From Editor-in-chief Gordon Elgart
Since I’m not a professional musician, it’s fun to live in a time when sales don’t matter anymore. Albums are no longer about moving units, so established artists can take chances and go outside their commercial comfort soon. In 2010, this was illustrated by quite a few of my favorite albums of the year, including an absolute surprise of a number one album.
15. Cherry Ghost – Beneath This Burning Shoreline. An album that sounds like alt-country? Here on my list? Why yes, it is. British alt-country. If I like it, it must be good!
14. Two Door Cinema Club – Tourist History. This one bounced around from my number 4 to my number 14 during the making of this list. That should tell you something about it; it’s frivolous fun, probably the best example of all-out “dance rock” that came out this year. And although that’s a dying genre in popularity, it’s still a favorite of mine when done right, like it is here.
13. Stars – The Five Ghosts. Simply a likeable album from a band I like. Canadian dreamlike pop at its best.
12. Rabbit! – Connect the Dots. This is my favorite of the albums that I discovered back when we used to do the New Release Round Up on the site, when Pouria could listen to Lala. I would occasionally cover for him, and this is an album I found during one of those weeks. Simple, happy boy/girl pop from a Florida band that doesn’t seem to have any designs on taking over the world with their sugary songs of young love. Too bad. It’s catchy stuff.
Favorite song from an album not on this list: Henry Clay People – Working Part Time. I like the song, I like the lyrics, and I like the answer they gave me to the interview question about it.
11. Foxy Shazam – Foxy Shazam. I thought this would show up on other people’s lists, but it stands alone on mine. What pushed this album over the top for me was the fact that a movie came out this year called Unstoppable. That, in turn, kept reminding me of the Foxy Shazam song of the same name, which made me listen to the album, and made me appreciate the modern glamminess of it all. It’s a refreshing record, played by one of the most fun live acts to come along in years.
10. Jonsi – Go. My favorite Jonsi song, “Sticks and Stones,” isn’t on this album, but on my soundtrack of the year, John Powell’s How to Train Your Dragon. That said, this record is really good, but it’s also one of those things where seeing it is believing it. Every time I listen to this, I think about his incredible live show, and I’m transported. You’ll probably like the record anyway if you like Icelandic prog pop, and who doesn’t?
9. The National – High Violet. I really like this band as a live act when they play for 30-45 minutes. After an hour-and-a-half, they can bore me to tears, because their earlier material tended to have a sameness about it. And even though this album continues that sameness, it’s a lovely sound, and probably the best pure sit-around-the-house-reading album of the year.
8. Biffy Clyro – Only Revolutions. Technically a 2009 release in other places, it’s a 2010 release in the U.S., therefore eligible. This is proggy Scottish rock, like the offspring of Foo Fighters and Muse. It’s got the most played song in my iTunes this year (“The Captain”) and a bunch of other anthemic singalongs. Huge in England, but ignored in small clubs in the U.S., this is a band that, like Muse, may end up with a good following over here at some point in the future. Maybe they need to be used in the Hunger Games movies? Would that help?
Most indefensible stupid decision: OK Go’s distortion, and them wanting it that way. Play their newest album, Of the Blue Colour of the Sky, and you’ll think your stereo is broken for all the clipping. Turns out, though, there’s no clipping on the record at all; this was a production choice! The deluxe edition of the album (the so-called “extra nice edition” that still has the crappy distortion) includes interviews with the band and producer where they admit this to be the case. It’s a gigantic career fumble, for if the album weren’t completely horrible to listen to, it would be their best album yet. Great songs and arrangements but recorded horribly. On purpose. It’s a cruel joke on their fans, and I’m mad at them for it.
7. Hellogoodbye – Would It Kill You? Hey listen, I’m as surprised as you that this one is on here. But when the best britpop album of the year is released by a supposed emo band from California, I pay attention. One of the songs from this record was played on a TV at Carl’s Jr. (love those hand-breaded chicken strips), and I was immediately hooked. From ignored to enjoyed is this year’s journey of hellogoodbye for me. Check it out, as it may surprise you as well.
6. My Chemical Romance – Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys. I’m pretty sure this isn’t a good album by good album standards, but boy howdy do I like it. I think this is one of those that I’ll look at later and say, “really Gordon? Top 10?” But for now, I can’t stop singing the damned songs. An utter failure as a concept record, but in all honesty, it’s the first fun My Chemical Romance album.
5. Janelle Monae – The Archandroid. Everything I need to say about this album I said here.
Best of 2009 I didn’t hear until 2010: Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More. What’s amazing is that the backlash against this band has already started, far faster than I had expected it to when I predicted it in my review of their first live show in San Francisco. It’s all of a sudden cool to slag them off. Awesome. The slaggers are missing a pretty strong debut album, though, full of wonderfully formulaic material that’s a lot of fun to sing.
OK, from here to the end, the top 4 are basically tied, so I put them in order by how much work I feel like I need to put into defending them.
4. Yeasayer – Odd Blood. From front to back, just a spectacular record. While simultaneously changing from one of my favorite live acts to someone I wouldn’t cancel plans to see by adding in a lot of electronic bips and bops to their former, more tribal sound, this album is a vast improvement over their first record. It’s gotten better and better as time has passed, which is everything I want to be able to say about an album.
3. Arcade Fire – The Suburbs. Within a week of having this, it already felt like an essential part of the Arcade Fire catalog, which has been consistently great. You’d think Internet backlash would have taken hold by now, but this album is getting its due from most people. It’s full of great bits, even though the lyrics probably mention “kids” a few too many times. We get it. Musically though, it never misses.
2. Robyn – Body Talk. When I wanted to dance in 2010, this is the album I played. When I started listening to the first of the three EPs that make up this album, I was thinking, “Why am I listening to this?” By the end of track one, I couldn’t stop. The experience of getting the album a few songs at a time is better than hearing all fifteen at once, but now that you can’t do that, it’s ok to just check out the record as a whole. I give you permission.
1. Linkin Park – A Thousand Suns. My number one album of the year goes to an unabashedly pretentious, unshufflable statement of an album. It blows up everything you’ve ever thought about Linkin Park, while at the same time keeping the undeniable hooks and overall energy you’ve come to expect from them. What other album features a “hardcore” rap chock full of swears, and then later features a Martin Luther King speech? The answer? Probably some hip-hop classic I don’t know, and also this one. It’s the kind of album that couldn’t have existed five years ago for fear of poor sales, but now we all get to enjoy it. Forget what you think know about Linkin Park (listen, if you think they’re not a good rock band, you’re simply wrong and should get over it by now) and try it out.
Biffy Clyro!!!
Cool list! (Zone, not soon.) Just got the National album and Biffy Clyro too.