Best Albums of 2010
By You Can't Hear it on the Radio
January 3, 2011
BoxOfficeProphets.com
It's time to celebrate the year in music that was 2010, and to kick things off we're going to chat up our top ten albums - countdown style! Later on in the month look for our individual lists that go beyond ten entries, and playlists of some of our favorite individual songs from this year. But for right now let's get it going.
Steve: Noah, when I was going back through all the albums I've listened to this year in trying to determine a top ten order, it really reinforced for me why we started this blog in the first place. 2010 was a kickass year for music. Albums that held my interest numbered well into the 40s. That's just a ton of good music hitting the market. Before we get into our individual lists, what are your impressions of the year in general?
Noah: First and foremost, I feel like I'm still behind. It was such an epic year for music that I'm not sure "kickass" even does it justice. More than anything, I think we're seeing the fruits of the demolition of the music industry. Maybe it's just the music I listen to, but there's such variety available that it seemed like every week held another new release that piqued my interest. There are still a good 10-15 albums I just never got to spend time with in 2010. Maybe that's a function of the way I listen to music, but I'm not sure it doesn't have more to do with the year that was.
Steve: That's true for me too - I suspect I would love the new albums by Deerhunter and The Walkmen, and I've been meaning to check out Black Mountain and The Tallest Man on Earth for the better part of the year. Since we don't get this stuff for free (and you know, have full time jobs and families and stuff) it's hard to fully keep up, but I still feel like I've heard enough 2010 music - 65 albums worth for me - to be able to form a credible top ten, with the stragglers sure to provide good listening in January and February. Other albums I missed in 2010 that I want to at least name drop: The Dum Dum Girls, Wild Nothing, Blonde Redhead, Bear Hands, and The Ruby Suns.
Noah: I have a list of 48 I have an opinion on, with another 11 I still haven't cleared time and brain space for. Those include Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, The Young Evils, Menomena, Lower Dens and Throw Me The Statue. Many of those I know are on your list.
Steve: I also enjoyed a couple EPs that I generally disqualify when it comes to rankings. The always reliable Sam Phillips had a great EP come out this year called Magic for Everybody that was a good listen. I also discovered a band hilariously named Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. that sounds like a cross between Animal Collective and The Beach Boys. Anything else in the way of a preamble or do you want to highlight your first album?
Noah: Let's get to it. #10 on my list is The Besnard Lakes - ...are the roaring night. It's a soaring wall of noise that swirls around you. That's about as goofy a description as I can come up with.
Steve: They're a band I've been meaning to check out as well - Greg Kot, who we both like, had this album as his #2 of the year.
Noah: What do you have at number 10?
Steve: Number 10 on my list is The Love Language - Libraries. The Love Language does lazy, washed out surf garage and they do it with a winking flair that pays homage to their roots as it plays off them. I really love the sound on Libraries - it's a beach party soundtrack from blown out speakers, with slightly distorted vocals, harmony, big bass drum beats and hand claps. The Love Language is the answer to the question no one asked - what would the Beach Boys sound like if they grew up listening to Nirvana instead of Pat Boone?
Noah: I'm a big fan of Libraries as well. It's an album that might end up higher on my list in retrospect (I'll know more on that in a few months).
Noah: Number 9 on my list is one of the bigger surprises I had this year. Free Energy - Stuck on Nothing. If Weezer had ever evolved past their own worst urges, they might sound a little bit like Free Energy. Begging to be played loud in a car, Stuck on Nothing is a fun album that actually has cowbell unironically opening the first song on the album (creatively titled “Free Energy”).
For me, power pop tends to fall into a couple of categories – crap (Fountains of Wayne), self-parody (Weezer), and unironic fun (Free Energy).
Steve: Free Energy is an aptly named band, listening to them puts a big hop in my step. Stuck on Nothing came in at 23 on my list and, in a year like was just had I think anything in the top 25 is a sign of a quality release. My number nine album was one I saw mentioned on a lot of best of the year lists. I'll admit I'm a new fan of LCD Soundsystem - I missed the boat on their first two albums, but This is Happening was a standout album from 2010. At nine songs, each is a confident statement that surpasses mere dance music with inventive structure and wit. What most impressed me was the absence of the elements that I generally don't care for in dance music - endless repetition, an over emphasis on beats, insipid lyrics - but LCD Soundsystem is like the antidote for dance music.
Noah: I have a love/like relationship with LCD Soundsystem. Many of their songs (All My Friends, Daft Punk is Playing at My House, North American Scum, Dance Yrself Clean) are just plain awesome, but I admit I find myself occasionally bored with them over the course of a full album. All that said, This Is Happening came in at 13 on my list.
Number eight on my list is Ra Ra Riot's The Orchard. I went into some detail about this album and my love of Ra Ra Riot in my recent Album Killer post, so I won't repeat myself too much. But aside from You And I Know, The Orchard is a worthy successor to their classic first album The Rhumb Line.
Steve: What I loved about The Orchard, which coincidentally was also my number eight album this year, was how they were able to switch up their sound so effectively with just a few small stylistic choices. I loved the risk singer Wes Miles took by singing in a higher register for much of the album. Oh, and unlike you, "You and I Know" was one of my favorite songs on the album - it's an absolute pot boiler of a song, and by the time it kicks in it really pays off the slow build with some soaring, emotional interplay between the guitar and the vocals.
Noah: Overall it's a really nice evolution for Ra Ra Riot and makes me look forward to their next album. My number seven album of 2010 is from a band we both love - The New Pornographers. Together is certainly not their best album, but I thought it was excellent. I wish there were more Twin Cinema-level intensity, but even low-key Pornos are better than almost anything else.
Steve: I give the NPs credit for exploring what their sound can be but they haven't really rocked out since Twin Cinema and I'm anxious for more guitar-driven songwriting from A.C. Newman. I will concede that Together had probably my favorite set of Dan Bejar songs of any NPs album. In particular I liked "If You Can't See My Mirrors", which featured some nice lyrical interplay between Bejar and Neko Case.
Steve: I'm skipping ahead to my number five record, with the comment that readers can get our full list in follow up posts to come in the next week or so. The second album in two years by The Dead Weather - Sea of Cowards, is my fifth favorite from 2010. By recognizing The Dead Weather I'm essentially reinforcing my impression that Jack White, in whatever incarnation he happens to be taking at the moment, is one artist who consistently delivers, with no missteps, each and every time out. There's no one more prolific, and there's no one more interesting. I think by mixing it up and working within different band and sound dynamics he's managing to keep it fresh. Every time you turn around this guy is involved in another incredible batch of music.
Noah: I love Jack White in certain settings, but Dead Weather just does not do it for me. Okay, I'll skip over my number six (Los Campesinos! - Romance is Boring) to join you at number five: Grinderman - Grinderman 2
Easily the most messy, pounding, animalistic album on my list, Grinderman 2 is a side project of dirty, dirty rock and roll side from Nick Cave and three Bad Seeds. Drenched in feedback-laden guitar and an absolutely raging rhythm section, Cave howls and growls out lyrics filled with innuendo and spite. The band plays with abandon and their spirit and intensity is easy to get lost in. I can't get enough.
Steve: The Grinderman stuff I've heard is a little too noisy for me personally. Interestingly, it seems our takes on Jack White and Nick Cave are in parallel if not in sync. I like his work with the Bad Seeds but less so with Grinderman. I'm skipping over The Black Keys - Brothers at number four to get to my number three album of the year, The Winter of Mixed Drinks by Frightened Rabbit. I feel this album was wrongly omitted from a lot of the best of lists I've read recently. I thought Frightened Rabbit achieved a fuller sound and a more hopeful tone on this album; Midnight Organ Fight in contrast was very raw and laid bare. Everything it wanted to communicate as a breakup album came across in Scott Hutchinson's voice. The Winter of Mixed Drinks sounds in comparison more cohesive. It works for me as a whole band effort, and a very solid follow up to MOF. I loved this album.
Noah: I'm a huge fan of Frightened Rabbit and also loved Winter of Mixed Drinks. It landed at number 12 on my list. I have to stop at number four on my list... Jonsi's Go.
This might be a whole other blog post, but the reaction I have to the music of Jonsi (and his main band - Sigur Ros) is made wholly from cliche. It touches my soul, man. Maybe that's a little overwrought, but Jonsi/Sigur Ros connect with me in a way that few other artists do.
Songs like Gong (from 2005's Takk....) have a level of melancholy and despair that shouldn't make me feel so good. Alternately, Inní mér syngur vitleysingur (from 2008's Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust) is one of the most joyous and thrilling pieces of music I've ever heard.
Lead singer of Sigur Ros Jón Þór Birgisson took time during the band's hiatus to record a side project with a different band - Jonsi. Inasmuch as a Sigur Ros-related album can be more traditional rock and roll, Go is just that. Among the more Sigur Ros-esque songs are a great number of more straightforward songs, many even sung in English. It's a fantastic, layered album and one I highly recommend.
Noah: My number three album is The National – High Violet. Simultaneously their most intricate and orchestrated album, High Violet is excellent from top to bottom. Even after many many listens, I still find new parts to love. Matt Berninger’s voice is so distinctive that it’s easy to imagine The National never finding a way to break out of their usual mellow, somewhat dark place. But High Violet definitely pulls them in a new direction.
Steve: Well, I agree with you on Jonsi. He may be matched only by Sufjan Stevens in terms of the ingenuity he brings to his arrangements and songwriting in general. In some ways it feels silly to try and compare an epic sounding album like Go with some of the simpler fare from bands like Best Coast or The Young Evils. What I think those latter bands have in their corner is an emotional intimacy that I have a harder time getting from Jonsi. But if I want to play something loud that makes me feel happy at a core, visceral level, I'll go with Jonsi (or Sigur Ros) any time. And ultimately I think those trade-offs are what can allow for comparisons of very different works of music. For frame of reference: Jonsi - Go (13th), The Young Evils - Enchanted Chapel (19th), and Best Coast - Crazy For You (21st).
The National, well, we've talked about this before, but I have a hard time getting past the vocals. A little too baritone and monotone for me.
Noah: I still think you're missing out. There's more there than just the surface level on the vocal, and High Violet is worth a second listen.
I don't think we need to spend more time on the album we both have at number two. We reviewed Wolf Parade's Expo 86 earlier in the year and it's on our short list of Great albums.
So now it's time for our best of 2010...
Steve: I'm making a drumroll noise right now.
Noah: The best album of 2010 was one that anyone who reads a music blog won't be surprised to read on this list: Arcade Fire – The Suburbs.
For me, Arcade Fire made the most interesting album of the year. It’s textured and nuanced, without being trite on a subject (the aforementioned suburbs) that is begging for a lyricist to fall into the stereotype trap. The albums that stick with me the longest and make the biggest impact on my musical landscape are like onions, layered and requiring a little work to peel. The Suburbs is an onion.
I also think that The Suburbs is a little bit of a swerve for Arcade Fire. They’ve always had a big sound, filled with anthemic rock and roll. In concert, they are high energy, always moving, creating a wall of sound. But The Suburbs is a restrained, controlled album. The anthems are still there, but they don’t have the heart-on-the-sleeve fervor of Funeral or Neon Bible. You almost have to find them.
I spent most of the year thinking Wolf Parade’s Expo 86 would be at the top of my list for 2010, but in a year of great music the top to bottom quality and consistency of The Suburbs makes it my best of 2010.
Steve: The Suburbs had some excellent songs - in particular "Ready to Start", "Rococo", "City With No Children", "We Used to Wait", and "Sprawl II" were probably among my favorite individual songs of the year, and they were enough to propel The Suburbs to number 12 on my list.
I guess it's a little ironic that, in contrast to your choice of the epic (some would say sprawling, and some others would say that's the point) 16-track opus from Arcade Fire, my favorite album of 2010 was one I described as "a brisk masterpiece" - American Slang by The Gaslight Anthem. For my money The Gaslight Anthem are peaking with this effort. American Slang is the sound of a band finding their own voice and confidently making music that is evocative, compelling, exuberant, and with driving emotion but at the same time grounded in relatable themes.
Noah: I loved it as well - it came in at 15th on my list. They manage to make music that in less confident hands would just be hopelessly derivative. But as The Gaslight Anthem create it, it's fresh and new again.
Steve: They are working within a well known genre for certain, but the comparisons to Springsteen are losing validity, I think, in the face of a big step forward from The '59 Sound in terms of their songwriting and overall tightness of the band's sound.
All in all a great year for music, and we've still got more to discover. Can 2011 possibly top 2010?
Noah: I sure hope so, but the odds aren't good. In the first month, we have new music from The Decemberists, so at a minimum we're looking at a promising start.
Steve: You saw a lot more concerts than I did this year ... what was your favorite?
Noah: Has to be Wolf Parade, by quite a margin. I don't think it comes as a surprise that of my top 10 albums, I saw eight of the bands live. I think there's a correlation between seeing them live and loving the album on a different level.
Steve: Yeah, that was the main theme of your "Album to Concert" post, and at least as far as Wolf Parade was concerned, although I loved the album to begin with, I agree seeing them live really took it to another level. In some ways our not having Wolf Parade in the number one spot was a big surprise. It will have to settle for the "consensus number one" designation, since it would be the highest ranked if we consolidated our individual lists.
Noah: If anyone is still reading at the end of this, I hope you'll add a comment and let us know your favorite album of 2010.
Steve: Agreed, and be sure to check back for our individual "full" lists, coming soon.
For the original version of this post, including music and video, click here.