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The Best Albums of 2010

seawolf17 Dec 21 2010 12:27 PM

As per me and a few of my higher ed colleagues from across the country. http://higheredmusiccritics.blogspot.com

TransMonk Dec 21 2010 02:32 PM Re: The Best Albums of 2010

Arcade Fire will be all over these sort of lists...but it's not my fave by them. Same with LCD Soundsystem. The Vampire Weekend Contra album received a lot of pub, but I never warmed up to it. The Mumford & Sons album would be a classic if it didn't have so much darned banjo on it. Brothers finally made me a Black Keys fan. The albums put out by Robert Plant and Neil Young were pretty outstanding. Spoon's Transference was better than the 2 albums that came before it. I've always liked The Walkmen, Ted Leo, Superchunk and Gorillaz and their 2010 releases did not disappoint. I don't think there was an All-Time album released this year. Lots of better than OK albums, but none timeless, IMO.

sharpie Dec 21 2010 02:41 PM Re: The Best Albums of 2010

Looking at the extended list I only know about 10 albums that came out this year so a top ten list would have all of them. Prolly get some new releases at Christmas but I always lag with albums since they need to grow on me. Arcade Fire, Belle & Sebastian, Outrageous Cherry, Jenny & Johnnie all came out with albums I've liked this year.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Dec 21 2010 02:49 PM Re: The Best Albums of 2010

This is the first year in about the last 15 I could even attempt one of these lists. Mine would include Best Coast, Freedy Johnston, the Hoodoo Gurus... That noisy Neil Young thing was interesting. I dunno. Lot of retro-sounding "new" stuff wasn't there this year? Or is that every year? I think the flavor of the year was to mix gospel & blues (or 60s pop or whatever) with some "new" sounds, sometimes in the service of making it purposefully sound old a la Best Coast. I'm not sure if it lasts.

metirish Dec 22 2010 08:57 AM Re: The Best Albums of 2010

seawolf17 wrote: As per me and a few of my higher ed colleagues from across the country. http://higheredmusiccritics.blogspot.com I love that Thunder is your fave rock band ever...... I just youtubed "Backstreet Symphony," I forgot how great that was.....1990....wow I couldn't even give a top ten list, there was a time when I knew all the stuff that came out but not anymore. It's like albums have become irrelevant to me, there are so many ways to access music nowadays.

A Boy Named Seo Dec 22 2010 09:28 AM Re: The Best Albums of 2010

Super ghey for top-10 lists. me & my peeps all make lists and and then exchange mix CDs with our fav songs from the year, too. Still can't believe all the love that Kanye album is getting. It's like people are afraid to say it's anything less than brilliant. Loved that Best Coast, too, and Mumfy & Sons was great in part because of all the banjo. C'mon, TM! Here was mine: 10 Justin Townes Earle "Harlem River Blues" Was a toss-up between this and Eels "End Times" (3.9 on pitchfork!), but the excellent "Christchurch Woman" gets this album thru when obeying 'best song theory'. And JTE's apparently a Met fan. Didn't hurt his chances any. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fj9FQAxHlL4 9 Beach House "Teen Dream" Great album to fall in love/break up to. it's teeny plus dreamy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciHpW0rlKcM 8 Surfer Blood "Astro Coast" Hooks out the butt-hole. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_RBxVpM_AI 7 Avi Buffalo "Avi Buffalo" Little bro's from Long Beach, no less. And I missed 'em w/ Band of Horsies??! d'oh! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tHwJcOWw1c 6 Arcade Fire "The Suburbs" h8 the effin suburbs, yall http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cuT8tSaxQc 5 Band of Horses "Infinite Arms" Three albums in & the formula is still awesome. Extra songwriters on this one a plus. And beards! Everywhere beards!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-DWW3SHPyI 4 Best Coast "Crazy For You" Queen of fuzzy buzzy, so-Cal, kitty-cat, pot-pop http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Sj5_WITMpA 3 Deerhunter "Halycon Digest" Jeez, how to describe. brilliant, dark, gorgeous, sad? Loves this thing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5RzpPrOd-4 2 Mumford & Sons "Sigh No More" New legends of stompy/clap, banjo-core. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KkUeRPjc-Y 1 Local Natives "Gorilla Manor" Suck it, Kanye. My #1 with a bullet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7IYhP35rSQ Favorite EP: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. "Horse Power EP" Pressure's on now, dudes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fh4etIJx7Oc Best single: Black Keys "Next Girl" Crank this shit as loud as your speakers'll go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_PrT25o8Vs "It's not you, it's me" Award: Tallest Man on Earth. Just no spark there, sorry. Thanks for playing: Eels, Morning Benders, Good Old War, Sun Kil Moon, Frightened Rabbit, & Sufjy.

seawolf17 Dec 22 2010 09:34 AM Re: The Best Albums of 2010

I just got Best Coast from the library; they played on campus this semester, and everyone was all geeked out about them. Didn't do anything for me. Our group's consolidated Top 50 will post in two chunks in the next week or so on that site.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Dec 22 2010 10:25 AM Re: The Best Albums of 2010

1 Local Natives "Gorilla Manor" Suck it, Kanye. My #1 with a bullet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7IYhP35rSQ Tried these guys a few times. I'm not sure what you call what they're doing.... progfolk tribal harmony? Kinda wish their songs were shorter and about girls and cars.

smg58 Dec 22 2010 01:34 PM Re: The Best Albums of 2010

I'll also be putting a list out on my friend's blog soon. The favorite to be #1 is Hunting My Dress by Jesca Hoop. Ozomatli and Johnny Clegg are likely to be ranked high as well. My Chemical Romance came across to me as a slightly updated version of The Bay City Rollers. I'll leave it to you to decide if that's a good thing. I don't have Mumford & Sons, but I've liked what I've heard and will probably get it in the new year. And what's wrong with banjos? I can understand why nobody has a neutral opinion of The Age of Adz. I can't understand why anybody has a positive opinion of it.

metirish Dec 22 2010 01:38 PM Re: The Best Albums of 2010

smg58 wrote: My Chemical Romance came across to me as a slightly updated version of The Bay City Rollers. I'll leave it to you to decide if that's a good thing. Brilliant , The Bay City Rollers might not like the comparison though.

TransMonk Dec 22 2010 03:07 PM Re: The Best Albums of 2010

A Boy Named Seo wrote: ...and Mumfy & Sons was great in part because of all the banjo. C'mon, TM! smg58 wrote: And what's wrong with banjos? Nothing wrong with banjos...in moderation. Just ask Wilco. I think all of the "da-ba da-ba, da-ba da-ba, da-ba da-ba, da-ba da-ba, da-ba da-ba, da-ba da-ba, da-ba da-ba, da-ba da-ba" of the banjo picking on this album detracts from how good the songs are (and still would be sans banjo). What's good for the goose isn't always good for the gander, and I'm sure a lot of peeps dig this album because of the banjo...and there's nothing wrong with that. Just not for me. I think a little less banjo would make this album exceptional. YMMV.

A Boy Named Seo Dec 22 2010 03:34 PM Re: The Best Albums of 2010

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: 1 Local Natives "Gorilla Manor" Suck it, Kanye. My #1 with a bullet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7IYhP35rSQ Tried these guys a few times. I'm not sure what you call what they're doing.... progfolk tribal harmony? Kinda wish their songs were shorter and about girls and cars. Progfolk tribal harmony sounds like something I'd hate, but there's some truth to that description. The clackety-clack rim-work on the snare helps push that, too. I just dug the shit out of these guys. Haven't seen them yet to back my crush up/kill it completely. smg58 wrote: I can understand why nobody has a neutral opinion of The Age of Adz. I can't understand why anybody has a positive opinion of it. He lost me with a lot of the long, rambling bleepy-bloopy electro crap, but there was still some really nice songs on there. Bold and sorta risky, going from all the beautiful, folky 'Illinoise' sounding stuff to this, but it just didn't work for me.

metsguyinmichigan Dec 22 2010 04:01 PM Re: The Best Albums of 2010

I'm usually years behind in mainstream stuff -- discovered Kings of Leon this year. And I borrowed the Arcade Fire disc from the library and confess it didn't do any thing for me. I'll probably discover it in two years... But, here's the new music I listened to this year, mostly CCM. 1) "Hello Hurricane" by Switchfoot. OK, it actually came out in Nov. 09. But I listened to this by far -- by far -- more than anything else in 2010. Count their iTunes Session as the 2010 release if you want. But I loved this disk, song for song. Was my main running music, and it was fun discovering different tracks as the year wore on. Give it a listen! 2) "City of Black and White" by Mat Kearney. It's another 09 release, but I discovered it this year. Borrowed it on a lark from the library because I kinda liked his first album, he was interesting when I saw him in concert and I'm a sucker for New York song. Popped it in the CD player, fell in love. A live version came out this year, count that as the 2010 release. 3) "Tonight" by tobyMac Toby is all over the place, and is magnificent 4) "Dark is the Place, Light is the Way" by Anberlin. Discovered only last month, and it's really good. 5) "Generous Mr. Lovewell" by MercyMe It's a little uneven, but the parts that are good are great. And the rest isn't bad. 6) "Born Again" by Newsboys. My alarm clock is wakes me with a CD, and the title cut has woken me up each morning since this came out. Not sure I like the Tait fronted Newsboys better than the Furler fronted band, but it's still awesome. 7) "The Shelter" by Jars of Clay. More mellow than the 2009 "Long Fall Back to Earth," but Jars at this point seems incapable of releasing something bad. One more: "Welcome to the Masquerade" by Thousand Foot Krutch came out in September 2009, but I didn't hear much of it until I saw the band in concert early this year. Then I started noticing the songs all over the place. You've probably heard "Fire it Up" and didn't know who it was.