Editor's Pick: It was probably Uncle Tupelo's Anodyne, same as last year. So how about Nirvana's In Utero, which I dragged out of mothballs when we did our article about Nevermind's anniversary in September. In Utero fried my hair all over again, and then got me thinking about the band's cover of Leadbelly's "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" from MTV Unplugged In New York... so I'll say that.
Marc Brubaker: Every Time I Die, The Big Dirty. Zeppelin's "Out On The Tiles." Billy Joel. Dan Deacon. Festivals. Distortion pedals. Reverb. Vinyl. Hell, I don't know. Probably the Internet, because of the way it facilitates musical discovery and connections these days. This is such an insane question to attempt to answer. I simply love music, the joy and freedom both inherent within it and that it brings to both the performer and listener. I've got far too many favorites to simply select one thing.
John Seaborn Gray: A dead tie between Pedro the Lion's Control (2003) and The Alarm's Declaration (1984). Control is probably Pedro the Lion's finest work, an angry yet emotionally deadened album about a relationship failing on an epic level. Listening to it allows you to experience the painful disintegration at just enough distance to view it with a redeeming veneer of black humor.
Declaration could have been huge with a proper American radio push back in the day. When they first started out, The Alarm were an intriguing, bombastic mix of London Calling-era Clash and Boy-era U2. I have no idea why the giant, soaring anthems on this album and their others didn't take hold in the consciousness of the world the way other bands did, but they should have.
Craig Hlavaty: Rediscovering Bruce Springsteen's Darkness On the Edge of Town after watching the HBO documentary on it, The Promise. The extra two discs of music from those sessions is brilliant stuff. Even the Boss' leftovers are magical.
Jef With One F: My favorite non-2010 music hasn't been written yet, but I believe that one day it will be. When I entered high school, I owned four CDs, and all of them were from Guns N' Roses. I have been patient because I know that there is one, and only one, more album left in the original writing team. I know that before all is said and done that there will come the Jesus of rock albums. I remain a devoted apostle.
Will it happen in 2011? Probably not, and probably not the next year either. Nonetheless, you have to have faith. Axl will be crazy till the day he days, but it won't stop destiny. We'll see Slash, Duff, Izzy, and Adler - yes, Adler. I always liked his drumming better than Sorum's, sue me - reunited.
The streets will run with the blood of the nonbeliever.
