The Best Albums of 2010
1. Odd Blood, Yeasayer - While the album as a whole is inconsistent, the high water mark set by the best of Odd Blood is within reach of few bands making music these days. The standout songs are the most emotionally evocative and resonant songs of the year. Even when gloriously enveloped in shiny barrages of synth, danceable backbeats, and intricately layered percussion, I never felt further than arms reach from Chris Keating and Anand Wilder’s whacked out pop sensibilities as they delivered some of the most haunting and/or brilliant vocal performances of recent memory. Giving away the scorching Live at Ancienne Belgique at the exact moment I decided to finally craft this list didn’t hurt either.
2. Cracked Maps and Blue Reports, Rotary Downs - It’s hard to find a single momentary misstep - let alone a low point - on Cracked Maps and Blue Reports, an album that evokes the early work of The Band (band) in the way it seems to exist in its own awesome vacuum, an environment unfettered by the passing fads momentarily sweeping through the musical universe. Rotary Downs eschew any de rigueur smoke and mirrors in favor of immaculate instrumental performance and good old fashioned songcraft. Calling Cracked Maps and Blue Reports “perfect” would be pretentious, so I will instead call it a remarkable collection of moody power pop and dazzling, spooky indie rock; a mind-blowing tour de force that makes you continuously wonder how “Rotary Downs” is not a household name.
3. The Brutalist Bricks, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - The most common criticism I hear about Ted Leo and the Pharmacists seems to have something to do with the unprecedented consistency and overall quality of their catalog, spoken like an uninterrupted procession of albums replete with golden-throat vocals and shredding guitars is some sort of black mark against an artist or band. While I would certainly argue the merits of that general position, I will concede that Ted Leo has made few major tweaks to his approach to music making. It’s a good thing, then, that his approach to music making involves a preternatural knack for creating perfectly hook-y, high-energy, new wave punk. And his output has evolved, but subtle and considerate adaptation can be lost on a general public used to jarring and/or superfluous detours (see Congratulations, MGMT or Maya, M.I.A.). Ted Leo’s genius comes with a uncanny air of dependability, and after a listen to the laser-focused, stripped down powder keg that is The Brutalist Bricks, it should be clear that is far from a bad thing.
4. The Suburbs, Arcade Fire - Arcade Fire’s first two albums didn’t really do much for me. When I listened to The Funeral and especially Neon Bible, I heard nondescript indie rock elevated to something only moderately noteworthy by the inclusion of art-rock cliches that felt like they were layered in just to be art-rocky. The Suburbs sounds different, like Win Butler’s priorities shifted from crafting songs that act as good jumping off points for undisputedly transcendent live performances to songs that are transcendent in and of themselves.
5. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Kanye West - Full disclosure: I liked 808s and Heartbreak. I probably liked it more than Graduation, and definitely preferred it to Late Registration. I enjoyed seeing an undeniably talented but indisputably pompus artist satisfy all his flights of fancy, absurd as they may be. At the risk of praising a weird album solely for the fact it’s weird and even with the deluge of auto-tuned faux-rap that was floating around circa 2008, 808s and Heartbreak sounded fresh and novel enough to overshadow the fact that it was, well, weird. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy takes the indulgent and fascinating spirit of 808s and Heartbreak and mashes it up with Kanye West’s road tested ability to create compelling sonic backdrops, craft incisive punchlines and spit raw shoulder to shoulder with a cabal of top notch guest stars. But the pure excess on this album almost feels like it was piled on with a knowing wink, and the final product makes you wonder if even Kayne West was surprised with how fantastically over-the-top it turned out.
6. Stuck On Nothing, Free Energy
7. Halcyon Digest, Deerhunter
8. Contra, Vampire Weekend
9. This Is Happening, LCD Soundsystem
10. Coast, Sun Hotel
