Best of 2010

Hey kids,

Long time coming this one.  Usually, I'm on the ball by the first week of December.  Alas, this month and indeed this year have been absolutely manic.  That comes with the territory of having moved twice and lived in three different countries over the span of those 12 months.  Given that, I do feel like I've missed out on a lot of good music and I'm not as confident about my list as I've been in years passed.  So, I'm counting on you all to clue me in to what I've missed.  

I always find it interesting (even if no one else does) to review the lists from year to year and try to divine any long term trends in my music tastes or if the albums I select have anything to do with the year I've had.  My selections last year seemed to be pretty melancholy whereas it's hard to come up with a theme to this year's selections.  If anything, the choices this year seem to reflect a re-diversification of my tastes away from a heavy focus on indie rock (though that genre's still well represented).  It also might be a reflection of how much there was to choose from this year from a wide range of genres.  Indeed, this was a really hard year for me to choose only 10 albums and a #1.  Usually, number one's a slam dunk for me: Sin Fang Bous last year and Portishead the year before that were easy choices.  Likewise, there's usually only 2-3 albums that I feel bad about leaving off the top 10.  This year I could have put any of my top 8 albums at #1 and had a list of a further 10 (at least) that I couldn't find any room for.  So, my apologies to Ariel Pink, Jonsi, Aloe Blacc, Daft Punk (a great soundtrack for a horrible movie), Gorillaz, The Walkmen, Dangermouse & Sparklehorse, The Gaslight Anthem, Gil Scott-Heron, Deerhunter, Yeasayer, and the Morning Benders.  All fantastic, fantastic albums that really deserve a listen to but just couldn't crack the top 10 in what looks like a music year that parallels the parity in the NFL (that's American football for you Europeans).  

But, while I feel bad about leaving some albums off the list, I feel no qualms about leaving off Vampire Weekend and Sufjan Stevens.  Vampire Weekend gets my most disappointing album of the year and it seems that Sufjan and I just don't get along.

So, as ever, feel free to read through this list and post your own note and, if you'd be so kind, to post the link to your note in the discussion section (as well as any other comments you have, of course).  The hope is always to make this a musical discovery journey for all of us.  And with that, to the list.

10. Titus Andronicus - The Monitor

So it turns out I haven't completely mellowed out.  While I couldn't find room for the Walkmen on this year's list, there's still plenty of room in my heart for guitar-driven rock loaded with hooks and plenty of shouting and sing-alongs.  They're a bit like a harder edged Arcade Fire, almost simply because the lead singer's got a rougher voice and is a much better screamer.  Plus they fill the role usually filled by Sunset Rubdown of having an album almost exclusively populated with 7 minute songs.

9. Das Racist - Sit Down, Man

Easily the most divisive pick of the top 10.  A stereotypical love-it or hate-it album.  Their style's reminiscent of early De La Soul.  That kind of trippy, disinterested flow disguising clever and complicated rhymes.  And, I mean, they're really pretty funny.  "I'm in the building with Belding asking for whom the bell rings".  Come on, that's hilarious.  They are in a battle, though, with M.I.A. and Caribou for some of the strangest/creepiest videos of the year.

8. The National - High Violet

A testament to the quality this year that this album only checks in at number 8.  The worst thing that I can say about the album is that it's not a departure from anything they've done previously.  All of their albums are fantastic, it's just that this album seems very familiar.  As usual, their paeans to Ohio (Bloodbuzz, Ohio) resonate with me and all of their songs always sound so Midwestern to me.  The album does have my #1 song of the year, Conversation 16.  A typical National song that goes 0 to 60 and back to 0 in a couple of notes.  Don't know how many times I've been in the car this year belting out "I was afraid I'd eat your brains.  I was afraid I'd eat your brains.  CAUSE I'M EVIL!!".

7. Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma

Kind of the electronic version of Sin Fang Bous last year.  An album that takes a cacophony of sounds and turns it into music.  An album full of static, squeals, pings, laser sound effects, etc. that doesn't sound corny or forced at all.  And it's not spacey, introspective stuff either and it's definitely not "clubland" electronica crap.  It's totally hip, head nodding, rocking stuff.  Plus Thom Yorke makes an appearance.  Nuff said.

6. Beach House - Teen Dream

Total late comer to this album.  No idea why really.  I suppose I see the term "dream pop" attached to a band and fear the worst.  And I mean, it does have that dreamy nearly Belle & Sebastian type feel to it.  But it rocks just enough so that it doesn't actually put me to sleep.  What's more the lead singer has a husky enough voice that it presents enough contrast with the music to make it interesting.  I don't know.  There's just something about this album I love.

5. Tom Jones - Praise & Blame

I shit you not.  This is an awesome album.  And, yes, it is that Tom Jones.  Very much reminiscent of the Rick Rubin produced Johnny Cash albums and not the awful Neil Diamond come-back album.  It's an album that has Tom reflecting back on life and contemplating mortality in a straight blues and gospel type album.  And, man, he's still got that voice.   Not too much original stuff on here, but he picks some awesome covers (like the brilliant John Lee Hooker song "Burning Hell") and, really, he could sing just about anything and make it sound cool.  If nothing else, check out everything after the 2 minute mark in this clip.

4. Ariya Astrobeat Arkestra - S/T

I can't get enough of this album.  With a nod to Sun Ra, this English 9-piece "arkestra" has put out the funkiest album of the year.  A bit like Flying Lotus, this is what club music should be like in my opinion.  Beyond that, though, you can put this album on anytime and in any situation.  And, oh yes, it will make you boogie.

3. The Black Keys - Brothers

Who ever would've guessed Ohio could be such a musical hotbed?  I've been a latecomer to the Black Keys, but now that the White Stripes have up and vanished they're our last, best recourse to 2-man no-frills garage rock.  And they actually look like two guys who hang out in the garage as compared to Jack and Meg.  Yeah, it's 15 songs, all about 3 minutes long, with no pretenses of being pretty or thought-provoking or any of that crap.  They're just here to rock.

2. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

I just couldn't put them at #1 cause so many people are going to have this there.  I just have to be a little bit different. Their last album was a mild disappointment in that it wasn't completely transcendental like Funeral was.  And there was a little bit of skepticism when I heard that this was going to be a "concept album".  That usually never ends well.  But this dystopian vision of life in the suburbs is unbelievably good from start to finish.  Great variety of tracks with a tremendous range of sounds and styles.  Kudos to these guys for not making a "safe" album.  It really works.

1. Plan B - The Defamation of Strickland Banks

Somehow it just works out that the top 2 albums of this year's list are both concept albums.  Didn't see that coming.  And I didn't see this effort from Plan B coming either.  Heretofore a foul-mouthed white English rapper (albeit a good one), all of a sudden there comes this Motown-inspired soul album with just a touch of hip-hop thrown in.  The album follows ne'er-do-well Strickland Banks into and out of prison and incorporates a big, dramatic, Hollywood-type sound into the album without making it seem cheesy as it's still rough around the edges mixing, as it does, Plan B's rhymes with a quintessential soul style.  Great album.