The following are my favorite albums of 2010 so far. I did not include a lot of big releases this year, notably Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs, which when viewing the rest of my choices may be surprising, but hey, I didn’t get that Pitchfork tattoo yet, so I’m not always inclined to do such things.
29. Matthew Dear – Black City
Dark techno driven by groovy beats and moody vocals.
28. Punch Brothers – Antifogmatic
Good neo-bluegrass, the insane talents of singer and mandolin player Chris Thile hold up the album.
27. The Sword – Warp Riders
There isn’t enough good, accessible metal these days. I love heavy guitar work and fun riffs and the one album that really filled that need for me this year was The Sword. They opened up for Metallica this year and I don’t believe that attests to their sound. It’s dark and brooding at times, but interspersed throughout their album is a good dose of powerful guitar and drum work. Head bobbing fun that will let you remain socially accepted. Air guitar rating = 8.5
26. The Radio Dept. – Clinging to A Scheme
I mostly just love the production on this album. Indie pop tends to have this misty sheen on it, but the acclaimed Swedish band really did a great job this time. Noted for using a drum machine instead of a drummer (which after dreaming of not having to deal with drummers ever again is a wonderful idea to me), they craft a really catchy sound that is both new and throwback at the same time. Go Sweden!
25. Janelle Monae – The ArchAndroid
Janelle Monae is creative as hell. Personally, I don’t think the album was the masterpiece that most critics claimed it was, only because the robot sex-goddess theme was a bit too tongue-in-cheek to be taken too seriously. Having seen her perform live I can attest to her talent, and as far as neo-R&B/funk/soul musicians go, she definitely has moved very high up to the top in that respect. However, all music in that genre can be crippled in ingenuity by owing a lot to other musicians in the genre, and she suffers from being a bit too much like a James Brown, and not really enough like an independently identifiable musician.
24. Pantha du Prince – Black Noise
Minimalist techno; the above single features Animal Collective’s Noah Lennox
23. Vampire Weekend – Contra
What hasn’t been said about Vampire Weekend? Contra incorporated a more electronic sound.
22. Surfer Blood – Astrocoast
Finally a Florida band I can be proud of. “Swim” is a perfect single. The band seems like it has distilled the concept of a “rock band” down into the perfect formula of fuzz-guitar tracks and well timed breakdowns. They just simply rock, and they rock well.
21. Wavves – King of the Beach
Regardless of all of Nathan Williams’ issues last year, he seems like a pretty damn cool guy. Boyfriend of Best Coast’s lead singer (whose album barely misses the cut for this list), he crafted a fantastically pop-punk-lofi (I hate doing this sort of thing, I’m sorry) album that is incredibly catchy and hey! It has audible vocals! It’s almost like pop-punk you don’t have to be ashamed to listen to. Reminiscent of a lot of the 90s punk that was such a big force in California, this is a perfect summer album.
20. Caribou – Swim
Dan Snaith cannot stay focused to save his life. Nary a release as Caribou (formerly Manitoba) sounds like another. Andorra had awesome 60s jam rock. Start Start Breaking My Heart was IDM. The Milk of Human Kindness was sampled and ethereal. Swim belongs in…the club? “Odessa”, the biggest “hit” off of the album is a dark groove completely unlike other Caribou releases.
19. Sleigh Bells – Treats
Lo-fi is in. Sleigh Bells is the epitome of lo-fi. Derek Miller’s hair metal riffs combined with Alexis Krauss perfectly shouted vocals. At times she sounds like an excited cheerleader, and well, its sort of an odd musical thing to experience once you then hear giant booming beats crackling over the previous two musical elements. Innovation in 2010 comes in strange forms….speaking of odd innovation…
18. Gonjasufi – Sufi and a Killer
I first heard Gonjasufi when he guested on a Flying Lotus track. I enjoyed the track, but didn’t really think he would do anything that special as a solo artist. Boy was I wrong. Incredible use of unique samples from all around the globe. Gonjasufi crafted a tripped out lo-fi sound that just seriously hasn’t existed before. The album is a challenge to listen to, for sure, but its rewarding for the simple fact that you won’t find other artists anywhere that sound like him.
17. Four Tet – There is Love In You
There Is Love in You isn’t as beat driven as Four Tet’s previous releases, but draws much more from ambient and emotional layering.
16. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffti – Before Today
Ariel Pink is a weirdo. This is well established. Before Today encompasses all the genres cool kids of today like to parody, 80s synth rock, 80s indie rock, etc. But at the same time, Ariel Pink and his band of uber-hipsters happen to do it very well.
15. MGMT – Congratulations
I was incredibly worried about Congratulations. When “Time to Pretend” and “Kids” got huge I feared the idea of MGMT creating a weak album departing from their true psychedelic roots. Well, my fears were quelled with the release of Congratulations. Long form jams and vague lyrics and most importantly, not a bit of a catchy chorus in sight. That’s my MGMT.
14. Fang Island – Fang Island
The happiest bunch of musicians you’ll find releasing an album this year. The band described the album as “the sound of everyone high-fiving everyone”. I’m inclined to agree with them.
13. Curren$y – Pilot Talk
Weed rap done right. Curren$y isn’t pandering like Kid Cudi or Wiz Khalifa, who have become parodies of themselves. Fantastic guest spots from Mos Def, Jay Electronica, and of course, Snoop “Dee Oh Double Gee”.
12. Twin Shadow – Forget
Embodies the “post-ironic” genre of modern indie music. Twin Shadow creates his faux-80s music with a bad moustache and probably some sort of TASCAM, but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t sound really great.
10. Deerhunter – Halcyon Digest
Deerhunter has failed to produce an uninteresting album. With Halcyon Digest, they maintained their lo-fi style, but opted for more acoustic guitar and sampled bits. Bradford Cox’s solo project Atlas Sound is starting to show through more in their music, which I believe is for the best. Also, hands down the best use of saxophone on an album in many years.
9. Das Racist – Sit Down, Man
Very clearly influenced by the delivery and short metaphors and analogies of MF DOOM. Funny. Intelligent. Clearly don’t give a damn whether or not people think they are “legit”.
8. Gorillaz – Plastic Beach
Album to album, Damon Albarn’s eclectic project rarely sounds like the same group. Still best known for their 2001 single “Clint Eastwood”, Gorillaz have moved past that grimy stage (which was actually only present on that one single) towards a .Plastic Beach is littered with incredible guests and such a dichotomy of musical styles that it barely sounds like a Gorillaz album and more like a dreamy pastiche of what’s good in music right now.
7. Beach House – Teen Dream
Dreamy-landscapes of emotion
6. Big Boi – Sir Luscious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty
OutKast fans have been waiting a long time for a proper OutKast release, especially after the mediocre soundtrack album Idlewild, and while SLLF:TSoCD is not an OutKast album, its the same return to the 808 and brass production we have come to know the duo (especially Big Boi) for. Big Boi’s style is so important and iconic to the dirty south rap scene that it will surely be the name mentioned by future rap historians (a job I really hope exists in the future).
5. Joanna Newsom – Have One On Me
The harpist either pisses you off or enamors you. And for several years I refused to listen to her music simply because her voice felt too grating and whiny. When I have Have One on Me a chance I was very pleased to see that her talent much overshadows an initially unlistenable voice. In fact, her vocal abilities are quite impressive, albeit quite incomparable to others. Have One on Me was an ambitious release, spanning 3 cds and lasting almost 2 hours. Her songwriting is more than beautiful, painting amazing imagery and unique stories.
4. Flying Lotus – Cosmogramma
The term “genre-crossing”is thrown around in about 9 out of 10 Cosmogramma reviews, but with Flying Lotus’ newest release his departure from purely hip-hop instrumentals has indeed soared into a magical land where funk, jazz, IDM, breakbeat, hip-hop, chiptune, and ambient can all exist in a surreal Dali-cum-Aphex Twin landscape. In a recent interview with The Sound of Young America’s Jesse Thorn, the artist stated that as a child he wanted to be Dr. Dre, well, in my opinion he has transcended the production skills of the almighty Dre already with this latest release.
3. The Tallest Man on Earth – The Wild Hunt
Swedish singer Kristian Matsson crafts beautiful pastoral scenes with a unique singing and fingerpicking style. The incessant Bob Dylan comparisons are silly, primarily because Matsson is a much more talented singer and he has crafted a much more unique style than Dylan. His rusty croon has the ability to do fairly magical things in a very traditional folk mindset. Impressive stuff. The tape-scratched production is a perfect accompaniment to the ambiance of the music as well.
2. Sufjan Stevens – Age of Adz
Sufjan Stevens, the posterboy of indiedom, hadn’t released a proper LP for five years. When he put out the pre-LP EP All Delighted Peoples, fans were probably perplexed (but pleased) with the unseen change to Sufjan’s style. Although, if you had heard The BQE, a recent symphonic release from Sufjan (or his first proper release Enjoy Your Rabbit), you would have gotten an idea that he was moving away from banjo plucking, opting for synth twinkling and drum machine boom bapping. Age of Adz, inspired by the crazed “religious prophet” and outsider artist Royal Robertson, is an incredibly crafted electronic album. Imagine if you will, a world where Ben Gibbard and Sufjan switched places and the Postal Service was ambitious and matured a LOT and incorporated glittering strings and woodwind arrangements into their synth driven music. It’s a lot like that, but much, much better.
1. LCD Soundsystem – This is Happening
Few moments in my music listening life will ever compare to hearing the main synth drop in on “Dance Yrself Clean”. James Murphy and the rest of the LCD crew honed the long form “disc0-punk” jam down to an exact science. Let’s just hope he was being serious when he implied this may not be the group’s last release.
Nice, back in action. Good list
Great list, but I wish in your descriptions and banter you’d lay off the hyperbole.
I’m also not a Pitchfork fan, but it just sounds silly when you blast them by implying they’re basically mainstream/big-album hype-sters and mention your maverick exclusion of The Suburbs … then throw in things like Vampire Weekend, LCD Soundsystem, MGMT, etc., in your own list. It sounds just as proprietary and smug about good music as Pitchfork itself often does.
Also: “Matsson … has crafted a much more unique style than Dylan.” Quite an accomplishment for a singer two years and two albums in. It’s a ludicrous statement by anyone’s standards. It doesn’t even hold water if you were only to include Dylan’s first 2 albums … and I love Matsson!
Regardless, fun list … I’ll check a few of these out for sure.
In the opening statements I said the “pitchfork tattoo” bit because I tend to like Pitchfork and I happen to love most of the albums they deem good (and although I think numbers are annoying and arbitrary, and lists make me nervous, to be honest), yet this year Suburbs really didn’t impress me (neither did Neon Bible) and it is a band most “Pitchforky” music fans usually love.
As for the Dylan statement, I will admit that was a blatant act of hyperbole due to laziness and me writing it quite late at night. With further consideration it becomes obvious that they are only very slightly similar. Matsson skews infinitely more pastoral and his songs are structured less often as a narrative. However, I will say in Matsson’s defense is that he appears to be a more technically skilled fingerpicker, with a definite unique style in that respect. Also, I am definitely uneducated in the entire career of Dylan, so maybe I don’t have the right to believe that yet.
Decent list — but saying Matsson is better than Bob is just nonsense. Could Matsson write, “If I had the stars from the darkest night, or the diamonds from the deepest oceans / I’d forsake them all for your sweet kiss”? Or could he even play (let alone create) a song like “It’s Alright Ma”? No chance. Or could he begin an epic with the line, “I came in from the wilderness, a creature void of form / Come in she said, “I’ll give ya, shelter from the storm?” Or could he write internal and end rhymes like, “It’s a shadowy world, skies are slippery gray / A woman just gave birth to a prince today, and dressed him in scarlet / He’ll put the priest in his pocket, put the blade to the heat / Take the motherless children off the street / And place them at the feet of a harlot”? Or could he inspire a generation by music alone? Who else could be covered by both Van Morrison and PJ Harvey? Sorry, not to sound like a jerk, but seriously, let’s not get carried away about The Tallest Man On Earth. In fairness to him, even he would say he couldn’t touch Dylan. This reminds me of when Bright Eyes was all in vogue. The comparison’s were obvious. They’re folk song-songwriters, who write meaningful songs. But that’s about where it ends.
First of all, I never said outright that Matsson is better than Dylan, I only mentioned him possession a more unique style. That did not mention quality. Merzbow crafted a hell of a lot more unique style than both Dylan and Matsson, but that doesn’t mean he’s better. I personally (read as: an opinion) don’t think that Dylan is the godsend of a lyricist that most people do and to be honest, at this point in his career he seems like a complete money-grubbing whore, violently skewing from the attitude he carried earlier in his life. His recent tour was an absolute travesty.