1. Conditions - Fluorescent Youth
This excellent Richmond-based emo band caught my attention with their debut full-length as soon as I heard it. Months later, I'm still playing it, if not every day, then at least every week. I've written at great length about it on this website in the past, so I won't belabor the point here, but if you want to know more, please read my in-depth review from earlier this year.
2. The Roots - How I Got Over
This is a mellow, pensive hip-hop album that digs deeply into a single mood, one that you don't usually get from that genre at all. "Right On" samples Joanna Newsom for the hook, while "Dear God 2.0" features an appearance by the Monsters of Folk, and opening track "A Peace Of Light" has wordless vocal contributions from members of the Dirty Projectors. However, despite these indie-rock crossovers, the album's sound is still firmly grounded not only in hip-hop but soul; the title track is a 21st century update of Curtis Mayfield's "Little Child Runnin' Wild," and John Legend's heartfelt singing on the chorus of "Doin' It Again" has the emotional intensity of Solomon Burke's best work. The more I listen to this album, the deeper it sinks its hooks into me. A career highlight for this long-running group.
3. Das Racist - Sit Down, Man
When these guys hit the scene with their first single, "Combination Pizza Hut And Taco Bell," it was easy to dismiss them as a silly novelty group. Since then, though, they've done nothing but improve, and their second album features excellent music and extremely strong lyrical skill, making their talent undeniable. However, they continue to lead with their sense of humor, using barbed wit to skewer the shortcomings of hip-hop and modern American culture in general. Their joking tone allows them to strike at the heart of issues usually seen as untouchable (like three hip-hop Dave Chappelles), but it also gives haters easy ammunition with which to dismiss their work--which is a mistake. The high quality of their second album in two years proves that these guys are the real deal.
4. Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me
It took months for me to get my head around this 18-song triple CD. Joanna Newsom is one of my favorite artists of the past decade; her unique use of a harp to create orchestral/folk/indie music is attention-grabbing, but she wouldn't have gotten as far as she has if she weren't able to write amazing songs. That said, nearly three hours of those songs is a huge amount to absorb all at once, and it took her transcendent live set at The National this past November to finally put me in the right frame of mind to understand this record as a whole. I'm so glad it did, because if anything, Have One On Me is even better than her first two albums. It's certainly more varied, and focuses on the pop(ulist) side of her sound, as opposed to the high-art trappings that made 2006's Ys seem almost like classical music. If anything, the album's length just makes it seem new and fresh for a much longer span of time than most albums. And that's pretty cool, right?
5. Four Year Strong - Enemy Of The World
This amazing metal-inflected emo/pop-punk group picks up on the sound that Thrice abandoned after their second album--heavy-guitar hooks that sometimes cross the border into full-on crunch breakdowns, but never fail to provide a supremely catchy chorus. With bands like Fall Out Boy and Taking Back Sunday breaking up or becoming nostalgia acts, and Brand New and the aforementioned Thrice changing so much that they've basically left their earlier genre behind, it's nice to find a band who can not only revitalize a style of music that provided so much quality music over the past decade, but also point to a fruitful new way forward for the genre. Four Year Strong are that band, and they prove it on Enemy Of The World.
6. Robyn - Body Talk Parts 1, 2, and 3
Veteran Swedish dance-pop diva Robyn originally released Body Talk as a series of three EPs, but after Parts 1 and 2 had already come out, she also released a 15-song full-length of the same name, which included 5 songs each from Parts 1 and 2 as well as the 5 new songs from Part 3. Maybe this move occurred due to label pressures, and I can certainly understand why a label might rather have a single full-length album from a top selling artist instead of three EPs. However, considering that my favorite song from each of the first two EPs ("Cry When You Get Older" from Part 1 and "Include Me Out" from Part 2) were eliminated from the full-length, my vote is for the three EPs as opposed to the combined album. If it's easier for you to get the full-length, I understand, and there isn't a single bad song on it, so you really can't go wrong. However, if you want to hear every great song that Robyn released this year, you've really gotta track down all three EPs. As it is, though, the full-length is packed with amazing tracks, and despite song titles like "Fembot" and "Indestructible," Robyn does an excellent job of revealing the human heart beating within her techno-electro dance music. She stated in interviews that the album was an attempt to capture the feeling of loneliness within large crowds of people, and she nails this feeling to devastating effect, especially on pop single of the year "Dancing On My Own."
7. Jonsi - Go
This is the first solo effort for Sigur Ros frontman Jonsi Birgisson, and it picks up where his group's last effort, Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust, left off. The upbeat tempos of some of that album's songs, which were a new presence in the music of Sigur Ros, dominate Go, as do acoustic instruments and tribal drumming. However, there are also synth bleeps and sequenced beats that subtly intrude into the mix here, and Jonsi largely forsakes his famous falsetto tone and inscrutable, sometimes wordless, lyrics. Instead, he sings in a clear tenor tone, voicing words that are generally understandable even for English-speakers, and creating the same longing, emotional feel that Sunny Day Real Estate's Jeremy Enigk created on his 1997 solo album Return Of The Frog Queen. Word is that Sigur Ros will be regrouping to make a new album in 2011, but even if they weren't, I think I'd be perfectly happy with the work of Jonsi as a solo artist.
8. Sleigh Bells - Treats
The big debate in discussions of this band is about whether they are fun or obnoxious. What I don't understand is why they can't be both. Guitarist Derek Miller, formerly of Florida metalcore group Poison The Well, brings his big loud riffing to a primarily beat-driven sound that is most reminiscent of what people used to call "electroclash" back in 2003. Alexis Krauss's thin, high-pitched voice is nearly drowned out most of the time by the harsh, pounding beats, which are cranked up into the red, causing the songs to overload with digital distortion. This might be the first intentional use of clipping as an essential ingredient of a band's sound, but it's a big factor in allowing Sleigh Bells to capture the frantic intensity of a dance floor at midnight on a Saturday night. Krauss's giggly club-kid babble on tracks like "Kids" ("Wait, did I forget my sunglasses? Nope--got 'em!") and "Crown On The Ground" ("You think it's gotta diss--it doesn't bother us") makes clear that Sleigh Bells are going to have a great time no matter what you think of them. So why not quit complaining and get on the dance floor? Sometimes being obnoxious is the most fun of all.
9. No Man's Slave - You need to start thinking more about your future.
This 29-song cassette collects everything No Man's Slave recorded from their first demo in 2008 up to early 2010 when it was released. The fact that they are named after an Infest album will tell some people a lot, but for those who don't know, No Man's Slave play fast, angry hardcore with abrupt tempo changes. It's the sort of music that a lot of people call power violence, but I am hesitant to apply that label to No Man's Slave. They're a bit more straightforward than the classic power violence bands, like No Comment and Man Is the Bastard, ever were. They're more willing to let a part get going, and to rock out with it. That said, most of these songs are still under a minute long and feature a chaotic structure; the influence is there, for sure. But I think No Man's Slave will have a wider appeal than some of the weirder power violence bands ever had. A cassette-only release that has long since gone out of print is hardly the way to find that out, though. Thankfully, due to the good graces of Robert Collins's Terminal Escape blog, I was able to hear it (and you can, too).
10. Coheed And Cambria - Year Of The Black Rainbow
This album, released in April, suffered the fate of many early-year releases, diminishing in my mind as the year went on and newer albums crowded in to displace it. However, there was never any danger of it slipping out of my top ten. Coheed And Cambria's music began as metallic emo, but has grown over the course of their career into epically progressive melodic power metal that somehow captures the best elements of Rush, Iron Maiden, and Sunny Day Real Estate, all at the same time. Year Of The Black Rainbow ends their five-album post-apocalyptic fantasy narrative, which they have been constructing since their genesis as a band. They supplemented it with multiple comic book series and finally, to accompany this album, a full-length novel, co-written by singer Claudio Sanchez and science fiction author Peter David. The novel was only included with deluxe editions of the album, though, so I still haven't read it--and really, no matter how awesomely prog of them it is to include detailed narratives and supplemental literature along with their records, it's the music that brings me back to every new Coheed and Cambria release. I've never hated anything they've done, but their third and fourth albums were a bit less transcendent than second album and career peak In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth: III, so I was delighted to find that their new album (and first featuring former Dillinger Escape Plan drum virtuoso Chris Pennie) was every bit the equal of their best work. Pennie's frantic drumming on "Guns Of Summer," the epic choruses of "Here We Are Juggernaut," and the gorgeous minor-chord melodies of "Made Out Of Nothing" are only the tip of the iceberg, as this album presents multiple excellent elements on every song. It is clearly designed to work together as one long piece of music, and it does, but the individual songs are just as awesome on their own. I may have come to love other albums more, but that in no way diminishes the achievement that Year Of The Black Rainbow represents.
Honorable Mentions/The Next 10
11. Janelle Monae - The ArchAndroid
12. Adam Franklin And The Bolts Of Melody - I Could Sleep For A Thousand Years
13. Superchunk - Majesty Shredding
14. White Ring - Black Earth That Made Me
15. Deftones - Diamond Eyes
16. Grown Ups - More Songs
17. Roky Erickson And Okkervil River - True Love Cast Out All Evil
18. Starkweather - This Sheltering Night
19. Ratt - Infestation
20. Early Graves - Goner