SH Forums Best Albums of 2010

1. Field Music Measure
2. Sun Kil Moon Admiral Fell Promises
3. Sufjan Stevens The Age of Adz
4. Vampire Weekend Contra
5. The National High Violet

Then in no particular order:

MGMT Congratulations
Massive Attack Holigoland
Yeasayer Oddblood
Arcade Fire The Suburbs
Pantha du Prince Black Noise

Best,

Robert

 

Some of my favorites:

Have One On Me - Joanna Newsom
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy - Kanye West
Contra - Vampire Weekend
Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty - Big Boi

 

A couple releases that I thought might make my list.....the latest from Black Angels, Black Keys and Deerhunter. Good stuff, no doubt, just not exactly speaking to me at this point/age. I realize December is just arriving, but it's always so threadbare with new releases, I think my list will stand.

Anyway....

Damien Jurado - Saint Bartlett
Patty Griffin - Downtown Church
Sun Kil Moon - Admiral Fell Promises
Brendan Perry - Ark
Twin Shadow - Forget
Bonnie Prince Billy - Wonder Show Of The World
Avey Tare - Down There
Gayngs - Relayted
Dylan LeBlanc - Paupers Field
Tindersticks - Falling Down A Mountain

Bubbling under the top 10....

Ray LaMontagne - God Willin' & The Creek Don't Rise
Junip - Fields
Jason Aldean - My Kinda Party
Citizen Cope - The Rainwater LP
Josh Rouse - El Turista
Broken Bells

 

Drive By Truckers - The Big To Do

 

That's why I suggested in my OP that people just post their lists when they feel ready and that we could maybe do an overall tot up poll in January. People are free to update their lists as well. No biggie - just a bit of fun as always.

By the way, note to all - please feel free to list your top reissues/comps of the year (as some have done) as well as your Top 10 new albums of the year.

 

Robert Plant -- Band of Joy
Bob Dylan -- Witmark Demos
The National -- High Violet
Arcade Fire -- Suburbs
Tom Petty -- Mojo
Black Keys -- Brothers
MGMT -- Congratulations

Best Reissue:

Dylan Mono Box

 

interesting that no one has mentioned the Wilson/Gershwin title yet...i got the impression in this place that it was one of the great 2010 release, and would top many peoples lists, but I just didn't hear that one....

 

In order of my enjoyment...

01) Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
02) Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record
03) The Walkmen - Lisbon
04) Best Coast - Crazy For You
05) Brian Wilson - Reimagines Gershwin
06) The National - High Violet
07) Surfer Blood - Astro Coast
08) MGMT - Congratulations
09) The New Pornographers - Together
10) Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World (Soundtrack) - Beck and Various

 

It's been an above average year for music IMO, particularly for oldtimers. So here goes, in order:

1. Le Noise -- Neil Young. I was entralled from the thunderous opening chord to the final fadeout. His best since Sleeps With Angels and ranks for me just behind his absolute classics. A sonic marvel.

2. Croweology -- Black Crowes. It seems blasphemous to pick a largely acoustic reworking of their best songs as the high-water mark for these guys but that's the way I feel. A wonderful album.

3. Mojo -- Tom Petty. What can I say? I love the guy. I'm not sure any performer has been as consisently good over such a long period. Mike Campbell's stellar guitar is pushed finally to the forefront.

4. The Promise -- Bruce Springsteen. It's been a long time since I cared a whole lot for anything he's done, but this reminded me of why he knocked my socks off when I dropped the needle on Born to run in 1975. Hard to believe this stuff has been sitting in a box for 32 years, especially The Promise.

5. Band of Joy -- Robert Plant. Who needs Led Zep when you're having this much fun and making such fine tasteful music? Having the imcomparable Buddy Miller on board doesn't hurt.

6. Transference -- Spoon. One of my favourite bands delivers another gem. Nicely recorded to boot

7. Broken Bells -- Broken Bells. Some of the tastiest pop I've heard in a while.

8. The Suburbs -- Arcade Fire. Montreal's finest comes up with another strong release. Just wish the'd find a good producer/engineer to open up their sound a bit. They seem like one of those bands that will always be better live than in the studio.

9. Besnard Lakes are the Roaring Night -- Besnard Lakes. More spacey classic rock from Montreal's second-finest.

10. The Courage of Others -- Midlake. Sounds like they time-warped from 1970 England instead of Texas. Lovely folk-pop with flutes to boot!


Honourable mentions:

High Violet -- The National
American Slang -- Gaslight Anthem.
Street Songs of Love -- Alejandro Escovedo
Emotion and Commotion -- Jeff Beck
Bingo! -- Steve Miller
Wilderness Heart -- Black Mountain
I Can Too -- Christina Martin (Shoutout to a fine Halifax singer-songwriter similar to Patty Griffin.)

 

I didn't really think of it as a "new release" myself but it clearly is basically a new album isn't it...hmmmmm....

does this make the Live Bowie album from the recent Station to Station deluxe a candidate for a 2010 release....

so much archival material that is new, we could probably cull a list just from these releases...the Stones Exile disc...

also quite a year of artists/band members doing side projects, splinter groups...like that Dhani Harrison thing Fistful of Mercy with Joseph Arthur and Ben Harper, another title that should be on my consider list...

 

I don't see why not. I know some of this stuff has appeared on boots, but it's certainly new me.

Damn, I always make these lists too fast. High Violet should definitely be in my Top 10. Probably Top 5.

 

LCD Soundsystem had the best album of the year.

 

yeah, thats what I was basically stating, that I didn't see why not either, has me rethinking a couple of things of this nature, music recorded a while ago and released in this calendar year. I'd just never entertained that one at all, so thanks for waking me up...

High Violet is a killer record, but many in here are still tweaking our lists...so feel free to upload your new list...you might think of yet another release that'll make it even more confusing...

 

I'm not listing 'em in order yet, because there's still a month to go and a few releases I still have my eyes on -- a couple possible dark horse contenders. But here's a buncha stuff I liked this last year.

Apples In Stereo, "Travelers In Time" -- the best late-70s ELO record that ELO never made. It's as if someone took the best songs from "Discovery" and "Time" that never existed -- hypothetical singles from an alternate universe -- and compiled them together on a bat***** crazy future-thinking concept LP.

The National, High Violet -- a record I so didn't WANT to like because I usually diverge widely from hipster musical taste, or at least "mainstream hipster musical taste" whatever that is. But I fell in love nonetheless. What can you do?

Tom Jones, Praise and Blame -- why was there not more hoopla for this amazing, incendiary record? Tom Jones becoming the angry preacher he always wanted to be, backed by a band with grit and soul -- what more could you want? Astonishing.

Robyn, Body Talk -- of course, pop is a dirty word around here, but there was no finer collection of pure pop music this year -- a distillation of the early-80s electropop sound into perfect 3-minute gems. If you aren't stirred by "Hang With Me" you need to check your head.

Mystery Jets, Serotonin -- british pop music the way they don't make it anymore, unabashedly romantic and crooned the way Ian McCulloch used to. The title track was my "replay of the year" -- literally didn't leave my player for a week straight.

New Young Pony Club, "The Optimist" -- skittish and dark, angular new wave played by genuinely weird people with a pop sensibility so far left of center it can't find its way back. Cool the way the first few Talking Heads records were, like AM radio from another planet.

Janelle Monae, "The ArchAndroid" -- a soul record the way they used to make them. Not to say it sounds old-fashioned or retro in the least -- but it's coming from a UFO like classic P-funk, but with the emotional center of classic Motown. Ambitious, occasionally stumbling, always fascinating.

OMD, "History of Modern" -- by no means a perfect album, and too long by almost half, but when this thing hits, like on "If You Want It" or the gorgeous "History of Modern Part 2," it hits harder than the young electro punks.

The Drums, "The Drums" -- a rare gem, a first album by a totally unheard band that crackles with life. Doesn't sound like anybody in particular, but with echoes of stuff you love. Post-punk, sure, but *happy*. Joyous even. Artsy, sure, but also undeniably accessible, the way, say, the Femmes were in the day but minus the layer of suck.

Hurts, "Happiness" -- channeling the unabashed schmaltz songwriters from the late 80s -- Erasure, Pet Shop Boys -- and honing it into a sharp, slightly evil point, "It's A Wonderful Life" was the inescapable guilty pleasure of the year.

Field Music, "Measure" -- Two boys in love with melody, harmony, and spasmodic rhythms, and how those things can be applied to monumentally great tunes without sacrificing a hint of listenability.

Big Boi, "Son Of Lucious Left Foot" -- of course, Big Boi is the best emcee in the world, and he's a freak besides, meaning his records flow like mad and sound like nothing and nobody else. Too weird for mainstream rap, too scary for indie audiences, he hovers like a pimp ghost over pop music, casting a wide shadow over all comers. Including Kanye. You heard me.

I mean, but there's MORE COMING so I can't make this a final list.

 

Gov't Mule- Mulennium
Jamey Johnson -The Guitar Song
Smokin' Joe Kubek and Bnois King - Have Blues Will Travel
Bruce Springsteen - Darkness Box
Doobie Bros - World Gone Crazy


As a huge Brian Wilson fan, I really wanted to put "Gershwin" on the list, however, it just does not do it for me.

 

CRAP, I forgot the Black Keys!! Brothers. Stomps. Hard.

 

5 from me...
Ray LaMontagne - God Willin' & The Creek Don't Rise
Produced by Montagne i believe, which could have been risky but has paid off with what feels like a very intimate album. He was clearing wwatching and learning as Ethan Johns twiddled the knobs on the previous albums.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmYNnpckOdU

TESS - magpie.
Recommended in Mojo, kind of a Nick Drake, early Bowie, Damien Rice vibe. Lots of lush chamber string arrangements and emotive songs. Its a complete album in that it has a 'journey' to it plays like an old vinyl record
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US6hO4W6lXw

Croweology -- Black Crowes
I nearly missed this one cause I didnt see any reviews just saw it on a shelf. Although its mainly reworks its stripped down and a great insight into their career to date. Better than the average compilation/best of type album.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Udhr78HKjic

Black Keys - Brothers
Such a nice "live" vibe to the album. At times soulful at other times intimate, love it! "These Days" the last track on the album, I love.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVpoCx8YZek&feature=fvst

Midlake - Courage of others
Folky, layered with nice harmonies, but has a kind of understated grandiosity to it at times for me. "winter dies" is fantastic, dark and broody.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wlFzNAyGuQ

 

Crap, and Robert Plant's "Band of Joy!"

 

The only two albums that I seem to return to this year (after the initial buzz) are:

Vampire Weekend - Contra
Broken Bells - S/T

 

New Releases

Jimmy Webb-Just Across The River
Luka Bloom - Dreams In America
Neil Young - Le Noise
Los Lobos - Tin Can Trust
Ray LaMontagne – “God Willing and the Creek Don’t Rise”
David Gray – “Foundling”
Band of Joy - Robert Plant
Black Dub - Black Dub
Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More
Broken Bells-S/T
Grateful Dead - Road Trips Vol. 4-3 Cornell



Reissues of the Year:

Bob Dylan: The Complete Mono Recordings

 

1. John Grant - Queen of Denmark -
Album of the Year, an extraordinary album

2. Peter Gabriel - Scratch My Back - intense, beautiful performances and he makes these songs his own

3. Midlake - Courage of Others - from early this year and I just love the seventies feel to this

4. Phronesis - Alive - superb European jazz, recorded live and also the Jazzwise magazine album of the year

5. Neil Young - Le Noise - great sounds from one man and his guitar - his best in years. Love and War is my song of the year

6. Charles Lloyd - love the cover and the music is superb. More classic Charles Lloyd.

7. Paul Lewis - Beethoven Piano Concertos - his BBC proms series of concerts were truly stunning

8. Bruce Springsteen - The Promise - how these tunes were hidden for so long is beyond me. You can tell they would not have fitted onto Darkness but they are great in their own right - the Boss rules.

9. Steve Hackett - Out of the Tunnels Mouth - this got official release in 2010 and is one of my most played albums. Making great music after all these years

10. Hard to choose 10th, it is between Van der Graaf Generator and their superb Paradiso concert or Brian Eno - Small Craft on a Milk Sea

 

I'm not even much of a gospel fan, but Mavis Staples' album "You Are Not Alone" is one gorgeous album and on my "best" list.

Throw in The National - High Violet/ Arcade Fire - Suburbs/Los Lobos-Tin Can Trust/ the Darkness box/Robert Plant-Band of Joy and I'm a happy man for 2010!

 

I didn't really buy enough music this year to offer a "Top 10" list but have enjoyed all these new releases (mostly indie):

The National - High Violet
The New Pornographers - Together
Midlake - The Courage of Others
Superchunk - Majesty Shredding
Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest
Trans Am - Thing

Still need to pick up Spoon's "Transference" and the new Eno record, as well.

 

For sure:
Amy Grant - Somewhere Down The Road
Point of Grace - No Changin' Us
I am right now listening to Whitney Duncan's "Right Road Now" CD and this is a great album of pop-country. A tip for potential consumers: If you buy it off of whitneyduncan.com, you get a pressed CD (autographed), if you order it off of Amazon, you get a CD-R. She did co-write every song on the CD.