Over the next couple of weeks, Backbeat will feature some Top Ten lists from around the Village Voice Media chain. Click here for previous year-in-review coverage from Backbeat and VVM.
Any knucklehead with DSL and a laptop can now make an electronic track. With a half hour of clicking and fiddling, you can sample enough cheesy beats and mashups to clog arteries from here to Berlin.
In an admirable show of Christmas spirit, MP3 blog Stereogum has thoughtfully compiled a list of its top 50 downloaded tracks of the year. Even more thoughtfully, they've zipped all 50 of the files into one conveniently downloadable archive! Among the gems are a radical Diplo deconstruction/remix of Radiohead's "Reckoner," selections from year-end-list favorites such as Hercules and Love Affair, Fleet Foxes and Crystal Stilts, and even a track from Brooklyn-via-Boulder outfit Chairlift. It take
As music critics, the most common question we get asked (and ask each other, for that matter) is, "What are you listening to?" The pervasiveness of this query is precisely what inspired Heavy Rotation, our latest feature. For the benefit of those who happen to be curious, we've compiled a list of all the things we're listening to this week. Feel free to chime in with picks of your own after the jump.
