We live in a time that I think albums are irrelevant. With many services like iTunes and Amazon, buying full albums doesn't make sense when you can buy the best songs. I remember in my youth carrying a boatload (seriously a small luggage or lunchbox) of cassettes to listen to and wasting my batteries fast forwarding past those duds on the album. I can't remember when I didn't have some sort of music player in my pocket from a Sony Walkman wm-102, Minidisc, pre-ipod mp3 players to my current 160gig ipod. The idea of buying the best songs off a record was not possible with records and cassettes unless the song was a released single, but if you wanted other songs, you had to buy the entire album. Bands fill up these albums with filler with song titles like "Intro, reprise, or instrumental tracks." Anyway, we don't have to waste our money with this rubbish if we get what we want, the best tracks off the album.
I listened to the albums on the Amazon and NPR "Lists so far of 2010" and the 98% of those albums don't have more than 2 or 3 good songs on them, if any. How can you recommend an album that doesn't have more than 50% of good songs on them? Instead of telling you about good songs, I try and create a podcast so you can listen to them. I do apologize for not releasing a new music podcast in the last 7 months. I plan to be more vigilant in my endeavor and share my favorite songs and albums of the year.