Ten Best Albums of 2010 (So Far)
Written on July 13, 2010
The new year is more than halfway over and we’ve been treated to a swarm of great new songs, styles, and new takes on old favorite genres. There are plenty more albums I’ve been listening to from 2010 along with a lot of great holdovers from 2009. But these ten are the albums on which I concentrate the bulk of my time.
Ben Frost, By The Throat
Building tension forms in waves over clean electronics that degrade through the life of each song, the soundtrack to the best imaginary horror movie ever made.
Broken Bells, Self-Titiled
The Shins’ James Mercer teams up with Danger Mouse. Repeat: The Shins plus Danger Mouse. You need to drop what you’re doing and run—run—to the nearest internet hotspot so you can get your sweaty mitts on this album. It’s just as dusty/jangly/funky as you think it’s gonna be, plus 10% more.
The Joy Formidable, A Balloon Called Moaning
Riotous girl power pop with enough balls-to-the-wall noise to fill stadiums. TJF made their name touring with Passion Pit and Editors (and seem louder than both). Their effervescent thunder will make them underground faves soon enough.
MIA, Maya
When you think she can’t blow up any bigger, MIA drops her most listenable yet aggressively guitar-sampled album to date. Sample awesome lyric: “iPhone connected to the internet connected to the Google connected to the government.”
LCD Soundsystem, This Is Happening
Back with a dancefloor vengance and slightly freakin’ out, LCD Soundsystem goes a bit more uptempo and straightforward on album three. Slightly more raw with simpler foundational structures than Sounds of Silver, the songs feature introspective lyrics about the victories in everyday drama.
Sleigh Bells, Treats
Teeth-rattling loud hardcore guitars, gunblast beats swiped from the grimiest turntables, and a silky-voiced female lead as a dynamic foil to the breakbeats-set-on-Repeat. Sure, hipsters love them—but anyone who likes it loud needs to respect this album.
Local Natives, Gorilla Manor
Rollin’ hard with that whispery folk style, Local Natives drop a fresh take on the flavor that incorporates shiny guitar lines, semi-shouting harmonies, and uptempo drums to become less navel-gazing than some of their peers.
Wolf Parade, Expo 86
Montreal continues to represent in the indie rock scene as the lifers manning Wolf Parade come crashing back through the door fully recovered from their sophomore slump. Uptempo jams, quirky keyboard lines, soaring guitar lines and syncopated beats are in plentiful supply.
Gorillaz, Plastic Beach
Damon Albarn continues to mine new artistic avenues as the vocal half of the cartoon supergroup Gorillaz. Plastic Beach has a the same genre meshing feel set to overdrive. In the first few tracks we jump from chamber music to disco to reggaetron to cereal commercials, banging beats tying it all together effortlessly.
The National, High Violet
You can’t front on how depressed Matt Berninger gets. And yet the man cranks out amazing jams nonstop in that gloomy state. “Bloodbuzz Ohio” is one of many instant classics in an album custom-built for pairing with biting whiskey and girlfriend breakups.
Filed in: Dance,Electronic,Lists,Music,Rock.
