Happy 2011, weworemasks readership! As the last of the staff to submit his list, and after much debate, I’ve whittled down the lists to a simple Top 30 Albums of 2010. No mixtapes or concerts for me. That stuff is buried away in the annals of weworemasks for future generations to ridicule. Simply, these are my favorite albums, regardless of hype, talent, or entitlement. Some are obvious shoe-ins, and others were sneak attacks. Kind of like the difference between Sgt. Slaughter and Snake Eyes in the 2nd season opener of G.I. Joe: Arise, Serpentor, Arise!
Anyway, without further ado, hit the jump for my Top 30 Albums of 2010. Here’s to a great year 2011. Cheers!
– sunbear
TOP 30 ALBUMS OF 2010
30. Frightened Rabbit – The Winter of Mixed Drinks
29. Aloe Blacc – Good Things
28. Flying Lotus – Cosmogramma
27. Wild Nothing – Gemini
26. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Before Today
25. Matthew Dear – Black City
24. Justin Townes Earle – Harlem River Blues
23. The Bird and the Bee – Interpreting the Masters, Vol. 1: A Tribute to Daryl Hall and John Oates
22. Taylor Swift – Speak Now
21. The Roots & John Legend – Wake Up
20. The National – High Violet
19. The Walkmen – Lisbon
18. Caribou – Swim
17. Four Tet – There Is Love in You
16. Janelle Monae – The Archandroid: Suites II & III
15. The Tallest Man on Earth – The Wild Hunt
14. The Black Keys – Brothers
13. Titus Andronicus – The Monitor
12. The Roots – How I Got Over
11. Fang Island – Fang Island
10. Cee Lo Green – The Lady Killer
Neo-Soul’s oddball got all “lover with a license to kill” on us with his The Lady Killer. As witty as he is irreverent, humorous as he is prolific, Cee Lo Green found a happy haven for his kooky croon, nestled in slick, throwback-soul production. If Curtis Mayfield tucked a 9mm into his standard-issue spy underwear, the result would most definitely be Green’s The Lady Killer.
9. Robyn – Body Talk
Spanning three ep’s, each brimming with a sensual Swedish swagger only the platinum coiffed-one could dare to achieve, Robyn’s Body Talk series displayed a maverick sense of Euro-pop deftness coupled with her freewheeling, magnetic personality. Sleek dance pop, courtesy of such greats as Max Martin, Diplo and Röyksopp, just to name a few, met Robyn’s sweet yet rousing voice to forge her best work of her career.
8. Beach House – Teen Dream
Delicate and intimate, almost to the point of being a secret, Beach House carried on the tradition of the dreamy Devotion and followed suit with Teen Dream. Guitars chime, cymbals crash, and Victoria Legrand’s velvety, Nico-esque voice, in all its limelighted glory, is downright incendiary. Teen Dream rises, swells and crashes, all without breaking its own wistfully nocturnal state.
7. The Gaslight Anthem – American Slang
The follow up to the hugely influential ’59 Sound found the blue-collar boys of the Gaslight Anthem rolling the amps back from 11 and taking a step down from wide open cowboy chords of their Jersey heroes and forming a more heartfelt, earnest type of old-fashioned rock. Bare-bonesing it on heartland rockers like “Bring It On” and “The Queen of Lower Chelsea” bore more hearts on their sleeves than grease-stained cuts, just the kind of breather the Boss ordered after the full-force attack of ’59 Sound.
6. Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
Turns out growing up in Texas’ own Woodlands area can bear some substantial musical fodder. As if inspired by Springsteen’s “get outta dodge” mentality (the Boss is fine friends with Win and crew), Arcade Fire constructed an down-home album that was able to strip down their theatrical approach without sounding any less grand. “Month of May” sounds as brash as anything the Pixies recorded while the outstanding Regine Chassagne-fronted “Sprawl II” could easily outshine Blondie. It’s this range of musicianship, and a penchant for heady, metaphorical concepts, that keep Arcade Fire one of the most thought provoking bands of modern rock music.
5. Big Boi – Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty
The most adventurous hip-hop album of 2010 goes to General Patton aka Big Boi of OutKast fame, though this time, his solo material undeniably outshines any of the duo’s most recent work. Equal parts 80’s funk, glitch-hop and southern hip-hop, Big Boi has never sounded quite as triumphant as he does here. His rhymes come fast and loose, with all the unpredictability of a loose-canon. And that’s pretty much how Big Boi plays it, boisterous with an unrestrained swagger with all the lyricism to back up any claim.
4. Local Natives – Gorilla Manor
If harmonizing were an Olympic sport, Los Angeles’s Local Natives would be the Michael Phelps of the bunch. Voices coalescing into a sweet honey pot, each member of Local Natives shines in their own right. Whether it’s the tribally percussive attack of “Wide Eyes,” or the straight ahead garage rock of “Camera Talk,” the album’s varied songs are anchored by the mellifluous melodies of five guys perfectly in sync with each other. That’s one member more than Grizzly Bear, mind you.
3. Vampire Weekend – Contra
For their sophomore release, Vampire Weekend stepped out of the warm, four string-quartet chamber of Colombia and into the shiny, artificial embrace of Auto-Tune and synthesizers. The juxtaposition of four-on-the-floor beats. rubbery synths, and M.I.A. samples actually suit the dandy boys well. So well in fact, that the message is often obscured by its own pop-sheen (the sugary “Holiday” is actually an Iraqi protest song?! Get the fuck out of here!). But mind games and wordplay are VW’s stong suit. They may be collegiate highfalutins at heart, but everything else about the boys, from the inclusion of Joe Jonas and the GZA in their video for “Giving Up the Gun” or sauntering onto stages to the tune of DJ Khaled’s “All I Do is Win” keeps us on our toes and wondering what crazy move the Vampy Weeks will make next.
2. LCD Soundsystem – This is It
I hardly know where to begin on the topic of James Murphy’s genius. His fingerprints, as are his influences, are all over the arrangements of the music of LCD Soundsystem. The guy’s got lyrical zingers for days (“Eat it Michael Musto, you’re no Bruce Vilanch”) and intimate emotional moments that’d parry anything Bernard Sumner had to offer. There’s hilarious kitch (“Drunk Girls”), and odes, fraught with vulnerability (“I Can Change”). His records run the gamut of his genius, and I can only hope that a masterwork like This is It isn’t the last.
1. Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
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^^^ Yeah. What more do you need?
Cheers,
sunbear/A.J.