The Top 20 Albums 2010

Every year I fret about the prospects of future music - as if innovation must have run dry by now.  What more can be done? How can a song or an album grab me the same way, on the same level of fabulous, as by-gone gems?  How can music regenerate anew?  2010 took me by surprise with a fresh new genre variously dubbed "chillwave" or "bliss pop".  Bands like Washed Out, Small Black, Candy Claws, Wild Nothing, Hooray for Earth, and Memoryhouse impressed with airy, electro-pop singles and EPs.  

Even Sufjan Stevens got into the game, although with a decidedly cold and detached art rock version.   It is good, but not great, and this marks the first year that a Sufjan album was released while failing to make the list.  In fact, this year's crop is just as interesting by what is missing.  In the company of Sufjan, several perennial favorites missed the mark with mediocre efforts, such as Stars, Broken Social Scene (sorry, fans, I'm unconvinced), Plants and Animals (although not nearly as bad as the critics say - it just kind of pales compared to the last one), Caribou and Dungen (yikes, all but one are Canadian).  I should note that Caribou got showered with critical acclaim but I was completely underwhelmed, especially after the triumph of Andorra.

There were no shortage of great albums this year, as always.  I think I also cast my net wider, buying more albums this year than any year previous.

20.  Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me

Elfen princess Joanna Newsom suffered from the Sandinista Complex this year, putting out a 3 CD epic that suffers only from length.  I don't get the sense of this release as an coherent album, not because it is all over the place, but because I begin to lose attention.  This is not to suggest, however, that it is not chock full of beautifully rendered neo-classical dirges and ditties.  With her signature whimsy, Newsom has crafted a beautiful collection of melodious and mystical tunes.  Watch her do "Soft as Chalk" on Fallon here.

19.  Black Mountain - Wilderness Heart

Jumping back and forth between Pink Mountaintops and Black Mountain, Vancouver's Stephen McBean continues to bring the the rock.  Aping Led Zeppelin and Sabbath is risky business (as is cover art of a great white shark flying out of a glass office building) -- if it is not done with the appropriate mix of homage and freshness, the result is usually an annoyingly lame dinosaur.  Not so here.  It makes me feel young again, dumb again, in love again.  Smoke, pumping fists, and tears.  Check out the lead track "The Hair Song".  

18.  Vampire Weekend - Contra

Brooklyn's Vampire Weekend has become a crossover success story, bringing their quirky world beats and button-down indie melodies to frat houses everywhere.  I was skeptical.  Their first album was too precious and bland and the subsequent hype annoyed me.  Contra is on so many top lists this year, though, that I thought I should give them another chance.  I bought this album yesterday...well, they are now kind of amazing and pushed into the Top 20.  Impish, intelligent, and hooky.  Check out the subtle beauty of "Taxi Cab" here.  Like Penguin Cafe Orchestra with vocals.

17.  Phosphorescent - Here's to Taking it Easy

Some may cringe at Matthew Houck's cracking, lonesome stranger vocal delivery, but there is no denying the brilliance of his anthemic, country-noir passages.  On this 5th album, the production and orchestration have ballooned and blossomed and what we have here are beautiful meditations of love, life, loss and...well...rambling on, I suppose.  Great slide guitar, New Orleanian horns, inspirational country chorals, and redemption.  Listen to them channel The Band on "The Mermaid Parade".

16.  Deerhunter - The Halcyon Digest

Deerhunter may once have been called a "noise band" or "avant" or "experimental", but this new album is approaching accessible -- well, at least by comparison.  There are many intricate layers to this record, and front-man Bradford Cox pleases us with intriguing rhythms, chirping analog synths, various guitar washes, and reverb drenched vocals.  Always something new each time I listen and touchstones are so oddly numerous that one must simply give up and listen to it on its own terms.  Befuddling and charming.  Here's "Memory Boy", which could have been written by the Monkees or Big Star, were it not for the...the..."Deerhunterishness".

15.  Citay - Dream Get Together

Citay produce big orchestral psych-pop in the same vein as Rogue Wave, Polyphonic Spree (sort of), and Olivia Tremor Control.  Or even Queen, when Queen strayed into pop song territory.  Long songs prevail, with multiple cycles, bridges and codas, and the layers are dizzying and delightful.  Heady and meticulous, without being proggy or pretentious. And always amazing, soaring harmonies.  How's about you listen to "Careful With That Hat", here, please.

14.  Nightlands - Forget the Mantra

Fabulous debut...can't remember how I found this gem, but I think it started with free song download followed by a $9 download of the full album (followed by the vinyl release, which I had to have).  Indebted to Animal Collective and maybe the Moody Blues, this is a collection of moody, preternatural electro-acoustic expositions that sink the listener into a sort of soft goo, as tribalistic vocals rain down from the heavens.  I'm re-reading last sentence, hang on....yes, that's exactly it.  Support this band and download for great value and subsequent aural hallucinations.

13.  Delorean - Subiza

There is no way I should like this album.  I just don't do the sort of electro-beat dance raves that Delorean samples and sends.  Well, now I guess I do.  There is a difference here, a quality that has captivated me.  When dance is overtly sexy, and over-charged and dumb, I don't just dislike it, I find it malignant.  But this is summery and innocent, and the vocals are not about my or anyone else's hump -- they are airy and nostalgic and collectivist.  Laid back dance music?  The first dance music I can fully enjoy sitting in the sun, barely moving, except for the quiet rise and fall of my wine glass.

12.  Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Before Today

Ariel Pink has remarked that this is his first album.  Prior to Before Today's release, Pink had put out quite a few collections of quirky lo-fi bedroom recordings that were pleasing enough and prescient of the truly remarkable song-writing that was to come.  His craft now fully realized, Pink is all about A.M radio anachronisms, but conjured in a way that would leave classic rockists confused and dismissive.  Which lays bare my indie-snobbishness, because Ariel Pink's take on dead David Bowies and long-buried Bee Gees is pure A.M. Gold.  My fave, "L'estat".

11. MGMT - Congratulations

One suspects that there were some record company executives positively drooling dollar signs over the pop perfection of the 2008 single "Time to Pretend", my favorite song of that year.  MGMT had other ideas brewing, however, releasing a follow up that was as challenging as it was varied.  Rather than safely repeating a dance-pop formula, the band instead put forth a pastiche of XTC-informed post rock, with pop hooks concealed in their back pocket.  I was nonplussed at first but after a few listens, I was smitten.  Check out "Song for Dan Treacy".

10.  Titus Andronicus - The Monitor

These brawling N.J. civil war junkies impressed me at the Pitchfork Festival in 2008 and then literally blew my sun-scorched head apart in their return appearance in 2010.  Every song is a loquacious war cry, a thumping, reckless, off-the-rails train wreck.  Songs are long, impassioned street-fights between Bruce Springsteen and Johnny Rotten and  you are happy to be a victim strewn amongst the twisted metal. Sullen?  Sombre?  A victim of modern ennui?  Throw on The Monitor and kickstart your soul.  Check out "A More Perfect Union".


9.  The Marching Band - Pop Cycle

I simply cannot figure out why this band has passed under the radar of mainstream indiepop connoisseurs.  Their debut album (amazing) got a wee bit of press, but this year's follow up, Pop Cycle, can only be found in the specialty-oriented blogosphere.  These Swedes aren't even listed in allmusic.com, which is weird and remarkable.  It's a shame, because this is a gem of an album.  Ultra-catchy, bouncy, jangly pop tunes that stick in your head for days, yet remain welcome.  Unless you find candy-coated joy distasteful, go find and buy this record. 


8.  The Besnard Lakes - Are the Roaring Night

When this album came out in early 2010 I was immediately smitten and even annoyed, because the lead track was so damn good that I wished it had made it into my Top 500 all time list that I had already settled on (and carved in stone, so to speak).  So posted a small blurb and a download, extolling its virtues - check it here.  If you like psychedelic guitar layers without the indulgent noodling, as well as soaring, anthemic boy-girl harmonies, you will find this glued to your CD tray.





7.  School of Seven Bells - Disconnect From DesireSchool of Seven Bells have filled a yawing gap in my musical life, taking up the seats of honor once occupied by The Cocteau Twins and Lush.  They do it perfectly here and I am in pure goth-pop love.  Many of the songs are lyrically insipid, though:  "There are so many things that I wish I knew how to say in a way that you'd understand, but I can't/So many times I've tried looking into your eyes for a sign that maybe you feel the same, but you don't".  Did a 13 year-old girl write this?  But you see, when these words are emoted by a pair of magical wood fairy princesses, with a gauzy guitar and synth backdrop worthy of the 80s underground, the words are nothing less than profound.   Check out "Babelonia".

6.  Sun Airway - Nocturne of Exploded Crystal Chandelier

"Nocturne" typically refers to a musical piece that is evocative of "night".  Who knew?  I had to look it up.  And then we have an exploded crystal chandelier.  If the band is trying to describe their sound, then it feels...about right?  This is perhaps the most obscure entry this year, but well-deserved.  Owing a debt to Animal Collective, but achieving a unique identity in their own right, Sun Airway gives us a glistening, ethereal tapestry of sounds with double-time heart beats.  Oh, Naoko is a stand out track.


5.  Holy Fuck - Latin

I think Holy Fuck went ahead and did a Caribou album while Dan Snaith was trying on a new pair of ill-fitting sound pants.  So I got my new Caribou after all, albeit without vocals.  Holy Fuck's instrumental grooves are hyponotizing, mind-screwing wonderlands.  Deep rumbling bass lines, techno-funky drums, droney sample loops, and expansive layers of guitar combine to make a stellar neu-electronica LP.  Check out "Latin America" and if you don't bop to the beats, check your pulse.


4.  No Age - Everything In Between

I am fast friends with the lo-fi noise rock, provided the heart is there, and provided it's not merely a strategy to cover up mediocrity (I can tell, I tell myself).  No Age are the current supreme beings of this anti-art and this album showcases the best of the genre.  I listen to this record and I am cast back to the fuzzy days of Sonic Youth and Pavement.  I listen to this album and I simply feel...relief.  Relief in the simplicity, in the oblique meaning, in the white noise.  Listen to "Valley Hump Crash", it's important.



3.  Adam Franklin - I Could Sleep For A Thousand Years 

I have a special allegiance to Adam Franklin - he is the former frontman of my all time favorite but now defunct band, Swervedriver.  As a solo artist (sometimes under the moniker Toshack Highway), Franklin has assembled an impressive post-Swerve discography.  Weaving melodic, spacey guitar dynamics that draw on a wonderful variety of rock history touchstones, this is his best album yet.  Check out some tracks at his myspace.


  

2.  Frightened Rabbit - The Winter of Mixed Drinks
These Scots impress once again with their third great album, providing a pile of sing-a-long guitar anthems that would give a young U2 a serious run for their money.  There is an earnestness to their songs that is hard to resist and one is immediately drawn into the semi-literate and infectious party.  "Swim Until You Can't See Land" uses the simplest of metaphors and is up there among my favorite songs of the year.  Check out "Swim" here.



1.  Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

It's quite amazing watching this band become the biggest thing since U2, given that I used to see them live in 100 person capacity venues.  To manage such a growth spurt and still  put out yet another #1 album (on my lists) is astounding.  When I first heard the double A-sides of "Month of May" and "The Suburbs" I was concerned.  Neither song moved me, and the former seemed awfully derivative, approaching a rip off of something I can't put my finger on.  Well, all my fears were assuaged with the release of the full album.  While I feel the album could have easily been 12 rather than 16 tracks (and the better for it), this record compiles some seriously f-ing good indie rock.  The Blondie-esque "Sprawl"  was an instant favorite, and is also my song of the year (and also #1 for pitchfork.com readers).  Almost all of it moves your soul, takes you away, causes you a sort of nostalgic pain, but ultimately frees you.  A stunning artistic statement with seemingly universal appeal.  And...Best...Live...Show...Ever.