Top 10 Albums of 2010
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2010 was a great year for music, with fantastic releases coming out of nearly every genre. We've rounded up a list of some of the best albums of the last year. It isn't in any real order, all of these albums were so good it was hard to pick a true "winner." Agree? Disagree? Tell us all about it in the comments.
Easily one of the best albums of the year, Halcyon Digest is the fourth studio album from the Georgia based indie rock band Deerhunter. The album is ethereal, hypnotic, and complex without ever sounding pretentious. The record is an emotional journey that manages to include rather than alienate the listener, a difficult task for even the seasoned songsmith. In the end, the music really speaks for itself -- so listen to it.
Valleys of Neptune - Jimi Hendrix
New material, recorded shortly after Axis: Bold as Love. Who can argue with new Hendrix? Especially when it sounds as good as this!
The Black Keys have been around for 9 years. Let that sink in for a moment.
Brothers is the 6th album the band has released. It's the first one to get major attention in the media, it's the best selling album they've ever released, and it's their 6th studio album. Stylistically, it's very similar to what came before it (and thats a good thing). It's very much a blues record, even when it pretends that it's not. That being said, it's an amazing album from an astounding group. They manage to take the simple Blues structure that so much of rock is built around and distill it. What we are left with is an album that is sometimes angry, sometimes thoughtful, and always incredible.
It's Lo-Fi blues rock. It's Lo-Fi blues rock that seems to grab people's attention and run away with it.
If Brothers was your first experience with the Black Keys, I suggest you take a look at the rest of their catalog.
Sigh No More - Mumford and Sons
This album surprises me, every time I listen to it. It's a deeply emotional LP, the first from the band. It deals with themes of love and loss, personal growth and responsibility, it is endlessly enjoyable, and it's kind of a bluegrass album.
Most reviewers call Mumford and Sons a Freak Folk band. I'm honestly not sure what that means, but if this is Freak Folk, I really like Freak Folk. The instrumentation is fairly simple: Guitar; Drums; Mandolin; Keyboard; Upright Bass. The music isn't terribly complex either, at least not at first brush but, that simplicity is deceptive. This album has a way of staying with you. I frequently find myself humming Little Lion Man, or The Cave many hours after listening to the album.
This is one of those albums that transcends social classifications. It doesn't just appeal to teenagers, or college kids; it doesn't just appeal to adults or audiophiles. It has a kind of universal appeal that makes it all the more remarkable.
This is the highly anticipated 2010 release from the critically adored Alt-Rock outfit. Written, arranged, performed and produced by the Arcade Fire and co-produced by Markus Dravs, The Suburbs was recorded around Montreal and New York over the past two years.
The Wild Hunt - Tallest Man On Earth
This is probably the most polarizing album on the list this year.
The Tallest Man On Earth is a Swedish Singer/Songwriter. His music, however, is deeply rooted in American Folk. People constantly compare him, with good reason, to Bob Dylan. (In fact, he goes as far as to make a couple of Dylan references in this album.) The music is fairly simple, a guitar and a voice. The guitar work is competent, the vocals are full of life and emotion. Many people love his music, and could listen to it endlessly, just as many people would prefer to never hear it again.
Love him or hate him, The Wild Hunt is definitely one of th best, and most talked about, albums of the year.
Sea of Cowards - The Dead Weather
Sea Of Cowards is a robust and vigorous second act, filled with primal, bone quaking Rock rhythms and the same stellar urban Blues and throbbing sleaze as its predecessor; but this time The Dead Weather push their sound even further, brilliantly building upon their raw chemistry to create the most vital sounding album you'll hear all year.
This is another one of those albums that almost got overlooked when we were putting this list together. Plastic Beach is the most recent release from the virtual band Gorillaz. It's a great album, and features some very talented musicians. I'm glad that our commenters and Facebook fans gave it the attention it deserved.
Probably the most underrated album on this list, Antifogmatic is the Second LP from the folk rock band Punch Brothers. The album features some of the most talented musicians alive today, and opens with a track that is incredibly powerful and moving. The group is composed of classically trained musicians, and they bring that classical heritage to the table in a very big way, incorporating their incredible talent and grand compositional styles on what, in the hands of another band, could have been an easily forgettable album.
MGMT - Congratulations
Congratulations is a collection of nine individual musical tours de force sequenced to flow with sonic and thematic coherence. Produced by MGMT and Sonic Boom, the album was recorded throughout 2009 in Upstate New York, Malibu and Brooklyn and features the band's core duo (Andrew Vanwyngarden and Ben Goldwasser) performing with Matt Asti, Will Berman and James Richardson, their live band.
Comments
Have you heard Blackdub? That's a fantastic album.
And if I recall correctly, Blackroc (the Black Keys' rap side project) also came out this year. Really remarkable release.
I don't agree with every album that made the cut, but I think it's a good list overall.
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