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
