound is so warm and I just love Christiane Legrand’s voice. This became one of those albums I played over and over again in my car, which says a lot that a sound so subdued never got too boring or tired to listen too.

2. The National High Violet

I like sad bastard music and I can’t help it. Now, that’s a bit of a harsh way to begin talking about my number two album but it’s just what a friend of mine said when we got in my car and this album came on. For the record, I think High Violet — and The National, by extension — are far from sad bastard musicians (well, perhaps sad at times). High Violet is no Alligator but it didn’t need to be to rank so highly on a list in 2010. The National didn’t really do anything above and beyond what you would expect but I think that’s a good thing. A lot of people felt that it didn’t really meet their expectations but I guess I didn’t really enter into this one expecting much more than a good, honest effort and that’s what they gave us. But, again, I’ll take a safe play by The National over some of the obnoxious things that came out this year *looks in the direction of Sleigh Bells.*

1. Arcade Fire The Suburbs

It was never really close, to be honest. Arcade Fire have hit their 6th gear with this one. I had high expectations by my standards and they were blown out of the water. The article I alluded to earlier characterized the lyrics on this one as  sophomoric, but I say this: Who gives a fuck what they’re saying when their making music like this? You had Funeral which was just raw energy and Neon Bible which was expansive but now there’s The Suburbs and it has made all the little things they do seem so gigantic. Throughout the album you have these tiny little moments — these little changes — that take the songs somewhere else and that’s what really did it for me. I wish I could do a better job of describing them, but I’ll pick out a couple of examples: the minor change in the verses to “Wasted Hours,” the exaggerated nature of the chords on “Rococo,” The bridge in “Modern Man.” On top of that you have the very obvious ways in which this record separates itself from the others. This time around, they made a rock album (Though I guess it wasn’t “Bruce” enough for some people). Then they basically end the album with what I deem to be a huge middle finger to these little synth pop groups that all seemed to pop up in the last two years with “Sprawl II.” It’s as if they decided to show everyone just how it should be done: with ALL live instruments. I mean, front to back, it’s just a great listen — to the point that I’m still wondering if perhaps this is their best. I’m not ready to commit to that opinion yet, but I’m throwing it out there.

I can’t be too vocal about it because, in my situation, I really only use it to pay off the interest on my student loans. I may set aside part of it toward the purchase of a netbook (the 17″ lapper just isn’t cutting it for mobility’s sake) but that point is moot until they give me my money.

But what if things were different and I needed that money now?

What if my rent depended on it and, by extension, my warmth and safety? Would I have to give blood/plasma or sell drugs to make rent? What if I had to sell my body in the interim? Would they refund me my dignity as well, once that check comes in? What if it took them even longer than this? What if I couldn’t get my girlfriend anything for her birthday and she broke up with me. Would they refund me my loss of consortium as well (Torts quip no. 1)?

Schools are like the oil industry sometimes. When the price of a barrel drops it takes a month to see it at the pump, but if a religious zealot throws his sandal at a tanker truck in Riyadh they tack on 10 cents the next day. The second the calendar turned over I received (count ‘em) five emails telling me it was time to renew my FinAid, but here I sit waiting for a refund that was already determined back in October. Can I at least consider doing my taxes first before you turn me upside down and shake me, School?

But what can you do? Nothing. Just thank them and politely ask for another.

Luckily, there is a lot to keep you busy in law school. If you’re ever looking for a distraction from the bullshit, just open one of your outline docs and let your eyes blur. You’ll swear your computer screen grows fifteen feet taller, like some Alice In Wonderland hallucination. I, like many before me, did everything wrong in my first term so it has been easy to keep my eyes on the prize lately. But more on that some other day. The way I see it, if I can brief a couple cases today I should be ahead of the game come Monday (even though it’s a losing battle since its Super Bowl weekend).

Steelers will cover. And you can thank me later.

Haven’t posted in a while because I just don’t feel like doing much of anything after working in Farmington Hills. The drive is killing me and I have to go back at least another two days next week.

But the year is just about over so I think it’s safe to make a short list. These were the albums I considered to be the best of this year. Please take into account that there were many (MANY) albums that I either did not hear or did not listen to enough to make an educated decision. One of these blatantly missing from the list is Dirty Projectors’ Bitte Orca. I heard it a couple times and very much enjoyed it but it was background music one time and an abbreviated listen the other. I would love to include it in this list but that would just be taking everyone’s word for it. And this is supposed to be my list, not crafted by the collective writings of blog after music blog.

First, I would like to make note of an album that disappointed me: Atlas Sound’s Logos. I was very excited for the release of this album — probably too excited. It failed to live up to my anticipations, which is probably my fault. Bradford Cox’s collaboration with Noah Lennox (Panda Bear) on “Walkabout” was the feel good track of the year, for me. Unfortunately, nothing else on the album sounds anything like it. And while there are some great little nuggets of dreamy folkness, much of the album sort of hovers in a fog of far away reverb and white noise. This is not to say that Logos is a bad album, just not top five material.

5. Boston Spaceships Zero To 99

I’m an unabashed Guided By Voices fan but it isn’t blind love for Robert Pollard that made me enjoy this album so much. Much of Bob’s solo and side project stuff sounds a little too off-the-cuff for me and lacks that stripped down sound I prefer. Boston Spaceships is the exception to this, and their third release was the most played album in my car for good reason: it’s perfect driving music. Hour-and-a-half drives to jobs on the other side of town require something upbeat and Zero to 99 fulfilled this need in a big way. An argument can be made to consider BS a supergroup with John Moen (Decemberists) another cog in the machine. This album is straight forward rock ‘n’ roll and it’s refreshing to hear amid everyone else dead set on making albums that sound as if they were recorded on Kevin McCallister’s Talkboy in Home Alone 2.

4. Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion

Some had this album within the top ten of the decade. No fucking way. BUT it is a great album. AC have cemented their place in indie lore with a catalogue of material that has changed the way a lot of people look at pop music. Taking live-set DJ culture and applying it to traditional song format was brilliant and there’s no question that MPP is their high water mark. Why do I not consider this the best of the year or one of the best in the decade? I have trouble awarding points to albums where you sometimes listen to them thinking “This would be ten times better if I drank a bunch of Robitussin.” When I’m in the mood for it, there is really no substitute for this record but a “best of the year” album shouldn’t be conditional. All things considered, MPP will be remembered, referenced and copied for some time to come and that says a lot about what Animal Collective have accomplished up to now.

3. Girls Album

The combo of a really messed up childhood and copious amounts of pills tends to lead to two things: death and superior albums. It’s unfortunate that the two seem to be so related but there’s no better example in 2009 than Girls’ debut album. Yeah, I know, I sort of ripped lo-fi in spot five but I’m really warming up to the bands that show incredible song writing. Girls is one of those select groups and they have quickly become one of the most talked about West coast bands in the blogosphere. And with good reason. Album takes the term “stripped down” to a new galaxy and it does so in such an endearing way. With a “honesty-is-the-best-policy” sort of credo, the content of Album is what keeps you coming back. Sarcasm, jealousy and excess in a tightly assembled and ingeniously simple package. A band to watch, indeed. Oh, and please don’t die guys.

(Side note: also watch out for Best Coast in 2010. Hopefully sooner rather than later, this California duo will put out a full length and we’ll never have to hear people gush about Vivian Girls ever again.)

2. Grizzly Bear Veckatimest

Could very easily have been number one if not for my penchant for being drawn to the dramatic. Trent Reznor once said of Grizzly Bear, referencing this album, that he wished there were artists making this kind of music when he was younger and more impressionable. That probably wouldn’t have gone well for NIN fans-to-be, but I think it’s a fairly significant statement. To really look at how this band excels is to break it down part by part. Every member can sing, something that’s an extreme rarity these days. The musicianship is nearly flawless, substituting what they can do with what they feel they should do. Restraint is a telltale sign of a band’s maturity and focus, to which Grizzly Bear are wise beyond their years. The Brian Wilson harmonies mesh perfectly with their everything-in-moderation approach to songwriting. GB was a diamond in the rough that today deserves every bit of the praise they have garnered in 2009. Ed Droste could sing “This Is The Song That Doesn’t End” and I would probably enjoy it. Crazy pipes!

1. The Antlers Hospice

I debated between this one and GB for the top spot but I had to be honest with myself. I have listened to this album more than any other and what’s more telling is the fact that I feel the experience the same way every time. I’m a sucker for theme albums and a sucker for the dramatic, and Hospice is definitely both. Just how dramatic? I played it for a friend and she cried. I’m not kidding. Written about Peter Silberman’s experience working in a cancer ward, the album is one cohesive statement that grabs hold and never lets go from beginning to end. It almost literally catches you in headlights. Those who have experience the death of a loved one to cancer should handle this album with care because there is nothing metaphorical about any of its lyrics. In fact, the words are transcribed in prose within the liner notes. Silberman recorded almost the whole thing by himself in his bedroom and it is, in my opinion, a masterpiece. The dramatic lyrical content is only magnified by the soundtrack surrounding it. Bedtime lullabies meet atmospheric swells and describe the mood as accurately as the painful words. This album is a literal punch to the gut and will remain one of my favorite albums for a long time to come.