Top albums of 2010
Photos: Top albums | Top Box Sets
Here are my favorite albums of 2010:
1. Janelle Monae, “The ArchAndroid” (Bad Boy): The Atlanta singer’s boundary-busting debut album has ambition to burn. It’s a self-empowerment manifesto couched inside a futuristic “emotion-picture” about an android’s battle to overcome oppression – got all that? The music is equally adventurous, touching on everything from lounge jazz to hard funk. A star is born.
2. The Besnard Lakes, “The Besnard Lakes are the Roaring Night” (Jagjaguwar): The Montreal band perfects its marriage of Brian Wilson-like melodic splendor and My Bloody Valentine-worthy guitar roar. While the lyrics are a bonfire of earthly espionage and anxiety, the music shoots for the heavens.
3. Neil Young, “Le Noise” (Reprise): Neil Young says producer Daniel Lanois made his guitar sound like “God” on this “folk-metal” solo album. It’s unlike anything Young has recorded in his long career, and that’s saying something, a melding of fragility and violence that lends poignance and gravity to songs about loss, confusion, mortality.
4. Robyn, “Body Talk” (Interscope): In an era when big, buoyant pop is king, from Katy Perry to Black Eyed Peas, this Swedish singer trumps them all. “Body Talk” caps her trilogy of releases this year with an affirmation that pop can be both smart and danceable.
5. Sharon Van Etten, “epic” (Ba Da Bing): A powerful singer with emotionally transparent songs, swathed in gorgeous textures supplied by guitars, pedal steel, even a harmonium.
6. LCD Soundsystem, “This is Happening” (DFA/Virgin): LCD auteur James Murphy creates a dance-and-trance soundtrack for a long night out that is alternately beautiful, giddy, and sometimes downright poignant.
7. Kanye West, “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” (Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam): Perhaps only West could turn all the hatred directed at him into a song as thrilling, surreal and anthemic as “Runaway,” the centerpiece of an album that turns contradictions into strengths, a mix of classical opulence, grimy beats, boldness and vulnerability.
8. Dessa, “A Badly Broken Code” (Doomtree): Sharply observed, deeply personal lyrics set to a genre-defying mix of rhythm loops, mellow atmospherics, straight-up rap, spoken word, guileless singing, and enchanting melodies.
9. Arcade Fire, “The Suburbs” (Merge): An album-length cycle of concise songs mixed with progressive-rock touches. Win Butler and his bandmates invest their suburban upbringing with fondness and regret, wistfulness and disappointment, and that tension is nurtured by music that is among the richest, subtlest and most unsettling of the band’s career.
10. Warpaint, “The Fool” (Rough Trade): Bass lines snake through a gauzy swirl of guitars, underpinned by surprisingly funky drumming. The singers seem to be almost conversing, finishing each other’s thoughts as they seduce all who come within earshot.
And the next 10:
11. Das Racist, “Sit Down, Man” (Mad Decent)
12. Grinderman, “Grinderman 2” (Anti)
13. High on Fire, “Snakes for the Divine” (E1 Music)
14. Mavis Staples, “You Are Not Alone” (Anti)
15. The Roots, “How I Got Over” (Def Jam)
16. Charlie Musselwhite, “The Well” (Alligator)
17. Cee Lo Green, “The Lady Killer” (Elektra)
18. Kid Cudi, “Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager” (G.O.O.D./Universal Motown)
19. Bruce Springsteen, “The Promise” (Columbia)
20. Yeasayer, “Odd Blood” (Secretly Canadian)
greg@gregkot.com
That's a great list, and I'm always so glad that Chicago has you and Mr. Derogatis as the best rock critics in the nation...
My mostly complete top ten is:
(1) My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West
(2) Transference by Spoon
(3) The ArchAndroid by Janelle Monae
(4) Mines by Menomena
(5) The Suburbs by Arcade Fire
(6) Big Echo by the Morning Benders
(7) My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky by Swans
(8) New Amerykah Vol. 2 by Erykah Badu
(9) Of Seismic Consequence by Yakuza
(10) (tie) Expo 86 by Wolf Parade
(10) (tie) The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night by The Besnard Lakes
I haven't hear Kid CuDi's "Man on the Moon 2" yet, or Dessa's "A Badly Broken Code". I very much like Neil Young's "Le Noise", Yeasayer's "Odd Blood", and The Roots's "How I got Over", and I could see my feelings about those particular albums changing as to where I would rate them.
The only album on your list that I just have to disagree with is Das Racist (#11). While they may be okay for parties, I just don't see them as very innovative. On some of their songs, there's a nice flow, but for the most part it's a pretty minor backpacker/hip hop sound. I mean, after listening to Kanye's album, don't you just want to fall asleep while listening to Das Racist?
Posted by: M Meyer | December 03, 2010 at 01:15 AM
For some reason I just really get the feeling that you guys don't like Vampire Weekend....
Posted by: a. flood | December 03, 2010 at 01:16 PM
I'm really glad that you included Dessa- I have a feeling that her record got slept on a lot more than it should. She's being doing great things with Doomtree for years and having a full length that revolves her strong wordplay deserves some more love.
Posted by: Eddie | December 04, 2010 at 05:59 PM
Vampire Weekend are good for elevator / commercial background music, I guess.
Posted by: send9 | December 05, 2010 at 01:02 AM
This reminds us, we need to pick up Arcade Fire's album TODAY!
Posted by: Pinto and the Bean | December 05, 2010 at 02:10 PM
I really enjoyed the first Vampire Weekend album. The new one didn't do much for me though.
I didn't buy many albums this year, but Badly Drawn Boy's "It's Not What I'm Thinking" would have to be near the top of my personal favorites.
And personally, I preferred Broken Bells and MGMT "Congratulations" over Yeasayer's album.
Other than that, I have to agree with most of the list.
Posted by: Jim | December 06, 2010 at 01:26 PM
What a year for music! Although, Beach House and New Pornographers would have been in my top 20. ;) Gorillaz was great too (I think that counts for 2010).
Nice list, Greg. Thanks for turning me onto Besnard Lakes. That is a brilliant one and does remind me of MBV. Right on about LCD and Robyn.
Posted by: Tom | December 06, 2010 at 11:19 PM
Mr. Kot - great list. The best thing about 2010 was the sheer amount of great music released. So it makes for fantastic discussion. I liked Arcade Fire's The Suburbs and Kanye West's MBDWF most (the sexy picks this year). My top 5 were rounded out by The National's High Violet, Titus Andronicus' The Monitor and Surfer Blood's Astro Coast.
I hate that my top 5 were all BNMed by P4K, but they were all great.
Posted by: RockLibr | December 07, 2010 at 01:04 PM
My Top 3... Radio Dept, Best Coast & Teenage Fanclub. Big dropoff after that.
Looking fwd to the Stones/Beatles book Greg.
J.Whipp
Posted by: Jody Whipp | December 07, 2010 at 11:01 PM
1) LOUD - Rihanna (Definitely the best album, musically, this year. There are NO fillers on there whatsoever).
2) Teenage Dream - Katy Perry (Whoever reviewed the album on here was biased, this album is wonder, artistic, and creative.)
3) Speak Now - Taylor Swift (I really don't listen to country music, but this album was on point).
4) My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy - Kanye West
5) Recovery - Eminem
6) Thank Me Later - Drake
7) Pink Friday - Nicki Minaj
8) Animal - Ke$ha
9) I Am Not a Human Being - Lil Wayne
10) Sale el Sol - Shakira (I can't understand anything she is saying except on Loca, but it is hot).
Posted by: DeAndre | December 08, 2010 at 01:30 PM
Joanna Newsom. Really? Nobody? Have One on Me? come on, now! That's some great stuff there!
Posted by: Dan | December 08, 2010 at 11:48 PM
Superchunk - Majesty Shredding
Ty Segall - Melted
Eddy Current Suppression Ring - Rush to Relax
Big Boi - Sir Luscious Left Foot...
Posted by: B Reber | December 11, 2010 at 11:32 AM
Robyn - Body Talk
JoAnna Newsom - Have One on Me
Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
Yeasayer - Odd Blood
Nneka - Concrete Jungle
The Dead Weather - Sea of Cowards
BeachHouse - Teen Dream
Caribou - Swim
The Knife - Tomorrow, in a Year
Posted by: Angie Martin | December 12, 2010 at 07:05 PM
Is it too much to ask that newspapers/bez/etc. hire pop music critic that LIKE pop music? No doubt, there's the "Robyn" pick to show you like the dancepop genre but the masses are just so dumb for picking Keisha or Rhianna. The obligatory Kanye pick. Then off to the fringes. No wonder newspapers are dying and WBEZ needs taxpayer and corporate support.
Posted by: Rusty | December 13, 2010 at 10:50 AM
@Rusty - check out a little tabloid called the New York Times. They will spend a good chunk of their music coverage dissecting the likes of Taylor Swift and Black Eyed Peas.
As for the list - no Sleigh Bells, Greg?!
Posted by: Jeremy Shatan | December 13, 2010 at 01:13 PM
@Rusty The music they have on there is not the fringes if your career is in reviewing or appreciating music. Those are well known bands in the country and if you gave them a shot, you just might like them.
And the masses aren't dumb for picking Keisha or Rhianna, but just because the masses picked it doesn't mean that its good. If the pop music is good, they will say so (Rhianna was in his top ten last year). But there's soooo much more going on in the world of music than just pop (although sometimes when you turn on the radio, thats hard to understand), it would be a disservice to Chicago music fans to ignore everything else.
Posted by: ChiMike | December 15, 2010 at 11:08 AM
Also, Beach House didn't make your top 20??? I'd have to put them, Deerhunter's Halcyon Digest, and The Tallest Man On Earth's EP in there too.
Posted by: ChiMike | December 15, 2010 at 11:20 AM