EPT
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Like much of the human population, I love listening to music. And like many other people, I get a great deal of happiness in introducing other people to music that I love, and getting great recommendations in return. Last year, I posted my end-of-year list, and got some great comments and feedback. It also led a whole bunch of other people to post their lists, which was great to read, and gave me hours of new stuff to hear. So with the hope of similar success this time around, I present The Best Music (One Man's Opinion) of 2010!
#10: The Golden Archipelago by Shearwater
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Shearwater is my favorite band that absolutely nobody seems to knows about, and I'll never understand why that's the case. A (usually) three person group from Austin TX, Shearwater's music is dark, urgent, and gorgeous. Their two previous albums; Palo Santo, and Rooks were excellent, and The Golden Archipelago expands upon this enormously.
There's a wonderful mix in each Shearwater song; the beauty of the background music, and the clarion call of lead singer Jonathan Meiburg's voice. The contrast between the opener; 'Meridian' and the second song; 'Black Eyes' is an excellent example of this, but it happens throughout the album. Shearwater songs alternately serenade you, or remind you that the apocalypse is coming. It's a startling combination initially, but like bananas and peanut butter, it works every time.
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#9: Business Casual by Chromeo
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I can't lie, I have nothing particularly eloquent or deep to say about this album. But it's a great way to start this list, because Chromeo could show up to a funeral, and leave it as a dance party. Not only did the Montreal duo create the best electro/funk/dance/whatever album of the year, but they also managed to put out two of the year's best music videos for 'Night By Night' and 'Don't Turn the Lights On'. This album us fantastically slick and instantly catchy, and it's a ton of fun to listen to.
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#8: Ali and Toumani by Ali Farka Touré and Toumani Diabate
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There are some artists who simply can't make a bad album. These two legendary Malian musicians are examples of these. I would've paid for an album of these two playing on a box with rubber bands stretched across, so it should hardly be a surprise that these two, and this album has appeared in another one of my music lists. But as a follow up to their previous collaborative album; In the Heart of the Moon, this work is just as excellent, and certainly more poignant as Ali Farka Touré died in 2006, shortly after recording these songs. It's taken some time, but Ali and Toumani is a fitting tribute to his legacy, as well as yet another remarkable piece of music to come out of Mail, and West Africa in general. The personality and uninhibited creativity with which these guys play (guitar and a kora, by the way) and work with each other is amazing to hear—it's infectious, really.
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#7: The Age of Adz by Sufjan Stevens
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In contrast to much of this list, this album came completely out of left field. Nobody had heard anything from Sufjan Stevens for a long time, ever since he announced the demise of his 50 states project, and left no clues about upcoming music. And then suddenly, in about a month, Stevens turned out an EP larger than most albums and this; an actual album that was stunning different from what we've come to expect from him. Unlike the heavily orchestrated string sections that defined his work until so recently, The Age of Adz lays down track after track of (heavily orchestrated) electronic backgrounds. The soft sensitivity that characterized his singing often becomes more straight forward and outwardly powerful, even getting auto-tuned in 'Impossible Soul', the album's 25 minute closer.
Anything like this has the potential to be disastrous for the artist, but Sufjan Stevens does not do things by half measures, and this is a great album. Whether or not he continues in this direction is impossible to predict, but no matter where he goes from here, it's clear he can make just about anything work.
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#6: Heartland by Owen Pallett
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Owen Pallett (formerly known as Final Fantasy) is usually easy to overlook. His voice is soft, his songs are soft, and he looks like one of the kids that got beat up all the time in high school. But once you hear it, Heartland is pretty hard to forget. This is a huge record in a small, unassuming package. The album is about a character named Lewis and his relations with his creator, who is named.. uh... Owen. The lyrics that detail this relationship are wry and rewarding. But, the brightest star here is Pallett's effortless compositions (He also does string arrangements for Arcade Fire—more on this band later) which are played by the Czech Symphony Strings and St. Kitts Winds. The classical background complements his voices perfectly, especially on songs like 'E is for Estranged' and 'Lewis Takes Off His Shirt'.
Pallett won the inaugural Polaris Music Prize under his former name for his last album; the curiously titled He Poos Clouds but he's never been better than he is on this record.
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#5: Sigh No More by Mumford and Sons
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This album came out in Britain in 2009, but it only landed on American shores in this year, and so it lands on my list for this year as well. Mumford and Sons are are a talented British group that somehow put out the best American folk album of the year as their debut album.
The heavy, heavy Americana influence is what's initially obvious about this album, but the quality of the music is what comes out in the end. This album takes you and doesn't let you go throughout all the ups and downs, turns and twists. The best part of this album is how it swells, which happens on more than one occasion. The crest of 'The Cave' is exhilarating, and the agony in the end of 'Thistle and Weeds' is gut wrenching. But the album spends almost as much time in wintery depths as it does in autumn romps, and there's as much patience as there is explosion. This is a great driving album, a great album for going to sleep, and a great album for pretty much everything in between.
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#4: So Runs the World Away by Josh Ritter
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Josh Ritter is yet another artist to have made his best work in 2010. His previous stuff—especially 2006's The Animal Years—was great too, of course, but So Runs the World Away (that's a quote from Hamlet) hits strikes every chord, and hits all the notes. Ritter's song-writing is stellar here, especially on 'The Curse' and 'Another New World' and the songs often linger on the poetry of the lyrics. Across the board, the music is perfectly calibrated, and spans a wonderful range of sound and mood, from the highs of "Orbital" to the lows of "Change of Time".
I really listened to this record much later in the year than I should've and I've been making up for lost time ever since. There's a great deal to explore here, and I'm still discovering stuff I hadn't ever heard before in the same songs. This album is just a brilliant all-around work.
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#3: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West
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Everyone knows the worst thing about Kanye West is his massive ego. But of course, the best thing about Kanye West is also his ego. In fact, these two things are inseparable and West knows it better than anyone. And thank goodness too, because we only could hope to get albums like this from a mad genius like West. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is a record of competing hit or miss singles, all addressing exactly what a baller Kanye West believes himself to be (and is). I literally hate half of this album, but goddammit, the other half is ridiculously good.
First and foremost, West is a producer, and this album blows everything else out of the water in that regard. The feature of a distorted Bon Iver in 'Monster', the sampling that backs up 'Power' provide some of the most stunning hooks I can ever remember hearing. And then there's West, (and company, this album features more artists than Coachella) delivering punishing line after line after line, with an intensity that's nearly overwhelming. If there's a theme to this album, it's that. This album is about power. This album is relentless and unforgiving, and in that way an equally bold statement about its creator.
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#2: The Suburbs by Arcade Fire
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For the most part, there were a surprising amount of great albums this year that everyone saw coming. The Suburbs was another one. Montreal's Arcade Fire have been a tremendous band for their whole existence, after breaking out with their debut album Funeral, and with a strong follow up in Neon Bible. Different parts of this album grew on me at different times, and by the end of the year, I'm always listening to the whole thing.
The most special thing about this record is how these songs strike a great—and purely Arcade Fire-esque—balance between intimacy and epic. There's no doubt that this album is an ambitious one, and these songs have a tendency to build in a monumental way. At the same time, there's plenty on this album that stays much closer to home. It never gets quiet, but never do these songs leave you behind either. In short, this album works. It a concept album with singles. The orchestration, the musicianship, the flow; it's all here.
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#1: Go by Jónsi
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This is the work of Jónsi Þór Birgisson, better known as the frontman for the Icelandic outfit Sigur Rós. I love that band, and I knew, a full year ago when I heard the first talk about this album that it was going to be a highlight of the year. But in setting such lofty expectations, I could easily have been setting myself up for disappointment. Instead Go ended up blowing my mind.
It's hard to know where to begin. This album is an absolute masterwork of orchestration, weaving together layers upon layers of delicate sounds to create a wonderfully rich musical tapestry. Jónsi's voice is the centerpiece of the album, a whipsy falsetto that supplies strength, vulnerability, fear, and wonder in different places, and sometimes all at the same time. This album is strongest as an ensemble, although 'Go Do' and 'Boy Lilikoi' are excellent singles. But played together, Go is purely magical. I think of snow-bound forests and starry nights. The live show of the album—the best concert I've ever attended, by the way—came with a gorgeous video display with butterflies, ants, deer, and a full blown thunderstorm. And it's no surprise that videos and pictures of the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull were immediately paired with these songs. There's not a weak point in this record. This is the best album of the year.
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As usual, there's a tremendous amount of extra stuff I have to tack on. The music I enjoyed this year was hardly confined to ten albums. I'm also expecting people to tell me what I'm wrong about, and so I figure I need to cover my bases a little.
The Good.
I've got to start with Heaven Is Whenever by The Hold Steady was one album that I loved, especially for the references to the Twin Cities. Light Chasers by Cloud Cult was awesome. High Violet by The National was good as an album, but superb live. Together by The New Pornographers was wonderfully fun and catchy. Contra by Vampire Weekend was another late scratch from the list. So was Plastic Beach by Gorillaz; an album I still cannot classify into any genre. Dominant Curve by Brooklyn Rider was a gorgeous album of string compositions, and Luck In the Valley, Jack Rose's posthumous release was just as good. There's also the wonderful ambient music of Black Noise by Pantha du Prince, the excellent (selftitled) easy rock of Broken Bells, and the major record debut of B.O.B.. And I know I forget a bunch of albums. The Minnesota Beatles Project, for example.
The Bad. (or So-so.)
There's also a lot of stuff I should mention that was disappointing. This is Happening by LCD Soundsystem was decent, but not great, and I really wanted it to be. Congratulations by MGMT wasn't really that impressive either. I badly badly want to love the historic rock of The Monitor by Titus Andronicus, because it's right up my alley, but I don't somehow. I wasn't as much a fan of The Legend of Mr. Rager as I was KiD CuDi's first album. Lil' Wayne's post-jail release, pre-jail recording I Am Not a Human Being was overshadowed by Kanye, and rightly so. Apparently The Tallest Man on Earth is amazing live, but he comes off so nasally and harsh on The Wild Hunt.
The Ugly
And lastly, there's this stuff. Treats by Sleigh Bells had one of the best opening tracks of the year, and then followed up with some of the year's most annoying music. Lil' Wayne also made a rock album called Rebirth, which was on pace to be the year's worst, until Soulja Boy reminded us that he still exists, and released an album called The DeAndre Way, which featured such classics as "Pretty Boy Swag" and "Mean Mug", and sank instantly to the bottom of the music cesspool. And despite the heroic efforts of Nathan Williams and Waaaavvvvves, nothing could dredge it out.
Finally, although my secret true love is albums I can play all the way through, I ultimately spend most of my time listening to songs. Obviously my favorite albums contribute heavily to my favorite songs of the year, but I've deliberately left them out and picked five stunning songs that I didn't feature as part of an ensemble.
#5: Fuck You by Cee Lo Green
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I can think of three constituencies that did not appreciate this song. The first is the kid from the No Cussing Club, the second are the Amish, and the third is the guy about whom Cee Lo says "I'm like, Fuck You." It's not at all easy to make profanity work in a song, let alone as the song title, and the song's most catchy lyric. But Cee Lo Green is a beast, and whatever he says, goes. And in gleefully embracing the sharp edge of the lyrics, this became the stealth hit of the year. And does anyone even dare to disagree with that?
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***
#4: Dancing On My Own by Robyn
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There weren't too many artists who had as productive a year as Robyn. In 2010, the Swedish dance artist produced three full albums, complete with constant remixes and remakes. But the end result was well worth it, giving us some of the year's most catchy and dancy songs. the standout for the whole series was always Dancing On My Own. The song is everything you want from the kind of music, and it's excellently produced and delivered.
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***
#3: Bruised Orange (Chain of Sorrow) by Justin Vernon, covering John Prine
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I can't think of a graceful way to manage the transition between Robyn and Justin Vernon, but there's no avoiding it; these are both great songs. This cover was a part of a tribute to John Prine, America's best singer-song writer, (in my humble opinion) and organized by Vernon. His cover leads off the album, and he puts a magical and ethereal spin on a classic. It almost sounds like the song was played in a church with the harmony sung by a choir, which is incredibly beautiful. I don't think the lyrics of John Prine have ever been given as wonderful treatment by anyone else.
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#2: Light You Up by Shawn Mullins
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This song is so seductive, I didn't know how much I loved it until I loved it. Unfortunately, or fortunately, it's quite different from the rest of the album, but that doesn't change the fact that this song is literally the definition of suave. There's the almost latin beat in the background, and the contrast of Mullins' gravely smooth verses, and liquor smooth choruses. There's the quiet picking on the guitar in the background. I have no doubt that this song is the easiest and smoothest song in existence, or at least, this year.
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***
#1: The Best of Times by Sage Francis
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I already wrote about this song in listing my favorite songs halfway through the year and nothing has come along since that challenges this work of brilliance. The song is deeply autobiographical, and the wry sarcasm that often accompanies Sage's songs is put aside here. The background is a piece composed by a French minimalist composer named Yann Tiersen, and it meshes perfectly with Sage's wordplay. Not to mention the build here is absolutely fantastic, rising ever gradually, and slowly managing to seem grand, without ever leaving the personal nature of the song behind. So. Good.
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#4000, thank god, I can post again.
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