My Favorite Records of 2010
I always find it funny when music periodicals and blogs start putting up their best albums of the year in early November, when we’ve still got 15% of the year left. Now, the final Tuesday has passed us, we’re two days out from 2011, and it is more than safe for me to assume that I will not have my mind blown by any new records over the next 48 hours.
The following are in no way “the best” albums of the year, or the “most important and influential” albums of the year. I won’t pretend to be the arbiter of taste; that’s for more pretentious and established (read: legitimate) publications to front. Albums on this list need only meet two criteria: 1) they came out in the calendar year 2010, and 2) I enjoyed them very much.
 | 10) Phantogram - Eyelid Movies I was actually kind of surprised to see this album on the list because there are probably only 3 or 4 songs on the whole thing that I really like a lot. When I look through my iTunes most played list though, this one creeps in as a top contender. Every time I tried to think of an album that I liked more or listened to more than this one, I was found without. So, sort of by default, here's number 10. |
 | 9) Ratatat - LP4 Every now and then, you just need some good dirty electronic music to crank up and dance to. Ratatat, and what the Glitch Mob's album should have been, is the perfect soundtrack for driving fast through a city at night... (in my prius...?) Get some good subs and crank it up, it's swagger in a bottle. |
 | 8) Jonsi - Go I didn't like the record as much as the live show, but nobody on earth is doing what Jonsi can do. Creative songwriting, unique instrumentation, and moving melodies create a landscape of timbres and emotion that transcends language. |
 | 7) Oh Land - Oh Land Nanna's going to go big in 2011. This short EP redefined her sound from 2008's darker Fauna, and as a whole is a bouncy, poppy, feel-great album. |
 | 6) Yeasayer - Odd Blood Yeasayer caught me off guard with Odd Blood. I had their previous album, All Hour Cymbals, and bought it mostly for the first track. Odd Blood showed up with song after song bringing the beat and begging me to put the album on repeat... I obliged. |
 | 5) The Bird and The Bee - Interpreting The Masters Volume 1: A Tribute To Daryl Hall And John Oates Nobody does covers like Greg Kurstin. Beautiful chord voicing and arrangements give Hall and Oates fresh life. Inara's voice is as smooth as ever and I look forward to what she'll be up to post-baby. |
 | 4) Ray LaMontagne and The Pariah Dogs - God Willin' and the Creek Don't Rise Every now and then you need to get away from the noise of over-production and just hear a good song, sung well. Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), Ray LaMontagne and a host of others are the perfect candidates for such times. God Willin' and the Creek Don't Rise gives listeners the simple and soulful craftsmanship that true songwriting is built on. |
 | 3) Mumford and Sons - Sigh No More Mumford and Sons is on the list for the same reasons as Ray's album above. I'm in an interesting stage in life perhaps where I really enjoy tight vocal harmonies and folksy guitars. Give me some music that we could play on the front porch, in the backyard, or down by the river. No extras, and no effects needed. Just music, and every emotion, in its purest form. |
 | 2) The National - High Violet This album had a lot of hype, and I really had to sit with it for a good few listens before I started to hear why. Once I "got it," it shot up my list quickly. The melancholy vocal delivery and somber mood really pull the listener into the lyrics, which are absolutely crushing at times. As my wife always says, "nothing makes me happy like a sad song." |
 | 1) Beach House - Teen Dream The haunting vocals and original guitar work on Beach House's latest are delicious. All of the production and orchestration really serve to transport the listener to another space. The album as a whole has a very dreamy and nostalgic quality that I've yet to feel from any other album of 2010. |
Music needs to make us feel something. So many albums on this list evoke strong emotional responses. I think that’s why I struggled with Phantogram, I wasn’t feeling anything when listening to the album… over and over. No joy, no sorrow, no awe, nothing. It’s like zombie robot music… or if they had been allowed to make music in Equilibrium, something like that.
Other albums that I beat myself up for leaving off:
Sufjan Stevens – The Age of Adz
It’s not that I think those albums are worse than the ones that made the list, I just didn’t spend enough time with them on to really learn and enjoy them. Maybe I heard each one through from start to finish 4 times. I’m sure if I had another month or two with each one, they may well have stolen the throne, or definitely knocked off Phantogram. That’s another reason I don’t like other sites that put out ridiculous top 100 lists. Has anybody really had the time to contemplate 100 full albums and rank them during the year? And to make a list of 100 albums, that means you’ve listened to even more. Anyway, enough on that.
You have my list. Don’t get mad, just tell me what I missed.
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