My top 25 of 2010

2010 was a hell of a year for music, folks, this top 25 only scratches the surface really. Click on my track picks for a download.

25. Janelle Monáe: The Archandroid (buy)
One thing 2010 was surprisingly good for was pop music, in particular this debut album from Janelle Monáe, an innovative sci-fi pop concept album based loosely around Fritz Lang’s Metropolis with Janelle as a robotic traveler from the future here to warn us about what will be.
Track Pick: “Dance or Die” with guest vocalist Saul Williams
See also: The music videos for “Tightrope” and “Cold War”

24. Holy Fuck: Latin (buy)
Cacophonous Canadian indie-electronic dudes, made up of former members of Broken Social Scene-predecessors By Divine Right and King Cobb Steelie. Fun, weird, noisy stuff.
Track Pick: “Red Lights”
See also: The video for “Red Lights”

23. Grinderman: Grinderman 2 (buy)
The second entry in Nick Cave’s harsh punk-blues return to his old Birthday Party/Bad Seeds sound is even better than the first one, with more focus (and maybe even more vulgarity) in the lyrics
Track Pick: “Bellringer Blues”
See also: The music video for “Heathen Child”

22. Kno: Death Is Silent (buy)
CunninLynguists main man Kno released his first proper solo album this year, a dark and serious contrast to his main act’s work, all about death and sex
Track Pick: “If You Cry”

21. Hans Zimmer: Inception (buy)
A great, epic score for an intriguingly cerebral action flick, with motifs of ticking clocks and elements of dark ambient incorporated into Zimmer’s trademark style.
Track Pick: “Time”
See also: The movie, obviously

20. Ihsahn: After (buy)
The lead singer of Norwegian metal legends Emperor released his third solo album this year, and it was an impressive progressive black metal release with nuance and crazy jazz saxophone.
Track Pick: “On the Shores”

19. The Black Keys: Brothers (buy)
I never figured before that The Black Keys were missing something from their earlier albums, but I was wrong. The chunky organ sound that they introduced here was like a final missing puzzle piece to their classic garage blues sound.
Track Pick: “Everlasting Light”
See Also: The music videos for “Next Girl” and “Tighten Up”

18. The Hold Steady: Heaven Is Whenever (buy)
With the departure of multi-instrumentalist Franz Nicolay, the sound of the band is a lot more stripped-down, but it suits them very well and further the emphasizes the rambling lyrical style of Craig Finn
Track Pick: “Barely Breathing”

17. Pan Sonic: Gravitoni (buy)
A farewell album from groundbreaking Finnish noise purveyors Pan Sonic, and all waves of static and glitch and thunderous drone.
Track Pick: “Pan Finale”

16. Beach House: Teen Dream (buy)
Lush dream-pop that, in a rare twist, is not a retro throwback, but a lovely modern-sounding pop rock album refreshingly free of twee pretense
Track Pick: “Zebra”
See Also: They actually made music videos for every song on this album and included them as a bonus DVD with the album. Here are “Zebra” and “10 Mile Stereo”

15. LCD Soundsystem: This Is Happening (buy)
This album really took me by surprise, because while I’ve always enjoyed LCD Soundsystem, this is the first album that really blew me away, tempering its snarky hipness with self-deprecation and honest emotion and humour.
Track Pick: “Home” – this is the first song I put on in 2011
See Also: The music video for “Drunk Girls”

14. Agrypnie: 16[485] (buy)
Heavy, vast, atmospheric, and complex German experimental black metal, layered with drone and noise.
Track Pick: “F15.2”

13. Daughters: Daughters (buy)
Noise rock a la The Jesus Lizard, re-evolved out of modern math-rock with an abrasive wall of sound technique
Track Pick: “The Hit”

12. Tallest Man on Earth: The Wild Hunt (buy)
Kristian Matsson’s resemblance both as a vocalist and a songwriter to Bob Dylan (circa Blood on the Tracks) is astonishing and he is an exceptional modern folk musician in his own right.
Track Pick: “The Wild Hunt”

11. Laurie Anderson: Homeland (buy)
Laurie Anderson has long been one of my favourite artists, an eccentric New York performance art/electronic music pioneer whose Jules Massenet tribute “O Superman” provided the most unlikely of hit singles way back in the eighties. This year she returned after a decade of silence with an updated sound and heavily political (albeit still weird and dreamlike) lyrics.
Track Pick: “Dark Time in the Revolution”

10. Sleigh Bells: Treats (buy)
Easily the coolest new band of 2010, dance-pop taken to noisy, distorted extremes. Pure, unadulterated fun.
Track Pick: “Crown on the Ground”
See Also: The music video for “Infinity Guitars”

9. Liars: Sisterworld (buy)
Another mind-bending, listener-unfriendly boundary-pushing release from Liars, having dropped the multi-drummer rhythms the parts of the songs move at their own separate paces to very disorienting effect.
Track Pick: “The Overachievers”
See Also: The music video for “Scissor”

8. Frog Eyes: Paul’s Tomb – A Triumph (buy)
A local artist! A strange, strange, rambling local artist, at that, Carey Mercer channels Dan Bejar of Destroyer here in his lyrics and off-kilter melodies.
Track Pick: “Paul’s Tomb”

7. Agalloch: Marrow of the Spirit (buy)
This, finally, is the album that delivers on all the promise shown on their earlier work, a dark, sonically interesting merger of folk and metal.
Track Pick: “Ghosts of the Midwinter Fires”

6. Joanna Newsom: Have One on Me (buy)
A three-disc chamber-folk weirdness extravaganza which, daunting as it may seem, is best taken in all at once, like diving into a strange bizarro RenFair world.
Track Pick: “Baby Birch”

5. Menomena: Mines (buy)
A more coherent and emotive (and less experimental-sounding) album than their earlier work, built out of many tiny little pieces to create something beautiful and affecting.
Track Pick: “Taos”

4. Kanye West: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (buy)
Yep, it lives up to all the hype, the most interesting production on any hip-hop release in some time, which should be no surprise, guest stars that actually work, just generally a fully realized rap album that pushes things forward.
Track Pick: “Monster”
See Also: The epic half-hour “Runaway” video and this leaked early version of the “Monster” music video

3. Arcade Fire: The Suburbs (buy)
Another spectacular album, this one seeming to detail the suburban war that led to the apocalypse of Funeral. This is their most upbeat release by far, reveling in nostalgia rather than sorrow.
Track Pick: “Suburban War”
See also: The great Spike Jonze music video for “The Suburbs”

2. The National: High Violet (buy)
My favourite band currently going. Their albums are all growers, and this one just got better and better the more I listened to it throughout the year, elegant and suave and passionate.
Track Pick: “England”
See Also: The music video for “Bloodbuzz Ohio”

1. Owen Pallett: Heartland (buy)
As a violinist for Arcade Fire and in his former AKA Final Fantasy, Owen Pallett has been making excellent music for some time now, but this album was still a shock, a cohesive statement of artistic intents, graceful and ambitious and altogether beautiful.
Track Pick: “Oh Heartland, Up Yours!”
See Also: The peculiar music video for “Lewis Takes Off His Shirt”

Some other great albums this year included:
Shining: Blackjazz (“The Madness and the Damage Done” video)
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club: Beat the Devil’s Tattoo (“Beat the Devil’s Tattoo” video)
Deerhunter: Halcyon Digest (“Helicopter” video)
Gogol Bordello: Trans-Atlantic Hustle (“Pala Tute” video)
Pet Metheny: Orchestrion
Steve Wynn & The Miracle 3: Northern Aggression
Tom Jones: Praise & Blame
Sufjan Stevens: The Age of Adz (“Too Much” video)
Crocodiles: Sleep Forever (“Sleep Forever” video)
Celph Titled & Buckwild: Nineteen Ninety Now (“Mad Ammo” video)
Wolf Parade: Expo 86
Massive Attack: Heligoland (“Splitting the Atom” video)
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings: I Learned the Hard Way (“I Learned the Hard Way” video)
Enslaved: Axioma Ethica Odini
Jaga Jazzist: One Armed Bandit
Crystal Castles: Crystal Castles (II) (“Baptism” video)
Freeway & Jake One: The Stimulus Package (“Know What I Mean” video)
Superchunk: Majesty Shredding
Brendan Perry: Ark
Daft Punk: Tron Legacy (“Derezzed” video)
High on Fire: Snakes of the Divine (“Frost Hammer” video)
Hot Chip: One Life Stand (“I Feel Better” video)
Big Boi: Sir Lucious Left Foot – The Return of Chico Dusty (“Shutterbugg” video)
Flying Lotus: Cosmogramma (“MmmHmm” video)

~ by jshopa on January 2, 2011.