BEST ALBUMS OF 2010.

One of my coworkers recently asked me how I would rate my 2010 (not in music, just life in general), on a Pitchfork scale, and I had to answer, “Ummm, probably a 9-point-something?”

This year was incredible on so many levels — the most significant being that I settled into this amazing city, got my first full-time job (more specifically, a job that I love and get excited about every day); did countless amazing things with an incredible group of friends; went to a potentially unhealthy amount of concerts; took trips to Austin, Chicago, Philly and Michigan; and I started to love and care about food a lot more than I ever have. (That last one will perhaps make a bit more sense in a couple weeks…)

I also listened to a LOT of music, without a doubt more than I have in any other 365-day period of the last 23 1/2 years. (Just a guess, but working for an online music store might’ve had something to do with it.) I listened for the first time to, and fell in love with, a ton of artists who have impacted the new music I listen to today, but I also heard dozens of up-and-coming artists and new records that got me really excited. In fact, most of my top 10 records from 2010 made my head explode in a way that music has never done to me before. Maybe to some extent I’ve changed the way I listen to music, and it’s resulted in me starting to make more personal connections than I have in the past? Or maybe not — I don’t really know. I also think it’s significant that my top five albums are all records that are best listened to from beginning to end. Some of them have very obvious “hits,” but as a whole, they’re complete thoughts with unifying themes and, in a couple cases, actual storylines.

Anyway, here are the records I loved and spent the most time with this year, with a few thoughts on and reviews of some of them. I kinda hate ranking this stuff and it was impossible after the top 10, so they’re in groups. Deal with it! Not that anyone will really read through this whole thing or care much about it; guess it’s more for my own record. (And I should also note like I do every year, that I obviously missed a lot of stuff, and there are records that I know are great but I just haven’t spent enough time with yet; hopefully I’ll catch up in the next couple months?)

Nos. 21-40 (alphabetical)

Beach House, Teen Dream
Belle & Sebastian, Write About Love: This was my most anticipated record of the year, and while I’m sad to say I was quite disappointed, there are still some very, very high points on it — I love the title track and “I Want The World To Stop,” opening track “I Didn’t See It Coming” is great — but I will love this band more or less unconditionally, and even though it’s not their best, it’s still a great release.
Dark Dark Dark, Wild Go
Sarah Jaffe, Suburban Nature (eMusic review)
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, I Learned the Hard Way
Jonsi, Go
Kaki King, Junior
The National, High Violet
A Northern Portrait, Criminal Art Lovers: HIGHLY recommended if you like the Smiths. This album rules.
Screaming Females, Castle Talk: This isn’t my favorite Screaming Females record, which is why this isn’t higher on the list, but frontwoman Marissa Paternoster is one of the people I got most excited about this year.
Sleigh Bells, Treats
Standard Fare, The Noyelle Beat: From eMusic staff picks: This young British indie-pop trio’s debut is everything I look for in a summer album: Sunny, bratty pop sing-alongs that make me want to jump up and down and dance. Standard Fare play songs that are equal parts earnest and goofy, whether they’re about falling in and out of love (“Love Doesn’t Just Stop,” “Let’s Get Back Together”), making drunken mistakes with minors (“Fifteen” — hope this isn’t part of your summer!), and knowing that some good things have to come to an end (“I Know It’s Hard”). The lyrics are clever — my favorite is “Philadelphia,” which starts with “Global warming is getting me down/ It’s making the sea between us wider and deeper/ Now I’m not Moses and I don’t know how/ To split up the ocean and drive right on over” — and while maybe the words aren’t always that deep, they’re always sung in good fun.
Stornoway, Beachcomber’s Windowsill
The Tallest Man On Earth, The Wild Hunt: (Critical Mob review)
Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, The Brutalist Bricks
Titus Andronicus, The Monitor
Warpaint, The Fool: eMusic review: Warpaint’s first release, the John Frusciante-mixed Exquisite Corpse EP, is woozy, cavernous and dark. Its layered vocals are often pure and melodic, but sometimes warped and garbled, as if the band were underwater, or singing directly into a box fan. Many moments on the L.A. quartet’s debut full-length, The Fool, have a similar psychedelic, deep-dark-sea feel — especially the closing track, “Lissie’s Heart Murmur,” in which the ladies sing about sinking and not being able to turn back, their dissonant harmonies floating over syncopated piano chords and scattered electronics. Elsewhere, they mention feeling like a shadow, being taunted by a full moon, and starting a fight. These strange visions are sung by guitarists Emily Kokal and Theresa Wayman and bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg, whose voices blend together so well that it’s difficult to tell who’s who.

But the most exciting part about Warpaint’s songs is the way their textures build in the course of just a few minutes: “Composure” begins and ends with playground chanting that’s mostly unintelligible — save for “How can I keep my composure” — backed by waltzing, reverbed guitars and a simple snare-and-cymbal beat from drummer Stella Mozgawa (who replaced Lindberg’s sister, Shannyn Sossamon, just weeks before going into the studio). But suddenly, her drums speed up, the guitars start spiraling and they ask the same question of “How can I keep my composure?,” this time melodic and more powerful, but also less composed. “Shadows” starts with a simple acoustic guitar, but gradually incorporates piano, drums and handclaps, as Kokal and co. break into a yell of “There no lies, no lies, no lies, no lies.” Throughout it all, their strong vocal and instrumental chemistry make it impossible not to be drawn in.

White Hinterland, Kairos: (Critical Mob review)
Wild Nothing, Gemini
Vampire Weekend, Contra

Nos. 11-20 (alphabetical)

Avi Buffalo, Avi Buffalo
Samantha Crain, You (Understood): (eMusic review; eMusic interview) — This album is stunning.
Hurray for the Riff Raff, Young Blood Blues: One of this year’s best eMusic Selects bands.
LCD Soundsystem, This Is Happening: James Murphy is amazing. I didn’t listen to this album as consistently throughout the year as I expected I would, but when I do listen to it, it’s pretty perfect.
Laura Marling, I Speak Because I Can: An incredibly promising and underrated songwriter.

Anaïs Mitchell, Hadestown: From eMusic’s best of 2010: Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon had an eventful 2010 — he AutoTuned his way on to the most important album of the year and released an R&B-leaning record with his side project, Gayngs. But one of his greatest musical contributions to 2010 managed to stay under the radar. On the recording of Anaïs Mitchell’s gorgeous folk opera, Hadestown — the Vermont folksinger’s take on the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, based in an economically-ailing American town — Vernon sings the part of Orpheus, alongside Mitchell as Eurydice, Ani DiFranco as Persephone, Greg Brown as Hades and The Low Anthem’s Ben Knox Miller as Hermes. When I spoke with Mitchell earlier this year, she described Orpheus as “the ultimate songwriter and he believes that if he can write a beautiful enough song he can do the impossible. He can make the walls come down; he can win back his love and change the world.” And make the walls come down — at least in the music world — Vernon did.

That’s not to say he is the only focus of this project — Hadestown is a collection of some of today’s strongest and most unique voices; Mitchell’s mezzo-soprano falls into the same family as Joanna Newsom’s, DiFranco’s Persephone is smoky and sultry, Knox Miller brings his lively rasp to Hermes, and Brown’s Hades is aged, gravelly and haunting. The accompanying music is emotional and adventurous — wailing, harmonica-driven romps; piano-heavy ballads; loungey jazz; straight-up acoustic folk — and Mitchell excels in making an ancient myth relevant to modern times.

Peasant, Shady Retreat
The New Pornographers, Together: One of my all-time favorites put out an excellent record. Simple as that.
Robyn, Body Talk
Kanye West, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy: Guess I’m a Kanye fan now?

Nos. 10-1

10. Sharon Van Etten, epic: Sharon Van Etten’s music is beautiful, emotional, breathtaking … Unlike on her debut, this time she recorded with a full band and it took her sound to a whole new level.
9. Superchunk, Majesty Shredding: I wish I had listened to Superchunk in high school. I think the reason I missed them is that the last record they put out before this one was in 2001, when I was just starting high school, and most of their music before that was released when I was a very small child … Anyway, Majesty Shredding is exciting and energizing, and it’s not a surprise then that Superchunk heavily influenced one of the bands I did listen to in high school, the Get Up Kids. I say better late than never.
8. Sufjan Stevens, Age of Adz: It took seeing one of his recent shows at the Beacon to understand this record, but after that, I didn’t feel nearly as intimidated by it. It’s not the record most people wanted him to make, especially after the All Delighted People EP earlier this year, and that’s a-OK with me.
7. Breathe Owl Breathe, Magic Central (eMusic review)
6. Allo Darlin’, Allo Darlin’: (eMusic review)
5. Frontier Ruckus, Deadmalls & Nightfalls: I don’t even know what to say about this record or this band that I haven’t said a million times already, so I’ll refer you to this and also note that listening to this album when I was in Michigan right before Christmas was perfect. Excited to see what’s in store for these guys in 2011.
4. Janelle Monae, The ArchAndroid: From eMusic staff picks: In “Faster,” the third track on Janelle Monae’s epic debut LP The ArchAndroid, the singer openly admits, “I’m just another little weirdo.” That admission alone wins her major points in my book, but she also walks the walk with more than an hour of music that spans the unlikely range of hip-hop, pop, funk, rock, jazz, soul, cabaret and R&B, with a futuristic/sci-fi concept woven throughout. Sure, it’s a little weird — and also adventurous, fun, inspiring and mind-blowing. There’s an incredible fluidity between most of the tracks — “Dance or Die,” “Faster” and “Locked Inside” could easily be one 11-minute suite — but so many are also hits on their own. “Dance or Die” sounds like it should be played on a fashion-show runway, with its refrain of “These dreams are forever” and the chanting of words like “cyborg,” “android,” “water,” “wisdom,” “vision” and “mystery.” Later, there’s the energizing dance number “Cold War” paired back to back with the funky, brass-embellished Big Boi collaboration “Tightrope,” about pushing limits and fighting for what you believe. In “Locked Inside,” Monae sings, “I can make a change/ I can start a fire,” and with this record, she’s certainly headed in the right direction.
3. Lost in the Trees, All Alone in an Empty House (eMusic review; eMusic interview)
2. Arcade Fire, The Suburbs: This is the second album in my top 5 that’s about the suburbs (the other being Frontier Ruckus) — every time I hear “The Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains),” one of my favorite songs here, when Regine sings about shopping malls rising like mountains beyond mountains, I can’t help but think of FR’s “Pontiac, The Nightbrink,” in which Matt Milia is essentially singing about the same thing — the “deadmalls” in Pontiac, Michigan, which isn’t too far from where I grew up. So, I relate to both of those albums quite a bit. And my love for The Suburbs was multiplied by a million when I saw the band live for the first time at Madison Square Garden — so now every time I listen I’m also reminded of how thrilling that was.
1. Owen Pallett, Heartland (Critical Mob review): There aren’t words that will even come close to describing how I felt after listening to Heartland a few times. I feel silly saying that even though this is my favorite album of the past 12 months (and it came out in January of 2010), I still don’t really know how to explain why. But maybe that’s part of why I love it so much? It’s Pallett’s's first record under his own name instead of as Final Fantasy, and it somehow was the first time I listened to him. Heartland is a lot bigger than the FF records, which are mostly just him and his violin. And I fell in love with those records, too, but this one is just something else — majestic, powerful, and otherworldly — and even though I don’t really relate to the storyline (about a violent farmer speaking to his creator, Pallett), it still struck some emotional chord in me and left me completely in awe.