It being the end of 2010, a top ten list of the best albums of the year seems de rigueur. Leaving aside critical opinions and all that crap, here's my very personal 10 favorite records of the year. Looking at it, this list is pretty heavy on stuff that came out last winter and spring, a lot of which was already making the rounds of the blogosphere in late 2009. Probably there are things that came out in the last few months that I haven't had the chance to listen to enough yet to put them on this list, and I'll be kicking myself in a few months. But, fuck it, here goes:
Fang Island - Fang Island
Fucking kick ass riffs, dude. All the other kids at art school are totally gonna rock out to this. "Daisy" is probably the stand-out track, but this one is pretty darn fun, too.
Holy Fuck - Latin
Very fun electro album. Really, though, this album could be one of my favorites of the year solely for the way the introductory drone track suddenly kicks into the dance beat of "Red Lights". Epic, I'm telling you.
Jónsi - Go Do from Jónsi on Vimeo.
Jónsi - Go
The Sigur Rós frontman went solo and basically made an almost bona fide pop record, albeit a soaring Icelandic one. Except with arrangements by Nico Muhly, who used to study under Philip Glass. So, intricate strings, some oddball instrumentation, but also a damn decent dance track or two.
LCD Soundsystem - This is Happening
There is something about James Murphy at the end of this video that kind of sums up this band and record for me. Some sort of sad but triumphant clown. I think it's the combination of a certain amount of social critique/satire, and the feeling that he's having more fun than the rest of us. If that makes sense. Which it doesn't.
Owen Pallett - Heartland
After putting out two albums under the name Final Fantasy and contributing string arrangements to the first two Arcade Fire albums, Owen Pallett finally released this third album under his own name last January. Supposedly a concept album possibly about the end of a relationship or also possibly about a fictional character named Lewis living in a world called Spectrum who is the creation of a character named Owen Pallett. Um, OK. Here's some adjectives: sweeping, grandiose, wide-screen, intricate, confessional, intimate. Yeah, all pretty much at the same time.
Scissor Sisters - Night Work
Disco is not dead.
Shearwater - The Golden Archipelago
Distinguished locals represent! Frontman Jonathan Meiburg, formerly of Okkervil River, has some sort of advanced degree in Ornithology or something. He's a smart guy, and makes smart guy music. Pretty, but with bombast and pathos. Like an indie Austin version of Radiohead, or something.
Surfer Blood - Astro Coast
Apparently these boys are from Florida, so there might be an actual surfer in the band. I don't really care, to be honest, because while there is a veneer of summery pop, there's also some good old- fashioned lost love angst via some 80s guitar tone and plenty of Weezer. I think my favorite song is the one about Twin Peaks, David Lynch, and sexual frustration.
Titus Andronicus - The Monitor
Abraham Lincoln, the Replacements, Bruce Springsteen, Howard Zinn, and Shane McGowan all had a love child and it turned out to be a New Jersey hardcore kid who rocks the fuck out in the woods.
Vampire Weekend - Contra
Yeah, yeah, yeah. They got over-hyped before their first album came out, and the backlash was just dying down by the time this second one came out only to flare back up again. But at the same time, lots of folks picked up on the fact that this second album had some incredibly well written and produced songs, plain and simple. There's something definitely arch and neat about them, very East Coast prep school, but I think there's also a very human heart beating in there. Or something cheesy like that.
HONORABLE MENTIONS (a.k.a. bands that I know personally and whose albums I think are great but I can't claim not to be biased about):
One Hundred Flowers: Live Acoustic @ Uncommon Objects in Austin, TX from Magic Spoon Productions on Vimeo.
One Hundred Flowers - Mechanical Bride
Complex, layered arrangements and harmonies combined with some catchy pop hooks and intriguing lyrical snippets. Or something like that. Like I said, I'm probably biased. But all the same, everybody should listen to this album, because it's pretty damn incredibly awesome.
The Bubbles - It's You from The Bubbles on Vimeo.
The Bubbles - Daydreaming in Technicolor
The Bubbles' Will Glosup had apparently come up with more pop hooks by the time he was 18 than I ever will in my entire lifetime. Maybe that's why his band is such incredible fun to listen to.
- Ian
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