Working my way through 2010 in terms of musical favorites has been a difficult task. There have been so many amazing albums that were released and at the start of this list, it seemed an impossible job to differentiate between all of them to compile a top 50. However, I have had a such a great time going back and doing the write-ups for this list, because by going back through hundreds of records, I have revisited albums from earlier in the year which I hadn't listened to in a while. It also reminds me why I listen to music in the first place. The sense of unbridled joy that I feel from a really great set of songs is something that I can get no other way, wouldn't want to either. So, I hope you have enjoyed going through this list with me and reading my thoughts on each album. And maybe you'll have found some new favorites yourself. Because that's really what this is all about, finding new music and sharing it. Here's to an amazing past 12 months of music and here's to another 12 in 2011.
Where does our admiration of our favorite artists end and our sense of entitlement begin? Is there some indefinable gray area where our attitudes toward music dictate what we think an artist should release and what each release should sound like? Sufjan Stevens has been releasing massive, intelligent pop music for years and his fans have become used to the idea that his albums are going to strike all the right notes and all sound exactly like a Sufjan Stevens album should. But through our own musical history, as fans, there have been albums that sounded "different" from what we expected. These artists didn't give us what we wanted, or what we thought we wanted, but knew, that given enough time, we would come around and see their creation for what it was, their own unique take on their own sound. Bands like Radiohead, Liars, or The Magnetic Fields, just to name a few recent examples, have all released albums that left fans scratching their heads in a collective confusion, at least initially. The Age Of Adz may initiate that same kind of head-scratching. An album that draws its inspiration from a self-proclaimed prophet, who expresses an internal fury through cartoonish drawings and apocalyptic subtext, should have been a conceptual mess but through his experience and musical reflexes, The Age Of Adz bends any given expectations and creates a shifting, always altering, view of reality. Stevens has never tread this darkly a path before on any of his albums. And lyrically so, as well; these songs inhabit a cautious, nervous world where the energetic optimism of his other albums is left behind, to be replaced with a guarded animosity. It's all pretty curious subject matter for Stevens. Songs like the opening beauty of "Futile Devices"and the not-so-thinly-veiled sarcasm of "Get Real Get Right" display the acrobatic ways in which Stevens connects his past work with this newer, fiercer view of life. And then after all this newly broken ground, we come to closer "Impossible Soul", a 25-minute amalgam of Steven's newfound anxiety, which swirls around the listener in a heady cacophony. And while the length may initially draw conclusions of pretension, the tiered layers within allow the song to expand and contract naturally, the instruments and electronics twirling in parallel. Stevens has never shied away from grand musical statements; hell, his last album contained song titles comprising upwards of 50 words. And The Age Of Adz continues this streak of fascination with bold, sweeping musical strokes, and though darker in scope than previous albums, it never sinks into a deadened malaise. But while we may never know the truth behind the cryptic mind of Adz muse Royal Robertson, we do know that Stevens has taken that lonesome, wandering anger and turned it into something unique and fleetingly acknowledged, some specific point just on the edge of our periphery, where we feel a common bond with those eccentrics who see more than we ever could, some distant point in the future. The Age Of Adz has come and we're ready.
Tracklisting:
01. Futile Devices
02. Too Much
03. Age of Adz
04. I Walked
05. Now That I’m Older
06. Get Real Get Right (listen to the mp3 below)
07. Bad Communication
08. Vesuvius
09. All for Myself
10. I Want to Be Well
11. Impossible Soul
Why do we hate Kanye West? Why do we love him? I think that these two questions really come at the same answer from different perspectives. Kanye West makes music that we wish we could make; or that we conceivably could make given the opportunity. But even that only scrapes the surface of a deeper relationship with West. I am envious of Kanye West. The money, the fame, all that is the obvious stuff, but not the important ones. I am envious because I will never make an album as good as My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, knowing that my knowledge of music would be inadequate to the task. I don't begrudge the man, just envy him. West's new album is the culmination of every album he's released since The College Dropout and he has improved on every imaginable facet of his previous work. When some of these songs began to leak/be released ahead of the official album, fans were clamoring to hear more, I know I was. "Power", "Runaway", and the juggling personas that comprise "Monster" were every bit as gargantuan as we'd hoped they'd be. And then we were really excited to hear the rest of the album. Had West released all the good stuff early hoping we'd buy the album solely on the backs of these songs, or had he merely given us a glimpse of the larger beast that would comprise MBDTF? With rumors of longer versions of released songs and the promise of dozens of guests, West worked hard to keep the momentum going, leading up the official release date. Opener, "Dark Fantasy", begins with a bit of spoken-word introduction from Nicki Minaj, and then jumps into gospel-inflected piano strikes and a chorus of backing vocals, all pretty pretentious stuff but goddamnit does it work perfectly. And then the album starts. And every songs builds and crescendos to a point where the listener is caught up and swept away, knowing that we've never seen anything like this before. This is a meticulously created album and West knows what we want and gives it us. And at the end of the day, a simple, honest thank you is the highest complement I can give to West. I couldn't do anything less.
Tracklisting:
01. Dark Fantasy
02. Gorgeous
03. Power (listen to the mp3 below)
04. All of the Lights (Interlude)
05. All of the Lights
06. Monster
07. So Appalled
08. Devil in a New Dress
09. Runaway
10. Hell of a Life
11. Blame Game
12. Lost in the World
13. Who Will Survive in America
Who would have known that the blonde pixie-singer who gave us the radio-friendly dance-pop track "Show Me Love" back in 1997 would reinvent herself with 3 separate masterpieces of pop construction in 2010. Now to be honest, not a complete reinvention, because after her 2005 self-titled release she was already on her way to creating the kind of intelligent, genuinely emotional music that modern pop singers only dream about. And the way that Robyn handled these mini-album releases was incredibly smart; she knew that with the instant availability of mp3's and full albums she would have to do something different to keep her fans happy and on the receiving end of a constant stream of new material. And so the 3 EP's were conceived and released. Body Talk Pt. 1 was released and instantly solidified Robyn's standing as the premier dance-pop singer working in music. Songs like the gloriously infectious "Dancing On My Own" and the independent rants of "Don't Fucking Tell Me What To Do" seemed to mirror her own personal reflections on her career trajectory. Body Talk Pt. 2 was released and was even more impressive in its' ability to handle the intense emotions that Robyn conveyed in these songs, which were all ridiculously great. "Hang With Me", possibly the song that best-encapsulated pop for this year and was also one of the best songs period, and "Indestructible (Acoustic version), a beautifully strong account of Robyn's independence and maturity, displayed even now a sense of joyous creation lacking in pop music. And then Pt. 3 was released fairly concurrently with the full-length EP-summarizing Body Talk. And although Pt. 3 only had 5 songs on it instead of the usual 8 on each of the previous EP's, the weight of this release shouldn't be underestimated. Songs like the intensely sympathetic "Call Your Girlfriend" and the beat-heavy version of "Indestructible" manage to complete the trilogy in a moving and musically appropriate way. Robyn has proven herself to be the pop-ingenue that we all knew her to be and has given us an uncommon gift, the insight that through all the inevitable pain and inspiring happiness of life, we are not alone, that music, and even Robyn herself, will be there to show us what we've always had.
Tracklisting:
Pt. 1:
01. Don’t Fucking Tell Me What To Do
02. Fembot
03. Dancing On My Own
04. Cry When You Get Older
05. Dancehall Queen
06. None Of Dem f/Royksopp
07. Hang With Me (Acoustic)
08. Jag Vet En Dejlig Rosa
Pt. 2:
01. In My Eyes
02. Include Me Out
03. Hang With Me (listen to the mp3 below)
04. Love Kills
05. We Dance to the Beat
06. Criminal Intent
07. U Should Know Better f/ Snoop Dogg
08. Indestructible (Acoustic version)
Pt. 3:
01. Indestructible
02. Time Machine
03. Call Your Girlfriend
04. Get Myself Together
05. Stars 4-ever
When word started to circulate among fans that the next Arcade Fire release would be a concept album dedicated to the suburbs, some were justifiably concerned that the band had gotten lost in its own heady grandeur. And this very likely could have been the case; after all the backstage rants and apparent assholery to fans, the creative minds behind Arcade Fire needed to impart some goodwill to their fans, as an offering to show their indebtedness and indeed their respect for those of us who buy their records. And then The Suburbs was released and all that apprehensiveness melted away, and fans were left in awe of the conceptual intricasies of the new album. While Funeral and Neon Bible both used directionless anxiety and an unmitigated sense of hopelessness to allow us to see the decline we all felt--this fractured identity lent those albums a knowingness and a maturity beyond their years--The Suburbs uses those same emotions to establish connections between us all. That through the suffering and guilt-ridden insecurities of life, we draw closer to one another in our fear, and ultimately our acceptance of each other, as we are. What we find across these tracks is the search and reclamation of the truth, about ourselves, about the world around us, about each other. Songs which use the paranoia of everyday life, such as "The Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) and "The Suburbs", to illuminate the way to go, to show us what we've got and that we have to hold onto it with creased knuckles and bit lips. But far from being hopeful, as such, there are cracks in the bands' somber facade, where we see them just as we are, wondering how we got here and where we go from here. This is our life, fuck anyone who doesn't want it.
Tracklisting:
01. The Suburbs
02. Ready to Start
03. Modern Man
04. Rococo
05. Empty Room
06. City with No Children
07. Half Light I
08. Half Light II (No Celebration)
09. Suburban War
10. Month of May
11. Wasted Hours
12. Deep Blue
13. We Used to Wait
14. Sprawl I (Flatland)
15. Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) (listen to the mp3 below)
16. The Suburbs (Continued)
Whatever your personal opinion of Joanna Newsom, or her music, I'd imagine it would be hard for anyone to doubt her ambition. And whether you're taken in by her brand of fey, winsome folk depends entirely on your ability to allow music to engulf you, to hear past the effusive reviews of magazines or online sites, and to be taken in by the gorgeous and panoramic vistas that Newsom paints with these instruments, in particular across the three discs that comprise her newest album, Have One On Me. With songs basically built around her harp and expressive voice, and simple, though powerful, accompanying arrangements for strings, horns, and other orchestral instruments, Newsom is able to convey emotional intensity on a primal level. These are songs that whirl around in your subconscious, the sometime archaic lyrical content vying for space in your head. Her tales of love, loss, and plaintive reconciliation echo through the long winding corridors that connect these three discs thematically. Have One On Me, though at first seeming to overwhelm the listener, is sequenced across these discs are perfectly as any album I've heard. And the specific songs which Newsom uses to close and open each section provide the needed resonance within their respective slots to maintain the cohesion of an album that in any other circumstance could have easily become a sprawling mess. Highlights are harder to come by on an album like this, not because there are no stand-out songs--there are--but rather, the album feels fuller and more complete when viewed as a whole. And on the surface this may seem like a terribly daunting task but as these songs begin to sink in and the arrangement of the songs coalesce in terms that the listener understands, Have One On Me takes on a whole other personality and stature, one that exists only for our benefit and for our need. Joanna Newsom is an artist with a singular gift; she creates these fantastical worlds within which her songs exist and though her use of exaggerated imagery and lyrical antiquities, she allows the listener, on a fundamental level, to view the world as she thinks we should, without the pain that we cause each other, and ourselves, and is not afraid to take our hand and guide us willingly through this world, attempting to shield us from the dark.
Tracklisting:
01. Easy
02. Have One on Me
03. ’81
04. Good Intentions Paving Company (listen to the mp3 below)
05. No Provenance
06. Baby Birch
07. On a Good Day
08. You and Me, Bess
09. In California
10. Jackrabbits
11. Go Long
12. Occident
13. Soft as Chalk
14. Esme
15. Autumn
16. Ribbon Bows
17. Kingfisher
18. Does Not Suffice
James Murphy has become a cultural reference point. Now, I highly doubt that this was what he had in mind years ago when he began releasing music but it seems that he has made peace with the fact that he has become a marketable brand. But with the release of This Is Happening, he springs from this mold and creates an object of 70's art-rock glory. With debts to idols, Brian Eno and David Bowie, the former having always hovered over Murphy's music and the latter creeping into the limelight on This Is Happening, Murphy manages to skillfully combine the dance-rock ambience of Eno's proper releases and the glam-rock attitude of Bowie's Aladdin Sane, well most of his albums would apply, and delves even more deeply into his influences than on previous records and that within these tracks a pulsing, beating heart exists. Songs like the raucous "Drunk Girls" and the intensely introspective "Somebody's Calling Me" allow Murphy to indulge in his creative whims, while still staying faithful to his dance-rock pedigree. Murphy has crafted the best sort of homage to his heroes, one that respects the source influences enough to allow them to move and incorporate themselves naturally into the musical distillation of his own memories. This Is Happening makes the case that past and present musical trends need not be divided but that underneath the genre differences, the heart is the most important thing.
Tracklisting:
01. Dance Yrself Clean
02. Drunk Girls
03. One Touch
04. All I Want
05. I Can Change
06. You Wanted a Hit
07. Pow Pow
08. Somebody’s Calling Me
09. Home (listen to the mp3 below)
With the release of his new album, Big Boi can finally put to rest those claims that he was the lesser MC in Outkast, and there were quite a few people who believed that, myself included. Not that I didn't recognize the talent, but it seemed a more restrained force than the other-worldly hinge of Dre. With Sir Lucious Left Foot, those misguided notions have all but vanished, to be replaced with a kind of muted awe at what Big Boi has accomplished. This album has so many clever twists and turns; the songs stop and start, change tones, dance lyrical circles around the beats, and manage to stay together despite the obvious disparate influences that Big Boi is wrangling here. Songs like the Janelle Monae collaborative "Shutterbugg" or the yeah-he-gives-a-decent-verse Gucci Mane-guesting album highlight "Shine Blockas" showcase a new found, or maybe not so new found, confidence in his own abilities. Big Boi sounds relaxed and never off his game, even when he's stopping momentarily to throw out a handful of insults and topical digs. He's serious but never uncharacteristically so. Big Boi has produced a dazzlingly cohesive album that reaches even beyond the highs fans would have expected of cohort Dre. And to his credit, Big Boi never seems fey about his success or falsely prideful; he accepts that this is the album he was always meant to make.
Tracklisting:
01. Feel Me (Intro)
02. Daddy Fat Sax
03. Turns Me On
04. Follow Us
05. Shutterbugg
06. General Patton
07. Tangerine
08. You Ain’t No DJ
09. Hustle Blood
10. Be Still
11. Fo Yo Sorrows
12. Night Night
13. Shine Blockas (listen to the mp3 below)
14. The Train Part II
15. Back Up Plan
A band from New Jersey idolizes Bruce Springsteen (not so unusual), goes into the studio to record their sophomore album (again, not so unusual), and records an album loosely based around the American Civil War, using antique war-themed metaphors and scraps of historical recorded speeches to portray the harsh truths of modern life (uh...yeah, you got me there). Titus Andronicus could have easily allowed this set of songs to slip into the realm of novelty or pretension, and with this concept that seems the inevitable conclusion. However, these guys rip through these songs, dismantling them as they go and rearranging them to fit even better together. The Monitor bristles with the kind of relentless energy that was found on their debut The Airing Of Grievances but it's been ratcheted up to eleven and by filtering their regret and anger through this all-too-appropriate period in history, Titus Andronicus manage to connect the past mistakes of America with the modern tragedies of America and still faithfully and seriously handle all the relevant issues that crop up. From the ballistic opener "A More Perfect Union", almost a statement of intent from the band, to the ending "The Battle of Hampton Roads", an extended treatise on youthful anger and the ways in which people handle it, the band included, The Monitor rips the guts out of the history of America and reveals that, while time and temperament may have changed, we are still as fucked up as ever.
Tracklisting:
01. A More Perfect Union (listen to the mp3 below)
02. Titus Andronicus Forever
03. No Future Part Three
04. Richard II
05. A Pot in Which to Piss
06. Four Score and Seven
07. Theme from “Cheers”
08. To Old Friends and New
09. ...And Ever
10. The Battle of Hampton Roads
A band moves beyond its usual methodology and finds strength in simplicity. A fair enough statement, though rote, and actually quite correct in describing Deerhunter's new album, Halcyon Digest. By discarding the layers of psych-hazed ambient textures of earlier works and focusing on the simplicity of the songs and the inherent power therein, Deerhunter have managed to undermine all those who would have them fit into any easily definable mold. With singles like "Helicopter" and "Revival" showcasing the bands slimmed down production and ability to tighten their own musical tendencies, Halcyon Digest reads like a primer to the best indie rock released in the last decade. The songs are so infectious and unexpected that at times it seems like the band is experiencing these songs for the first time alongside the listener. Halcyon Digest, as told by Bradford Cox, is about the ability of people to purposefully shape and alter memories to fit a particular set of personal preferences, that these memories are how we want to remember them, not necessarily how they actually happened. And by allowing these songs to develop naturally, unforced, Deerhunter have hit upon one of the most basic principles of life, and of musical creation: keep it simple stupid.
Tracklisting:
01. Earthquake
02. Don’t Cry
03. Revival
04. Sailing
05. Memory Boy
06. Desire Lines
07. Basement Scene
08. Helicopter
09. Fountain Stairs
10. Coronado
11. He Would Have Laughed (listen to the mp3 below)
I'll be damned if all of Matthew Houck's albums as Phosphorescent haven't managed to sneak up on me, every last one of them. No matter how much I am expecting them to be great and to show all the promise of his previous releases, I'm always struck by the immense beauty and intimacy of his words and music. And once again on Here's To Taking It Easy, Houck has let his expressioned voice move us beyond the initial genre trappings of what we expect and into the heightened feelings of a close friend. And to top it off, he's managed to release one of the most effecting songs of the year in the breathtakingly gorgeous "The Mermaid Parade", an ode to a broken man, a broken family, and a broken life. And with a full backing band covering his ass, Houck and company impart these songs with a life all their own, each one a self-contained universe of sorrow, regret, and, despite his best intentions, hope. What could have been a mere country-rock distraction with his Willie Nelson covers album became the impetus for Here's To Taking It Easy, with the most eloquent use of slide guitar and country-rock tropes in years. Houck wrangles the lovelorn bitterness of these stories and leaves us unsure as to their conclusion, which is, after all, what a great storyteller does.
Tracklisting:
01. It's Hard to Be Humble (When You're From Alabama)
02. Nothing Was Stolen (Love Me Foolishly)
03. We'll Be Here Soon
04. The Mermaid Parade (listen to the mp3 below)
05. I Don't Care If There's Cursing
06. Tell Me Baby (Have You Had Enough)
07. Hej, Me I'm Light
08. Heaven, Sittin' Down
09. Los Angeles
Galaxy-tripping alien robot scientist. That is the only description when listening to Cosmogramma that I can say comes close to accurately describing what I hear. Steven Ellison, aka Flying Lotus, has always managed to stand slightly apart from his peers and always in the shadows of his influences. Now whether this is intentional or not, the critical praise heaped upon Cosmogramma should help place him firmly in the spotlight. And those pesky comparisons, although apt enough but limiting, to Dilla can finally be shaken and he can step forward on his own terms. And much has been made of his lineage to jazz royalty and for a digital beatmaker like Ellison, these esoteric appeals can place even more strain on him to live up to what he may or may not feel, or what his fans may or may not feel, he is capable of or that he should be producing. So it's a welcome relief that Cosmogramma is indeed the follow up to Los Angeles that his fans have been wanting, and that they knew he was capable of making. And even more so than Los Angeles, Cosmogramma feels like a single piece of music, or to be precise, it could pass for a suite of connected themes. The wide-ranging genres that are melded and shaped on this album would be unmanagable and indistinct in any other artists hands. Flying Lotus has created a masterpiece of inter-connectivity, which brings the reverence of his familial musical ties in line with his own ideals of musical expression and fosters an understanding between the two. Galaxy-tripping alien robot scientist indeed.
Tracklisting:
01. Clock Catcher
02. Pickled!
03. Nose Art
04. Intro/A Cosmic Drama
05. Zodiac Shit
06. Computer Face/Pure Being
07. ...And the World Laughs with You (listen to the mp3 below)
08. Arkestry
09. Mmmhmm
10. Do the Astral Plane
11. Satelllliiiiiteee
12. German Haircut
13. Recoiled
14. Dance of the Pseudo Nymph
15. Drips/Auntie’s Harp
16. Table Tennis
17. Galaxy in Janaki
When a band has maintained a particular sound over the course of a few albums, it can sometimes be seen as the result of a creative stagnation, or more simply, as a band running out of gas. Once in while though, this musical typecasting doesn't hold true. In the case of The National's newest release, High Violet, this attention to the detail of their sound only shows the determination and enduring workmanship that goes into the refining, not stagnating, of their specific musical aesthetic. The National have been accused by numerous critics of producing "dad-rock", what a damning, though not entirely off-the-mark, description of their music. I say that it is not an entirely untrue description because The National have always, dark and brooding though they may be, mined the worried thoughts and wearied lives of each other as creative fodder. And seeing as how some of the band members are fathers themselves, the inevitable range of conveyed thoughts can stray to the mundane worries of a middle-aged ordinary man. And while this sounds like the most boring societal archetype to write about, The National have imbued their lyrical trips through this landscape with wit and unexpected insight. High Violet cannot be said to be a happy record. To be honest, what album in their discography can be said to have that label. But it's the nuanced feeling derived from these darker, though at times resilient, songs that set The National apart from the rote musings of any given middle-aged band. With High Violet, The National have successfully created an ode to the frenzied, though often ordinary, lives of ordinary men.
Tracklisting:
01. Terrible Love
02. Sorrow
03. Anyone’s Ghost
04. Little Faith
05. Afraid of Everyone
06. Bloodbuzz Ohio (listen to the mp3 below)
07. Lemonworld
08. Runaway
09. Conversation 16
10. England
11. Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks
After the return to form of The Life Pursuit, Belle and Sebastian could have sat back and released some half-assed quick follow-up hoping to cash in on the goodwill of their fans. Thankfully, Write About Love is not that record but is a continuation of the B&S fey aesthetic that has been evolving and altering itself over their long history together. While some of their albums (Fold Your Hands Child..., Storytelling) found them in a creative loop, trying to see what new shoe would fit and how, and not altogether successful, Write About Love feels like the older brother to The Life Pursuit, a bit older, more mature and definitely wiser for the wear. The pop ecstaticism of "I Want The World To Stop" and the album-titled call-and-response duet with Carey Mulligan "Write About Love" show the signs of a band comfortable within its strengths, yet not lethargic about trying new approaches to an already familiar formula. Belle and Sebastian now more than ever feel of a whole, with the stop-gap of God Help The Girl seeming years behind. Write About Love find Belle and Sebastian stretching their legs yet finding no reason to do anything other than what they've continued to do these past 15 years, which is to make music that they want to make.
Tracklisting:
01. I Didn’t See it Coming
02. Come On Sister
03. Calculating Bimbo
04. I Want the World to Stop (listen to the mp3 below)
05. Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Prophet John
06. Write About Love
07. I’m Not Living in the Real World
08. The Ghost of Rockschool
09. Read the Blessed Pages
10. I Can See Your Future
11. Sunday’s Pretty Icons
Yeah, he still sounds like Dylan and yeah, it's still mainly just him and a guitar. But like the simplistic expanse of his debut full-length Shallow Grave, and by working within the folk-standards, he achieves that uncommon reverence for Guthrie-through-Dylan-through-folk music that many singer-songwriters find so difficult to tie down. His seemingly simplistic method to renew the values of folk music rarely venture far beyond the walls of those artists which he so highly idealizes and his mannerisms suggest a thorough grounding in the folk canon. The ebullient "King Of Spain", with its' nasal-inflection, reminiscent of a young Dylan, sits astride an album of songs which pay homage to the greats of folk history. The settings of these songs may seem familiar, and indeed were the nationality of Matsson not known, these songs could have come straight out of the 1960's New York folk scene. There is a timelessness in its simplicity that underlies the basic presumption of The Wild Hunt. That presumption being that music is itself timeless and fixed in our minds and hearts and by conveying his love of music, Matsson shows the listener a world where music is not just the most important thing, it is the only thing.
Tracklisting:
01. The Wild Hunt
02. Burden of Tomorrow
03. Troubles Will Be Gone
04. You’re Going Back
05. The Drying of the Lawns
06. King of Spain (listen to the mp3 below)
07. Love is All
08. Thousand Ways
09. A Lion’s Heart
10. Kids on the Run
Since their self-titled debut came out in 2006, Beach House have been layering their hypnotic glacial rock rhythms over mesmerizing low-key vocals effortlessly. And their debut was confident and self-assured like no other album that year; it was the sound of a band coming together in the studio, with no walls, no barriers between them and the music. And their second album Devotion, kept the highlights coming and made sure that the refinement of their sound was the first and foremost priority in the songs. Teen Dream came out early in 2010 and set a high par for this style of meditative indie rock. The songs are more focused and lyrically darker than on previous albums. And although the songs initially appear sunnier and poppier than on previous releases, like the best of pop music through the years, a sugary coating can contain bitter ideas and Teen Dream is no exception. Songs like the deceptively simplistic "Walk In The Park" and the dream-pop-fixated "Norway" lend Teen Dream a relevance and a connection to the ideals of music created in the last 40 years that stands up against all other similar bands that carry the torch of pop music.
Tracklisting:
01. Zebra
02. Silver Soul
03. Norway (listen to the mp3 below)
04. Walk in the Park
05. Used to Be
06. Lover of Mine
07. Better Times
08. 10 Mile Stereo
09. Real Love
10. Take Care
The Walkmen have consistently and unaffectedly released some of the sharpest, cleanest indie rock of the past decade. After half a dozen or so albums, The Walkmen have pretty much perfected this sort of wearied, angular rock. And their past few albums have really highlighted the strength inherent in this kind of music when it's treated with respect and the sort of confident creativity that The Walkmen possess. Much like the justly celebrated Bows + Arrows and You & Me, Lisbon produces the kind of determined pessimism that has become a standing traditon for Walkmen albums. But where other bands tend to wallow in this perceived offense, The Walkmen take it as just another part of their day, nothing necessarily out of the ordinary. And this careless regard for what brings them down is what marks Lisbon as such a special kind of album. Songs like the surf-rock inspired romp of "Angela Surf City" or the uptempo beat of first single "Stranded" complete the forward progression of their last few records. The Walkmen have never shyed away from bitter, sarcastic songs and this set is no exception, except for a slightly dark humor about their misfortune, which has skittered around on all their albums. Lisbon shows The Walkmen playing to their strengths and continuing their run of challenging, yet familiar, records and allowing the expansiveness of these songs to inhabit a place all their own.
Tracklisting:
01. Juveniles
02. Angela Surf City
03. Follow the Leader
04. Blue as Your Blood
05. Stranded (listen to the mp3 below)
06. Victory
07. All My Great Designs
08. Woe is Me
09. Torch Song
10. While I Shovel the Snow
11. Lisbon
The concept of endings has always fascinated Antony Hegarty. From his earliest work, the idea of impermanence, both physical and ethereal, has colored his songs to a large degree. The ideas of changing and declining relationships were a central theme on I Am A Bird Now and an end of life moroseness was evident on the tracks that formed his last album, The Crying Light. Swanlights continues this fascination with various types of endings, but what he really wants, when all is said and done, is to allow some hope to spring forth from the darkness. Much like the somber The Crying Light, Swanlights uses this standing motif of decline to parallel Hegarty’s own preoccupation and observation of the particular niche into which he fits, whether it be physical or spiritual. “The Great White Ocean” rolls and churns under that hypnotic voice, which can convey so much in its quivering timbre. The duet with Bjork, “Fletta”, is one of the more insistently memorable tracks on the album. The stop-start percussion with which both artists are so intimately familiar feels perfectly used on this track to punctuate the feeling of loss and possible redemption. With Swanlights, Hegarty has shown that, despite his down-trodden lyrical approach to life, beneath it all, there lies a ray of hope inside his heart, a want of renewal and rebirth. That an end is only a start to something greater, something hopeful. That without endings there can be no relative creation and without that process of rejuvenation, there can be no hope. Swanlights allows him to show us the buried hope in his heart. And it is tremendous.
Tracklisting:
01. Everything is New
02. The Great White Ocean
03. Ghost
04. I’m In Love
05. Violetta
06. Swanlights
07. The Spirit Was Gone
08. Thank You For Your Love (listen to the mp3 below)
09. Flétta (with Björk)
10. Salt Silver Oxygen
11. Christina’s Farm
The Books has been releasing conceptually obscure records for years now, and with their latest album, The Way Out, they’ve continued that line of creative disguise. While often placing fragmented sound and musical pastiche above pop formality to great effect, they never seemed to favor or bow to any trend or latent genre-based tendencies of their peers, if any existed. The Books haven’t veered away from the sort of arty, electronic-fueled construction on their previous albums and have placed their faith even more so in these vocal samples and clicked beats as a way to influence and convey the buried sentiments and ideas built within each song. The childish call and response threats of “A Cold Freezin’ Night” turn the repetitive shouts into an examination of juvenile acceptance and acknowledgement of violence as a game of one-upmanship. The backing clicks and broken melodies filtering behind the vocal samples create a hazy and sometimes erratic distillation of The Books aesthetic, which is to say that they’ve once again managed to make seemingly arbitrary samples work within cohesive song structures. And while many of these songs may lack some of the more identifiable elements of pop songs, i.e. verse-chorus-verse progression or sustained harmonic melody, these songs never feel trivial or overly self-conscious. They merely exist and in our interest, we can listen to them, or not, but they’ll still be there.
Tracklisting:
01. Group Autogenics I
02. IDKT
03. I Didn’t Know That
04. Cold Freezin’ Night
05. Beautiful People (listen to the mp3 below)
06. I Am Who I Am
07. Chain of Missing Links
08. All You Need Is A Wall
09. Thirty Incoming
10. A Wonderful Phrase By Gandhi
11. We Bought The Flood
12. The Story Of Hip-Hop
13. Free Translator
14. Group Autogenics II
Coming off a string of fan-clamoring mixtapes, Curren$y finally gets around to putting out an album all his own. After being bumped around on larger labels for years, and still not getting the recognition that he deserved, he has finally found a home where he can lay his quick drawl over beats that match his fiery imagination. The stoner-leanings are inevitable, and not altogether inaccurate, but to peg him as just another blunt-favoring, southern rapper would be to reveal only a very slight picture of Curren$y's musical vocabulary and persona. Pulling from every corner of his mind, Curren$y envelopes himself, with help from producer Ski Beatz, in these songs and comes away with a breezy, carefree album that just drifts along on the strength of his creativity. The blaring horns and album-stealing guest spot from Jay Electronica on the album highlight "The Day" only seem to highlight what was missing from most rap releases this year. By allowing him to be in the forefront of each of these songs, producer Ski Beatz wisely realized that without the backbone that Curren$y provides, even with his inimitable producing abilities, these songs would sound weak and more than a little slight. Pilot Talk shows a performer finally coming into his own, finally being allowed to, and all he wants, really, is to sit around and have some fun.
Curren$sy also had the audacity to release a sequel to Pilot Talk at the close of 2010 and while I'm specifically placing the first Pilot Talk on this list, Pilot Talk II deserves a quick mention. Pilot Talk II successfully continues the quick-witted, lackadaisical feel of the original while also adding some more diversity in terms of his musical palette; he also chose to go for a less crowded album, as there are practically no guest spots on Pilot Talk II, which is never a bad thing when we're talking about this guy. So regardless of which album you begin with, although I would suggest going chronologically, the wide-eyed wonder and sense of ease these albums warmly radiate will be exactly what you need to get you through the cold days of winter.
Tracklisting:
01. King Kong
02. Life Under the Scope
03. Seat Change f/ Wiz Khalifa
04. The Hangover
05. Chilled Coughphee f/ Devin the Dude
06. Example
07. The Day f/ Mos Def & Jay Electronica (listen to the mp3 below)
08. Scaling the Building
09. Schoolin
10. Silence f/ McKenzie Eddy & Wiz Khalifa
11. Nothing But Us
12. Breakfast
13. Audio Dope
If a man can be said to be the amalgamation of his surroundings, then Kieran Hebden, the mind behind Four Tet, is the personification of that ideal. He absorbs sound, not just musical tonality but the sound of everyday life, and incorporates them into his sonic palette to create sweeping aural works. Built on the strength of his previous albums, Hebden works his way through the familiar territory he charted on Pause and Rounds and extracts the heart, so often absent in dance music, of these notes and turns them around in new and fascinating ways. The churning, insular work he did in his formative years in Fridge gently seeps into these tracks, as he has ratcheted back the fractured beats, so ready in his arsenal, and opted for a more restrained, though no less expressive, musical missive. On There Is Love In You, Hebden has clearly been influenced by his recent collaborations with Burial and this infusion of another personality has forced him to delve deeper into the heart of what makes this music function, not just on a purely emotional level, but also on an intellectual one. Songs like the darkly introspective “Love Cry” and the album-ending singular beauty of “She Just Likes To Fight” only skim the surface of this set of lovingly crafted songs. With There Is Love In You, Hebden displays his almost preternatural ability to construct complex and fascinating songs from seemingly random swatches of sound and ably demonstrates what can be accomplished when someone with the drive and talent sets out to create something unexpected.
Tracklisting:
01. Angel Echoes
02. Love Cry (listen to the mp3 below)
03. Circling
04. Pablo’s Heart
05. Sing
06. This Unfolds
07. Reversing
08. Plastic People
09. She Just Likes to Fight
Some of the most successful bands, and I’m not necessarily talking commercially, releasing music now are the ones that are able to keep up with their peers and are prescient of particular sounds and how these sounds are assimilated within the music community to which they belong. Local Natives seem to have a firm grip and awareness of what any random indie fan is going to like and dislike. That’s not to say that they pander to any common denominator, only that their tastes and creative influences are proudly worn. From the indie staples of percussive drum work and swelling vocal harmonies to their cover of a Talking Heads song, Local Natives are able to invert the expectations of those listeners who have an inherent knowledge of what constitutes, or what might constitute an indie song, and create something that goes beyond any superficial labels or typecasting. Some of these songs have been floating around the internet since last year and have gained quite a following and expectations were high regarding a proposed debut full-length. Songs like the slow-burning opener “Wide Eyes” or the clattering percussive chants of “Sun Hands” render any preconceived notions of what kind of music Local Natives make useless. This album is a melting pot of ideas and influences, most of them easily recognizable, but it’s the way with which they use these so familiar indie adages that make Gorilla Manor so instantly likeable and so likely to merit repeated listens. By keeping a tab on what’s been popular and successful in music in the past few years, Local Natives have created an album brimming with unique takes on well-worn ideas and bring about a refreshingly joyous integration of all these musical conceptions.
Tracklisting:
01. Wide Eyes
02. Airplanes
03. Sun Hands (listen to the mp3 below)
04. World News
05. Shape Shifter
06. Camera Talk
07. Cards And Quarters
08. Warning Sign
09. Who Knows Who Cares
10. Cubism Dream
11. Stranger Things
12. Sticky Thread
In a year full of high-profile releases that were unfairly targeted by backlash and fan dismissal, Broken Social Scene kept their heads down, stuck to their guns, and released Forgiveness Rock Record, a confident continuation of the work started with Feel Good Lost, pretty much perfected on You Forgot It In People, and carefully refined on their matured self-titled third album. Broken Social Scene songs have always been about subtext for me, and while superficially they are clearly speaking of one thing, under that facade a deeper more meaningful connection exists. And such is the case with many of the songs on Forgiveness Rock Record. Songs like the musically complex, "World Sick, with its misleading instrumental opening and closing and ecstatic crescendos, and "All To All", a beautiful synth-led track with vocals by the relatively new BSS'er Lisa Lobsinger command the listeners attention without seeming untoward or forceable aggresive, this is a record ostensibly about forgiveness after all. And with their usual carousel of guest musicians, this album has the same sprawling, yet still contained, feel of their past work. And despite what some people have said, this is Broken Social Scene through and through, no imitations or half-assed mockery, only a predictably unpredictable album from a band I've come to trust for their ability to assimilate so much of their own individual influences and still maintain a singular musical identity.
Tracklisting:
01. World Sick
02. Chase Scene
03. Texico Bitches
04. Forced To Love (listen to the mp3 below)
05. All To All
06. Art House Director
07. Highway Slipped Jam
08. Ungrateful Little Father
09. Meet Me In The Basement
10. Sentimental X’s
11. Sweetest Kill
12. Romance To The Grave
13. Water In Hell
14. Me and My Hand
What an elephant to be carrying around on your back. On the strength of their debut EP, Vampire Weekend released what was widely considered one of the best releases of 2008 and were hyped accordingly. Probably greater than any other band at the time were the expectations for their sophomore release. After extensive touring and some time to rest, Vampire Weekend come roaring back with their second full-length, Contra. And the time taken to rest has proven invaluable to the band, and to the development of the album. The afro-pop tendencies of their self-titled debut were met with cautious but optimistic acknowledgement by indie kids and mainstream listeners alike, back when the word afro-pop wasn't applied to every upcoming indie band with a knack for rhythm. Contra is a confident album, both in technique and viewpoint. Vampire Weekend are well aware of your like and dislike of them and have acted accordingly, portioning out more of what people hate about them and more of what their fans are always clamoring for. It seems a risk to purposely provoke those who could potentially shell out money for your album, but by doing so, Vampire Weekend have proven that the prevalent hype and backlash have had little effect on them or their music. The exuberant opener "Horchata" takes up where their self-titled left off and the listener is treated to one of the most meticulous batches of pop songs released this year. Vampire Weekend like you, they really do. They just don't care what you think of them. And by creating another set of pretty goddamn perfect pop songs, I'm inclined to let them keep on feeling that way.
Tracklisting:
01. Horchata (listen to the mp3 below)
02. White Sky
03. Holiday
04. California English
05. Taxi Cab
06. Run
07. Cousins
08. Giving Up the Gun
09. Diplomat’s Son
10. I Think Ur a Contra
Jamie Stuart creates the sort of splintered pop that hangs entirely upon the strength of the personality behind it. Without a sure hand to guide them, songs like those on past Xiu Xiu records could have easily spun out of control and lost whatever semblance of cohesion that they were intended to have. But by carefully and expertly honing those songs to a fine point, Stuart managed to ring emotion and palpable distress from songs that could easily have been so slight as to be non-existent. Dear God, I Hate Myself, the latest full-length from Xiu Xiu, really exemplifies this particular musical truism. Over the years, Xiu Xiu have had a rotating cast of characters singing, playing, and generally making a unique cacophony on each release. This latest album manages to encapsulate all that made Xiu Xiu unique, while also carefully inserting new ideas and creative turns that fans won’t be expecting. And despite what you may have heard, the slight diversion he makes into Chiptune territory doesn’t ruin what’s made Xiu Xiu great to begin with. And while I am not the biggest proponent of Chiptune, the slight addition of these tweakable bells and whistles does add a naiveté that complements the always lyrically dour Stuart. These songs have that inherent Xiu Xiu unpredictability, while also giving fans much of what was so loved from past albums. Songs like the traditional folk of “Cumberland Gap”, a song far removed from almost anything Xiu Xiu has released, and the darkly expressive “Gray Death”, with its pitiable narrator, find Stuart at the peak of his creative talents. And while Stuart has never been known for his lighter side, there has always seemed to be a sly streak of knowing humor about it all, that beneath all the violence and troubled characters that crowd around any random Xiu Xiu song, Stuart knows more than he’s letting on, and that he’s just on the verge on letting us in on it. Maybe that’s why we keep coming back to Xiu Xiu. We all want Stuart to trust us enough to get the joke.
Tracklisting:
01. Gray Death (listen to the mp3 below)
02. Chocolate Makes You Happy
03. Apple For A Brain
04. House Sparrow
05. Hyunhye's Theme
06. Dear God, I Hate Myself
07. Secret Motel
08. Falkland Rd.
09. The Fabrizio Palumbo Retaliation
10. Cumberland Gap
11. This Too Shall Pass Away (For Freddy)
12. Impossible Feeling
By finally ditching the Final Fantasy moniker and recording just as Owen Pallett, he casts aside any pretense that this music is anything but his own. Having been a fan of his work as Final Fantasy, I was curious if this change in name would affect the sound of his recording and it has, for the better. While the albums he released as Final Fantasy were constantly engaging and full of clever twists and arrangements, Heartland manages to cast them aside as mere work-up for this, his most creative and effective and affecting album to date. Up until now, Pallett has often been relegated to a credit in the liner notes of larger, more well-known bands, such as Arcade Fire. But with Heartland, his days of littering liner notes is gone and the respect and notoriety afforded his peers should finally be given to him as well. Working within the same harmonic sphere as his previous releases, Pallett draws upon his complete knowledge of melody and tonal arrangements and creates an album full of swirling notes and wavering vocals, showing an understanding of music rarely seen outside of modern-day classical composers, which you could, in fact, argue is the group to which Pallett should most closely be linked. The songs here continually display changes in mood and execution that feel unique to Pallett's singular abilities as an arranger, and the densely layered tracks reveal more and more if given repeated listens. This album may not catapult him into the upper echelon of indie music, although it should, but at the least, and amid the choir of Final Fantasy fans, Heartland shows an artist comfortable with himself and his abilities and using that ease of self to create a new and exciting vista, in a time when such unique undertakings are ultimately scarce and precious.
Tracklisting:
01. Midnight Directives
02. Keep The Dog Quiet
03. Mount Alpentine
04. Red Sun No. 5
05. Lewis Takes Action (listen to the mp3 below)
06. The Great Elsewhere
07. Oh Heartland, Up Yours!
08. Lewis Takes Off His Shirt
09. Flare Gun
10. E Is For Estranged
11. Tryst With Mephistopheles
12. What Do You Think Will Happen Now?
Futuristic concept albums, particularly ones concerning a Christ-like android, can either be a real slog to wade through, I'm looking at you Dennis DeYoung, or, in rare cases, the album can transcend the limitations placed upon it by the very fact that it is a concept record and say something relevant through its creativity and the immense talent guiding the songs. I never thought I'd say that about a release from a Sean Combs protege, but Janelle Monae's latest release, The ArchAndroid, takes the paranoia and chilled despair of some distant future and shows that these same feelings have just as much relevance in 2010. She sidesteps any easy classification and genre-skips across these 17 tracks. Comprised of two suites, II and III, The ArchAndroid chronicles the aforementioned android and its journey as it travels from place to place, encountering basic injustice and prejudice, in search of some elusive end. But that is really just the narrative backbone on which these imaginative songs hang. The bitter, but not resigned, confession of "Cold War" makes the case that Monae is a singer who can take the pain and uncertainty of a dark future and make it feel personal to the listener, to make it not some far flung depiction of the future but a concrete reality that we can see. If Monae can be successful in this connected narrative, which also included the first suite on a previous EP, and will end with an as-yet-untitled fourth suite, she will have used the very idea of a concept album and pushed it further than many artists ever thought possible, and have the albums be artistically cohesive. Here's hoping The ArchAndroid finds its way home or at least a place where it can be still.
Tracklisting:
01. Suite II Overture
02. Dance Or Die f/ Saul Williams
03. Faster
04. Locked Inside
05. Sir Greendown
06. Cold War (listen to the mp3 below)
07. Tightrope f/ Big Boi
08. Neon Gumbo
09. Oh, Maker
10. Come Alive (The War of the Roses)
11. Mushrooms & Roses
12. Suite III Overture
13. Neon Valley Street
14. Make the Bus f/ Of Montreal
15. Wondaland
16. 57821 f/ Deep Cotton
17. Say You’ll Go
When an album can make you feel truly happy, you should hold onto that album for dear life. In this swirling, despair inducing world, music can move us beyond the everyday absurdities, bringing to the surface basic emotions and causing us to smile. Just a simple smile. Do you know how powerful that is? Or how rare a feeling? Go, the solo debut from Sigur Ros frontman Jonsi, is that powerful. Much like the richly emotive albums by his full-time band, Go can elicit these basic emotions, regardless of context and even simple language barriers. And while the lyrics may not all be life-affirming anthems for the down-hearted, it seems that the way in which he sings the lines and also the timbre of his voice convey more than the words themselves. The ascending joy of "Boy Lilikoi" or the churning, lilting "Animal Arithmetic" show us that Jonsi has that rare ability to distinguish honest emotion from the false, so often used, generic platitudes that mark the worst emotive bands. Go revels in its ability to evoke emotion but never feels slight in its depiction of those emotions which well so deep within us.
Tracklisting:
01. Go Do
02. Animal Arithmetic
03. Tornado
04. Boy Lilikoi (listen to the mp3 below)
05. Sinking Friendships
06. Kolniður
07. Around Us
08. Grow Till Tall
09. Hengilás
Before Today, one of the most polarizing albums to be released in 2010, is also one of the most stubborn. But to be honest, I wasn't familiar with the Ariel Pink discography, at all, before hearing Before Today. So I really didn't know what to expect, or not to expect. And upon first listen, the album didn't strike me as I thought it might, or maybe even should have. Only after repeated listens did the nuances and the ambivalent musical path that these songs purposefully took really began to sink in and affect me the way that they had clearly affected so many others. Not to jump on I-Love-Ariel-Pink-now-too bandwagon but this album was low-key in a way that had nothing to with the fidelity of the sound, although the difference (I've since listened to past Ariel Pink albums) is considerable with regards to his back catalogue. But this progression in technique, is not a progression as an artist, as such. It seems more due to the fact that he has been given complete autonomy in creating this album. Even the backing band feels less like a backing band (and it isn't just a backing band) and becomes as instrumental in the development of each of these songs as the lead man himself. Some of these songs have already been heard in grittier demo-esque versions on different releases, and while the inclusion of these songs reduxed may seem like an easy fill, the song choices and the refined detail given each cut allow the raw notes of those songs to mature and fill the album with substance and a casual sincerity that feels lacking in much of indie music. While still relishing in his outsider-avant status, Ariel Pink has released an album that uses indie rock mainstays and a bedroom popper mentality to connect his childhood love of 70's and 80's pop to the modern day do-it-yourself aesthetic. It's a hell of a record.
Tracklisting:
01. Hot Body Rub
02. Bright Lit Blue Skies
03. L’estat
04. Friday Night (Nevermore)
05. Round and Round (listen to the mp3 below)
06. Beverly Kills
07. Butt-House Blondies
08. Little Wig
09. Can’t Hear My Eyes
10. Reminiscences
11. Menopause Man
12. Revolution’s a Lie
Despite the initial zaniness and seeming disposability of a Damon Albarn-fronted, Jamie Hewlett inked, cartoon band, Gorillaz quickly rose to the challenge in presenting artistically crafted pop songs, run through all the genre spastic filters you could imagine. When their debut came out, it struck just the right note between self-conscious pop and creative collaboration from the many different voices that were heard, and unheard, on the album. This style of schizophrenic pop was exactly right for the time and place from which it was borne. And following on the success of that album, Demon Days found the band, for by that time Gorillaz was beginning to feel as a whole, rather than a simple collection of parts, continuing the genre-bending pop slant introduced on their previous album. So, naturally, expectations were high for their next new full-length, which was released this year in the form of Plastic Beach. And from the Bobby Womack funk on single "Stylo" to the day-glo pop blast of Gruff Rhys/De La Soul collaboration "Superfast Jellyfish", Plastic Beach incorporates all the stylistic turns, and some yet to be turned, that the previous albums only hinted at and comes away with a monster of a strangely cohesive album. Forget the superficial environmental messages and focus on the unsettling themes of personal disposability ever-present on these tracks and you'll find Albarn and cohorts mining fertile ground for the sort of darkly surreal, cross-eyed pop that we've come to expect from them.
Tracklisting:
01. Orchestral Intro
02. Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach
03. White Flag
04. Rhinestone Eyes
05. Stylo
06. Superfast Jellyfish
07. Empire Ants
08. Glitter Freeze
09. Some Kind of Nature
10. On Melancholy Hill (listen to the mp3 below)
11. Broken
12. Sweepstakes
13. Plastic Beach
14. To Binge
15. Cloud of Unknowing
16. Pirate Jet
